Dry cellars or special repositories are utilized in those portions of the country where the cold of winter is extreme and likely to be somewhat continuous. Economy of food is one of the chief advantages, but two-thirds as much, or about 20 to 25 pounds per hive, are needed to bring a colony through if conditions are favorable. The colonies, prepared as regards bees, queens, character of stores, etc., the same as for outdoor wintering, are carried into the cellar or repository just before the first snows come or severe freezing occurs. Caps are removed or lifted up and cushions or mats laid on the frames. Light is excluded and all other disturbing influences in so far as possible, the effort being made to keep the temperature at about 42° F. during the earlier part of the winter. Later, especially after brood-rearing may have been begun, a somewhat higher degree is admissible--45° to 46°, some even allowing it to go up to 50°. No definite rule can be given, however, since much depends upon the humidity of the air, etc. As long as the bees remain quiet the temperature is not too high and is preferably to be maintained. Should they become exceedingly restless, and the opportunity occur during a winter thaw to give them a cleansing flight, it will be advisable to return them for a few hours or a day or two to their summer stands, and when they have flown and quieted down, replace them in the cellar or repository. In the spring there should not be too great eagerness to get them out of the cellar, provided they are not restless. Their confinement indoors makes them somewhat sensitive to the outside cold, and due caution should be observed, else the ranks of the workers will become greatly decimated before young ones appear to take their places. The same questions regarding ventilation of hives indoors that puzzle many in the case of those left on their summer stands have been discussed over and over. All that is necessary, however, is to consider the same points, the question being less complicated, though, by reason of the greater uniformity between the temperature surrounding the cluster of bees and that outside the hive when the latter is in a suitable winter repository. Some have reported success in wintering in damp cellars, yet it is probable that such success was purely accidental, or rather occurred in spite of the dampness of the repository, the other conditions very likely having all been favorable, especially as regards ventilation of the cellar, and the important points of having good stores and an even temperature, which should be several degrees higher than is required in a dry cellar. Wintering in a damp repository is, however, attended in general with such risks that it should by all means be avoided, and the bees, even in a severe climate, intrusted preferably to their summer stands, if well prepared as regards their stores and populousness. CHAPTER XII.