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Moths. Poor hives and bad management, the
cause of their great increase. When bees
were kept in the old fashioned way, and all weak colonies
taken up in the fall, more profit was realized than
from most of the patent hives, good hives and proper
management, the great prevention to moth breeding. 
Queenlessness. When the hive is without a Queen or the means of
raising one, usually they make no resistance to the
moths and worms. A hive in such a state, unless it can be relieved,
cannot be protected against the moth. The loss of the Queen the occasion of all
its woes. 
Excessive swarming. When a hive is so much weakened by swarming that they cannot
cover all their comb, it is in danger of being attacked by the
moth. Such a hive ought to have its entrance contracted, and its ventilation so
regulated that the bees will not from being too cool be obliged to withdraw from the entrance. 
All hives, feeble in numbers, should be managed in the same way. As soon as the
moth has fairly got the upper hand in all ordinary hives, there is no remedy. 
The hives should at once be taken up or they will endanger the whole apiary. In hives
with movable bars, the combs may be taken out and the worms destroyed, and
thus the colonies may often be saved. Non swarming hives are seldom much
annoyed by the moth. The bees are sufficiently numerous to protect themselves and so long
as they contain a fertile Queen, they are safe. As the moths are on the wing, often
long before the bees have returned home and in dull days at all hours of the day, it
will be seen that no dependence can be placed upon shutting up the bees at night
to preserve them from the attacks of the moths. The use of my moth and worm trap by
which the moth is enticed to lay her eggs and the worm to wind its cocoon outside
of the hive so as to be easily reached, will be a great safeguard but nothing
will protect the careless apiarian who tolerates queenless colonies from the devastation of
this insidious foe. One such colony will often lay the foundation for the ruin of a
whole apiary. Every hive which proposes to be moth proof will in the end
disappoint the expectations of all who place any confidence in it. If but one