SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 47 



be fermented; and, being uncapped, and nearer around the brood-nest, the 

 bees will consume it first; and the weather beipg changeable, and the bees 

 confined to their hives a few days, it wiill give them the dysentery, and they 

 will die off in great numbers right at a time of the season when they are 

 mostly needed. Their abdomens will become swollen to their full capacity, 

 and it will affect them as if they had paralysis, and they will shake as if 

 they had palsy until they are dead. I have had strong colonies die from 

 this disease, and many to weaken down to mere nuclei from the effect of 

 it. When bees take to these cane-mills, the best thing to do is to resort 

 to slow outside feeding during the middle of the warm days; then if they 

 get a little of the inferior sweet it will be mixed with the feed, and there 

 will be no bad effect from it. Besides, they are destroyed in great numbers 

 around these cane-mills, and are a nuisance to the syrup-makers, and may 

 cause trouble, when feeding will draw them away. 



There is a contagious disease known as foul brood which affects and 

 kills the young bees while they are developing; but this disease is not 

 prevalent in the South. I have never seen a hive affected with it and have 

 heard of but a few apiaries that had been affected with it. Then the apiarist 

 claimed that it was introduced to them by picking up, at random, bargains 

 in cheap honey which was fed to the bees. It has also been reported that 

 foul brood has been introduced into some apiaries with queens or jiudei 

 brought abroad. If proper precautions are used this contagious disease 

 can be kept from bees. While there is a loss more or less of young bees in 

 all stages of development, in many apiaries in the South, yet it is not al- 

 ways owing to disease, but to the source of feed, for there are certain 

 plants that yield a little nectar or pollen which seems to poison the young 

 bees, and they die rapidly for a short time, but soon it is all over, and rw 

 more symptoms appear until about the same time next season. This loss 

 of bees is usually small, and not of enough consequence for treatment. 



FEEDING BEES. 



Feeding bees is the safety-valve to bee-keeping. Nothing can be more 

 essential in bee-keeping than feeding when necessary. Why is it that 

 thousands of colonies of bees die each season, and hundreds of apiaries 

 pass out of existence each year, and so many hives are light at robbing- 

 time? Because the bees have not been fed. 



If bees are not to be fed when necessary they need no good hives, 

 and surely no cultivation. Perhaps the honey-bee gives to the world 

 the greatest lesson in economy ; and the reason they run short of stores, and 

 perish, is not because they are extravagant, but because something has be- 

 fallen them that was beyond their control, for they will lay aside a supply 

 of food, if possible, to tide them over in the future. 



It is explained elsewhere that, if bees are neglected, they may dwindle 

 down and not be in condition to store up a supply of honey for future 



