Angust 25, 1863. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTTJRE AKD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



159 



and uncoffined week after week, till every room was charged 

 with infectious effluvia ? I suppose, like the bees, the in- 

 mates would be glad to beat a retreat. This appears to me 

 a C5mmon-sense view of the matter, without racking the 

 train to find out more causes than are needed to produce 

 the effect. — A Subscriber. 



After reading the very able articles by the " Devon- 

 shire Bee-keeper," and Mr. Lowe, on the important ques- 

 tion of foul brood, which is so detrimental to all bee-keepers, 

 I think that by putting the two letters together every 

 one wiU come to the conclusion that foul brood is caused 

 both by experimenting with the bees, and the late bad 

 seasons. There is no doubt that if the comb with grub in 

 it is left for one night without the bees it will perish, and 

 the bees will not be able to hatch it out, just the same, as 

 with eggs, only some of which will hatch if left to cool. 

 Thus if only part of the grub is hatched, and the other left 

 in, being incapable of being hatched-out, it will become foul, 

 and so prevent the hive from flourishing. In the bad seasons 

 we have had, innumerable hives have been lost both in the 

 spring and winter from starvation, and the young lai-VEe 

 being left in the cells unhatched become foul, and then 

 fi-esh bees are put in the same hive where the foul brood is, 

 with the idea that the bees, ha\'ing a house ready furnished, 

 wUl go on and prosper well ; but it is the reverse, the bees 

 being unable to clear the hive of the foul brood, a,nd the 

 queen having no place to deposit the eggs in, the conse- 

 quence is, the bees dwindle away, and so the infection 

 spreads through the apiary. — L. C. 



I WAS glad to see the articles on bees in No. 125, and 

 am sure all apiarians are much indebted to the " Devonshire 

 Bee-keeper " for his numerous letters on these interesting 

 insects, and bringing this foul-brood discussion forward. We 

 shall now understand the cause of bees dwindling away, 

 and, consequently, the remedy. From what " A Lanark- 

 shire Bee-keeper " and Mr. Lowe say, any of your readers 

 will know what foul brood is and its cause, and may, there- 

 fore, find a remedy. 



I had a common straw hive which died out in the winter of 

 1861, and last autumn I pvit the bees out of a large hive into 

 it, and at the same time mixed and transferred several others ; 

 but tliis spring and summer I obsei-ved that the bees seemed 

 to decrease, and, therefore, supposed there was no queen, or, 

 if there was, that she was not a prolific one. On the 9th of 

 July I fumigated it and found very few bees, and also a 

 queen. I destroyed her and joined a third swarm to the 

 hive, but the bees would not let the queen stay in the hive, 

 and she and a few of her own bees came off as a swarm and 

 were hived. The next day they came off again and flew away 

 and were lost. 



The hive seemed to work better than before, and I thought 

 this queen might have gone back ; but seeing lately the bees 

 growing less and less, I made sure there was no queen, and, 

 therefore, thought it best to fumigate and join them to one 

 of my Ligurians ; but after looking nearly all the bees over 

 discovered they had made a queen, and instead of retm-ning 

 her and the bees to the same hive, I took a hybrid queen 

 from the observatory-hive and joined her and the bees to it. 

 On examining the comb I found some of the cells full of a 

 kind of white matter, a few worms, and some grub that 

 appeared to have been long sealed over. I had, therefore, 

 Httle doubt that tliis hive was affected vrith foul brood, and 

 I burnt all the combs. There can be no doubt a hive full of 

 comb after dying-out is not fit to put bees in again. — A. W. 



ducted : it must be borne in mind that it is in great measure 

 an experimental one. His object has not been to obtain 

 honey, but to multiply and disperse abroad a new species 

 of bee till recently unknown in England. If Mr. Woodbury 

 would enter into details, I think he would astonish some 

 old-fashioned bee-masters by his statement of the eminent 

 success which has attended his labours. The misfortune 

 under which he is now — let us hope only temporarily — suf- 

 fering, is no more than such as may attend any old or new- 

 fashioned system of management ; with this difference, how- 

 ever — that whereas an old-fashioned apiary would probably 

 have died out under such a visitation, our scientific friend, 

 we may safely predict, wUl not faU to triumph over the 

 enemy in the end. 



As a scientific apiarian myself, I may say without ego- 

 tism, I have been most successful, as witness my experi- 

 ence recorded in these pages during the last twelve years. 

 Even in ordinarily bad seasons I seldom fail to get my fair 

 quotum of honey ; and I wfll challenge any apiarian situated 

 hke myself to a comparison of notes without much fear of 

 the result, be he " An Old-fashioned Bee-master," or 

 one of the " scientific " race. 



In this part of England I know of many old-fashioned 

 apiaries that have utterly perished during the last three 

 years, while 1 have heard of Uttle or no honey being obtained 

 from any of them. The only successful apiaries about here 

 are precisely those, and those only, which are scientifically 

 managed. 



2. I must beg entirely to differ from Col. Newman in his 

 estimate of the effects of artificial swarming upon the spirits 

 of bees and their activity. My own experience goes to 

 prove that a judicious use of the power we have to compel 

 bees to swarm is most beneficial, and that many a sluggish 

 hive would be, and has been, quickened to "unusual acti- 

 vity " by a resort to this expedient. The fact is that you 

 cannot, do what you wUl, diminish the activity of bees, pro- 

 vided they have a fertile queen, a considerable population, 

 fair weather, and a suitable dwelling — it is altogether 

 " against nature." An hour after the greatest disturbance 

 they vrill be as busily occupied as if nothing had happened. 



3. Again. Col. Newman hits hard at the indispensable 

 practice of " driving " bees. But I need not comment upon 

 his remarks, as Mr. J. P. Edwards has fuUy entered into 

 the subject, and well explained the modus operandi. Occa- 

 sionally a failure wiU occur, but in nineteen out of twenty 

 cases success always rewards the persevering and scientific 

 bee-master. Driving is now an established sine quij non in 

 every scientifically conducted apiary, and has been so for 

 a century and more. Of course it is sometimes a tedious 

 operation, and it is rather warm work on a hot day ; but it 

 is certainly one of the prettiest and most interesting among 

 the labours of the bee-keeper, and is often very sunply and 

 quickly done. — B. & W. 



EAjSfDOM APIAPvIAN IS'OTES. 



1. The temptation is irresistible to ask "AnOld-fashioned 

 .Bee-mastee " to furnish us with statistics of his " inexpen- 

 sive row of straw hives," which give him " neither trouble 

 in management nor anxiety about the harvest in due season." 

 Let him say how much bond fide honey he has obtained from 

 his apiary during each of the last five years, particularising the 

 number of hives plundered and how plundered, the amount 

 of pure honeycomb or raw honey yielded by each hive. He 

 would oblige by also stating the experience of cottagers and 

 others in his neighboiu'hood during the same period. 



Mr. Wood.bury'3 apiary is not merely scientifically con- 



DESTROYING DRONES. 



I HARDLY feel myself qualified to take part in the great 

 debate which your pages maintain with so much spirit on 

 the economy of bees ; but I should like to be informed what 

 reason can be rendered for the unqualified opinion given in 

 page 100, to the effect that drones should on no account 

 be kUled. 



I recollect that in Taylor's bee book, to which many of 

 us look up as to a great authority, a remarkable instance of 

 artificial drone-killing is recorded, and the practice is re- 

 commended to the bee-keeper's consideration. — J. Earle. 



[No one shall bow more wUlingly to an opinion of that 

 Nestor of the apiary, Mr. Taylor, than ourselves ; yet " a 

 man's a man for a' that," and we follow the example of no 

 less an authority than Galileo, who when compeUod to recant, 

 said aside, " But the earth goes round the sun for all that. ' 

 However, we wished to hear what another authority would 

 say, and sent your note to "A Devonshire Bee-keeper," 

 who repUes— "My idea is, that killing drones oneself is 

 usually too troublesome, but if it can be readily done as 

 soon as their office is accomplished, it would be decidedly 

 advantageous to get rid of the whole of them." That is oui- 

 opinion also, but we are also of opinion tiiat the bees know 

 when " OtheUo's occupation's gone," i-"*^"- *^«^ ^^° ^'''- 

 keeper.] 



better than the bee- 



