248 THE BEE NATION. 



himself justified in saying in an essay on the utility of 

 bee-keeping : " The cleverness of the bees in repairing per- 

 fectly injuries to their cells and combs, in supporting on 

 pillars pieces of their building accidentally knocked down by 

 a hasty push, in fastening them with rivets and bringing 

 everything again into proper unity, making hanging bridges, 

 chains and ladders, compels our astonishment." 



The propolis is lastly used for an air-tight cover over 

 creatures which have invaded the hive and which the bees 

 have killed, but which are too large for them to carry away, 

 such as mice, slugs, moths, etc., and in this fashion are pre- 

 vented the injurious results to the hive which would follow 

 the putrefaction of the corpses. For impure air within the 

 hive is that which the bees must above all things fear 

 and avoid, for with the pressure together of so many indi- 

 viduals in a comparatively small space, it would not only be 

 directly harmful to individual bees, but would produce among 

 them dangerous diseases. They therefore also never void 

 their excrements within, but always outside the hive. While 

 this is very easy to do in summer, it is, on the contrary, very 

 difficult in the winter, when the bees sit close together and 

 generally motionless in the upper part of the hive, and when, 

 from impure air and foul evaporations, as well as from bad 

 and insufficient food, dysentery-like diseases break out 

 among them and often carry off the whole community in a 

 brief space of time. In such cases they utilise the first fine 

 day to relieve themselves, and in the spring they take a long 

 general cleansing flight. But they also know how to take 

 advantage of special circumstances so as to perform the 

 process of purification in the way least harmful to the hive. 

 Herr Heinrich Lehr, of Darmstadt, a bee-keeping friend of 

 the author, has sent the following communication : During 

 an epidemic of dysentery in winter, from which most of his 

 hives suffered (as the bees were no longer able to retain their 

 excrements) one hive suffered less than the others. Exact 

 investigation showed that this hive was soiled all over at the 

 back with the excrement of the bees, and that the inmates 

 had here made a kind of drain. On this spot a little opening 

 had been made by the falling off of the covering clay, which 

 led directly to the upper part of the hive, where the bees 

 were accustomed to sit together during the winter. This 

 excellent opportunity, whereby they could reach in the 



