3o6 MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. [Ch. VI. 



Mr. Langstroth has a capital little bit about a high- 

 handed piece of audacity that has been occasionally- 

 observed in our insect. House-robbing, it seems, is not 

 bad enough for them, but they will even go the length 

 of acting as highwaymen and garotters. For thus runs 

 the story of their waylaying and despoiling the humble 

 bee : " Seizing the honest fellow they give him to under- 

 stand that they want his honey. If they killed him they 

 would never be able to extract his spoils from their deep 

 recesses ; they therefore bite and tease him, after their 

 most approved fashion, all the time singing in his ears, 

 ' Your honey or your life,' until he empties his capacious 

 receptacle, when they release him and lick up his 

 sweets." 



§ IX. DISEASES OF BEES. 



Dysentery is a disease produced either by long confine- 

 ment, by dampness, or by feeding in the winter. The first 

 thing bees do when disturbed is to fill themselves with 

 food, so that in winter weather, when they cannot get out 

 to void their faeces, hives should not be meddled with, 

 otherwise the complaint may be brought on. It is also 

 engendered in many instances by the state of the weather 

 in winter months, and is indicated by the yellow colour 

 of the excrement, and by its being voided upon the 

 floors and at the entrance of the hives, which bees in a 

 healthy state generally keep clean. All that can be 

 done for them when affected is to see that there is plenty 



