30 



join forces with the invaders, and accompany the robber bees 

 to their own hives. This introduction of infected material, 

 and the association with unhealthy bees, cannot fail to 

 establish the malady in the hives of the reivers, and so it is 

 a case not only of vce victis, but also of vce victoribus. 



(b) It is also a well-known fact that bees may enter strange 

 hives in mistake : this particularly happens, during summer, 

 where there is a superabundance of nectar. Such alien bees, 

 if suffering from Isle of Wight disease, can undoubtedly intro- 

 duce the disease into hitherto unaffected colonies. 



(c) The practice of sending bees to the heather has also been 

 an important factor in spreading the disease. In this way 

 colonies from many different districts have been brought 

 together on the heather moors. There is no doubt that some 

 such colonies harbour the Isle of Wight disease, probably 

 unknown to the owners, though in some cases colonies which 

 were actually known to be affected have been sent to the 

 heather by beekeepers who fancied a change of environment 

 would result in a cure. When these bees are liberated at the 

 heather after their long journey thither, they frequently mix 

 together, and, in the confusion, often enter the wrong hive. 

 This mingling of members of different hives must be a fruitful 

 cause in the spread of the disease. Observation shows that 

 many colonies suffering from the initial stages of the Isle of 

 Wight disease, when sent to the heather, die there. Even if 

 some do survive the heather season and, are brought back to 

 the old home, the evil is only aggravated, for they now become 

 a menace and a plague to their native district. 



Symptoms of the Disease. 



If one observes a healthy colony in the summer time, the 

 bees will be seen to enter and leave the hive in rapid 

 succession ; the laden bees returning from the fields and the 

 workers setting out to collect pollen and nectar do not loiter 

 at the entrance to the hive. They have no time to waste at 

 the gates. They are too busy. But with the onset of the 

 disease there is a marked difference in the behaviour of the 

 bees. They have no longer any desire to toil in the fields. 



