No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 421 



lue humiuiiig. There is a certain point at which they will be 

 neither too cold nor too warm, but almost dormant. It will be 

 somewhere about 45 degrees, but thermometers and cellars vary, 

 andxit is better for you to find out for yourself what is the right degree 

 in your cellar with your thermometer. 



If it should go down below 40 degrees for any length of time, it 

 would be well to try to make it warmer. If you have no stove in 

 the cellar, take down hot stones or juge of hot water, corked tight. 

 But do not use an oil-stove, a lamp, or anything of the kind without 

 having it directly connected with some kind of a pipe or chimney to 

 carry off the smoke or gases. 



If mice are in the cellar, close the entrances of the hives by means 

 of wire cloth having three meshes to the inch; this will keep out 

 the mice but will allow the bees to pass. Do not confine the bees to 

 the hive, for when bees are about to die from old age or other causes, 

 it is their nature to leave the hive, and if confined, it is likely to 

 make the other bees in the hive uneasy. 



You need not be surprised to see bees come out of the hive to 

 die throughout the winter, and if many colonies are in the cellar it 

 will be necessary to sw^eep up the dead bee® by the first of January, 

 and monthly thereafter. 



The quieter the bees are kept in the cellar the better, although it 

 does no particular harm to go into the cellar as often as necessary 

 to get the fruits and vegetables for the use of the family. These 

 same fruits and vegetables should be kept carefully sorted over, 

 and all that are decayed carried out, both for the health of the 

 bees and that of the family. 



DAMAGE DONE BY BEES. 



Serious charges have been brought against bees, some of them 

 ludicrous enough, such as bees eating young ducks. It is not to be 

 denied that damag-e of a serious nature may come from the stings 

 of bees. An animal tied close by their hives so that it cannot get 

 away may be attacked and stung to death. An animal at large 

 might be severely stung, but this is a rare occurrence. Some bee- 

 keepers have kept farm stock in the same enclosure with bees 

 summer after summer with no serious results. Occasionall}^ a cow 

 or a horse may get a sting, only to shake its head and run away to 

 another part of the enclosure. It is hardly advisable to let sheep 

 run among the hives, not for any harm to the sheep, but because 

 sheep are worse than horses or cows about pushing hives off their 

 stands. A Wisconsin farmer who kept bees was sued by his neigh- 

 bor because his bees drove the neighbor's sheep from their white- 

 clover pasture, so that the sheep became poor. Of course the suit 



