July 28, 18C3. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICT7LTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



79 



a few pieces of empty comb, and substituting its beautiful 

 pure combs and healthy brood in a clean hive for the polluted 

 combs of a Ligiirian stock. 



It is worthy of remark that all the combs of these swarms, 

 althouo'h, of course, quite new and clean, were of a bright 

 fold colour. This is invariably the case with combs fabri- 

 cated in the district a few miles west of me, and must, I 

 imagine, be attributed to some peculiai-ity in the pasture, 

 since my own bees always make perfectly wliite combs. 

 Beinf thoroughly familiar ■with, this fact, I was much amused 

 some time ago by a gentleman in this county, whose bees 

 had evidently perished of stai-vation, fancying they had been 

 poisoned because their combs were yeUow, and forwarding a 

 piece to one of your contemporaries with the view of having 

 it analysed ! 



I am happy to state that these two last operations appear 

 perfectly successful. The Liguriau queens are now going 

 ahead in their wonted fashion, laj-ing both worker and 

 drone eggs in profusion, whilst the cheerful hum of their 

 indefatigable subjects, again restored to hope and actiWty, 

 discourses sweet music to the ears of — A Devonshire Bee- 



FAILITRES IX BEE-KEEPING. 



As a bee-keeper of several years' experience, I have not 

 been inattentive to modern proceedings in regard to these 

 interesting creatures, and especially the so-caUed scientific 

 methods of management from time to time recorded in your 

 pages. In pai-ticular I looked forward -with some expectation 

 for such an instructor as "A Devonshire Bee-keeper," 

 at the same time harbouring a shrewd suspicion that Nature 

 was equal to her own work, and that bees wanted no artificial 

 help in swarming, in comb-building, or in any other part of 

 their proceedings. The communication of " A Devonshire 

 Bee-keeper," at page 59, leaves me no cause for regret 

 that I have maintained my faith in the simple, cheap, old- 

 fashioned straw hives, undisturbed ivith pei-petual meddling 

 by amateur honey-makers and queen-improvers. The woeful 

 account your coi-respondent gives us of the present state of 

 his scientific apiary induces me to turn with satisfaction to 

 my inexpensive row of straw hives, giving me neither trouble 

 in management nor anxiety about the harvest in due season. 

 My little favourites seem to say to their proprietor, " Let us 

 alone, and we can transact our own aUau-s, weather per- 

 mitting, and that you cannot alter by any of your new-fangled 

 derices." I turn with confidence to the words of one of our 

 best instructors, Mr. Gelding: — "Let my readers repel," 

 says he, " the quackery which would have them believe that 

 it was the kind of hive which commanded the honeyed store : 

 that will depend on the season and the locality." And to 

 the like etl'ect writes Mr. Taylor, in his " Bee-keeper's 

 Manual :" — " The most that can be done with permanent 

 advantage is to furnish our intelligent little workmen with 

 a dwelling convenient in its form and management for the 

 intended purposes, bearing in mind, as a general rule, that 

 these are best consulted by attention to simplicity in its 

 details." — An Old-fashioned Bee-siaster, Finchley. 



CLOUDED-BRINDLED MOTH-PIPING— 

 COLOUE OF LIGUEIAN QUEENS. 



I picked the enclosed moth up at the mouth of my ob- 

 servatory-hive, in the evening of the 20th July, and fancy 

 it had been kUled in trying to get into the hive. Will 

 you say if it is the wax moth ? 



The same day I had a second swann from my observatory- 

 hive. This is a second maiden swarm from a first swarm 

 on the l-tth of June, and a hybrid queen, wliich makes six 

 queens from this first swarm, besides filling the hive and 

 a glass with honeycomb and grub ; but on my return home 

 in the evening, and looking into the hive, I found all the 

 bees had gone back, and the largest queen, I enclose, on the 

 alighting-board nearly dead, and this morning the small one 

 was throivn out. Will you say if she is likely to swann 

 again after this ? as last evening I heard piping going on, 

 and, therefore, suppose the queen thrown out last evening 

 iQust have been this queen. Will you say if these queens 



are as light-coloured as the true Ligurian queeu ? as some 

 I had from a Hermann's queen that throws beautiful bees, 

 were dark queens. 



In reference to the remarks of the " Devonshire Bee- 

 keeper," in your No. 120, July 14th, regarding the colour 

 of bees, I have a last-year's Ligurian queen, in whose 

 progeny there is hardly a yellow-banded bee, amd I therefore 

 conclude that she must have had intercourse with a common 

 drone. I have also some hybrid queens that throw many 

 yellow-banded ones, and some queens that you can hardly 

 see a yellow-banded bee in the whole hive. — B. B. 



[The specimen which nccoaipanied your letter is called 

 the clouded-brindled moth (Xylophasia hepatica), and is not 

 a wax moth. The scent of the honey was probably what 

 attracted it to the hive's mouth. Piping is a sign that the 

 stock is likely to swarm again. The queens sent appear as 

 light as many true Ligurians ; but these latter vary so 

 much in colour that no dependance can be placed upon it. 

 The onl.y test we know is the colour of their worker offspring.] 



STUPIFYING BY CHLOEOFOEM-BEE-SEASON 

 IN lEELAND. 



Will you point out the best manner of using chloroform, 

 so as to stupify bees without killing them, while taking 

 their honey ? This being an unusually good year for bees, 

 the information would be valuable to many. 



In youi' Number of the 14th inst. I see that in England 

 it has been a bad season for bees. In Ireland, on the con- 

 trary, it has been a singiUarly good one. For many years I 

 have had no honey ; and this week I have already taken a 

 hive containing from 3 to 4 stone of virgin honey, and I 

 have several other hives nearly fit to take. — A Constant 

 Subscriber. 



[The following directions for using chloroform we extract 

 from pages 27 and 28 of the new and enlarged edition of 

 Payne's " Bee-keeping," just published at our office : — 



" The necessary dose is a quarter of an ounce, or two tea- 

 spoonfuls, poured into a piece of rag doubled twice, and 

 placed on the floor-board of the hive, which must be lifted 

 up for the purpose, the entrance-hole being carefully secured. 

 In about two minutes and a half there wUl be a loud hum- 

 ming, which lasts about one minute, when all is quiet. Let 

 the hive remain in this state for six or seven minutes longer, 

 making altogether about ten minutes. Eemove the hive, 

 and you will find the greater part of the bees lying sense- 

 less on the board. There wiU still be a few clinging between 

 the combs, some of which may be brushed out with a feather. 

 They return to animation in from half an hour to one hour 

 after the operation. The expense is .3c;. per hive. 



" This plan, unMke the usual mode of biimstoning, and 

 the more modem plan of fumigation by fungus or putf-baU, 

 is easily carried into operation, and the flavour of the honey 

 is not injured by the fumes; but it is said to be highly 

 injurious to the bees."] 



WEDDING FLIGHTS OF A YOUNG QUEEN. 



Although I have seen it surmised that queens have 

 intercourse with more than one drone, yet I never heard 

 of any one actually having observed that such was actually 

 the case. 



On the 10th of July on returning home at about 5 p.m., 

 the queen in my unicomb-hive exhibited evident symptoms 

 of impregnation, and at about seven I a.ctually saw her rid 

 herself of the incumbrance. On the 11th she again exhibited 

 signs of fecundation, and on the 14th began to lay. From 

 this I should infer that a queen may lay both perfectly pure 

 Italian brood, and also that which will produce half-bred 

 bees ; and this may, in a measure, account for the extra- 

 ordinary difference which exists between individuals in the 

 progeny of some queens. This queen is remarkably well 

 coloured, I think better than any one I have seen yet. The 

 senior princess was so dai-k that I could not perceive the 

 slightest trace of her ItaUan origin. My Italian queens 

 have proved amazingly prohfic, far beyond anything I have 

 I witnessed in our own indigenous species. One of my drones 



