MANAGEMENT OF HONEY-BEES.-NO. 6. 
19 
MANAGEMENT OF HONEY-BEES.—No. 6. 
The rendering of the moth powerless to do harm, 
simply through the ability of the bees to protect 
themselves, may be illustrated as follows:— 
In a thoroughly strong stock of bees the moth 
has never, as yet, been known to obtain a lodgment 
to undermine them ; if all stocks can be kept in a 
strong condition, it follows that no stocks will be 
undermined. Now, a swarm or stock of bees is 
strong, and able to resist the moth in the ratio of 
their numbers to the area to be defended. A thou¬ 
sand bees at work in the corner of a hive, covering 
fifty square inches of comb, are as fully able to 
protect themselves against the moth, as twenty 
thousand bees in a full hive. A stock is strong 
when every part of the combs is densely covered 
with bees, and a surplus is found below unable to 
get admission, without any regard to the size of the 
hive, and all such stocks will defend themselves 
successfully against the attacks of the moth ; but 
the question is, how can we always have our 
stocks in this strong condition ? It is in using cer¬ 
tain means which we have in our power, to pro¬ 
mote the fecundity of the bees—to adapt the size of 
our hives to their natural increase, neither giving 
them too much, nor too little room, and so shaping 
that room, that the. bees operate to the best advan¬ 
tage, in all the ramifications of their employment, 
and, above all, admitting a plenteous infusion of 
fresh air, that gives life and vigor to all animated 
nature. These things taken in connection, give the 
greatest possible increase of the bees, and produce a 
strong and healthy progeny, active and vigorous, 
that live out all their days, always showing full 
hives, with an abundance of stores, acting on the 
defensive with power and spirit—such are the bees 
that bid defiance to the moth. On the other hand, 
hives poorly adapted to the natural requirement of 
the bees, too large or too small, ventilated in the 
wrong place, or perhaps not at all, the bees weak 
and feeble in infancy, or in their early development, 
from the want of a pure atmosphere, left perhaps on 
a short allowance of winter food, which leaves the 
bees in a weak and feeble condition in the spring, 
from wffiich they barely recover, thus diminishing 
their increase in a great degree, and becoming an 
easy prey to the moth—such are the stocks that 
are subject to become undermined by this insect. 
There are cases, however, in which the strongest 
stocks are suddenly weakened by over-swarming , 
and may be destined by the moth. This very 
seldom occurs. The only stock that I ever lost by 
the moth was in this way. It threw off three large 
swarms, and the last one was larger than the stock 
could bear. I did not notice it till too late to save 
them. The only .remedy in such a case, is to return, 
the swarm to the parent stock, as soon as hived, or 
at evening, when the condition of the parent hive 
can be readily seen. It is probable that a future 
swarm would" not issue, and if one should, it is not 
probable that its numbers would endanger the pa¬ 
rent stock. The mode of returning a swarm, is to 
place a table alongside of the bottom-board of the 
hive to receive the bees, and even therewith, 
touching the bottom-board; then place the swarm 
near the old hive, and raise the new hive a few 
inches from the table, and then bring it down dia¬ 
gonally upon the table, with sufficient force to dis¬ 
lodge the bees, which will immediately take to the 
old hive. As soon as the bees are dislodged, draw 
your hive quickly to the farthermost corner of the 
table, and lay it down upon its side, in order to 
allow such bees as remain inside, to escape. It is 
best to lower the front of the bottom-board of the 
old hive, before dislodging the sw T arm, an inch, at 
least, or the swarm would have difficulty in enter¬ 
ing rapidly, and might cluster upon the outside, 
and in the morning take their flight. 
The means to be used in order to have your bees 
able to defend themselves against the attacks of the 
moths, is nothing more nor less than the sj^stem of 
management, as defined in these numbers. I have 
kept my bees on this plan a certain number of 
years, during which time I have lost one stock by 
the moth, as before stated, and that was owing to 
excessive swarming. In the same length of time, 
one of my neighbors, who founded a colony of six 
hives, on the patent principle, with apparatus to 
prevent the entrance of the moth, has lost every one 
of his stock ! Another neighbor with the same kind 
of hive, met with severe loss also. These, you un¬ 
derstand, were hives patented as proof against 
moths, 'with small narrow tubes through which the 
bees enter, which it is contended the bees will suc¬ 
cessfully defend. Now, instead of closing up the 
bottoms of my hives, I leave the whole circumfer¬ 
ence exposed, as before stated, and my bees defend 
themselves successfully; and in order to do this* 
the bees must be placed in hives of a size that their 
natural increase will always keep full, at the sea¬ 
son of the year that they are subject to the moth. 
Here we at once see the absolute necessity of stu¬ 
dying the science of the correct size of hives ; 
for there must be a right and a wrong side, and a 
right shape and a wrong shape. No one can sup¬ 
pose that a hive may either be large or small, 
short or long, and make no difference with his 
success; hence, if we must have a certain. size, let 
us place that size as we find from experience that it 
should be. I find that hives 12 inches square in 
the clear, do better than larger or smaller ones, and 
for my reasons more fully, the reader is referred to 
vol. 5, pages 343-4 of this paper. I do not say 
that a variation of an inch or two either way 
would be a cause of unsuccess in all cases, but I am 
fully satisfied that more space than a cubic foot is 
superfluous, and for reasons before given, I confine 
it to a square. 
Biit, aside from the foregoing, I think I may 
safely say, that without a correct knowledge of a 
proper winter management, all our efforts may avail 
nothing. By various experiments~of heat and cold 
afforded to my bees, I find that there is no such 
thing as freezing bees to death; and the colder they 
are kept thebetter. By keeping the bees cool not 
half the number die during winter, and when the 
season of increase arrives, a few days will serve to 
fill the hives to overflowing, and they will gene¬ 
rally keep so during the summer, and will be able 
to bid defiance to the moth. 
In answer to the query of “ Reviewer,” how it 
happens, if hives must be no longer than wide, that 
bees flourish so well in hollow trees ? I admit that 
bees will “ flourish” to a certain extent in anything 
—in a flour barrel, or stove pipe, if you please; but 
✓ 
