66 THE HIVE AND THE HONEY-BEE. 



to Virgil, who gives, in his account of bees, express directions for 

 preventing honey from candying. He regarded the cause of its 

 doing so to be cold. 



I cannot very positively account for the formation of candied 

 honey, unless, as is very probable, Wildman's opinion be correct, 

 viz., that it becomes so by being too long in the hive, too stale, 

 and hence unfit for use. The mode of prevention is obvious : — 

 A periodical examination of the hives or boxes, and a removal of 

 a portion on each occasion of the old or mouldy combs. The 

 presence of candied honey in a hive is so obnoxious to bees, that 

 it frequently induces them to desert it. 



The candied honey proves fatal to bees in another way beside 

 their being poisoned by it. When the bees find candied honey 

 in the combs, they, knowing its prejudicial qualities, if they have 

 other and wholesome store, throw it out of the combs, and it of 

 course falls on the bottom board of the hive. In doing this the 

 bees prepare their own graves. They can neither enter nor leave 

 the hive without bedaubing themselves, and their endeavors to 

 free themselves and their companions from the incumbrance only 

 make matters worse. When bees are found in this state, it is 

 difficult to relieve them ; but if anything will do so, it is immer- 

 sion in tepid water • for this purpose you can sweep them into a 

 tub with the wing of a fowl, leave them in the water until insen- 

 sible, and unite them, when they revive a little, to the bees of 

 another hive, taking care to serve these latter similarly. Though 

 I recommend this treatment, I can b) r no means pronounce it in- 

 fallible ; but I have known it to succeed in more than one in- 

 stance. 



In an old French treatise we find purging and dysentery at- 

 tributed to the bees feeding on too pure honey, which is there 

 said not to be sufficiently substantial for them by itself. The cure 

 recommended is to give them from another hive combs well sup- 

 plied with bee-bread or crude wax. 



ENEMIES OP BEES. 



These are far more numerous than their diseases, and are as 

 follows : — : 



Poultry, Mice, Toads, Frogs, Snails, Slugs, Caterpillars, Moths, 

 Millipedes, Woodlice, Ants, Lice, Spiders, Wasps, Hornets. 



Fowls should not be permitted in any apiary. They will kill 

 and eat the bees, and such as they do not destroy they will an- 

 noy and disturb — besides, your bees will probably occupy a 



