OUTDOOR AND INDOOR WINTERING. Ill 
cautions strictly essential in a colder climate may still be profitably 
followed, although fair results may be expected in the main without 
their strict observance. 
INDOOR WINTERING. 
Dry cellars or special repositories are utilized in those portions of 
the country where the cold of winter is extreme and likely to be some- 
what continuous. Economy of food is one of the chief advantages, but 
two-thirds as much, or about 20 to 25 pounds per hive, are needed to 
bring a colony through if conditions are favorable. The colonies, pre- 
pared as regards bees, queens, character of stores, etc., the same as for 
outdoor wintering, are carried into the cellar or repository just before 
the first snows come or severe freezing occurs. Caps are removed or 
lifted up and cushions or mats laid on the frames. Light is excluded 
and all other disturbing influences in so far as possible, the effort being 
made to keep the temperature at about 42° F. during the earlier part 
of the winter. Later, especially after brood-rearing may have been 
begun, a somewhat higher degree is admissible — 45° to 46°, some even 
allowing it to go up to 50°. Xo definite rule can be given, however, 
since much depends upon the humidity of the air, etc. As long as the 
bees remain quiet the temperature is not too high and is preferably 
to be maintained. Should they become exceedingly restless, and the 
opportunity occur during a winter thaw to give them a cleansing flight, 
it will be advisable to return them for a few hours or a day or two to 
their summer stands, and when they have flown and quieted down, 
replace them in the cellar or repository. In the spring there should 
not be too great eagerness to get them out of the cellar, provided they 
are not restless. Their confinement indoors makes them somewhat 
sensitive to the outside cold, and due caution should be observed, else 
the ranks of the workers will become greatly decimated before young 
ones appear to take their places. 
The same questions regarding ventilation of hives indoors that puz- 
zle many in the case of those left on their summer stands have been 
discussed over and over. AH that is necessary, however, is to consider 
the same points, the question being less complicated, though, by reason 
of the greater uniformity between the temperature surrounding the 
cluster of bees and that outside the hive when the latter is in a suitable 
winter repository. Some have reported success in wintering in damp 
cellars, yet it is probable that such success was purely accidental, or 
rather occurred in spite of the dampness of the repository, the other 
conditions very likely having all been favorable, especially as regards 
ventilation of the cellar, and the important points of having good 
stores and an even temperature, which should be several degrees higher 
than is required in a dry cellar. Wintering in a damp repository is, 
however, attended in general with such risks that it should by all means 
be avoided, and the bees, even in a severe climate, intrusted prefera- 
bly to their summer stands, if well prepared as regards their stores and 
populousness. 
