Chapter 35

DESTRUCTION OF WORMS.

I shall not give a full history of the moth in this chapter, as spring is not the time they are most destructive. It will be further noticed under the head of Enemies of Bees. But as this is a duty belonging to spring, a partial history seems necessary.

As soon as the bees commence their labors, the worms are generally ready to begin theirs.

SOME IN THE BEST STOCKS.

You will probably find some in your best stocks; but don't be frightened; this is not the season when they often destroy your stocks, yet they injure them some.

HOW FOUND.

In the morning, when cool, raise the hive, and you will find them on the board. You must not suppose that these chaps are bred outside the hive, got their growth, and are now on their way among the bees, but the reverse. They are _bred in the hive_, and most of them are on the way out, and this is the precise time to arrest them and bring them to justice for their crimes.

A TOOL FOR THEIR DESTRUCTION.

I have used a simple tool, made in a few minutes, and very convenient in this business. Any one can make it. Get a piece of narrow hoop-iron, (steel would be better,) three-fourth inch wide, five inches long; taper from one side three inches from the end to a point; then grind each edge sharp; make three or four holes through the wide end, to admit small nails through it in the handle, which should be about two feet long and about half an inch square. Armed with this weapon, you can proceed. Raise the hive on one edge, and with the point of your sword you may pick a worm out of the closest corner, and easily scrape all from under the hive with it. Now, _be sure and dispatch every one_; not that the "little victim" will itself, personally, do much mischief; but through its descendants the mischief is to be apprehended. Very likely half of all you find will have finished their course of destruction, among the combs, and have voluntarily left them for a place to spin their cocoons. They are worried by the bees, if they are numerous, until satisfied that it is no safe place among them to make a shroud and remain helpless two or three weeks. Accordingly, when they get their growth they leave, get on the board on the bottom, become chilled and helpless in the morning, but again active by the middle of the day. Now, if they are merely thrown on the earth, a place there will be selected, if no better is found, for transformation; and a moth perfected ten feet from the hive is just as capable of depositing five hundred eggs in your hive, as if she had never left it.

Several generations are matured in the course of one summer: consequently, one destroyed at this season, may prevent the existence of thousands before the summer is over.

This is another subject of theoretical reasoning, and imposition, (at least in my opinion.) I wish the reader to judge for himself; get rid of whims and prejudice, and look at the subject candidly and fair; and if there is no corroborative testimony comes up to confirm any position that I assume, I shall not complain if my assertions fare no better than some others. Only defer judgment till you _know_ for yourself.

Bees have ever received my especial regard and attention; and my enthusiasm may blind my judgment. I may be prejudiced, but will not be wilfully wrong. I have found so many theories utterly false, when carried out in practice, that I can depend on no one's hypothesis, however plausible, without facts in practice to support it. No one should be fully credited without a test. To return to our subject.

MISTAKEN CONCLUSIONS.

It is supposed by many, when these worms are found on the board, they get there by accident, having dropped from the combs above. They seem not to understand that the worm generally travels on safe principles; that is, he attaches a thread to whatever he travels over. To be satisfied on this point, I have many times carefully detached his foot-hold, when on the side of the hive or other place, where he would fall a few inches, and always found him with a thread fast at the place he left, to enable him to regain his position if he chose. Is it not probable, then, that whenever he leaves the combs for the bottom-board, he can readily ascend again? No doubt he often does, to be driven down again by the bees. Now, what I wish to get at by all this preamble, is simply this: that all our trouble and worrying to prevent the worms from again ascending to the combs--by wire hooks, wire pins, screws, nails, turned pins, clam-shells, blocks of wood, &c., is perfect nonsense, when half or more of them would not harm the bees any more if they did, and might as well go there as any where else. Besides, these useless "fixins" are very often a positive injury to the bees.

OBJECTIONS TO SUSPENDED BOTTOM-BOARD.

Suppose, if you please, that the worm has no thread attached above, and your board is far enough from the bottom of the hive to prevent his reaching it. Of course, he can't get up; but how are your bees to do any better? The worm can reach as high as they can. The bee can fly up, you think; so it will, sometimes; but will try a dozen times first to get up without, and when it does, it is a very bad position to start from, being a smooth board. In hot weather it does better. Did you ever watch by a hive thus raised, in April or May, towards night, when it was a little cool, and see the industrious little insects arrive with a load as heavy as they could possibly carry, all chilly, and nearly out of breath, scarcely able to reach home, and there witness their vain attempts to get among their fellows above them? If you never witnessed this, I wish you would take some pains for it, and when you find them giving up in despair, when too chilly to fly, and perishing after many fruitless attempts for life, I think, if you possess sympathy, benevolence, or even selfishness, you will be induced to do as I did--discard at once wire hooks and all else from under the hive in the spring, and give the bees, when they do get home with a load, under such circumstances, what they richly deserve, and that is, _protection_.

ADVANTAGE OF THE HIVE CLOSE TO THE BOARD.

An inch hole in the side of the hive, a few inches from the bottom, as a passage for the bees, is needed, as I shall recommend letting the hive close to the board; it is essential on account of robbing; also, it is necessary to confine as much as possible the animal heat, in most hives, during the season the bees are engaged in rearing young brood; and warmth is necessary to hatch the eggs, and develop the larvæ; we all know that when the hive is close, less heat will pass off than if raised an inch.

OBJECTION ANSWERED.

You object to this, and tell me, "the worms will get between the bottom of the hive and the board." Well, I think they will, and what then? Why I expect if you intend to succeed, that you will get them out, and crush their heads; if you cannot give as much attention as this, better not keep them, or let some one have the care of them that will. I am as willing to find a worm under the edge of the hive, and dispatch it, as to have it creep into some place out of sight, and change to the moth. I once trimmed off the bottom of my hives to a thin edge, so they did not have this place for their cocoons, but now prefer to have them square. _All profit_ is seldom obtained with anything. If you plant a field with corn, you do not expect that the whole work for the crop is finished. Neither should you expect when you set up a stock of bees, that a full yield will be realized without something more. If you are remunerated by keeping the weeds from your corn, be assured it is equally profitable to weed out your bees.

INSUFFICIENCY OF INCLINED BOTTOM-BOARD.

Now do not be deceived in this matter, and through indolence be induced to get those hives with descending bottom-boards, to throw out the worms as they fall, and hope by that means to get rid of the trouble; (I have already, in another chapter, expressed doubts of this). But we will _now_ suppose such descending bottom-boards capable of throwing every worm that touches it "heels over head" to the ground; what have we gained? His neck is not broken, nor any other _bone_ of his body! As if nothing extraordinary had happened, he quietly gathers himself up, and looks about for snug quarters; he cares not a fig for the hive now; he gormandized on the combs until satisfied, before he left them, and is glad to get away from the bees any how. A place large enough for a cocoon is easily found, and when he again becomes desirous of visiting the hives, it is not to satisfy his own wants, but to accommodate his progeny; he is then furnished with wings ample to carry him to any height that you choose to put your bees.

A MOTH CAN GO WHERE BEES CAN.

A hive that is proof against the moth, is yet to be constructed. We frequently hear of them, but when they come to be tested, somehow these worms get where the bees are. When your hives become so full of bees, that they cover the board in a cool morning, the worms will be seldom found there, except under the edge of the hive.

TRAP TO CATCH WORMS.

You may now raise it, but you may still catch the worms by laying under the bees a narrow shingle, a stick of elder split in two lengthwise, and the pith scraped out, or anything else that will afford them protection from the bees, and where they may spin their cocoons. These should be removed every few days, and the worms destroyed, and the trap put back. Do not neglect it till they change to the moth, and you have nothing but to remove the empty cocoon.

BOX FOR WREN.

If you would take the trouble to put up a cage or two for the wren to nest in, he would be a valuable assistant in this department of your labor. He would be on the lookout when you were away, and many worms, while looking up a hiding-place in some corner, would be relieved from all further trouble by being deposited in his crop. The cage for him need not be more than four inches square; it may be fastened near as possible to the bees; to a post, tree, or side of some building a few feet high. I have seen the skull of some animal (horse or ox) used, and is very convenient for them, the cavity for the brains being used for the nest. A person once told me the wren would not build in one that he had put up. On examination, the stake to support it was found driven into the only entrance. I mention this to show how little some people understand what they do. It is sometimes well enough to know why a thing is to be done, as to know it _must_ be done. I could tell you to do a great many things, but then you would like to know _why_, then _how_ to do it. Now if this prolixity is unnecessary for you, another may need it. You must remember I am endeavoring to teach some few to keep bees, who are not over supplied with ingenuity.