XV 



DISEASES OF BEES 



Almost every organism to be found in the world 

 has one or more troubles in the way of disease that 

 are peculiar to it. Those attached to many insects 

 we know little about, but bees being so impor- 

 tant to mankind from a commercial point of 

 view, much pains have been taken to discover 

 the causes of the strange and startling death of 

 bees from time to time. Many an old-style 

 bee-keeper has found his charges suddenly dis- 

 appearing. He may have seen them working 

 hard one day, apparently in the best of health 

 and spirits, and a few days later he has found 

 them all gone, except perhaps a few crawling 

 and sickly creatures lying on the ground or 

 among the combs. 



In the winter, when bees are left unattended, 

 they sometimes die right out, and when the 

 hives are opened in the spring, nothing but a 

 heap of dead bees is found within. In many 

 cases this is due to starvation, pure and simple. 

 If bees do not have at least twenty pounds of 

 food in the hive at the end of September, they 



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