How to bring bees successfully through the winter in the colder portions of the United States is a problem which gives anxiety to all who are about to attempt it for the first time in those sections, and even many who have kept bees for years still find it their greatest difficulty. It may happen occasionally that a queen, apparently young and vigorous in the autumn, will die during the winter, when a young one can not be reared, and as a result the colony will dwindle away. Such losses are, however, rare, and, aside from the possible results of fire, flood, or violent storms, are about the only ones which can not be avoided by careful attention to right methods in wintering. Insufficient or poor winter stores, hives faulty in construction, lack of protection from cold and dampness, too much or too little ventilation, too great a proportion of old bees or too great a proportion of young ones, overmanipulation late in the season, etc., are the most important and most easily detected causes of loss in wintering bees. In some instances colonies supposed to have been placed in the same condition under which others have wintered well become diseased and die or dwindle away without prominent signs of disease. It is evident, however, that some condition existed in one case which was not present in the other, or that, in spite of some unfavorable condition, the favorable ones combined, in the first instance, to render the wintering successful.
In the South wintering in the open air on the summer stands is the only method followed, while in the colder portions of the country, although with proper precautions bees may be wintered successfully in the open air, many prefer to house them in special repositories built with double walls, or to place them in darkened cellars, or in clamps. Indoor wintering should be confined to regions where there are several weeks, at least, of continued severe weather. When all conditions are right, consumption of honey will be less indoors and loss of bee life less than with the methods usually practiced in outdoor wintering. Under proper conditions, however, especially when abundant protection has been given, colonies out of doors will consume no more food nor meet with greater losses in numbers than those wintered under favorable conditions indoors. In wintering indoors certain essential conditions are, in a measure, beyond the control of the bee keeper, hence must be left to chance, and certain other conditions and emergencies liable to arise, though easily understood and met by the man of experience in this direction, are yet very likely to be overlooked by the novice or to be puzzling and disastrous to him. For these reasons it is safer for him to keep closer to the natural method at first and try outdoor wintering.
In wintering out of doors the conditions within the control of the bee keeper are more readily perceived and easier to meet, and though the original work of preparation for good wintering out of doors is greater per colony, yet the work during the winter itself and the following spring is likely to be less; moreover, the feeling of greater security, as well as the greater certainty of finding the colonies in good condition to begin gathering in the spring, are points well worthy of consideration. In other words, indoor wintering should be left to such experienced bee keepers as may prefer it and are located in cold climates, while novices, wherever located, should first endeavor to meet the requirements of successful outdoor wintering; that is, to prepare the colonies so that Nature, whatever her mood as regards the weather, will bring her tiny charges safely through the perils and vicissitudes of the winter months.
Whatever method be followed in wintering, certain conditions regarding the colony itself are plainly essential: First, it should have a good queen; second, a fair-sized cluster of healthy bees, neither too old nor too young; third, a plentiful supply of good food. The first of these conditions may be counted as fulfilled if the queen at the head of the colony is not more than two years old, is still active, and has always kept her colony populous; yet a younger queen—even one of the current season's rearing, and thus but a few weeks or months old—is if raised under favorable conditions, much to be preferred. The second point is met if brood rearing has been continued without serious interruption during the latter part of the summer and the cluster of bees occupies, on a cool day in autumn, six to eight or more spaces between the combs, or forms a compact cluster 8 or 10 inches in diameter. Young bees, if not weir protected by older ones, succumb readily to the cold, while quite old bees die early in the spring, and others, which emerged late in the summer or autumn preceding, are needed to replace them. The third essential—good food—is secured if the hive is liberally supplied with well-ripened honey from any source whatever, or with fairly thick sirup, made from white cane sugar, which was fed early enough to enable the bees to seal it over before they ceased flying. The sirup is prepared by dissolving 3 pounds of granulated sugar in 1 quart of boiling water and adding to this 1 pound of pure extracted honey. Twenty to 26 pounds for outdoor wintering in the South, up to 30 or 40 pounds in the North, when wintered outside with but slight protection—or, if wintered indoors, about 20 pounds—may be considered a fair supply of winter food. A smaller amount should not be trusted except in case much greater protection be furnished against the effects of severe weather than is usually given. A greater amount of stores will do no harm if properly arranged over and about the center of the cluster, or, in case the combs are narrow, wholly above the cluster. In many instances it will be a benefit by equalizing in a measure the temperature in the hive, as well as by giving to the bees greater confidence in extending the brood nest in early spring.
A dry, dark cellar or special repository built in a sidehill or with double, filled walls, like those of an ice house, may be utilized for wintering bees in extremely cold climates. It should be so built that a temperature of 42° to 45° F. (the air being fairly dry in the cellar) can be maintained during the greater part of the winter. To this end it should be well drained, furnished with adjustable ventilators, and covered all over with earth, except the entrance, where close-fitting doors, preferably three of them, should open in succession, so as to separate the main room from the outside by a double entry way. The colonies, supplied with good queens, plenty of bees, 20 to 25 pounds of stores each, and with chaff cushions placed over the frames, are carried in shortly before snow and severe freezing weather come.