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 larvae; 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.