ENEMIES OT BEES. 267 



short, as either to be impossible, or likely to be attained by 

 very few. 



A contrivance, exceedingly ingenious to say the least, 

 to remedy the necessity for such close supervision, is that 

 by which the movable doors of all the hives are governed 

 by a long lever in the shape of a hen-roost, so that they 

 may all be closed seasonably and regularly, by, the crowing 

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

 again when they fly from their perch, to greet the merry 

 morn. Alas ! that so much ingenuity should all be in vain ! 

 Chickens are often sleepy, and wish to retire sometime before 

 the bees feel that they have completed a full day's work, 

 and some of them are so much opposed to early rising, 

 either from ill-health, or downright laziness, that they sit 

 moping on their roost, long after the cheerful sun has purpled 

 the glowing East. Even if this device were perfectly suc- 

 cessful, it could not save from ruin, a colony which has lost 

 its queen. The truth is, that most of the contrivances on 

 which we are instructed to rely, are just about equivalent to 

 the lock carefully put upon the stable door, after the horse 

 has been stolen ; or to attempts to prevent corruption from 

 fastening on the body of an animal, after the breath of life 

 has forever departed. 



Are there then no precautions to which we may resort, 

 except by using hives which give the control of every 

 comb ? Certainly there are, and these precautions shall now 

 be described. 



Let the prudent bee-master be deeply impressed with the 

 great importance of destroying early in the season, the larvae 

 of the bee-moth. " Prevention is," at all times, " better 

 than cure :" a single pair of worms permitted to change 

 into the winged insect, may give birth to some hundreds, 

 which before the close of the season, may fill the Apiary 



