896 
WINTERING OUTDOORS 
Fig. 2.—A deep telescoping cover to 
set over the packing tray for outdoor- 
wintered colonies is preferable. 
Fig. 3.—The top packing consists of a tray filled with planer 
shavings. Buckeye hive. 
prevailing winds, it does not re-, 
quire that degree of skill made 
necessary when the bees are con¬ 
fined in the cellar. For these 
reasons the majority of begin¬ 
ners, especially where the cli¬ 
mate is not severe, are advised 
to winter outdoors. It is impor¬ 
tant to observe, however, that the spot 
where the bees are kept must be sheltered 
from prevailing winds. 
When the.outdoor plan is used it is fair 
to state that, after a very severe winter in 
which the mercury stays below the zero- 
point for weeks at a time, and when spring 
is very late, with a warm spell followed by 
a very severe cold one, losses may be heavy, 
even among the most experienced beekeep¬ 
ers. But these losses can, to a very great 
WINTERING OUTDOORS. — As al¬ 
ready explained, this is simpler for most 
beginners, and the principles involved help 
to lay the foundation for the more difficult 
problem of indoor or cellar wintering. The 
prime requisite for both methods of win¬ 
tering is a large force of young bees reared 
during the latter part of summer or early 
fall. A colony, no matter how strong, if 
made up of old worn-out bees with very 
few young, may die before spring, or reach 
the practice to winter bees in single-walled 
hives on their summer stands. It has gen¬ 
erally been considered that extra packing 
or double-walled hives are a useless ex¬ 
pense; but experiments conducted by the 
Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C., 
in 1913 and 1914 go to show that some 
packing, even in the southern States, may, 
in some cases, be used to advantage. Ref¬ 
erence to this will be made further on. 
While the outdoor method demands dou¬ 
ble-walled hives, winter cases, or something 
to protect the hives on their summer stands, 
and a shielded location protected from the 
extent, be minimized, even during very cold 
winters, provided one makes a study of his 
locality, regarding the average weather con¬ 
ditions that prevail. It will be the object 
of the articles that follow to set forth as 
nearly as possible some of the difficulties 
to be encountered, so that the reader may 
intelligently undertake the problem. For¬ 
tunately the very severe winters referred 
to do not occur more than once in 10 or 20 
years, when for some reason the whole year 
seems to be thrown entirely out of balance. 
At all other times, if one follows carefully 
the directions here given, his losses will not 
exceed ten per cent, and he may 
keep them down as low as two 
per cent. Some have wintered 
their bees winter after winter 
with a loss not exceeding five per 
cent, if the one year in ten which 
proves abnormally severe is left 
out of the calculation. 
