REMOVAL OF OBNOXIOUS OBJECTS. 167 



a ready admission to wasps, or any other insidious enemies 

 of the bees, who being too much of the coward to enter 

 the hive by the regular passage, are rejoiced to find any 

 secret opening by which they can penetrate into the hive, 

 and carry on their marauding actions without fear of dis- 

 covery. The best method of preventing the warping of the 

 stand, is to have two strips grooved in contrary to the 

 grain of the wood of which the stand is made ; it will then 

 always remain even. 



Every object should be carefully removed by which the 

 enemies to the bees can ascend into the hives. This how- 

 ever appears to be an object of trifling consideration, or of 

 no consideration at all, to the majority of the keepers of bees. 

 A farmer will often protect his poultry from the depredations 

 of the fox or the polecat ; he will protect his dovecote from 

 the visitations of the cat ; but as to his bees, he often places 

 them in such a situation, that it is actually inviting to their 

 enemies ; and he even appears to tax his ingenuity to devise 

 those means, by which the ascent into the hives can be 

 the better accomplished. In some counties of England, 

 the hives are placed extremely low, and by way of assistance 

 to the mice, toads, earwigs, and other enemies of the bee, a 

 piece of board, like an inclined plane, is placed from the 

 opening down to the ground. In Sussex, this plan is gene- 

 rally adopted ; and once on passing through that county, we 

 stopped at several cottages, where we saw the above plan 

 adopted, and reasoned with the proprietors on the injury 

 which must necessarily arise to their bees, by an adherence 

 to such an injurious practice : but, to our great mortification, 

 the hives generally belonged to, and were under the manage- 

 ment of the female branches, particularly the elder ones of 

 the family, who were so strongly devoted to the old method 

 of managing bees, that they literally looked upon us as a 

 person who knew nothing at all about the business ; and 

 our ignorance was the greater in proportion as our advice 



