ENEMIES OF BEES. 
243 
Early in the Spring, before the stocks become populous, 
the bees should be driven up among their combs by 
smoke, and the bottom-boards cleansed (p. 221). It too 
frequently happens that, in the common hives, nothing can 
be effectually done, even when the bee-keeper is aware of 
the plague within. With movable frames, however, the 
combs, and all parts of the hives, may be carefully 
cleansed, and if a stock is weak or queenless, the proper 
remedies may be easily applied. If a feeble stock cannot 
be strengthened so as to protect its empty combs, they 
may be taken away until the bees are numerous enough 
to need them. 
If the bee-moth were so constituted as to require but a 
small amount of heat for its full development, it would 
become exceedingly numerous early in the Spring, and 
might easily enter the hives and deposit its eggs where it 
pleases : for at this season, not only is there no guard 
maintained by the bees at night, but large portions of 
their comb are quite unprotected. How does every fact 
in the history of the bee, when properly investigated, 
point with unerring certainty to the wisdom of Him who 
made it ! 
Combs having no brood, may be smoked with the fumes 
of burning sulphur, to kill the eggs or worms of the 
moth. If kept from the bees, they should be carefully 
protected, in a dry place, from the moth, and examined 
occasionally, to be smoked again if any worms are 
found. 
Directions have been given on page 140 for preventing 
common hives from swarming so often that they cannot 
protect their empty combs. If not prevented from 
over-swarming, in the movable-comb hives, by methods 
which have been so fully described, some of the combs 
of the mother-stock may be given to the after-swarms, 
