WINTERING BEES. 
325 
When such as need feeding have been fed, and all 
weak families made strong by additions, etc., but little 
more fall work is needed in the apiary. It is only 
when you have weak stocks, unfit to winter, that it is 
necessary to be on the lookout every warm day to 
prevent pillage. 
CHAPTER XXII. 
WINTERING BEES. 
There is almost as much diversity of opinion with 
respect to wintering bees as in the construction of 
hives, and about as difficult to reconcile. 
DIFFERENT METHODS HAVE BEEN ADOPTED. 
One will tell you to keep them warm, another to 
keep them cold ; to keep them in the sun, out of the 
sun, bury them in the ground, put them in the cellar, 
the chamber, wood-house, and other places, and no 
places at all ; that is, to let them remain as they are, 
without any attention. Here are plans enough to 
drive the inexperienced into despair. Yet I have no 
doubt but that bees have been sometimes successfully 
wintered by all these contradictory methods. That 
some of these methods are superior to others, needs 
no argument to illustrate. But what method is best, 
is our province to inquire. Let us endeavor to ex- 
amine the subject without prejudice to bias our judg- 
ment. 
