158 A Modern Bee-Farm 
Rats, Mice, Ants, Birds, 
and other creatures that stir up the dead in front of affected 
stocks, and then pass over the alighting boards, are 
undoubtedly to blame (next to the owner who allows such 
to lie about), in spreading the malady from hive to hive in 
the same apiary. Mice are particularly fond of eating 
bees ; they live in the ground everywhere, and their name 
is legion. While the owner is asleep they are all over the 
fronts of his hives, carrying destruction to successive 
colonies, while he is dreaming of some mysterious means 
of infection, instead of awakening to the fact that this and 
most diseases are spread by direct contact—and that 
contact he may prevent. 
Flowers and Water 
should not be provided near the apiary. Even where there 
is no immediate danger the bees will soil many objects 
around the apiary, and it is best to be on guard against 
all forms of disease. 
