ENEMIES OF BEES. 255 



tnent of bees, and who prornised, among other things, to 

 impart to him an infallible remedy against the bee-moth. 

 On the receipt of the money, he gravely told him that the 

 secret of keeping the moth out of the hive, was to keep the 

 stocks strong and vigorous 1 A truer declaration he could not 

 have made, but I believe that the bee-keeper felt, notwith- 

 standing, that he had been imposed upon, as outrageously, 

 as a poor man would be, who after paying a quack a large 

 sum of money, for an infallible, life-preserving secret, should 

 be turned off with the truism, thai the secret of living for- 

 ever, was to keep well ! 



There is not an intelligent Apiarian who has been in the 

 habit of carefully examining the operations of bees, not only 

 in his own Apiary, but wherever he could find them, who 

 has not seen strong stocks flourishing under almost any con- 

 ceivable circumstances. They may be seen in hives of the 

 most miserable construction, unpainted and unprotected, 

 sometimes with large open cracks and clefts extending down 

 their sides, and yet laughing to defiance, the bee-moth, and 

 all other adverse influences. 



Almost any thing hollow, in which bees have established 

 themselves, will often be successfully tenanted by them for a 

 series of years. To see such hives, as they sometimes may 

 be seen, in possession of persons both ignorant and careless, 

 and who hardly know a bee-moth from any other kind of 

 moth, may at first sight well shake the confidence of the in- 

 quirer, in the necessity or value of any particular precau- 

 tions to preserve his hives from the devastations of the moth. 



After looking at these powerful stocks in what may be 

 called log-cabin hives, let us examine others in the most 

 costly hives, which have ever been constructed ; in what 

 have been called real "Bee-Palaces ;" and we shall often find 

 them weak and impoverished, infested and almost devour- 



