On I he Management of Bees. Ti?,' 



^ive filled with beech-leaves (a beech-hedge forms one side of 

 hiy apiary) : upon examinin!:^ it I found that the back of the hive 

 had projected beyond the board, throii<;h which a mouse had en- 

 tered : the bees had retired to one side of the hive^ and he had 

 taken up his winter quarters in the other. He had made his nest 

 with the decayed beecli-leares, and he and the bees had Vv.e'X 

 joint-tenants of the hive during the wliolc season. 1 removed 

 the broken combs, and all the remains of his dwelling; rhe bees 

 seemed to recover new life ; the hive was restored; and though 

 it did not swarm the succeeding year, it became one of mv best, 

 and continued so for many years after. 



Birds will be fouud enumerated in every publication on the 

 subject of bees, as their enemies ; but I have found that there 

 are but few birds destructive to the apiary; most of those which 

 are so represented I have found are tliose who come to feed on 

 the dead bees or maggots, which are thrown out from the hives: 

 and thougli the swallow, 



" Procno, mmilbiis sighata cruentSs," — Virgil, 



is reckoned among the chief, I have observed that tiie most de- 

 structive is the bird called the house lark, a small a«h -coloured 

 bird of the size of a tit-lark and next to it the torn-tit ; these 

 should, therefore, be destroyed whenever they present themselves 

 where bees are kept. 



Of the insect tribe, there are many inimical to bees ; of these 

 the moth is the most deadly: these insects are among the smallest 

 of the genus, and are of a light whitish brown ; they are remark- 

 ably active in their motions, and are seen running with great 

 quickness round the hive, watching their opportunity to enter; 

 which when j)ermi ted to do iu any number, the combs become 

 the depository of their eggs ; the top is filled with siiky film ; the 

 bees are expelled ; and the combs, when torn, resemble paper : 

 thpse should be carefully watc'ied and destroyed whenever they 

 appear ; for when one ethey enter a hive and breed, the loss of 

 the hive is inevitable*, b'piders also, thougli but in a small 

 tlegree destructive, interfere much with, and ob'stnict the working 

 of the bees without, by drawing their webs across the recesses of 

 the apiary: this is however in summer and autumn only. They 

 are very easily destroyed, by going out at nigiit with a candle, at 



* Mr. Mills, in his treatise published by ordt-r of the Srtciety, says, " the 

 moths break the cornbs to pieces !" He could never h;ivc seen a hive which 

 the raotli had attacked: they are the feeblest of all insects, and incapable of 

 breakinfr the combs; the effect of the attack of the moth is as I have de- 

 scribed it. I never had but one so destroyed ; but such is my opinion of the 

 certain and destructive eflect of the moth in hives, that it ii sufficient for me 

 to condemn a hive, and take it in the ensuing autumn, from wJiich I have 

 occasionally seen a moth come out, or into vrhicli this insect has entered. 



^'ol. o.'i. No. 2UJ. May 1820. E e which 



