84 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 



find out what the temperature is under those conditions, and 

 you keep your -bees quiet at that temperature, it does not 

 make any difference where your thermometer is. 



Dr. Miller — I am not sure but there is a way of telling. 

 If I understand Mr. Dadant correctly you ccn't tell by the 

 noise of the bees whether they are too cold or too warm. 

 I wouldn't like to be too critical about it, but I think when 

 they begin to get too cold there is a kind of rattling noise, 

 if I may so call it, of their wings, that you hear, and I don't 

 think I could tell you what the other is, but there is a little 

 difference in the noise , Mr. Dadant, between being too cold 

 and too warm. 



Mr. Colburn — In relation to this noise that you speak 

 about* that is the noise bees make in the cellar,! have never 

 had much experience in cellar-wintering — only two winters 

 — and I found my bees making some sort of a noise all the 

 time, and yet they came through last winter very nicely. 

 The question is, how much or how little noise would a green- 

 horn want to observe in order to know what the temperaturt 

 should be. 



Mr. Stewart — Is there any temperature where bees al- 

 ways keep quiet in the cellar, or do they always keep quiet 

 at any temperature in the cellar? 



Dr. Miller — I think there are some who claim they can 

 secure perfect quiet. I never could. I think you will find 

 this : If you have one colony in the cellar and watch it 

 closely you will find part of the time that colony will be per- 

 fectly quiet, and then it will have a spell of stirring up and 

 it will be noisy, and then quiet for a long time. If you have 

 a number of colonies in the cellar you will find that there 

 will be a noise there all the time. At least that is the way 

 I find it. At times there will be very little noise; it will 

 suggest to you the blowing of a gentle breeze through the 

 dead trees in winter time. That you will find at all times 

 if your cell .ar is like mine ; and that I think comes from 

 the different colonies, here and there, making an unusual 

 amount of noise. I don't believe there is any one colony that 

 is all the time the same way. I think they have their spells of 

 "turning over in bed," when they make a little more noise 

 than usual. But as to trying to get them so that they are 

 entirely quiet all the time, you might as well give that up. 

 But, find the temperature at which they make the least 

 noise. That is the point. 



Mr. Kimmey — Do bees make more noise as they become 

 too cold? 



Dr. Miller— Yes. 



Mr. Kimmey — Suppose I should find my thermometer at 

 28 degrees, would you advise me to leave it that way? Do 

 you think it is possible to find it that way? 



Mr. Miller — No. I think you might possibly find, the 

 way you have it in your cellar, that they were most quiet at 

 40 degrees. I might find them most quiet at 47 degrees. 

 That is, your place and my place may be different. But your 

 question ? 



