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ON THE DEATH OF THE COMMON HIVE BEE, 



SUPPOSED TO BE OCCASIONED BY A 



PARASITIC FUNGUS. 



By the Kev. H. H. HIGGINS, M.A. 



On tlie 12tli of March last, Timpron Martin, Esq., of 

 Liverpool, communicated to me some circumstances 

 respecting the death of a hive of bees in his possession, 

 which induced me to request from him a full statement 

 of particulars. Mr. Martin gave me the following 

 account : — 



" In October last I had three hives of bees, which I 

 received into my house. Each door- way was closed, and 

 the hive placed upon a piece of calico ; the corners were 

 brought over the top, leaving a loop by which the hive 

 was suspended from the ceiling. The liives were taken 

 down about the 14th of March, and two were healthy, 

 but all the bees in the third were dead. There was a 

 gallon of bees. The two hives containing live bees were 

 much smaller, but in each there were dead ones. Under 

 whatever circumstances you preserve bees through the 

 winter, dead ones are found at the bottom in the spring. 

 The room, an attic, was dry, and I had preserved the 

 same hives in the same way during the winter of 1856. 

 In what I may call the dead hive there was abundance 

 of honey when it was opened, and it is clear that its in- 

 mates did not die from want. It is not a frequent occur- 

 rence for bees so to die, but I have known another in- 

 stance. In that case the hive was left out in the ordi- 

 nary way, and possibly cold was the cause of death. I 

 think it probable that my bees died about a month before 

 the 14th of March, merely from the circumstance that 

 some one remarked about that tiiae that there was no 

 noise in the hive. They might have died earlier, but 

 there were certainly live bees in the hive in January. I 



