BEE-HIVES. 31 
proof ;” but like many others, when they were put to the test were 
found wanting. And I will here state, that I consider it an utter im- 
possibility to construct a hive that will perfectly exclude the moth in 
every instance, and admit bees into it; for certainly a moth can enter 
where a bee cannot. And now, reader, whenever you mect with a 
person that has a moth-proof hive to sell, you just set him down as 
an unwise man, or a dishonest one: for if he flatters himself that his 
hive is moth-proof, he is badly bored, to say the least; and if- he has 
sense enough to teach him that it ¢s not moth-proof, he is a dishonest 
person in endeavoring to dispose of it as such. 
I, however, am confident, that some hives afford the bees far better 
protection against moths, and other enemies, than others, and also 
better facilities for destroying them after they have gained an entrance 
into the hive. Hives composed of boxes or sections with bottoms 
attached firmly, I consider unfit for bees, as they afford the keeper no 
means to clean the floors of the hives. I believe that every section 
used for breeding, and composing the main body of the hive, should 
be open at the bottom, so as to let everything, such as dead bees, filth, 
moths, and the like, fall free from the combs on to the floor of the 
hive; and the floor so attached as to admit of its being cleaned off 
at pleasure, without disturbing the bees. 
Several hives have been invented with inclined-plane bottoms, to 
enable the bees to clear them more readily of moths, dead bees, &c. 
But I think there has been nothing gained by this in the end, but 
that it has proved an injury: for in attaching the bottoms in the 
manner that it has generally been done, leaving an open space the 
whole width of the hive (and in the double inclined bottoms on two 
sides), which affords the miller just as good an opportunity to enter as 
she could desire; for during fall and spring the hives are not usually 
filled to the bottoms-with bees, and during the night the cool damp air 
will drive the bees from the entrance, and leave it entirely unguarded, 
when the miller has a free unmolested entrance into the hive, where 
she may deposit her eggs in the wax about the bottom and-joints of 
the hive; and when disturbed by the bees on the following morning, 
will leave the hive and secrete herself in some crevice about it, and 
there remain until evening, when she is ready to pay the hive another 
