90 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



cially in warm weather, to confine them, unless they have a 

 very free admission of air ; and even then, unless it is ad- 

 mitted above, as well as below the mass of bees, the ven- 

 tilators may become clogged with dead bees, and the col- 

 ony perish. Bees under close confinement become exces- 

 sively heated, and their combs are often melted ; if damp- 

 ness is added to the injurious influence of bad air, they 

 become diseased ; and large numbers, if not the whole 

 colony, may perish from dysentery. Is it not under pre- 

 cisely such circumstances that cholera and dysentery prove 

 most fatal to human beings ? the filthy, damp, and unven- 

 tilated abodes of the abject poor, becoming perfect lazar- 

 houses to their wretched inmates. 



I have several tunes examined the bees of new swarms 

 which were brought to my Apiary, so closely confined, that 

 they had di<;d of suffocation. In each instance, their bodies 

 were distended with a yellow and noisome substance, as 

 though they had perished from dysentery. A few were 

 still alive, and although the colony had been shut up only 

 a few hours, the bodies of both the living and the dead 

 were filled with this same disgusting fluid, instead of the 

 honey they had when they swarmed. 



In a medical point of view, these facts are highly inter- 

 esting ; showing as they do, under what circumstances, 

 and how speedily, diseases may be produced resembling 

 dysentery or cholera. 



In very hot weather, if thin hives are exposed to the 

 sun's direct rays, the bees are excessively annoyed by the 

 intense heat, and have recourse to the most powerful ven- 

 tilation, not merely to keep the air of the hive pure, but 

 to lower its temperature. 



Bees, in such weather, often leave, almost in a body, 

 the interior of the hive, and cluster on- the outside, not 

 merely to escape the close heat within, but to guard their 



