66 AN EASY METHOD 



out their only remaining queen before she was transformed 

 to the perfect fly, which occasioned the entire loss of the 

 whole colony. 



When the moth has arrived at its full state of maturity, 

 he makes preparation to change to a miller, by winding into 

 a cocoon, as has been already explained. The miller is sur- 

 prisingly quick in all its movements, exceeding by far the 

 agility of the quickest bee, either in flight or on its legs. 

 Hence the enemy becomes so formidable that the bees are 

 easily overcome, and soon fall a sure prey to him. 



Repeated experiments have demonstrated the fact, that 

 placing bees on the ground, or high in the air, is no security 

 against the moths. We have lost some of our best stocks 

 by placing them on the ground, when those on the bench 

 were not injured by them. We have made a groove in the 

 bottom board, much wider than the thickness of the boards 

 to the hive, and filled the same with loam. We then placed 

 the hive on the same, in such a manner as to prevent any 

 crack or vacancy for the worms ; and yet, in raising the hive 

 for weeks afterwards, we found them apparently full-grown 

 all around the hive in the dirt. We have found them very 

 plentiful in trees ninety feet from the ground. 



The best method, in common practice, to prevmit the 

 depredations of the moth, is to suspend the bottom board so 

 far below the lower edge of the hive as to give the bees free 

 entrance and egress all around the same during the moth 

 season, or to raise the common hive, by placing under it 

 little blocks at each corner, which produces good eifect. But 

 this plan often fails, and the apiarian who adopts it is com- 

 pelled to suffer the mortification of losing some of his best 

 stocks, and to feel that success in the management of bees 

 depends much upon chance or accident. 



To remedy the evils which the moths produce, to prevent 



