108 Flow to manage Bees in Winter. 
was the caufe of her death ; whereas the intel 
tines of the thriving bees had very little mat- 
ter in them,-and therefore, I am inclined to 
think that this was the reafon of their conti- 
nuing healthy and active. Whether the origi- 
nal difeafe of the former clafs, and their pre- 
mature deaths, proceeded from their gluttony, 
in gormandizing more food than was necefla~ 
ry; or whether it was an epidemical difeafe . 
that had got in among them, and carried them 
off in fuch numbers, I will not prefume to de- — 
termine ; though I rather incline to the former 
opinion. But, from whatever caufe the difeafe 
proceeds, fuch hives often lofe their inhabi- 
tants at the rate of a dozen’ or more fer day, 
till they are greatly reduced, or perhaps quite 
defolated at laft. : cee 
For fuch misfortunes, I know of no remedy 
or even preventative ; but it is fortunate, that 
{carcely one or two hives of a dozen meet 
with them. Sometimes I have united the living 
bees, that remained of fuch a hive, with thofe 
of a healthy one, but feldom found it turn 
out well; owing perhaps to this caufe, that the 
difeate was really contagious, and the difeafed 
bees might carry the infeCtion along with 
them, and thereby hurt the healthy hive, I 
generally, 
