May 9, 1867. 1 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



319 



LIGURIANS IN IRELAND. 



On opening The Jodrnal of Horticoltube of April 11th, 

 and running my eye over the columns devoted to bees and bee- 

 keeping, I was much pleased to see the article from " A Devon- 

 SHiEE Bee-keeper," on " Propagating Ligurians." I have for 

 some time been looking forward with much interest for the 

 information so fully contained in it, inasmuch as I introduced, 

 last autumn, into my apiary — previously consisting entirely of 

 black colonies — two stocks of the foreigners, obtained from 

 Mr. Woodbury, and I have been most anxious to discover the 

 most likely means of maintaining the strange blood in the 

 purity in which I received it from him. 



You may, perhaps, have remembered that in a letter which 

 I addressed to you last autumn on the subject,* I stated that 

 previous to that period I had been deterred from introducing the 

 Ligurians into this neighbourhood, both from the fact of the 

 very high prices demanded for them by some English bee- 

 keepers, and also from their refusing to guarantee their safe 

 arrival in this country. These remarks of mine fortunately 

 met the eye of Mr. Woodbury, who kindly communicated with 

 ine on the subject, and made me such satisfactory and fair 

 offers on both the above points, that I was induced at once to 

 accept them, and the result np to this has been most satis- 

 factory to me in every respect. 



As the progress of Ligurian bees in this country, during 

 even so short a period, may be a subject of some interest to 

 the Irish readers of your bee columns, I will mention a few 

 facts connected with them since they came into my possession, 

 premising that almost from the day of their arrival, early in 

 September last, to the present moment, the severity of the 

 autumn, winter, and spring has been unprecedented. And 

 here, at the first start, the opinion of the Baron Von Berlepsch 

 was, in my mind, completely verified — viz., " That the Italian 

 bees are less sensitive to cold than the common kind ;" for 

 whereas, amongst my black stocks not one escaped without more 

 or less loss of life, owing to the cold and sudden changes of 

 the weather, not one of the Ligurian bees died from the same 

 causes, and this under most disadvantageous circumstances. 

 When I received them, late in the autumn, they had scarcely a 

 particle of honey, it being essential to their safe transit that 

 they should travel with light combs. Artificial food I of 

 course supplied them with at once and liberally, and the man- 

 ner in which they stored and appropriated this surprised me, 

 one hive increasing in weight from 16 lbs. nett to -191 lbs. nett, 

 from the 20th of September to the 9th of November. The other 

 stock, although it did not lay up winter stores so rapidly, is 

 now in quite as prosperous a condition, both having a large and 

 thriving population, and the young bees clearly and beautifully 

 marked in each, testifying to the pureness and fecundity of the 

 queens at their head. So far, then, the prospect of my estab- 

 lishing the Ligurians in this locality looks cheerful enough, 

 were it not for one great drawback which I feared all along, and 

 which the " Devonshire Bee-keepek's" letter almost confirms 

 — viz., that my apiary is almost entirely unprovided with 

 bar and frame hives, only one of my black colonies being 

 supplied with that necessary (as it appears from his letter) 

 article for propagation. When commencing bee-keeping, I 

 started on the wise, as I supposed, principle of " learning to 

 creep before attempting to walk," so I invested entirely in plain 

 Scotch hives. Under these unfavourable circumstances I can 

 only ask, " What am I to do ?" feeling sure that I shall obtain 

 from you advice as to the best course of action under the 

 circumstances. 



What is the proper time to commence forming " nuclei ? " 



Before concluding my desultory remarks on the Ligurians 

 here, I must add, how much I was struck by the wonderful 

 advantages of the bar and frame hives in transporting bees, 

 both as regards safety ot the combs and perfect ventilation. 

 The manner in which Mr. Woodbury secured them was to me 

 a marvel of skill and ingenuity, and I believe they might have 

 travelled without injury to the end of the world. 



As the season advances, if it should be a matter of any 

 interest, I shall be happy to report the progress of my new" 

 friends and my attempts to increase them. Curious to say, 

 after such a severe winter not one of my stocks did better than 

 one in a glass observatory hive of my own construction. The 

 hive which was single glass, I placed in a box, with an interval 

 of half an inch carefully packed with tow and wool, and hardly 

 a bee died in it. — Sqdib, Co. Kildare. 



[You will do well to transfer some of the strongest of your 



• This letter appeared in No. 279 of our New Series.— Eds. 



black colonies into frame hives during the present month, or 

 as soon as they become populous. You may find hints on this 

 subject which will be of service to you in Nos. 75 and 280 of 

 our New Series, but the process is briefly this: — During the 

 forenoon of a fine day drive all the bees into an empty hive 

 and put them on their accustomed stand. Take their original 

 hive in-doors, and cut out all the combs whole. Fit these into 

 frames, and support them therein by strips of wood three- 

 eighths of an inch wide and one-sixteenth thick, tacked at the 

 top and bottom, two on each side of every comb, and by zinc 

 clips when necessary. Thick combs must be pared down, but 

 take care that the cells on either side are left of equal length ; 

 also that the " partition wall " is in the centre of each bar. 

 Crooked combs should be set straight, and if not sufficiently 

 pliable to permit of this being done may be slightly warmed 

 before the fire. It will be found convenient to remove the pro- 

 jecting Woodbury rib from the bars, and the bees will attach 

 the combs to them with greater facility if their under surface 

 be coated with melted wax. Having completed the job, and 

 arranged the combs in their new apartment in the same order 

 as that which they occupied in their old one, deepen the hive 

 by the addition, on the top, of another, from which the frames 

 and crown and floor-boards have been removed ; set it on the 

 old stand, and knock out the cluster of bees into the upper 

 hive on the top of the frames of the lower one, putting on the 

 crown-board immediately. Next morning take away the inserted 

 hive, and the day after that remove the supports from all the 

 combs which the bees have fixed. If any are not secured, their 

 supports may be left until they are fastened. 



The formation of nuclei may commence as soon as any of 

 your stocks are strong enough, and possess a tolerable quantity 

 of drone-brood.] 



DEONE BROOD. 



I EXAMINED a Woodbury hive to-day (April 23rd), for the pur- 

 pose of excising royal cells. I only found one, apparently an 

 old one, empty (the stock was a swarm of last year) ; but in the 

 middle of one comb I found about thirty large cells covered 

 with semicircular domes of a light brown colour ; they stood 

 out very prominently and conspicuously in the combs, and 

 each contained a large white gi'ub. Although I have busied 

 myself much with bees for a few years, I have not had the 

 means of looking inside a hive till lately, and am ignorant of the 

 various appearances of drone and worker brood, &o. I conclude 

 the cells referred to contain drone brood. Had they been formed 

 the other way up — i.e., vertically — and on the edge of the 

 combs I should have concluded they were royal cells. I may 

 inform you that the stock, though a swarm of last year, gave 

 me 18 lbs. of honey, is now very strong (it has been fed), and 

 has a splendid queen, and plenty of sealed honeycomb. If the 

 above are drone brood, why so few of them ? I shall be very 

 glad ot more information about the method of emptying combs 

 given in page 288. — C. C. E. 



[It is too early to look for royal cells, especially in so back- 

 ward a season as tlie present. The large cells with semicircular 

 domes contained drone brood, and that in an advanced stage, 

 owing to these few cells being placed in the centre of the comb. 

 The number was doubtless limited by the number of drone 

 cells, but had you carefully scrutinised the interior of such large 

 cells as exist nearer the edges of the combs, you would most 

 probably have found them also tenanted by eggs and larvfe in a 

 less advanced state. We will endeavour, whenever we have the 

 opportunity, to obtain further information respecting the Ger- 

 man centrifugal machine for extracting honey from the combs.] 



ECONOMY IN COAL. 



I SUPPOSE every one wishes to be economical in housekeeping ; 

 the majority from necessity, the minority, I hope from a wish 

 to make their charity purses larger. The best rule is — " Eco- 

 nomy practise, but do not be mean." 



A little more than a year ago, I met, when away from home, 

 a gentleman who was full, very full, of a new plan, which if 

 carried out would make his coal bill smaller, smaller by half, 

 and yet his fires were to be as large and as warming as ever. 

 I smiled incredulously, thinking him a most enthusiastic man. 

 He said, " Now here's my plan : Send for your blacksmith, set 

 him to take the width and length of your grate, and floor it 

 with a piece of iron half an inch thick." " What ! " said I, 



