258 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



with the fumes of burning sulphur ; and then, in a few 

 days, after they have been exposed lo the fresh air, they 

 may be returned to the hive. I hope I may be pardoned 

 for feeling not the slightest pity for the unfortunate progeny 

 of the moth, thus unceremoniously destroyed. 



Bees, as is well known to every experienced bee-keeper, 

 frequently swarm so often as to expose themselves to great 

 danger of being destroyed by the moth. After the depart- 

 ure of the after-swarms, the parent colony often contains 

 too few bees to cover and protect their combs from the in- 

 sidious attacks of their wily enemy. As a number of 

 weeks must elapse before the brood of the young queen is 

 mature, the colony, for a considerable time, at the season 

 when the moths are very numerous, are constantly dimin- 

 ishing in numbers, and before they can begin to replenish 

 the exhausted hive, the destroyer has made a fatal lodgment. 



In my hives, such calamities are easily prevented. If ar- 

 tificial increase is relied upon for the multiplication of colo- 

 nies, it can be so conducted as to give the moth next to no 

 chance to fortify itself in the hive. No colonj is ever allow- 

 ed to have more room than it needs, or more eombs than it 

 can cover and protect ; and the entrance to the hive may be 

 contracted, if necessary, so that only a single bee can go in 

 and out, at a time, and yet the bees will have, from the ven- 

 tilators, as much air as they require. 



If natural swarming is allowed, after-swarms may be 

 prevented from issuing, by cutting out all the queen cells 

 but one, soon after the first swarm leaves the hive j or if it 

 is desired to have as fast an increase of slocks, as can pos- 

 sibly be obtained from natural swarming, then instead of 

 leaving the combs in the parent hive to be attacked by the 

 moth, a certain portion of them may be taken out, when 

 swarming is over, and given to the second and third swarms, 

 so as to aid in building them up into strong slocks. 



