ENEMIES OF BEES. 257 



only too glad to receive such a valuable accession to their 

 scanty numbers, and the expatriated bees are too much con- 

 founded with their unexpected emigration, to feel any de- 

 sire for making a disturbance. If a sufficient increase of 

 numbers has not been furnished by one range of comb, the 

 operation may, in the course of a few days, be repeated. 

 Instead of leaving the colony to the discouraging feeling 

 that they are in a. large, empty and desolate house, a divide? 

 should be run down into the hive, and they should be coht 

 fined to a space which they are able to warm and defend, 

 and the rest of the hive, until they need its additional room, 

 should be carefully shut up against all intruders. If this 

 operation is judiciously performed, the bees will be power- 

 ful in numbers, long before the weather is warm enough to 

 develop the bee-moth, and ihey will thus be most eflectually 

 protected from the hateful pest. 



A very simple change in the organization of the bee- 

 moth would have rendered it almost if not quite impossible 

 to protect the bees from its ravages. If it had been so con- 

 stituted as to require but a very small amount of heat for 

 its full development, it would have become very numerous 

 early in the Spring, and might then have easily entered the 

 hives and deposited its eggs among the combs, without any 

 let or hindrance ; for at this season, not only do the bees at 

 night maintain no guard at the enti'ance of their hive, but 

 there are large portions of their comb bare of bees, and of 

 course, entirely unprotected. How does every fact in the 

 history of the bee, when properly investigated, point with 

 unerring certainty to the power, wisdom and goodness, of 

 Him who made it ! 



If there is reason to apprehend that the combs which are 

 not occupied "with brood, contain any of the eggs of the 

 moth, these combs may be removed, and thoroughly smoked 

 22* 



