Dectimber 18, 1873. 1 



JOtJBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



501 



the sills and sashes by hundreds and thousands. I therefore 

 advise "L. A. H." to let his stocks remain in the garden. 

 Being anxions to preserve his bees he should not expose them 

 to the danger of confinement in a greenhouse. 



StiU bees can be preserved under glass. Some years ago I 

 visited the Earl of Ellesmere's gardens, at Worsley Hall, and 

 there found a weak stock standing in an early Peach house, and 

 the bees busy at work impregnating the flowers of the Peach 

 and Nectarine trees. The gardener said that they never failed 

 to set the fruit on his Peach trees, and that " a small hive of bees 

 was worth more for this work than ten men with camel-hair 

 brushes." I saw the bees go straight from their hive to the 

 blossoms and return with their loads in the same way. As I 

 had no flowers in my vinery for the bees to work on I took the 

 precaution to place about 8 lbs. of broken honeycombs in front 

 of the hive before the bees came out in the morning. As soon 

 as they came out they smelt the honey and began at once to 

 carry it home. They were so few in numbers that, though the 

 honeycomb was within 6 feet of their own door, they took three 

 weeks to carry it home to their hive. They were thus trained 

 to work under glass and return to their hive whenever they 

 came out. A plant of Tropaeolum and another of Chrysanthe- 

 mum in flower were placed in the vinery. The little bees were 

 soon at work on the flowers, I presume in search of poUen. 

 The queen began to lay and two patches of brood about the size 

 of a watch were hatched. I now think it will survive the winter 

 and do well. It will be placed out of doors about the middle of 

 March. As I generally have a pet hive in my numerous family 

 I will let this nursling have the place of honour nest spring. — 

 A. Pettigbew. 



THE ART OF SUPEEING.— No. 4. 



I HAVE now come to the concluding chapter of this subject. 

 Owing to a desire to make it comprehensive I may have been 

 somewhat tedious, yet one gentleman asks for a fuller descrip- 

 tion of the " process of putting one hive under another for the 

 bees to carry the honey up to the super of the top hive ; and if 

 it is necessary to unseal the combs in the bottom hive." He 

 adds, " I consider this method exceedingly valuable, and an 

 €asy one of storing honey from old hives without the great 

 trouble of breaking-up combs and draining." In answer, I have 

 to say that I have a common floor-board, with nine large holes 

 through it. This board is placed over and on the honey hive, 

 and the hive of bees is placed on it. A strong swarm will soon 

 empty the bottom hive. If I wish to preserve the combs in the 

 bottom hive I let the bees do all the work of unsealing, but 

 when the combs are not to be used again they are generally 

 broken-np a little with a table knife. If the combs in the 

 bottom liive be sweet and perfect in form the bees may adopt it 

 as an additional wing to their mansion. When they do this 

 they are not in a hurry to carry the honey in it aloft. It is of 

 importance to get the bees to do this work rapidly. I have 

 sometimes placed large dishfuls of broken combs and impure 

 honey in the bottom hive. Without any pretensions to accuracy, 

 T should say that a strong swarm will carry up about 12 lbs. in 

 twenty-four hours if it has room for it in its own hive. Much 

 depends on the strength of the swarm and the number of empty 

 combs. Such is our mode of administering surplus honey for 

 supers. But the honey hive placed side by side with the 

 supored hive, and a good roadway open between them, will, I 

 daresay, answer quite as well. Bees are great burglars. 



On a visit to my native place some years ago I explained to 

 some intelligent bee-keepers there the modes I had adopted of 

 filling supers rapidly. They were acquainted with glass supers 

 and open lids. I advised them to try what I then intended to 

 try myself — viz., to put large second swarms or turn-outs into 

 empty hives with large crown holes, and large lids to cover them ; 

 the lids to have bits of guide-comb fastened to them, and the 

 hives to have no cross sticks. In about three days such swarms 

 will have suspended from the crowns combs enough to fill a 

 moderate-sized super. By lifting the lids gently up with 

 combs and bees, and dropping all gently into glass supers on 

 other hives, the bees would thus have the supers full of combs 

 to begin with. In favourable weather the supers would be fUlod 

 with honey before the queens would begin to lay ; and in un- 

 favourable weather artificial feeding might be applied as already 

 described. I have never carried my resolution into execution ; 

 bnt we have no doabt as to its practicability, and therefore 

 mention it hern. 



.\3 I am now beyond the border-land of my own practice, I 

 may here moot another point or question pertinent to the 

 Bubject, and which I intend to put to the test some day — viz., 

 whether bees will fill a super on a hive in which the queen is 

 ca;;ed and confined with so much brood comb beside her. The 

 wires of the cage thus to be employed to be wide enough for the 

 bees to go in and out. This experiment will enable me to ascer- 

 tain also if the bees would take the eggs from the inside of the 

 cage and set them in combs on the outside. 



The other day I received a letter from a gentleman in Scot- 

 land informing me that he " has had glasses of honeycomb 



worked to the pattern of flowers on the inside," and adds that 

 *' it is easily done and of little value." On reading this I could 

 not buC think that the Thistle is in advance oi the Rose ; or that 

 Scotchmen " beat us hoUow " in the art of bee-keeping. If 

 flowers are to be copied in honeycomb the reader should leave 

 my elementary school and go to a higher-class one. I think it 

 would be an easy task to induce a swarm to write " God Save 

 the Queen " in honeycomb in a shallow wood super about 22 or 

 24 inches wide. By placing pieces of wood in certain positions 

 in such a super, so as to jform these words by the cavities or 

 interstices between the wood, the bees could be induced to build 

 their combs in the cavities. Of course the wood would have to 

 be removed, leaving the inscription written by the bees in beau- 

 tifxil virgin honeycomb. Such a super would be worth a place 

 in the British Museum, or even in Buckingham Palace. Will 

 some of our young lady apiarians attempt the accomplishment 

 of this feat ? 



Supers should be cut from their hives by a piece of brass wire . 

 If the wire cut through any honeycomb the supers should bo 

 raised about half an inch by wedges, and left in this position 

 for about one or two hours, to let the bees lick the honey from 

 the broken cells, and make all clean and dry. I have had, in 

 thirty years, only three supers that had brood in them when cut 

 oS. I cut out the brood and placed honeycomb in its place, 

 replaced the supers on their hives for two or three days, and 

 when finally taken ofi, the patchwork could not be discovered. 



The only question now is how to drive the bees out of the 

 super down into the hive. I generally succeed by blowing 

 smoke from fustian rags into the top hole of the super with all 

 my might. If this is suddenly and vigorously done the bees 

 run helter-skelter out of the super into the hive in a very short 

 time. In cold weather they are more difficult to drive. Some- 

 times I have had some difficulty to get them to run by using 

 fustian smoke only, but when I have placed a small bit of 

 brimstone rag amongst the fustian I have never failed. Let me 

 warn the reader of the danger of using brimstone in this work, 

 for the fumes of sulphur are destructive to bee life if not given 

 in the smallest possible doses. The smallest taste of it is 

 enough to make them run for their lives. There are slower 

 methods of driving bees out of supers, and I am sure that the 

 ingenuity of your readers will not fail them in this work. 



In conclusion, let me say that in going through my task I 

 have found the subject inexhaustible by reason of its expansi- 

 bility. I have simply tried to imprint on the mind of the 

 reader my own practice. It gave me a surprise to see that my 

 friend Mr. Breen came forward to object to my methods, and I 

 am sorry he has so far forgotten himself as to say that I have 

 taken two of his ideas, for no statement could be more incorrect. 

 When the excitement of his success shall have subsided, I am 

 sure that Mr. Breen, more than anybody else, will regret the 

 discourtesy of his conduct in this matter. — A. Pettigkew. 



BEE FARMING. 



I HAVE been very much pleased and instructed lately with the 

 articles appearing in your bee corner, and feel somewhat tempted 

 to relate my experience and ask a few questions on bee farming. 



In 1870 I was passing a friend's house, about three and a half 

 miles from home, when I was informed there was hanging in a 

 plum tree a second swarm of bees, which I might have, as the 

 owners had no hive to put it in. I came home and borrowed a 

 hive of a neighbour (for I had none, and never thought of keep- 

 ing bees at that time), and went and brought it home, placing it 

 on a slate slab on a single post in the old-fashioned way. During 

 the winter I happened to meet with the " Hand-book on Bees," 

 and was so struck with the plain common sense of the practical 

 part of it that I read it through and through again, and was 

 very anxious for spring to arrive that I might begin to try 

 experiments in artificial swarming, &c. Nothing of the kind 

 was known about here or had been heard of before, and the old 

 bee-keepers said it would not answer at all. 



May, 1871, came, and I commenced blowing-in smoke and 

 making examinations. Early in June the hive became full of 

 bees, so on the 16th I tried my hand at artificial swarming for the 

 first time, and had quite a success. On the 30th the hive cast-off 

 a second swarm, and both did pretty well. I bought two swarms 

 at 10s. each, and put them in l(i-inch straw hives, resolving never 

 to use a less size. With one of these swarms I had the mis- 

 fortune to loosen the combs, and though tho bees appeared to 

 work very hard all tho summer, they did not gain much in 

 weight. In September I found out what had occurred, but too 

 late to amend it, so I drove them out and united them to another 

 stock. The other purchased swarm gathered mo 28J lbs. of 

 honey, which I sold at Is. j>er lb. 



I had a second swarm given me on the 19th of July. Two 

 friends offered to give me their bees that they were going to 

 destroy (it being tho custom here to destroy the bees when 

 taking honey) if I liked to take them, so on the 22nd of Sep- 

 tember I took three swarms, and united them in one empty hive 

 and commenced sugar-feeding. The hive took in fourteen days 



