248 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



with such close supei-vision, by governing the eatrancGS 

 of all the hives by a long lever-like hen-roost, so that 

 they may be regularly closed by the crowing and cack- 

 ling tribe when they go to bed at night, and opened 

 again when they fly from their perch to greet the merry 

 mom. Alas ! that so much skill should be aU in vain ! 

 Some chickens are sleepy, and wish to retire before the 

 bees h^ve completed their work, while others, from 

 iU-health or laziness, have no taste for early rising, and sit 

 mopmg on their roost, long after the cheerful sun has 

 purpled the glowmg east. Even if this device could 

 entirely exclude the moth, it could not save a colony 

 which has lost its queen. The truth is, that most of the 

 contrivances on which we are instructed to rely, are 

 equivalent to the lock put upon the stable door after the 

 , horse has been stolen ; or, to attempts to banish the chill 

 of death by warm covering, or artificial heat. 



Let me not be understood as asserting that there are 

 no means of protecting the common hives from the 

 ravages of the bee-moth. If bee-keepers will be careful 

 to place their hives where the young queens are not in 

 danger of being lost (p. 214), they will lose comparatively 

 few of their colonies. The knowledge of this fact will 

 enable the Apiarian to contend successfully against the 

 moth, let him use what hive he wiU. He wUl, undoubt- 

 edly, lose many colonies which have become queenless, 

 from other causes than the close proximity of their hives, 

 and which might be easily saved in movable comb-hives ; 

 but his losses will not be of such a wholesale character as 

 utterly to dishearten him in his attempts to keep bees. 



The prudent bee-keeper, remembering that " prevention 

 is better than cure," will take unwearied pains to destroy, 

 as early in the season as he can, the larvaj of the moth. 

 The destruction of a single female worm may thus bo 



