4lU 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



or elsewhere so the mice cannot enter. But be careful thai: you 

 do not pen the mice in with the combs. 



The chief villain, however, is the wax-moth. If a colony dies in 

 spring (and it is not in early winter, but in late winter and spring 

 that colonies usually die) and the hive remains unnoticed on its 

 summer stand, it is morally 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 seal up the hive moth- 

 tight before it is warm enough for a moth to fly, and the result will 

 be the ©ame, for the eggs of the moth by some means have been laid 

 in the hive, notwithstanding the presence of the bees, in the previous 

 fall. It is, howver, 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 the bees. Especially if they are of Italian blood, the bees will 

 make short work of clearing out the worm® before they are large 

 enough to do much harm. Perhaps it is putting it too strong to 

 say these combs should be put in the care of bees as soon as pos- 

 sible, for there will be little danger to the combs until the weather 

 has become warm and bees have been flying for some time, say about 

 the time of apple bloom. Take the hive of unoccupied combs, clean 

 out all the dead bees, and put 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. If, unfortunately, the hive con- 

 "taining the colony has a bottom nailed to the hive, it may be worth 

 while to knock it off for the sake of protecting the combs. After 

 the colony has had this low^er hive in charge for about a week, so 

 ae to get it cleaned out and get used to it, you can give it a second 

 hive of combs to care for, putting this second one between the first 

 and the hive containing the colony, so the bees of the colony must 

 pass through both of the hives with unoccupied combs. 



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, notwithstanding the danger of the combs 

 becoming moldy. In the cellar the worms will hardly get a fair 

 start until it is time 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 difficult to see where the 

 worms have run their silken galleries. The question is often asked 

 whether it will do to hive a swarm in a hive in w^hich a colony has 

 died. Unless such a hive is exceedingly filthy, the bees will promptly 

 clean it up. and be saved much labor in building new combs. 



