September 22, 1863. ] JOUENAi OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



243 



•wont to do, and then the feeding was discontinued, the bees 

 not having store enough of their own to carry through the 

 breeding process ; so that the larrse are not supported by 

 proper food, and are constitutionally in a consumptive state. 

 — A Lanaukshibe Bee-kebpee. 



TWO QUEENS IN ONE HIVE-FOUL BROOD. 



Mr. Woodbury's mystery of a supernumerary queen I con- 

 aider no uncommon incident in a hive, and had he allowed 

 her to remain he would have seen the rightful sovereign 

 expelled to a certainty. I may just give an instance which 

 occurred recently here in the apiary of a Mr. B. This gen- 

 tleman had a queen expelled from a hive in the middle of 

 the honey season, and she being to all appearance perfect, 

 he was determined to lose no opportunity of watching the 

 fiitirre proceedings of tliis hive, when, to his astonishment, 

 on the same day he had the pleasiu-e of seeing a young 

 queen take wing, and she afterwards turned out exceedingly 

 prolific. 



I heartily agree with Mr. Woodbm-y's opinion on foul 

 brood, and look on Mr. Lowe as being quite at sea when 

 treating it as an artificial disease. I have seen it in the 

 most virulent form in the cottager's apiary, as well as in the 

 apiary of the scientific bee-keeper. — Stewarton Apiarian. 



[I am pei-fectly aware that a supernumerary queen in a 

 hive is no unprecedented occiu-rence during the swarming 

 season, and quite agree with the " Stewarton Apiarian" 

 as to the probable dethronement of the rightful monarch if 

 the interloper had been suffered to remain. Two similar 

 cases have in point of fact already come under my observa- 

 tion, but both these, like that instanced by my Ayrshire 

 ooiTespondent, occurred in the middle of the honey season. 

 As stated in my former communication, what excited my 

 astonishment was finding a second queen so late in the 

 season with no drones existing in any of my hives, and in a 

 colony reduced to the condition of a recent swarm. 



With regard to foul brood, it is very satisfactory to have 

 a verdict in my favoui- emanating fi-om so high an authority 

 in what our Eenfi'ewshu'e friend designates as " the great 

 centre of bee-knowledge ;" and I should be greatly obliged 

 to my Stewai-ton correspondent if he would favour us by 

 relating his experience of this disease which has enabled 

 him so decisively to confiiin the testimony of — A Devon- 



SHIF.E BeE-KEEPEE.] 



RANDOM APIARIAN NOTES. 



The Honey of 186.3. — The honey taken this season is not 

 so delicate and nice in flavour as that even of the unpro- 

 pitious year, 1861. There was some honeydew one whole 

 week, at the commencement of -July this year. Probably, 

 this might have been the cause, or was it the three weeks 

 wet weather in the main honey-gathering month of June ? 

 The quantity is fai- above what was expected. 



Mk. Woodbury. — I have been found fault with for some 

 observations on Mr. Woodbury's bee-management. I am 

 not aware of saying more than that I was sorry for his 

 failures. Indeed, I admire him for Ms honesty in confess- 

 ing them. If the writers on bees had been as faithftd as 

 Mr. Woodbm-y, we should not have been inundated with 

 those theoretical treatises which have talked of the most 

 tedious and difficult experiments as perfectly easy ; and in 

 particular that of depriving a stock of bees of the whole of 

 theii- combs, forcing them into a nev/ and empty hive and 

 making them begin de novo ! How often has this succeeded ? 

 I never saw it done where desertion did not take place soon 

 afterwards with ruin and loss of the bees. A too great depri- 

 vation of the combs will also bring on the same misfortune. 

 I can assui'e your correspondent " B. it W.," that fifty years 

 ago I was fond of trying experiments with bees, and was 

 only now and then successful j but of late my patience has 

 been exhausted, and I am quite content with bee-keeping 

 in the old-fashioned style ; at the same time I may add that 

 " B. & W." has said nothing but what is strictly true of 

 Mr. Woodbury. The latter I hope to see rise like a Phoenix 

 and shine in a prosperous cycle of fine summers, and con- 

 tinue after a long life at the top of the list of the " scientific 

 apiarians " in England ; and to " B. & W." and the other 



experimental bee-keepers, I only say. Go on in the pursuit of 

 that interesting study. By the way, I strongly recommend 

 to " B. & W." a perusal of the seventh and eighth Volumes of 

 The Cottage Gaedenek, where may be read some excellent 

 letters signed " A Country Curate," now, I believe, a 

 beneficed clergyman. The "Country Curate" was then 

 an experimental bee-keeper and would not allow of many 

 failures. " B. & W." will also find iu those Volumes a good 

 many letters fr-om another bee-keeper of the " old school," 

 who continues still to send a few communications to The 

 Journal of Horticulture. 



Breeding. — The breeding has been continued in some of 

 my hives up to the 24th of August. On the whole the bee 

 season has certainly been an eccentric one. A swarm of 

 this year of the 28th of May hatched their drones about 

 the 28th June ; these were all killed. In the last week in 

 July the hive became so crowded that the bees hung out- 

 side. Thinking it too late to put on a super, I allowed them 

 to take their natural coiu-se, when one fine gleamy after- 

 noon (29th July), about 2 p.m., they suddenly threw off a 

 swarm ; but it was a very small one and being so late not 

 worth liiving ; they went into an old weak stock. 



EoBBER Bees. — My weakest swarm, hived on the 12th 

 June; a second swarm or "cast," have been attacked by 

 robbers from a distance, as I named in a former communi- 

 cation, but on Monday, August 24th, they were attacked 

 in my absence by several thousands of these marauders and 

 regularly overpowered. On my arrival at thi-ee o'clock, the 

 young sv/arm commenced leaving the hive in a body, the 

 robbers remaining in possession. I destroyed several hun- 

 dreds of the latter, but the whole of the honey was carried 

 off; and the wasps, which are now numerous, finding that a 

 scramble was going on, assisted the robbers. 



Wasp-glasses. — I have found these very effective. They 

 are advertised in The Journal of Horticulture by Messrs. 

 MUlington. I put simply brown sugar and water into these 

 glasses, and they are now a quarter full of dead wasps. 

 Not a single bee has been trapped ; but if a tyro apiarian 

 put honey or any other luscious liquid into these glasses 

 the bees wiU be enticed directly. 



Two Queens in One Hive. — We have heard of two 

 "Kings of Brentford," but it is a rare thing to hear of two 

 queens living quietly in the same hive, as described by my 

 worthy friend Mr. Woodbury. Probably the young one 

 described by Mr. Woodbui-y might have been diseased or 

 barren, at least for a time, and the bees have certainly a 

 quick intuitive discernment of any defect. Place a really 

 disabled bee on the alighting-board of a hive — one of the 

 same bees I mean, of course, and the unfortunate wight is 

 immediately destroyed ; but place a poor benumbed one in 

 the same place, although unable to crawl, but sound wind 

 and limb, this bee is allowed to remain and enter the hive 

 as soon as recovered. All real bodily defects are instantly 

 discovered. Of course, all apiarians know that for many 

 days, and even weeks, two and even three queens are fre- 

 quently allowed during the swarming season in May and 

 June ; but in my two unicomb-hives, made purposely for 

 observation, I never discovered but one queen laying eggs, 

 and fi-om seeing the queens so frequently could easily per- 

 ceive that it was the same bee. This holds good generally 

 from July to April inclusive, as to one queen only. 



Foul Brood. — This is a disease among bees I have never 

 noticed. It has been so ably discussed by the different 

 writers, that I do not venture to enter the lists in the argu- 

 ment. AH I have to say is, that if bees be well looked after, 

 kept clean, not over-ventQated, nor kept too warm, nor con- 

 fined in cellars, or shut up aU the winter, disease wiU seldom 

 or never attack them. Too much ventilation will prevent 

 breeding and destroy the embryo brood in any weak hive of 

 bees, and hence the hive gets in an unwholesome state. A 

 very smaU swarm in a large hive seldom prospers. 



Age of the Queen Bee. — Your correspondent the " Hamp- 

 SHIEE Bee-keeper," should be referred to former Numbers 

 of The Journal of Horticulture. It has been clearly 

 proved that queens sometimes live three years, but I have 

 always considered an old queen detrimental to a hive. 

 Nothing like young blood for breeding and activity. An 

 old queen often attempts an excursion and fails : hence at 

 an unseasonable period of the year ruin comes on the stock. 



Killing Drones.— I had a hive (a swarm of 1862), which 



