If, however, a bee-keeper should have reason to suspect the conditions of a hive, and it is at all possible to feed it outside, I would recommend that the method should be tried, for no harm would be done and possibly a certain amount of good. The food given should be thinner than usual--to counteract the effect of the farinaceous pollen food--and contain double the ordinary amount of salt. The hive should be cleared of any dirt, and the floor-board washed over with a weak solution of carbolic acid. Should the combs become full of syrup as the result of this feeding, take some of them out and place them near the feeder, replacing them with empty ones. The outside feeding encourages the bees to take exercise, which is all to their advantage, but it is not permissible where there are large numbers of hives in the district. In such a case a quilt of open material must be placed over the hive instead of the several thick ones, and inside feeding adopted. =Chilled Brood.=--Although this cannot in every instance be accounted a disease, yet, unless care be taken, there is no knowing where an incipient case will end. The cause is suggested by the name— the brood in the cells becomes chilled, and the effect is death. As a rule, when this has happened the cappings of the cells become black, and the appearance of an affected comb is something akin to that presented by foul brood. Whenever a hive contains any quantity of chilled brood, the bees should be given to another hive, and the queen, together with the combs, destroyed, unless the hive be a very strong one. In such a case the worst half of the combs can be removed and their space filled with a dummy. If new combs are added it will generally be found that it is merely to afford facilities to the spreading of the evil. It is useless to add bees to an affected hive, for they will immediately fly away from the danger zone. CHAPTER XII =Enemies of the Bee and Bee-keeper= BEES, and with them the bee-keeper, are subject to annoyance and depredations from many enemies in the natural world. Some make direct attacks on the hive and their contents, and others, by destroying or interfering with the food supply of the bees, sadly deplenish the stores for which the bees work and on which the bee-keeper's hopes rest. Among the former are insect-eating birds, spiders, moths, and other insects. Prominent in the other class are bud-eating birds and the green fly. Thus it will be seen that in both classes the enemies of the bees are also those of the gardener, so that no scruples need be felt in combating them with all the forces at our command.