October 27, 1SS3. ] JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



343 



and is also one of the recommendations of the Italian bee. 

 The Syrian bee agrees so closely with the Egyptian that it 

 may prove equally valuable ; and next to these in value are 

 the bees of the coasts of Asia Minor. — [Annah of Natural 

 History.) 



LIGHT-COLOTJEED POLLEN. 



My bees, like Mr. E. Fairbrother's, are busy collecting 

 large quantities of light-coloured pollen, no part of which 

 can possibly be drawn fi'om fuchsias, as these ai-e now totally 

 bereft of leaves as well as flowers, having, along with the 

 dahlias, been cut down by the sharp frost ot the 5th inst. 



Being curious to ascertain from whence the bees obtained 

 the supply, I traced them to the yellow weeds called 

 " Skillochs " (specimen herewith), by the country people in 

 this quarter, and blooming abundantly at this season on 

 some soils, and very possibly the yellow flowers to which 

 your correspondent refers. — A Eenfkewshiee Bee-keepee. 



[The " Skillochs " sent by oiu' con-espondent is the char- 

 lock, Sinapis arvensis. — Eds. J. op H.] 



BEES IN FEAME-HIVES. 



We are obliged to the writer of " Apiai-ian Notes." WUl 

 he kindly say if his bees attach his frames to the sides of 

 the boxes, and what he considers the best distance between 

 a frame and the box — top, bottom, and sides, so that they 

 may not be joined together by the bees ? Mine have done 

 better this summer, I only lost my stock in the way referred 

 to in my former communication. I do not think this was 

 from foul brood ; nevertheless, I have always found some 

 few decayed and stinking larvce, but I can hardly yet believe 

 this was the cause of then- leaving their hive. I have always 

 been of opinion that the bees leaving was the cause of the 

 Ibul brood. The subject deserves very close attention, and 

 I for one am deeply interested in the lively manner in which 

 it has been discussed, and the gentlemen engaged in it 

 deserve our best thanks. 



I have taken great pains this summer to weigh one stock 

 and its swarms day after day when practicable, but I feai- it 

 would not be found of sufficient interest to your readers. — 

 Edward Faikbeother. 



[1st. I have never found my bees attach their combs to the 

 back and front of the boxes in a Une with the frames, and 

 in only a very few instances have they united the outer 

 combs to the sides of the boxes. Where this has been done 

 it has almost invariably occurred to fi'ames of comb too 

 wide for the sjiace in which I have inserted them. In shift- 

 ing frames from one hive to another, the combs will often 

 come in contact with each other and the sides of the box. 

 AH that is requisite is, mthin a day or two to remove each 

 fi'ame and jjare away the parts of the combs which have been 

 united by the bees. This plan is constantly followed by those 

 apiarians who desire, for scientific and practical purposes, to 

 have complete control over the frames throughout their 

 apiaries. Without this facility frame-hives possess little if 

 any advantages over ordinary boxes ; but with it the plea- 

 sure and interest in the observation and management of 

 bees are incalculably increased. It may appear strange that 

 the bees do not bring the combs outside the ends of tiie 

 frames so as to attach them to the box, and at first I sup- 

 posed that they would frequently do so, but the bee-master 

 pi-escribes the form and shape of the comb he wishes them 

 to construct; and I have found that, like some human in- 

 dividuals, they are content, to use a well-known phrase, 

 " to accept the situation." 



3nd. The distance I allow between the frames and the box 

 in every part, top, bottom, and sides, is exactly thi'ee-eighths 

 of an inch. This will Ije found near enough to prevent 

 elongation of the ends of the combs, and distant enough to 

 allow of easy removal of the frames without crushing bees 

 between them and the box. The only place where bees will 

 construct their combs outside the fr-ames is on the top, and 

 here they are rather fond, in a good honey season, of filling 

 up the space between the cover, or adapter, and the tops of 

 the fr-ames. When the cover, or adapter, is thvis fastened 

 down, a little force in a twisting dfreotion is necessary. The 



broken comb attached to the cover must be always scraped 

 away. My fii-st frames were not sunk in separate notches, 

 but rested on a rabbet three-quarters of an inch in depth, 

 which extended the whole length of the back and fr-ont. 

 Although this plan possesses some advantages in the re- 

 moval of full frames, yet I found the force occasionally 

 necessary to remove the top would shift the frames from 

 their places, and have, therefore, latterly adopted the plan 

 of sunk notches below a three-eighth-inch rabbet. The 

 dimensions I have adopted for my boxes are larger than 

 those recommended by my fi-iend Mr. Woodbury, but I con- 

 sider his hive to be of the size likely to be most generally 

 useful. The Woodbui-y-hive, as sold by Messrs. Neighbour, 

 of 149, Eegent Street, is a first-rate article, and is made 

 either of straw or wood. The excellence of the work in the 

 square straw hives must be seen to be appreciated. 



3rd. I will not now enlarge upon the subject of "foul 

 brood," as I hope before long to fulfil my intention of making 

 this the theme of a separate paper. 



4th. I should be very glad ii" Mr. Fairbrother would favour 

 us with the table of the daily weights registered by his hive 

 and its swarms, giving the hours of the day or night when 

 the observations were taken. Having had a suspended hive 

 in operation diu-ing several months of this summer, I should 

 like to compare the results in the two localities. — S. Bevan 

 Fox.] 



FEETILE WOEEEES. 



Having brought om- bees home from the heather on the 

 2Gth of September, I looked at the hive whose bees were 

 laying di-one eggs, which I noticed in a communication ap- 

 pearing in your Number of Oct. 6, and found eggs just laid, 

 and certainly no queen. There were only 220 bees altogether, 

 as we counted them; so that there is not the least doubt 

 whatever that bees with no apparent difference to the eye 

 are still capable of laying di-oue eggs. I introduced a queen 

 to the bees, thinking they might fight when the rival egg- 

 layer came in; but instead of this they would have taken 

 the queen to reign over them. If it wovdd be of any use 

 I would very gladly send the bees to Mr. Woodbury that 

 he might make a microscopic investigation of them, and 

 find out the bee or bees which were laying. — Alex. Shearer. 



[I am much obliged by Mr. Shearer's kind offer, but the 

 detection of the actual egg-layers is far beyond my skiU as 

 a mioroscopist. Although I have had several such cases 

 (two dimug the present year), I never could succeed in 

 distinguishing fertile fr-om ordinary workers. In reply to 

 a private inqvury I may add that I esteem breeding an ad- 

 vantage at any season whether late or early. — A Devon- 

 SHiEE Bee-keepee.] 



FOUL BEOOD. 



In answer to Mr. Woodbury's remarks in No. 133, 

 Oct. 13, I have to state that the isolated sentence he 

 quotes should have been given in extenso, in its entirety, and 

 considered in connection with the context. The language 

 I did use was this : — " If it is to be termed a disease at all, 

 let it be described, as Mr. Taylor described it in last Niimber, 

 an entirely ' artificial one.' " The words, " an entirely arti- 

 ficial one," are Mi-. Taylor's, and all those in italics Mr. 

 Woodbury has thought proper to leave out. The sentence 

 is put hypothetically, "if it is to be termed a disease," if 

 writers persist in calling it so, if they will have it so, if, 

 because the evil is produced frequently, and principally, by 

 ill-timed and wrong-dfrected artificial processes, then " let 

 it be described as Mr. Taylor described it, &c." But to 

 show what my own views really were, and that I did not 

 choose so to designate it, I immediately added "abortive 

 brood, however, can never be classed under the category of 

 bee maladies." I illustrated my views. The embryo chick 

 in the chilled egg dies, but in common parlance we do not 

 say of disease ; and so of a great number of accidental and 

 other kindi-ed deaths among the old and young of all crea- 

 tures, we do not designate these as produced by disease, 

 properly so called, and so, also, of foul or abortive brood. 



In other parts of the same article I say, " If fotd brood 

 be a disease, I should like to know by what it is caused ? " 



