ENEMIES OF BEES. 261 



plenish the exhausted hive, the destroyer has effected a fatal 

 lodgment. 



In the movable-coreib hive, such calamities are easily pre- 

 vented. If artificial increase is relied upon for the multipli- 

 cation of colonies, it can be so conducted, as to give the 

 moth no chance to fortify itself in the hive. No colony is 

 ever allowed to have more combs than it can cover and pro- 

 tect ; and the entrance to the hive may be contracted, if 

 necessary, so that only a single bee can go in and out, at a 

 time, and yet sufficient ventilation be given to the bees. 



If natural swarming is allowed, after-swarms may be 

 prevented from issuing, by cutting out all the queen cells but 

 one, soon after the first swarm leaves the hive ; or if it is 

 desired to have as fast an increase of stocks, as can possibly 

 be obtained from natural swarming, then instead of leaving 

 the combs in the parent hive to be attacked by the moth, a 

 certain portion of them may be taken out, when swarming 

 is over, and given to the second and third swarms, to aid in 

 building them up into strong stocks. 



I have yet to describe the most fruitful cause of the desolating 

 ravages of the bee-moth. If a colony has lost its queen, and 

 this loss cannot be supplied, it must, inevitably, unless oth- 

 erwise destroyed, fall a sacrifice to the bee-moth : and I do not 

 hesitate to assert, that by far the larger portion of colonies 

 which are destroyed by it, perish under precisely such circum- 

 stances ! Let this be remembered by aH who have any 

 thing to do with bees, and let them understand, that unless a 

 remedy for the loss of the queen can be provided, they must 

 constantly expect to lose some of their best colonies. The 

 crafty moth is not so much to blame, after all, as we are apt 

 to imagine ; for a colony deprived of its queen, and possess- 

 ing no means of securing another, would certainly perish, 

 even if never attacked by so deadly an enemy ; just as the 



