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.