The idea of wintering in two stories was just starting to catch on in
the teens. In those days 30 pounds of honey was considered adequate
for winter.

February 1914

This winter we have 100 eight-frame Langstroth hives wintering outside
in one yard — a hive altogether too small for my ideas, so far as my
choice is concerned.

February 1917

THERE SEEMS TO BE a tendency on the part of some of the best
beekeepers in the country to winter bees in two-story Langstroth
hives. The general scheme is this: The upper story is filled with
honey and the bees allowed to form a winter nest in this upper story.

It is apparent from certain outcroppings at the recent bee conventions
that some beekeepers have been wintering in two-story hives without
protection for some years with remarkable success, and yet the fact
has not been generally known.

Mr. Mel Pritchard, who has charge of two of Gleanings' apiaries, has
been wintering bees in both single-story and double-story hives.

* * *

By the forties C L Farrar was advocating wintering in 3 stories. It
was his opinion that the use of "Good queens supported by unrestricted
colony populations" leads to the need for three stories for winter and
up to 90 pounds of honey:


Designation of the lower hive body as the brood chamber is a misnomer.
Supply manufactures and professional writers render a disservice to
the beginner when they so describe the hive parts. Two, and better
three, standard hive bodies are required as brood chambers to provide
the space required for brood rearing, food reserves, and good
wintering of high-producing colonies. Three brood-chamber hives will
become more important with improved rearing of queens from high
producing stock. Three deep of four shallow supers should be
considered the minimum equipment for producing a crop with adequate
facilities chambers for extracting the supers as rapidly as they are
finished. Four shallow brood chambers (6-1/4'' frames) with four
supers is our preference, and quite a few commercial beekeepers are
beginning to adopt all shallow equipment.

Apiacta 2, 1966
BASIC COLONY MANAGEMENT
C. L. FARRAR

* * *

This idea was enlarged upon by F. E. MOELLER:

If brood rearing is restricted by a crowded brood nest or because of
poor queens, the colony may enter the winter with a high percentage of
old bees that will die early in the winter. Such colonies may later
develop serious nosema infections and perish before spring. A colony
should start the winter with about 10 pounds of bees and plenty of
honey to carry it to the next spring.

Beekeepers in certain localities will need to think of winter stores
for their colonies as early as the first of August if later honey
flows are not dependable or are nonexistent. In October, colonies
should have at least 45 pounds of honey in dark combs in the top brood
chamber and 20 to 30 pounds of honey in each of two lower hive bodies
- a total of at least 90 pounds of honey.

The beekeeper must see that at no time is the available space for
brood rearing reduced because of overcrowding with honey from the fall
flow. A balance must be maintained between crowding the colony to get
the brood chambers well filled with honey and adding space to relieve
brood-rearing restriction. Partly filled supers kept on colonies in
the fall may be necessary. Any subnormal colony should not be
overwintered but united with another colony.

By F. E. MOELLER

BEEKEEPING IN THE UNITED STATES
AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK NUMBER 335
Revised October 1980
Pages 64 - 72

*******************************************************
* Search the BEE-L archives at:                       *
* http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l *
*******************************************************