THE HONEY-BEE. 



bell-glass, and the bees allowed to ascend through 

 an aperture. 



Diseases and Enemies of Bees. 



Bees, according to the conclusions of De Gelieu, 

 after sixty-four years' experience, ' are always in 

 good health as long as they are at liberty, and 

 when they are warm enough, and have plenty of 

 food.' In early spring, however, they are found 

 liable to an affection called dysentery, which is 

 known by the marks on the board of dark-coloured 

 evacuations, by the offensive smell, and by the 

 frequent deaths. This disease certainly results, in 

 most cases, from long confinement in a damp and 

 impure air. By lifting the hive to expel the viti- 

 ated air, scraping, washing, and drying the board, 

 and removing the dead bodies, the complaint, says 

 Mr Taylor, may soon be remedied, even in the 

 most extreme cases. A little chloride of lime, he 

 suggests, may be used beneficially in washing the 

 board. One point should be noticed here, that 

 exposure to the sun, in winter, is held decidedly 

 injurious to the hives. This caution is necessary, 

 as bee-keepers, when they suspect dampness, 

 might fall into an error on this score. While on 

 this subject, we may also mention a new remedy, 

 which is said to have been adopted on the con- 

 tinent with success. When dysentery begins to 

 shew itself in the apiary, the bee-keeper prepares 

 a sirup composed of an equal quantity of good 

 wine and sugar, which is administered to the bees 

 by placing it within the hive in a saucer, or any 

 other shallow vessel. 



About the end of spring, another disorder some- 

 times makes its appearance, which Du Carne de 

 Blangy calls vertigo. This is supposed to be 

 occasioned by the poisonous properties of certain 

 plants on which they feed. The symptoms are 

 manifested by a dizzy manner of flight, by their 

 involuntary starlings, falls, and other gestures in 

 attempting to perform their usual operations, or in 

 approaching the hive, and by the lassitude that 

 succeeds these symptoms. This distemper has 

 been hitherto found incurable. Bees, according 

 to the same, authority, are liable to a third dis- 

 temper, the symptoms of which are swelling at the 

 extremities of the antennae, which become also 

 much inflamed, and of a yellow colour ; the head 

 assuming shortly after the same tint, the bees lose 

 their vivacity, and languish till they die, unless a 

 proper remedy be applied. In France, they give 

 them Spanish wine for this disorder. There is 

 still another distemper which sometimes makes its 

 appearance among bees, for which the continental 

 agriculturists administer Spanish wine, as in the 

 former case. This is a kind of pestilence, by which 

 many of the insects are cut off. It happens when 

 the larvae are killed by the cold or otherwise, the 

 numbers that die infecting the rest. The only 

 attention requisite in this case is to remove the 

 infected combs, perfume the hive with aromatic 

 plants, and give the bees wine to sip. 



A few hints from Gelieu and others, respecting 

 the chief foes of the bee tribe, may be useful to 

 beekeepers. Gelieu, after observing that the 

 possessors of bees, often from an ignorant excess 

 of care, are among their greatest enemies, says : 

 * Ants are their least dangerous enemies : true, the 

 bees cannot sting them to death, because they are 

 small and well defended with armour, but they 

 seize hold of them with their teeth, and carry them 



to a distance. Had they not this means of getting 

 rid of them, their colonies could not exist in the 

 vast forests full of. ants' nests, and where they 

 thrive so well, in spite of the horrible massacres 

 that annually take place. 



' Moths are little known, and never injurious, in 

 the high valleys or on the mountains ; but they 

 attack and destroy a vast number of hives in the 

 plains or in the vineyards, where they are a great 

 scourge. Huber discovered that the Sphinx atro- 

 pos, or death's-head moth, was one of the most 

 destructive of this tribe. As soon as a moth has 

 penetrated a weak hive, it establishes itself in a 

 comb, envelops itself in a silken web, multiplies 

 rapidly, consuming the wax, and spreading its 

 destructive galleries from side to side, until, arriv- 

 ing at a certain point, the evil has scarcely a 

 remedy. The only means of saving the colony is 

 to imitate the surgeon, who cuts off a diseased 

 limb to save the other every bit of infected comb 

 must be cut out, leaving only those occupied by 

 the bees. The bees must then be liberally fed, by 

 giving them every evening as much honey as will 

 maintain them, until such time as the field-flowers 

 shall again yield a sufficient quantity. Thus,' con- 

 cludes Gelieu, ' I have preserved hives whose cir- 

 cumstances seemed to be desperate. 



' Spiders annoy the hive much. The bees get 

 entangled in their webs, and are not able to extri- 

 cate themselves. Here cleanliness is the best pro- 

 tection ; therefore, care should be taken to sweep 

 the webs away from the hive and its avenues as 

 fast as they appear. 



' Birds, such as the sparrow, house-lark, and 

 swallow, eat a prodigious quantity of bees, especi- 

 ally in spring, when the trees are in blossom. 

 Poultry, also, that roam about or near the water 

 where the bees go to quench their thirst, gobble 

 up a great many. Fowls should never be per- 

 mitted in any apiary. 



'Mice, especially the red mouse, or Sorex 

 araneus, sometimes penetrate a hive in the winter- 

 time, either from the entrance being left too wide, 

 or by gnawing a hole for themselves in the straw. 

 They eat the honey, and even the bees, when 

 clustered together on the side of the hive, in which 

 position they are unable to defend themselves, and 

 scarcely even see the enemy. The most effectual 

 preventive against rats and mice is to place the 

 hive on stands with projecting ledges, and in such 

 a position that they cannot reach it 



' Wasps are also reckoned among the numerous 

 enemies of bees. I have, however, seldom seen a 

 hive destroyed by wasps ; although they are larger, 

 stronger, and armed with a formidable sting, and 

 an impenetrable cuirass, they seldom dare enter a 

 well-stocked hive. Once attacked, they soon fall 

 beneath the united efforts of these brave citizens, 

 who sacrifice themselves to defend the place of their 

 nativity. Wasps only appear in great numbers 

 when the fruit is ripening, and then they range 

 unceasingly round the hives, and enter the weak 

 ones, or those of which the too spacious lodging 

 bears no proportion to the number of its inhab- 

 itants. There are three ways of providing against 

 the attacks of wasps : the first is, to unite weak 

 hives by doubling or tripling the population, there- 

 by enabling them to defend themselves ; the second 

 is, to contract the entrances, as soon as swarming- 

 time is over, after the massacre of the drones ; and 

 the third is, to destroy with assiduity all the nests 



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