ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEES' ASSOCIATION. 33 



CAUSES. 



1. Bees confined too long in the hives, so that they can no longer withhold their 

 excrements, and are compelled to void the same on the other bees and combs. 



2. Poor winter stores, gathered in the fall from honey-dew, cider mills, sorghum 

 mills, rotten fruit; also some kinds of fall flowers. 



3. Old and especially moldy pollen or bee-bread. 



4. Hives too cold or damp. If moisture from the breath of the bees is not carried 

 out of the hive by some means such as through a deep cushion of some kind over the 

 bees that will absorb moisture and at the same time retain the heat, or by some means 

 of ventilation, so that all is dry and comfortable. If mold forms on the combs or cellar 

 is so damp as to form mold, there is great danger the bees wUl have dysentery and die. 



TREATMENT. " 



1. First of all, have an abimdance of combs of sealed clover or basswood honey 

 in brood-frames carefully saved, and see that each colony is wintered on such food. Three 

 or four such combs will winter a fair colony safely, if confined on those combs late in 

 the fall, and the hive contracted to fit the same. This is one of the most important 

 conditions for success in wintering. 



2. If in the fall the bees have gathered this unwholesome honey from the above 

 named sources, it should all be extracted and either exchanged for those honey-combs, 

 or feed the bees good honey or sugar syrup until winter stores are secured. This should 

 be done before cold weather in the fall. 



3. Hives contracted and made comfortable, whether in cellar or outdoors. 



4. If wintered in chaff hives outdoors, with feed as above directed, and there come 

 one or two warm spells during winter, so that the bees can have a cleansing fight, they 

 will not have dysentery or dead brood, and will be much stronger when clover opens. 



If wintered in the cellar, the bees will not need so much honey, and if the winters 

 are generally long, with doubtful warm spells, the cellar will be best. But to keep the 

 bees from dysentery, so often fatal to cellar-wintered bees, they should have such winter 

 stores as above spoken of, then the cellar kept at a medium temperature, about 32 deg. 

 P., veiitilated so the air is fresh, and no mold will form in the cellar. Fresh air-slaked 

 lime on the bottom of the cellar may help, if it is damp or has poor air. 



5. Dysentery will not appear if bees are kept on sugar syrup, or best grade white 

 clover or basswood honey, and are in a dry place, either sheltered by cellar or chaff-hive. 



