ENEMIES OF BEES. 261 



snapping their blood-thirsty beaks that they may be all rea- 

 dy to tear out its eyes just glazing in death, and banquet 

 upon its flesh still warm with the blood of life ! Let any 

 fatal accident befall an animal, and how soon will you see 

 them, first from one quarter of the heavens, and then from 

 another, speeding their eager flight to iheir destined prey, 

 when only a short time before, not a single one could be 

 seen or heard. 



I have repeatedly seen powerful colonies speedily devour- 

 ed by the worms, because of the loss of their queen, when 

 they have stood, side by side with feeble colonies which be- 

 ing in possession of a queen, have been left untouched ! 



That the common hives furnish no available remedy for 

 the loss of the queen, is well known : indeed, the owner 

 cannot, in many cases, be sure that his bees are queenless, 

 until their destruction is certain, while not unfrequently, 

 after keeping bees for many years, he does not even so 

 much as believe that there is such a thing as a queen bee ! 



In the Chapter on the Loss of the Queen, I shall show 

 in what way this loss can be ascertained, and ordinarily 

 remedied, and thus the bees be protected from that calam- 

 ity which more than all others, exposes them to destruc- 

 tion. When a colony has become hopelessly queenless, 

 then moth or no moth, its destruction is absolutely certain. 

 Even if the bees retained their wonted industry in gathering 

 stores, and their usual energy in defending themselves 

 against all their enemies, their ruin could only be delayed 

 for a short time. In a few months, they would all die a 

 natural death, and there being none to replace them, the 

 hive would be utterly depopulated. Occasionally, such in- 

 stances occur in which the bees have died, and large stores 

 of honey have been found untouched in their hives. This, 

 however, but seldom happens : for they rarely escape from 



