ENEMIES OF BEES. 259 



the brood comb that we choose to give them. If they are 

 sufficiently numerous, they will always cherish it, and in 

 warm weather, will protect it, even if it is laid against the 

 outside of their hive I 



If the bees in the weak stock, are too much reduced in 

 numbers, to be able to cover Ihe brood comb taken from 

 another hive, Igive them this comb with all the old bees that are 

 clustered upon it, and shut up the hive, after supplying them 

 with water, until two or three days have passed away. By this 

 time, most of the strange bees will have formed an inviolable 

 attachment to their new home, and even if a portion of them 

 should return to the parent hive, a large number of the ma- 

 turing young will have hatched, to supply their desertion. 

 A little sugar-water scented with peppermint, may be used 

 to sprinkle the bees, at the time that the comb is introduced, 

 although I have never yet found that they had the least dis- 

 position, to quarrel with each other. The original settlers 

 are only too glad to receive such a valuable accession to their 

 scanty .numbers, while the expatriated bees are too much 

 confounded by their unexpected emigration, to feel any de- 

 sire for making a disturbance. If a sufficient increase of 

 numbers has not been furnished by one range of comb, the 

 operation may, in the course of a few days, be repeated, and 

 if judiciously performed, the colony will be powerful in num- 

 bers, long before the weather is warm enough to develop the 

 bee-moth, and will thus be effectually protected from the 

 hateful pest. If the Apiarian has not the means of reinforc- 

 ing a feeble colony, he may save its empty combs from the 

 ravages of the moth, by removing them, on their frames, from 

 the hive, and returning them, when the colony has increased 

 so as to be able to defend them. 



A very simple change in the organization of the bee-moth 

 would have rendered it, almost if not quite, impossible for the 



