72 Bee-keeping for Beginners. 



Mr. Cowan, who is a very clever scientist, recommends 

 several ' cures. ' No doubt those who wish to pursue 

 the subject will procure his book. 



Sometimes bees are afflicted with dysentery, or, as 

 it is sometimes called, diarrhoea. Though this is 

 usually classed as a disease, it is not one in reality, as 

 the great American Langstroth says, but is a state or 

 habit of body which is fairly easy to cure if taken in 

 time, or, which is better, prevented altogether. When 

 bees are strong and healthy they never void their 

 excrements in the hive, but do this in the open air. 

 In the summer this is easy, because of the warmth of 

 the atmosphere, but in winter-time the affair becomes 

 more difficult ; and if, through the state of the weather, 

 the bees are confined for a long time to the hive, an 

 attack of dysentery, more or less severe, is very likely 

 to occur. Another cause of dysentery is improper 

 food. Syrups made from sugar extracted from beet 

 is very injurious to bees, and so are the juices of fruits, 

 apples and grapes. We have read somewhere of a 

 woman who could not afford (or thought she could 

 not) to give sugar syrup to her bees, and she gave 

 them very sweet cider, with the result that she lost 

 them all from dysentery. No food is better for bees 

 to winter on than syrup made properly from cane 

 sugar, and if you have any doubt about the veracity 

 of your grocer, get it at the office of Tlie British Bee 

 Journal. The sugar obtained there is guaranteed to 

 be cane sugar, and the writer never gets his anywhere 



