The Care of Bees in Winter 
349 
begins in colonies wintered out of doors during the coldest 
weather. The previously mentioned results on colony tem¬ 
peratures lend support to the theory that excessive outside 
cold causes the raising of the temperature of the cluster to 
the point where egg-laying is possible and that the beginning 
of breeding is a response to the stimulus of external cold. 
Similarly, colonies wintered in the cellar may have their 
temperature raised by reason of an undue accumulation of 
feces and breeding may be begun. If these theories are 
tenable, winter breeding is to be considered as indicative of 
poor wintering and there is abundant evidence that the best 
results are obtained where no breeding takes place until the 
bees fly freely. 
METHODS OF WINTERING BEES 
There are two main plans of wintering bees and it is often 
difficult for the beekeeper to decide which he should adopt. 
They may be left on their summer stands (Fig. 142) where 
they are free to fly on warm days or they may be placed in a 
cellar or special repository as a protection against extremes 
of temperature, in which event they normally have no oppor¬ 
tunity to fly and to void their feces until placed again in 
their summer locations. C. C. Miller, in an excellent article 1 
on cellar wintering, concludes that in general up to 40° 
latitude it is better to winter outside, and north of that it is 
questionable. However, he also points out the fact that 
latitude or even isothermal lines cannot alone determine 
this. Wind velocity and constancy and the facilities of the 
beekeeper are important considerations. There seems to 
be a growing sentiment among the beekeepers to prefer 
to winter outdoors, but this should probably be considered 
chiefly as indicating a lack of information concerning the 
methods of getting optimum conditions in the cellar. 
1 Miller, C. C., 1913. Some things about cellar-wintering. American 
Bee Journal, LIII, pp. 271-273, 310-312. 
