19. In taking care that each colony is left with a sufficient supply of honey for winter and spring, it must always be remembered that the greater proportion of the honey left with each colony of bees should be left in the upper hive body if they are to be wintered outdoors. If they are to be wintered in the cellar, the greater amount of honey should be put into the cellar in each hive body with the bees, and the lesser amount stored for that colony, to be given to them again in spring.

20. The quantity of protection necessary and how to determine that quantity for your locality will be explained in the next chapter. The preponderance of evidence is too strongly in favor of more protection in any locality than the beekeeper is usually inclined to give. None of us doubt that the proportion of winter losses in this country year in and year out, are due to criminal negligence. Census statistics show that these losses have averaged between 10 and 20 per cent for many years. What would you think of the dairy farmer who cared so poorly for his cows that 10 to 20 per cent of them died each winter? If you are going to be a successful beekeeper, you must reduce your winter losses well below the average per cent. After young queens, ample stores, and strong colonies of young bees have been insured in the fall, the only other insurance left for successful wintering and springing, is more ample protection.

21. It is highly desirable in locating an apiary, to place it so the bees may either be faced south or east and that on the west and north sides there will be some form of windbreak. Experiments carried out by Dr. J. H. Merrill formerly of the Kansas Agricultural College have shown that colonies of bees side by side given an equal packing did not winter equally well, all other conditions being the same, except that one colony was given wind protection and the other was not. Where no natural windbreak occurs, it is highly advisable, if winter temperatures in your locality are low for any extended periods, to rig up some sort of wind protection for your colonies, which may be done by corn shocks, lattice fences, or the like.

22. For the average beekeeper, wintering outdoors is far easier and perhaps more certain of success, than wintering in the cellar. This is a point which many would dispute in northern localities, simply because they have made a practice of cellar wintering and have kept no accurate record of their winter losses. The average cellar in which bees are wintered is entirely unfit for that purpose, either because the temperature varies too frequently, or because the cellar is not dark, or because it is too damp. If you plan to winter bees in the cellar we urge you to write the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bee Culture Laboratory, Washington, D. C, and ask for their special bulletin on the wintering of bees in cellars. The question of cellar wintering is too deep for the extended explanation here that would be necessary for your success. An important phase of cellar wintering lies in allowing the colonies of bees to remain outdoors as long as possible and to get them into the cellar just after a good flight and just before the sharp drop in temperature which usually foretells the coming of settled cold weather. Many beekeepers who winter successfully in cellars are absolutely dependent upon forecasts made by the office of the U. S. Weather Bureau nearest to them. Only by securing this free advice are they able to determine satisfactorily this critical time when the bees should be put in the cellar.

23. Beekeepers who take off supers containing drawn combs in late summer and store them away for use the next season, have two enemies to fight, "wax worms" and mice. The "wax worm" or the larvae of the wax moth gains access to the drawn combs by the adult female wax moth laying fertilized eggs in cracks of the hive or upon the surface of the comb. These moths are small and grayish in color and lay their eggs in any protected place that after they are moved from the hive, and during warm weather, it only requires perience has taught him. These eggs hatch into the "wax worms" or larvae which are very active and immediately attempt to get on unprotected combs. If not killed they tunnel into the comb and spin their cocoons behind them. If the wax moth gains access to the stored and unprotected combs soon enough smells of honeycomb, to an extent that the amateur doubts until bitter ex-a couple of weeks' time before all the combs are ruined and a total loss. This can absolutely be prevented.