9& ESSEX SOCIETY. 



hives, and four inches deep, to catch the dropping bees. This 

 box had a hole two or three inches square, cut into each side. 

 Into two opposite ones, he put a piece of glass that he might 

 see what was going on, and into the other two opposite ones, a 

 piece of tin, perforated with small holes to admit air after fu- 

 migation. These last must, of course, be stopped, while the 

 smoke is being blown in. This operation must he performed 

 just at nighty when the bees are all at Jiome, and at some time 

 between the middle of August and the middle of September. 



We add a few words respecting the enemies of bees. The 

 mouse, the toad, the ant, the stouter spiders, the wasp, the 

 death-head moth, (Sphinx atropos,) and all the varieties of gal- 

 linaceous birds, have, each and all, "a sweet tooth," and like, 

 very well, a dinner of raw bee. But the ravages of all these 

 are but a baby bite to the destruction caused by the bee moth, 

 (Tinea mellonella.) These nimble-footed little mischievous ver- 

 min may be seen, on any evening, from early May to October, 

 fluttering about the apiary, or running about the hives, at a 

 speed to outstrip the swiftest bee, and endeavoring to effect an 

 entrance into the door way, for it is within the hive that their 

 instinct teaches them they must deposit their eggs. You can 

 hardly find them by day, for they are cunning and secrete 

 themselves. " They love darkness rather than light, because 

 their deeds are evil." They are a paltry looking, insignificant 

 little grey-haired pestilent race of wax-and-honey-eating and 

 bee-destroying rascals, that have baffled all contrivances that 

 ingenuity has devised to conquer or destroy them. 



Your committee would be very glad indeed to be able to 

 suggest any effectual means, by which to assist the honey bee 

 and its friends, against the inroads of this, its bitterest and most 

 successful foe, whose desolating ravages are more lamented and 

 more despondingly referred to, than those of any other enemy. 

 Various contrivances have been announced, but none have 

 proved efficacious to any full extent, and we are compelled to 

 say that there really is no security, except in a very full, healthy 

 and vigorous stock of bees, and in a very close and well made 

 hive, the door of which is of such dimensions of length and 

 height, that the nightly guards can eff'ectually protect it. Not 



