928 
WINTERING IN THE SOUTHERN STATES 
the experience. The temperature in the 
snow played around the 32° mark. But 
the experiments conducted during the sum¬ 
mer would seem to show that bees might 
stand a temperature of 38° for a number of 
days. 
Bees on the outside of the ball or cluster, 
in an outdoor-wintered colony, will often 
be chilled stiff while those inside have 
almost a blood temperature. During very 
severe weather, the outside bees may be 
gradually replaced by those within the clus¬ 
ter; for bees are in constant movement. 
Experiments show that a starved bee will 
not stand as much cold as one that is well 
filled. Beekeepers who have had any ex¬ 
perience in wintering outdoors know how 
repeatedly they have taken clusters of bees 
that seemed to be frozen stiff, yet when 
warmed up before a good fire would revive 
and appear as lively as ever. 
In view of the experiments thus far re¬ 
corded it would appear that bees might be 
able to stand a temperature of 40°, or 
slightly below that, for a number of days; 
but if a warm spell does not come within 
a week, or less, those bees in their chilled 
condition may starve to death. But if it 
warms up, the cluster will unfold and the 
bees take food, and so be ready for an¬ 
other “freeze.” The author has repeat¬ 
edly seen clusters of bees, after a zero spell 
lasting a couple of weeks, that were dead; 
but the honey had been eaten from all 
around them within a radius of an inch or 
more. If a zero spell of weather con¬ 
tinues more than a week or ten days, some 
of the weaker colonies will be found in the 
spring frozen to death. 
If the bee were a true hibernator it 
would save the beekeepers of the world 
millions of dollars, because then all that 
would be necessary would be to establish 
a sort of cold-storage plant, where the 
climate was open or mild, and put the bees 
away for winter. In cold climates it would 
not be necessary to have cold-storage 
plants. The bees could be placed outdoors 
without protection, and left all winter; yes, 
they could easily be put on dry combs. 
Like the ants and flies they would remain 
in a dormant state; and when warm 
weather came on they would revive and re¬ 
sume their former activity. But, unfortu¬ 
nately, bees are not that kind of insect. 
That they will go into a quiescent state, or 
a kind of suspended animation, at a tem¬ 
perature of 57 degrees Fahr., has been 
clearly proven. During that period they 
consume the minimum of stores. If the 
time ever comes when we shall know 
enough to provide conditions so that a 
cluster will remain thruout the greater part 
of the winter at a temperature of 
about 57 degrees F., it will certainly save a 
large amount of stores. But whether those 
conditions would indicate a state of semi¬ 
hibernation, or even an approach to it, the 
author is not prepared to say. 
WINTERING IN THE SOUTHERN 
STATES. —- Where bees can fly almost 
every day in the year, and for ten months 
are able to gather a little honey or pollen, 
no special protection other than single 
walls has hitherto been considered neces¬ 
sary. The fact that the wintering problem 
in the South is not serious would seem to 
indicate that no special precaution is 
needed; but some experience that the 
author has had in wintering bees in Cali¬ 
fornia, Virginia, Alabama, and Floxdda in¬ 
dicates that, even where the bees can fly al¬ 
most every day in the year, a moderate 
amount of protection can be given to ad¬ 
vantage. This should be in the form of 
light packing cases and of windbreaks to 
shut off the prevailing winds. While this 
may seem to be an unnecessary expense, 
the saving in brood and stores will pay for 
it in time. As will be seen under Tempera¬ 
ture, bees, in order to keep up the proper 
amount of heat, must exercise, and this 
means a consumption of stores. Such ac¬ 
tivity causes the bees to fly out on a chilly 
day, and many never return. Again, where 
clusters are not large there is considerable 
brood in the Southland which chills and 
dies. This is a heavy drain on the colonies. 
While a colony can survive it, the bee¬ 
keeper could well afford to furnish a little 
protection to save this brood. See Win¬ 
tering Outdoors and Spring Manage¬ 
ment. 
As has been pointed out elsewhere under 
Wintering Outdoors and Spring Man¬ 
agement the rapid changes of temperature 
from morning until night — warm sunshine 
during the middle hours of the day, low 
