344 
Beekeeping 
Object of winter protection. 
In providing extra protection to the colonies outdoors 
or in placing them in special cellars, the object of the bee¬ 
keeper is to reduce the expenditure of energy on the part 
of the bees. As was shown earlier (p. 128), a worker bee 
may for all practical considerations be considered as capable 
of only a certain amount of work and when this work is 
performed the bee dies. Consequently if too much energy 
is expended during the winter the entire colony may die, 
or if some bees still live they are unable to do the work re¬ 
quired of them in the spring. To conserve the energy to 
the fullest extent there are numerous external factors which 
must be considered by the beekeeper in planning for the 
winter. 
Requirements for successful wintering. 
Before discussing the methods advocated for the care of 
bees in winter, it will be well to name the factors which are 
essential to the activities of bees during this season. First 
of all, to winter well, a colony must be large enough to gen¬ 
erate heat and to conserve it economically. It should 
also contain a great number of young bees, full of vitality 
and capable of prolonged heat production should this be¬ 
come necessary. To accomplish these requirements breed¬ 
ing should be prolonged in the fall. The colony should 
also have a good queen capable of keeping up egg-laying 
rather late and then able to permit the colony to build up 
rapidly to full strength the following spring. 
Winter stores. 
The colony should be provided with an abundance of 
food of good quality. No food better than good honey has 
ever been found for bees and the safest plan is to leave enough 
in the hives to supply the bees without feeding. Not all 
honeys are equally good and in general it is safe to consider 
the lighter honeys preferable. The fall honeys are not 
considered as good as those obtained earlier. There are 
