ANGER OF BEES. 409 



ally gentle, so that they are not only peaceable when any 

 necessary operation is being performed, but at all other times. 

 Even if the hives could be opened at pleasure, siill if such 

 liberties resulted in leaving the bees in an unusually irritable 

 stale, it would avail but little. 



Persons who have much to do with bees, unless they 

 use a bee-dress, will incur a risk which necessarily attaches 

 to every system of bee-culture. If an Apiary is approached, 

 thousands and tens of thousands of bees will continue their 

 busy pursuits, without interfering with those who do not 

 molest them. But frequently a few cross bees will come 

 buzzing around our ears, appearing determined to sting with- 

 out the very slightest provocation. From such lawless as- 

 sailants no person, without a bee-dress, is absolutely safe. 

 By repeated examinations, I have ascertained that disease is 

 generally the cause of such unusual irritability. I am never 

 afraid that a healthy bee will attack me, unless provoked ; 

 and am always sure as soon as I hear one singing about my 

 ears, that it is incurably diseased. Such a bee when dis- 

 sected, will exhibit unmistakable evidence that a peculiar 

 kind of dysentery, has already fastened upon its system. In 

 the first stages of this complaint, the insect is very irritable, 

 refuses to labor, and seems unable or unwilling to distinguish 

 friend from foe. As the disease progresses, it becomes 

 stupid, its abdomen is distended with a great mass of 

 yellow matter, and the insect unable to fly, crawls on the 

 ground, in front of the hive, and speedily perishes. I have 

 never been able to ascertain the cause of this singular mal- 

 ady, nor can T suggest any remedy for it. I hope that 

 some scientific Apiarians will investigate it closely, for if 

 it could be remedied, we might have hundreds of colonies 

 on our premises and in our gardens, and yet incur scarcely 

 any risk of being stung, 

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