REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 199 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



find how soon the bees will clean it up so that you will hardly recognize it as the same 

 comb. 



Mice must be kept away from combs by shutting these up in hives or in such other 

 place where the mice cannot enter. But be careful that you do not pen the mice in 

 with the combs. 



The chief enemy of the apiarist is the Wax Moth. If a colony dies in the spring 

 and the hive remains unnoticed on its summer stand, it is almost certain that, before 

 the summer is over, you will find it containing a solid mass of webs and cocoons, with 

 perhaps not a vestige of comb left. You may have sealed up the hive moth-tight before 

 it is warm enough for a moth to fly; the result will be the same; for the eggs of the 

 moth by some means have been laid, during the previous fall, in the hive, notwith- 

 standing the presence of the bees. It is, however, not an easy thing to make a hive 

 moth-tight, for a moth will squeeze through a much smaller crack than a bee. The 

 right thing to do with a hive full of combs upon which a colony has died, is to get the 

 combs as soon as possible in the care of a strong colony of bees. Especially if of 

 Italian blood, the bees will make short work of cleaning out the worms before they 

 are large enough to do much harm. 



There will be little danger to the combs from the moth until the weather has be- 

 come warm and bees have been flying for some time, say about the time of apple bloom. 

 When a hive is noticed with unoccupied combs, clean out all dead bees, and put it 

 under a hive occupied by a strong colony. If there should be any entrance directly 

 from outside into the upper hive, close it up, so as to oblige the bees to pass through the 

 lower hive in going in and out. Keep the entrance very small the first few days, for 

 fear of robbers. After the colony has had tliis lower hive in charge for about a week, 

 so as to get it cleaned out and get used to the work, you can give it a second hive of 

 combs to clean out, putting the second in the place of the first. 



If colonies have died in hives in the cellar, there will not be the same need of haste 

 as to getting them in care of the bees. Indeed, it may not be a bad plan to take into 

 the cellar hives whose bees have died on the summer stand ; for in the cellar the worms 

 will hardly get a fair start until the next spring, when the unoccupied combs will be 

 needed to form swarms. It is well, however, to look at them occasionally to see that 

 they are all right, for it is not difiicult to see where the worms have run their siEvcn 

 galleries. The question is often asked whether it will do to hive a swarm in a hive in 

 which a colony has died. Unless such a hive is exceedingly filthy, the bees will 

 promptly clean it up, at the same time being saved much labour in building new 

 combs. 



It is well to know that freezing destroys the worms. So a hive of combs that has 

 been left out all winter, is in no danger of worms until well along in warm weather, 

 when moths have had time to mature and to lay eggs. If such combs are hung up in 

 an airy place with a space of an inch between them, they will almost surely be safe 

 from worms throughout the summer, and indeed worms may not trouble them all sum- 

 mer if left in the hive in their usual position. 



If for any reason it is desired to kill worms in combs, sulphur is the material 

 usually resorted to. A very little of the fumes of burnin.; sulphur will finish the 

 worms when they are quite small; but, when full grown, it takes a very heavy dose; 

 so it is well first to pick out the larger ones by hand. For this take a sharp pointed 

 knife and pick open the comb at one end of the silken gallery for half an inch, then 

 commence at the other end and tear it open the whole length. This will drive the 

 worm along till it comes out of the hole you first made. You can end its existence 

 by what means may seem best. To fumigate a hive with sulphur, set into a pan or 

 kettle partly full of ashes a smaller vessel of iron. In this put the sulphur and throw 

 on it a shovelful of live coals or a red hot iron. This must be in an empty hive or 

 some tightly closed box or chamber so that the fumes cannot escape. Great care must 

 be exercised so that the fire does not extend to the surrounding wood. The combs 

 placed over the burning sulphur may be prevented from catching fire by means of a 



