ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 309 



BEES, Supplying with a Queen. — 

 Three weeks are required for supplying a 

 colony with a queen when lost. The 

 queen is very frequently lost when she 

 goes out for the purpose of being impreg- 

 nated, and as she has destroyed all the 

 unhatched queens, and there is no worker 

 brood, the loss must be repaired by the 

 owner. The loss is made sufficiently 

 plain, and when the young queens are a 

 week old, the hives should have attention 

 paid to them morning and evening. The 

 bees run about on the hive, fly away a 

 short distance and return, and for the 

 time being, all is confusion both within 

 and without the hive. The swarm should 

 now be given some worker brood from 

 some other hive, or, better still, a fertile 

 •queen. The best way to introduce the 

 queeri to a new colony is, to cover her 

 with honey water. If a queen survives 

 her second year, it is best to remove her, 

 to give place to a younger and more vig- 

 orous one. The keeper who allows his 

 stock to remain without queens, is too 

 careless to succeed. 



BEES, Swarms Going to the Woods. — 

 They may be prevented from doing so by 

 keeping the hive shaded and cool, and 

 close to the bottom board, except about 

 an inch in front. If a difficult case, set in 

 the cellar from forty-eight to seventy-two 

 hours, and give them, perhaps, from a 

 pound to two pounds of honey. 



BEES, Swarming to Prevent. — Imme- 

 diately after the issue of the first swarm, 

 open the hives, (you must have movable 

 frames for this,) destroy every royal cell 

 but one. If at the end of five days this 

 has not hatched, look over the combs 

 again, and destroy every royal cell that 

 may now appear, excepting the one saved 

 at first. But if the oldest of the young 

 queens is allowed to hatch and begin pip- 

 ing before anything is done, the fever of 

 swarming will rise to such a pitch, that you 

 cannot allay it, and the old hive may even 

 be left destitute. The best way is to make 

 the first swarm an artificial one, before or 

 soon after queen cells are started. Then 

 at the end of nine days, destroy all cells 

 but one, as above. To prevent first 

 swarms, clip the wings of the queen, and 

 put a "queen yard" in front of the hive — 

 a shallow box some two feet square, with 

 edges of tin projecting inward, so that no 

 bee can get out and away from the hive 



without flying. This will, of course, pre- 

 vent the escape of the queen, and swarms 

 will return. 



BEES, Enemies of the. — Domestic 

 fowls are destroyers of bees, and also some 

 birds, from whose attacks as they range 

 the fields at a distance from the hive they 

 cannot be protected. Among these is the 

 titmouse, or blue tomtit, which devours 

 the bees, and feeds his young with them ; 

 and in winter is said to endeavor to force 

 his way into the hive itself. Mice are 

 often very troublesome, and even rats 

 sometimes make their way into the hive. 

 Slugs and snails often occasion much 

 trouble; and especially in warm summer 

 evenings, the attacks of wasps and hornets 

 are a great annoyance to the bees. In 

 all these cases, care and vigilance can do 

 much. Wasps' nests ought to be destroy- 

 ed wherever met with ; insects of all kinds, 

 such as earwigs, woodlice, ants, etc., 

 should be cleared away. In a word, the 

 hives and stands for them ought to be 

 kept as clean and neat as possible. 



BEE MOTH or WAX WORM.— Large 

 hawk-moths sometimes enter a bee hive 

 for what honey they can get, and even 

 mice have been known to enter a hive ; 

 while several parasites live upon the bees 

 themselves. But by far the worst enemy 

 the bee-keeper has to contend with, is the 

 bee-moth. This insect is so well known 

 to bee men generally that it scarcely 

 needs a description. It suffices to say, 

 that the color of the moth is dusky gray, 

 the fore wings which are scallopped at 

 the end, being more or less sprinkled and 

 dotted with purple-brown. The female 

 is generally a good deal larger than the 

 male, though there is not so much differ- 

 ence between the sexes as some writers 

 have supposed. The worms which pro- 

 duce these moths are of an ash-gray 

 color above, and yellowish -white beneath. 



The bee moth was first introduced into 

 this country from Europe about the com- 

 mencement of the present century, and it 

 was in all probability imported with the 

 common bee hive. There are two broods 

 of the moth each year, the first brood ap- 

 pearing in May and June, and the second, 

 which is the most numerous, in August. 

 During the day time these moths remain 

 quietly ensconced in some angle ot the 

 hive, but as night approaches they be- 

 come active, and the female uses her best 



