I 
298 Annual Report of the 
we put them in a warm place we can winter them every time, just 
as we can horses or sheep. I keep my bees in my cellar, and keep 
it warmed with a stove. Last winter I kept my bees on the average 
at 514 degrees. 
Question. How low do you allow the temperature to get? 
Answer. About 40 degrees. Mr. Grimm has 850 swarms and he 
puts stoves in his cellar to keep them warm. 
Question. How do you keep them from stinging? 
Answer. When they are filled with honey, they are just like 
yourself when you have a load on your back and can’t stop to fight. 
Then they are peaceable and pleasant and they could not fight if 
they would. And by inducing them to partake of liquid sweets 
they are always peaceable. The Italian bee is not so irascible as 
any other kind of bees. 
Question. Will bees extract honey from red clover? 
Answer. Yes, if there is no other honey for them to get. 
Question. Do the millers trouble Italian bees as much as the 
common bees? 
Answer. The Italian bees are almost miller-proof. They hardly 
ever have any millers in their hives. There is no such thing as a 
miller-proof hive. But the Italian bee will not tolerate millers. 
Bees consume from 15 to 20 pounds of honey more per hive if kept 
out doors than if kept inside. 
Again, most all bee-keepers, when their bees in winter make a 
noise, reduce the temperature from 40 to 32 degrees. Now a bee 
in 32 degrees is very still, making little noise. At 40 degrees they 
will begin to make a little more noise, and from 35 to 40 they make 
a very unpleasant noise, but when you raise the temperature to 
about 50 degrees they get on a joyful hum as in June and they feel 
just as though they were at home. I prefer to keep bees in the 
light and give them pure air and pure food. Most of our bee-writ¬ 
ers tell us that they consume an unusual amount of honey and beat 
with their wings when they are cold, to generate heat and that the 
outside of the cluster are always exercising their wings to keep 
warm, and thus they keep up continual physical exercise that re¬ 
quires a larger consumption of food. When you keep bees in a 
cellar four or five months, they miss their food and in a warm day 
they want to fly. Well, one man says he puts them in a hot-bed and 
