HOW TO KEEP BEES. 47 



ENEMIES. 



Bees have few real enemies here. Skunks sometimes disturb 

 them when the hives sit close to the ground. Ants not infrequently 

 annoy them and occasionally become a real nuisance. They are 

 readily destroyed by pouring gasoline into their nests, or the legs of the 

 hive stands maj^ be placed in tin can covers and a little crude oil or 

 kerosene poured into each. Birds rarely disturb them. The king bird 

 or bee martin catches a few, but as these birds do so much good in de- 

 vouring various noxious insects, we can well afford to give them a bee 

 now and then, besides it is said they eat drones rather than workers. 

 To a person engaged in commercial queen rearing a pair of king 

 birds may become a decided pest, for they seem prone to catch the 

 young queens. If shot at a few times with blank charges they 

 rarely fail to change their hunting ground. 



"Wax moths" are often accused of killing out the bees. The bees 

 whose hive becomes infested with the larvae of these moths will be 

 found to be depleted in numbers through loss of the queen, disease, 

 or some unfavorable circumstance. The strong colonies will quickly 

 dislodge any they can reach. Weak colonies, however, seem dis- 

 couraged and give up the struggle against them until ere long the 

 combs are reduced to a mass of webs and dirt. When discovered in 

 this condition, scraping the hive clean and burning all the refuse is 

 all that can be done. The chief preventive to their inroads is to 

 keep the colonies strong, by having a vigorous queen in each one. 



Italian bees keep out the wax moth much better than the Blacks. 



Combs not in use should be stored in some dry room and inspected 

 occasionally. If the "wax worms" appear, the combs should be 

 fumigated with burning sulphur and returned to the room. 



MARKETING HONEY. 



There are a few rules which should never be forgotten and should 

 always be followed if one wishes to succeed in the honey business: 



First : Never sell or give away any unripe or ill-flavored honey. 



