1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



295 



liangiug from the branches the greater part 

 of the smiiiner, and the appeanuice both be- 

 fore and after blossoming, is pretty much 

 the same. The blossoms are small, of a light 

 yellow color and rather pretty; the honey is 

 secreted in the inner side of the thick tleshy 

 petals. When it is profuse, it will sparkle 

 like dewdrops when a cluster of blossoms is 

 held \\\» to the sunlight. 



SSS-21XOTZX. It is very likely tiiat 

 the moth worm is, as has been so often slat- 

 ed, the worst enemy the honey bee has, — if 

 we except ignorant bee-keepers — but if 

 sucli is the case, we can consider ourselves 

 very fortunate, for the moth is almost no 

 enemy at all, to one who is well posted, and 

 up with the times. When you hear a person 

 complaining that the moth worm killed his 

 bees, you can set him down at once, as 

 knowing very little about bees; and if a 

 hive is offered you, that has an attachment 

 or trap to catch or kill moths, you can set 

 the vender down as a vagabond and swind- 

 ler. You can scarcely plead ignorance for 

 him, for a man who will take upon himself 

 the responsibility of introducing hives, 

 without knowing something of our modern 

 books and bee journals, should receive treat- 

 ment sufficiently rough to send him home, 

 or into some business he understands. 



When a colony gets weakened so much 

 that it can not cover and protect its combs, 

 robbers and moth-worms help themselves as 

 a natural consequence, but either rarely do 

 any harm if there is plenty of bees, and a 

 clean tight hive. If a hive is so made that 

 there are crevices which will admit a worm, 

 and not allow a bee to go after him, it may 

 make some trouble in almost any colony ; 

 and I can not remember that I ever saw a 

 patented Moth Proof Hive that was not 

 much worse in this respect than a plain sim- 

 ple box hive. A plain simple box, is in fact 

 all we want for a hive ; but as we must have 

 the combs removable, we must have frames 

 to hold them ; and if these frames are made 

 so that bees can get all round and about 

 them, we have done all we can to make a 

 moth proof hive. 



Of course colonies will at times get weak- 

 ened ; and with the best of care, with the 

 common bees especially, worms will some- 

 times be found in the combs. Now if you 

 have the simple hive I shall recommend, 

 you can very quickly take out the combs, 

 and witli the point of your knife, remove 

 every web and worm, scrape off the debris, 

 and assist the bees very much. If there is 

 an accumulation of filth on the bottom 



board, lift out all the combs, and brush it 

 all off", and be siu-e you crush all the worms 

 in this lilth for they will crawl right back 

 ! into the hive, if carelessly thrown on the, 

 ground. 



If you keep only Italians, or even all hy- 

 brids, you may go over a hundred colonies 

 and not lind a single trace of a moth worm. 

 At the very low price at which Italian 

 (pieens are now to be purchased, it would 

 seem that we are very soon to forget that a 

 bee-moth ever existed, and the readiest way 

 I know of to get combs that are badly infest- 

 [ ed, free from worms, is to hang them, one 

 I at a time, in the centre of a full hive of Ital- 

 j ians. You will find all the webs and worms 

 strewed around the entrance of the hive, in 

 a couple of hours, and the comb cleaned up 

 nicer than you could do it, if you were to 

 sit down all day to the task. 



HOW TO KEEP EMPTY COMBS SECURE FROM 

 THE MOTH WORMS. 



If you have Italians only, you may have 

 no trouble at all, without using any precau- 

 tion ; but if there are black bees around you, 

 kept in the old fashioned way, or in "patent 

 hives," you will be very apt to have trouble, 

 imless you "look out."' Suppose, for in- 

 stance, you take a comb away from the bees 

 during the summer months, and leave it in 

 your honey house several days ; if the weath- 

 er is warm, you may find it literally infested 

 with small worms, and in a few days more, 

 the comb will be entirely destroyed. Combs 

 partly filled with pollen, seem to be the es- 

 pecial preference of these greedy filthy look- 

 ing pests, and I have sometimes thought 

 they would do but little harm, were it not 

 for the pollen they find to feed on. A few 

 years ago, we used to have the same trouble 

 with comb honey when taken from the hive 

 during the early part of the season ; but of 

 late we have had less and less of it and the 

 present season — 1877 — I have scarcely seen a 

 moth worm in our comb honey at all, and 

 we have not once fumigated our honey 

 house. I inscribe it to the increase of the 

 Italians, in our own apiary, and those all 

 about us, for the greater .part of the bees in 

 the woods are now jmrtly Italian. These 

 have driven the moth before them to such an 

 extent that they bid fair to soon become ex- 

 tinct. Perhaps nnich has been also done, by 

 keeping all bits of comb out of their way ; 

 no rubbish that would harbor them has been 

 allowed to accumulate about the apiary, and 

 as soon as any filth lias been found contain- 

 ing them, it has been promptly burned. 

 Those who take comb honey from hives of 



