262 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



the assaults of other colonies, even if after the death of 

 their queen, they do not^fall a prey to the bee-moth. A 

 motherless hive is almost always assaulted by stronger 

 stocks, which seem to hav* an instinctive knowledge of its 

 orphanage, and hasten at once, to take possession of its 

 spoils. (See Eemarks on Eobbing.) If it escape the Scylla 

 of these pitiless plunderers, it is soon dashed upon a more 

 merciless Charybdis, when the miscreant moths have ascer- 

 tained its destitution. Every year, large numbers of hives 

 are bereft of their queen, and every year, the most of such 

 hives are either robbed by other bees, or sacked by the bee- 

 moth, or first robbed, and afterwards sacked, while their 

 owner imputes all the mischief that is done, to something 

 else than the real cause. He might just as well imagine 

 that the birds, or the carrion worms which are devouring 

 his dead horse, were actually the primary cause of its uor 

 timely end. How often we see the same kind of mistake 

 made by those who impute the decay of a tree, to the in- 

 sects which are banqueting upon its withering foliage ; when 

 often these insects are there, because the disease of the tree 

 has both furnished them with their proper aliment, and de- 

 prived the plant of the vigor necessary to enable it to resist 

 their attack. 



The bee keeper can easily gather from these remarks, 

 the means upon which I most rely, to protect my colonies 

 from the bee-moth. Knowing that strong stocks supplied 

 with a fertile queen, are always able to take care of them- 

 selves, in almost any kind qf hive, I am careful to keep 

 them in the state which is practically found to be one of such 

 security. If they are weak, they must be properly strength- 

 ened, and confined to only as much space as they can warm 

 and defend : and if they are queenless, they must be sup- 

 plied with the means of repairing their loss, or if that can- 



