40 
BEE-CULTUKE. 
making themselves a covered winding road, out of sight 
of the bees. All the young bees they pass over die, so that if 
one go five or ten inches it will destroy from twenty-five to 
one hundred young bees. This is why so many dead young 
bees are thrown out of the bivqs in the spring of the year. 
So soon as the worm haseaten enough to develope itself,* it will 
leave the combs and try to get in some" crack or under the 
hive, to spin its cocoon and become a moth or miller. Or when 
the bees find it burrowing among their brood, if they are nu- 
merous and thrifty, they will cut the combs away around it and 
get it out, and drop it on the bottom board, or fly clear away 
with it, as they cannot kill them by stinging. Bee-keepers 
now notice many worms, as the warmth from the advancing 
season and the increased number of bees now in the hive are 
developing them, and apply to me to transfer them to a new 
hive to get rid of the worms. 
I do not at this time go to the pains of instructing them 
that I consider this a good omen, as boils on a man indicate 
constitutional vigor. They are cleaning their combs. By 
the time I get them transferred to a movable comb hive, 
where, as a general thing, they should be, they see that their 
combs are about clear of worms. If the bees are scarce in a 
hive, the worms, will collect into a mass and build webs. 
If the bees can muster strength enough, they will cut the 
combs away all around the web and drag them out. Combs 
may often be found with holes and scars made in them in this 
way; but if the bees are not able to get them out, they will 
accumulate rapidly, soon consuming all the combs, and fill 
the hive with webs and cocoons, while large fat worms will 
even imbed themselves in the solid wood, so that I am fre- 
quently told : “ You never saw such a mass of webs and 
worms as there was in one of my hives.” Whilst the fact is 
I have seen them a great number of times, yet never relished 
the sight much. 
If when the worms begin to mask their forces in a hive, 
the combs containing them could be taken out and cleaned 
every few days, until the bees could get the mastery of them, 
they could be saved, otherwise driye the bees out and take 
the honey. I have seldom derived much good from such 
stocks. 
Good bee men tell me that they have sufifered but very 
little loss from worms since they have changed to Italian bees. 
