ENEMIES OF BEES. 253 



Almost any thing hollow, in which the bees can establish 

 themselves, and where they have once succeeded in becom- 

 itig strong, will often be successfully tenanted by them for a 

 series of years. To see such hives, as they sometimes may 

 be seen, in possession of persons both ignorant and careless, 

 and who hardly know a bee-moth from any other kind of 

 moth, may at first sight well shake the confidence of the 

 inquirer, in the necessity or value of any particular precau- 

 tions to preserve his hives from the devastations of the 

 moth. 



After looking at these powerful slocks in what may be 

 called log-cabin hives, let us examine some in the most 

 costly hives, which have ever been constructed ; in what 

 have been called real " Bee-Palaces ;" and we shall often 

 find them weak and impoverished, infested and almost de- 

 voured by the ^vorms. Their owner, with books in his hand, 

 and all the newest devices and appliances in the Apiarian 

 line, unable to protect his bees against their enemies, or to 

 account for the reason why some hives seem, like the chil- 

 dren of the poor, almost to thrive upon ill-treatment and 

 neglect, while others, like the offspring of the rich and pow- 

 erful, are feeble and diseased, almost in exact proportion to 

 the means used to guard them against no.xious influences, 

 and to minister most lavishly to all their wants. 



I once used to be much surprised to hear so many bee- 

 keepers speak of having " good luck," or " bad luck" with 

 their bees ; but really as bees are generally managed, suc- 

 cess or failure does seem to depend almost entirely upon 

 what the ignorant or superstitious are wont to call " luck." 



I shall now try to do what I have never yet seen satisfac- 

 torily done by any writer on bees ; viz. : show exactly 

 under what circumstances the bee-moth succeeds in estab- 

 lishing itself in a hive ; thus explaining why some stocks 

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