Excerpt from Practical Advice to Beginners in Bee-KeepingIf one observes a healthy colony in the summer time, the bees will be seen to enter and leave the hive in rapid succession 5 the laden bees returning from the fields and the workers setting out to collect pollen and nectar do not loiter at the entrance to the hive. They have no time to waste at the gates. They are too busy. But with the onset of the disease there is a marked difference in the behaviour of the bees. They have no longer any desire to toil in the fields.They seem to have lost their characteristic energy. They crowd round the entrance of the hive, occasionally clustering and displaying a general appearance of listlessness. This lack of vitality is the first noticeable phase of the disease.A peculiar feature of the wings - the so-called split wing is often observed in bees suffering from Isle of Wight disease in its early stages. Normally the bee, when in the act of ¿ight, unites the fore and hind wings together so that the two wings on either side of the thorax act as one. (this union is brought about by a series of hooks on the anterior margin of the hind wing engaging a series of catches on the posterior border of the fore wing.) But when the bee contracts Isle of Wight disease this power of union is often lost, and the wings appear quite separate. It should be Observed that this split wing appearance, though quite characteristic, is not in itself diagnostic of the disease.Occasionally a sick bee may be observed drawing its posterior legs over the abdomen - as if the bee realised a sensation of pain in that part.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.