ENEMIES OF BEES. 255 



fuse on the bottom-board, like the shavings in a carpenter's 

 shop, are proofs of industry and not the signs of approach- 

 ing ruin. It is highly important, however, to keep the bot» 

 tom-boards clean, and if a piece of zinc be slipt in, (or 

 even an old newspaper,) by removing and cleansing it from 

 time to time, the bees will be greatly assisted in their opera- 

 tions. As soon as the hive is well filled with bees, this 

 need no longer be done. 



Even the most careful and experienced Apiarian wilt find, 

 too often, that although he is perfectly well aware of the 

 plague that is reigning within, his knowledge can be turned 

 to no good account, the interior of the hive being almost as 

 inaccessible as the interior of the human body. The way 

 in which I manage, in such cases, is as follows. 



Having ascertained, in the Spring, as soon as the bees 

 begin to fly out, that a colony although feeble, has a fertile 

 queen, I take the precaution at once to give it the strength 

 which is indispensable, not merely to its safety, but to its 

 ability for any kind of successful labor. 



As a certain number of bees are needed in a hive, in 

 order as well to warm and hatch the thousands of eggs 

 which a healthy queen can lay, as to feed and properly de.^ 

 velop the larvse after they are hatched, I know that a fee-> 

 ble colony must remain feeble for a long time, unless they 

 can at once be supplied with a considerable accession of 

 numbers. Even if there were no moths in existence tQ 

 trouble such a hive, it would not be able to rear a large 

 number of bees, until after the best of the honey-barvest 

 had passed away : and then it would become powerful only 

 that its increasing numbers might devour the food which the 

 others had previously stored in the cells. If the small colo- 

 ny has a considerable number of bees, and is able to cover 

 and warm at least one comb in addition to those containing 



