ENEMIES OF BEES. 
249 
more effectual than the slaughter of hundreds at a later 
period.* If the common hives are used, the worms will 
usually be found where the hive rests upon the bottom- 
board. Such hives should be propped up on both ends 
with strips of wood, about three-eighths of an inch thick, 
and a piece of woolen-rag put between the bottom-board 
and the back of the hive. The full-grown worm retreat- 
ing to this warm hiding-place to spin its cocoon, may be 
easily caught, and effectually dealt with. Only provide 
some hollow, easily accessible to the worms when they 
wish to spin, and to yourself 'when you want them, and 
as bees in good condition will not permit them to spin 
among the combs, you can easily entrap them. If the 
hive has lost its queen, and the worms have gained pos- 
session of it, break it up, instead of reserving it as a 
moth-breeder, to infest your Apiary. 
In the movable-comb hive, blocks of a peculiar con- 
struction (Plates III., VI., Figs. 11, 17) are used, both to 
entrap the worms and exclude the moth. The only place 
where she can get into these hives, is at the bee-entrance, 
and as abundant ventilation can be given, independent of 
this, it may be contracted to suit all possible emergencies, 
* Few, who have not soon their ravages by lifting out a comb, are aware how 
many young bees fall a prey to the worm as it burrows in the comb. 
Mr. M. Quinby, of St. Johnsvllle, New York, whoso common-sense treatise on 
“ The Mysteries of Bee-Keeping ” will richly repay perusal, is of opinion that the 
larger number of imperfect bees carried out of the hive in the Spring, have been 
destroyed by the worms. He thinks that enough are often thus lost from a single 
hive to make a moderate swarm of bees. « 
This estimate will not seem extravagant, if wo tako into account the number of 
breeding-cells which are destroyed, and the large vacancies which are often made 
by the bees in cutting out the webs and cocoons of the moth. 
Dr. Kirtland, in an article in the Ohio Fanner , Dec. 1857, alluding to the times 
before the advent of *,te bee-moth, says: “ In those halcyon days of bee-raising, 
swarms often camo out earlier, and in larger numbers, than in recent times. It 
was no unusual occurrence for a Spring swarm to fill the hive with stores and 
young brood so rapidly, as to allow it, also, to throw off a swarm sufficiently early 
for tho latter to lay up storos for Winter.” 
n* 
