ENEMIES OF BEES. 263 



not be done, they should be at once broken up, (See Re- 

 marks on Queenlessness, and Union of Slocks,) and added 

 to other stocks. 



It cannot be too deeply impressed upon the mind of the 

 bee-keeper, that a small colony ought always to be confined 

 to a small space, if we wish the bees to work with the 

 greatest energy, and to offer the stoutest resistance to their 

 numerous enemies. Bees do most unquestionably, " abhor 

 a vacuum," if it is one which they can neither fill, warm 

 nor defend. Let the prudent bee-master only keep his 

 stocks strong, and they will do more to defend themselves 

 against all intruders, than he can possibly do for them, even 

 if he spends his whole time in watching and assisting them. 



It is hardly necessary, after the preceding remarks, to 

 say much upon the various contrivances to which so many 

 resort, as a safeguard against the bee-moth. The idea that 

 gauze-wire doors, to be shut daily at dusk, and opened 

 again at morning, can exclude the moth, will not weigh 

 much with one who has seen them flying and seeking admis- 

 sion, especially in dull weather, long before the bees have 

 given over their work for the day. Even if the moth could 

 be excluded by such a contrivance, it would require, on the 

 part of those who rely upon it, a regularity almost akin to that 

 of the heavenly bodies in their courses ; a regularity so sys- 

 tematic, in short, as either to be impossible, or likely to be 

 attained but by very few. 



An exceedingly ingenious contrivance, to say the least, 

 to remedy the necessiiy for such close supervision, is that 

 by which the movable doors of all the hives are governed 

 by a long lever in the shape of a hen-roost, so that the hives 

 may all be closed seasonably and regularly, by the crow- 

 ing and cackling tribe, when they go to bed at night, and 

 opened at once when they fly from their perch, to greet the 



