68 A Modem Bee-Farm 



are very badly smeared they should be removed and clean 

 substituted. 



Dysentery is very readily induced by any exciting cause, 

 after the bees have been a long time without a cleansing 

 flight. Thus, a stock, apparently in the best possible condition, 

 may from some quite avoidable occurrence have its entrance 

 choked by dead bees, and then the more prosperous the colony, 

 the more disastrous will be the result. 



By far the greater number of cases may be put down as 

 being directly caused by starvation. A small lot of bees 

 unable to reach stores situated away from the cluster, will 

 generally perish without excitement during a too-long spell of 

 cold, the cluster remaining unbroken just as the bees rested' 

 upon the combs. But take the case of a strong stock, par- 

 ticularly where a patch or two of brood has been started, and 

 instead of continued cold compellirig them to remain and die 

 where they sit upon the combs, their very strength is the 

 cause of their own destruction. They generate too much heat 

 to remain quietly clustering where all the store within reach is 

 at last exhausted. Though too cold yet for individuals to 

 reach the more distant, but still plenteous store, the bees fully 

 aware of their critical position, soon arrive at an excited 

 condition, the temperature goes up rapidly, the cluster ex- 

 pands, and the lately unapproachable stores are within reach. 

 But the instinct of self-preservation does not allow them to- 

 count the cost — the tremendous discount thus made upon their 

 vital energies ; neither can they avoid the fouling of their once 

 clean, sweet smelling home. 



Should a warm day soon follow this untoward excitement, 

 the after effects are to a certain extent modified, as a good 

 cleansing flight can be taken ; but when the cold still cori- 

 tinues, the bees never again being able to regain their former 

 state of semi-hibernation, drag out their existence wandering 

 aimlessly about, and die at a rapid rate, each day adding to 

 the accumulated filth of the hive. 



