Be sure that the honey is of good quality, and not made from decayed fruit or honey-dew.
Give the hive ventilation from below.
If wintered out of doors, give the bees a chance to fly.
If wintered in cellars, do not put too many bees in a cellar. If you have space for fifty colonies, do not try to winter more than thirty in it.
In cellars take off the bottom boards and arrange the hives so that the bees will get plenty of ventilation from below.
Have a thermometer in the cellar and keep watch of it. This should not show more than ten degrees of variation. If the temperature rises to 55°, open the windows at night.
Keep the cellar dark and the air sweet.
Sweep the dead bees off the cellar floor several times during the winter.
Contract the brood-chamber in the fall, and again, if necessary, when the hives are set out in the spring, until there is only comb enough so that the bees can cover it well.
See that the bees have plenty of food and good water near by when set out in the spring.
