WINTER MANAGEMENT. 253 
attacks the strongest hives, if too much closed at the 
mouth, particularly at the latter part of winter or in 
early spring, the most critical time for bees; and 
no doubt it is attributable to unnaturally retained 
feces in a damp impure atmosphere, with deficient 
covering and ventilation. It has been thought that 
the want of water predisposes the bees to dysentery, 
strange as this may seem by the side of the more 
certain fact that too much water, in the form of 
liquid food supplied too late in the year, is a frequent 
superinducing cause. As soon as it has appeared, 
no time should be lost in lifting the hive from its 
board, expelling the vitiated air, and scraping and 
washing away all impurity; repeating the same 
process, if requisite, on some fine subsequent day. 
But the board should be dried before the hive is 
replaced on it; or a fresh one may be at once sub- 
stituted for it, with less loss of time and annoyance 
to the bees. Mr. Taylor speaks of having restored 
a stock to perfect health by the above measures, 
after a third of the inhabitants had fallen a sacri- 
fice. Where combs are movable, such of them as 
contain unsealed honey should be taken away, 
and barley-sugar will be the proper kind of food. 
Disturbance of the hive is very apt to bring on this 
disease, as the instinct of the bees impels them, 
upen every alarm, to gorge themselves to inflation, 
whilst their unwillingness to void their feces in the 
hive brings on this disorder when they are unable 
to venture out. Their abdomens become swollen in 
consequence, and even bursting, so that the entire 
appearance within the hive is pitiable in the extreme. 
