NoTember 10, 1863. 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICXJLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



383 



Foul must be a hive thus circumstanced. Has microscopic 

 observation, in any of the recent instances of putrid brood, 

 been resorted to ? — Inquirer. 



LIGTTEIAN BEES i:!^ EDLNBUEGH. 



In giving my experience of the Ligiurians, it will be 

 necessary to begin at the beginning. I received a Ligurian 

 stock from "A Devonshire Bee-keeper" at the end of 

 April, 18G2. The hive arrived all safe, without the loss of a 

 single bee. It appeared to be in a sound healthy state, but 

 by no means strong. The bees commenced operations im- 

 mediately on being released, but showed an inclination to 

 quarrel among themselves. Next day there was a good deal 

 of fighting, and there was no difficulty in being convinced 

 that this was a domestic quarrel, because strangers could 

 have been easily recognised. I have never been able to 

 account for this singular conduct ; but in a few days they 

 appeared to have settled their differences and set steadily 

 to work, but without much appeai'ance of progi-ess till about 

 the end of May, when they began to increase so rapidly that, 

 from being apparently the weakest, they soon became evi- 

 dently the strongest in an apiary consisting of eight or nine 

 other hives of ordinai-y bees. 



In the beginning of June they thi-ew a fine swarm, and, 

 after the usual interregnum, another. Under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances this is considered the maximum number of 

 swarms in this quai-ter; but the summer of 1862 was so 

 backward and unfavom'able that there was only one swaiin 

 of black bees from my apiary dm-ing the whole season. I 

 was, therefore, very well pleased with what the Ligurians 

 had done, and was much surprised, a few weeks alter the 

 advent of the second swai-m, on being told a swarm of bees, 

 supposed to be mine, had been found in a neighbour's 

 orchard. On examining I found them to be Ligmlans, 

 which fully established my ownersliip to them. They were 

 evidently a third swarm from my stock, which had left the I 

 hive unobserved. They had established themselves in the 

 forked branch of a Pear tree and had constructed two large 

 combs, which were ingeniously fastened to the under side of 

 the branch. No time was lost in securing them ; but so ! 

 effectually had they secured the combs to the branch, using- ' 

 several of the surrounding leaves as stays, by attaching and ' 

 working them into the edges of the combs, that they could | 

 not be kept entire. The bees were put into an empty hive, 

 and the combs were found on examination to contain both 

 honey and eggs. 



After such a successful commencement with my Ligurian 

 stock,I was chagrined to find, a few weeks afterwards, that all 

 the young queens had turned out hybrids. I was not then 

 aware of the risk of hybridising. There were eight or nine 

 stocks of ordinary bees close beside them, and to this I 

 attributed the evident deterioration of the young bees. The 

 first swarm with the old queen appe;u-ed to keep quite right, 

 the young bees being as well marked apparently as the old. 

 I will, therefore, confine myself to its history. 



Early in the spring of the present year, on looking over 

 my stocks I found the hive in question very weak and 

 requiring some feeding. It improved rapidly after March, 

 a,nd by the middle of Apiil a distinctly audible hum was 

 heard from it at a few yai-ds distance. They occupied a 

 Taylor's hive of eight bars : it is lai-ger than the ordinai-y 

 straw hive. 



On the 15th of May, the day being cold and showery, they 

 swarmed but never settled, and went back to the hive after 

 a short time, but I feai- lost their queen in the attempt. 



On Satui'day, the 23rd of May, they swarmed again, this 

 time successfully, the day being more propitious ; and the 

 swarm, a fine one, was secured. 



On Wednesday, the 27th of May, the second swarm made 

 an unsuccessful attempt. 



On Thursday, the 28th, they tried again successfully. 

 It was a fair swarm. 



On Saturday, the 30th, a thu'd good swarm issued, and 

 was secured ; but they had settled in a hedge and could not 

 be got into the hive easily, and were not, therefore, moved 

 to their permanent position till the evening. A dead queen 

 was found on the floor -boai-d when putting them in position 

 in the evening ; and, as there had been some difficulty in 



hiving, I was afraid the queen had been crushed, although 

 the state of the bees in a compact cluster did not indicate 

 this, and subsequent inquiries showed there had been two 

 queens. 



On Sunday, the 31st of May, the fourth and last small 

 swarm issued, and was secured. Next morning two dead 

 queens were found before the hive, showing they had 

 finished swarming. 



Here, then, were four swarms from one hive within eight 

 days, and before theend of May — a result quite unprecedented 

 in this quarter. These have all done well considering the 

 season. Two of them I sent in August, along with a number 

 of other hives, to the moors. The weather was very un- 

 favourable during the greater part of the time. On return- 

 ing I took a super from each, the one weighing 10 lbs., the 

 other 11 lbs. ; the hives weighing, without the supers, fully 

 40 lbs. Some strong hives of black bees have done as well 

 as this, or nearly ; but the greater number have not done 

 neaily so well. With results like these I cannot hesitate to 

 maintain the superiority of Ligurians over ordinary bees. I 

 regret, however, to find that they are all deteriorated in 

 colour and marking, including the first swarm, which should 

 have contained the old queen ; and this confirms my impres- 

 sion that the old queen was lost in the first attempt to swarm. 

 I took every precaution this season to separate them from the 

 black bees. I removed all my own in May to a distance of 

 several miles, and the neai'est hives were nearly a mile 

 distant; but, notwithstanding all these precautions, they 

 appear to have been hybridised. The young bees are not so 

 light in colour and have the yellow ijands less distinctly 

 marked than the old. Whether they wUl lose the proUSc 

 and industrial qualifications which have distinguished them 

 this season remains to be seen. — J. B. 



"B. & W.'s APIAHY, 1833. 

 (Continued from page 444, Vol. IV.) 



TouE apiarian readers may like to know how it has fared 

 with my bees since I last wrote, both as regards the honey 

 harvest, and my endeavour to Italianise my apiaiy. I will 

 observe, first of all, that I have no further evidence to prove 

 that any of my drone-breeding queens have been of the 

 least use whatsoever. Again and again have the bees 

 reared artificial queens out of Italian brood, but although 

 there were plenty of drones, the offspring of these drone- 

 breeders, the young queens, turned out drone-breeders one 

 after the other to my great disappointment. Tour readers 

 afready know how completely baffled 1 was all the early 

 part of the year, my various hives being one and aU greatly 

 weakened of course, as I made each in tm-n supply a 

 population to rear my ai'tificial queens. 



If your readers will tiu-n to page 444, they will see that 

 I had then three young well-marked Italian queens, sisters 

 of the same age, at the head of three of my stocks. I am 

 happy to say that two of them have done well, that which 

 led off the virgin swarm from A and was hived in G, and 

 that which I gave to F. Both these young queens have 

 raised a family, amongst which are many well-marked 

 Italians, especially the queen of P, which has proved a 

 very prolific mother. But the queen of A somehow or 

 other came to grief. I saw her in the hive two or three 

 days after the swarm left, but she was probably defective, 

 or else she never returned home safely fr-om her matrimonial 

 flight. 



On the 25th of June, therefore, finding neither queen 

 nor brood in this hive, which was evidently dwindling away, 

 I di-ove the bees all out, and subsequently returned their 

 box to them with four combs in it full of brood (worker and 

 drone), taken out of my Italian stock 0. The same day I 

 also drove B, destroying its young English queen, and 

 gave them C's box with the remainder of the Italian brood. 

 The Italian queen of C and her subjects, thus tui-ned out 

 of their home for the third or fourth time, were put in 

 possession of B, with all its treasui-e of honey and English 

 brood. Surely new, thought I, my perseverance wiU be 

 rewarded at last. It was now, and continued for many 

 weeks, magnificent weather in the very prime of the season ; 

 yet no, again was I disappointed. True I saw two young 

 queens perambulating the combs in A on the 7th of July, and 



