Febraary 22, 1877. 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



149 



THE ADVANCE OF BEE CULTURE. 



" B. it W." seema to lament that we have not adfled much to 

 onr knowledge of bee life since the time of ITubcr. Patieuce, 

 friend " B. & W.," there is a race of bee-keepers growing up to 

 knowledge who yet will add a few facts to Huber's etore, thanks 

 to frame hives and not least to the British Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion, who, by their great and interesting shows, have done so 

 much to make kaowa modern hives and appliances. There is 

 no gainsaying the fact that during the three years of the As- 

 sociation's existence bee-keepers and interest in the bee has 

 vastly multiplied. Following the metropolitan exa-u pie, bae hives 

 and honey shows were last year held and associations est.-iblished 

 at Weston-snper-Mare, Worcester, Exeter, Glasgow, Wolver- 

 hampton, Grantham, Huntley, Sherborne, Odiham,A'c., in addi- 

 tion to which the classes for honey were greatly increased at 

 rural horticultural shows ; but while the cliildren are in their 

 lusty infancy the parent languishes for want of more members 

 and funds following. I feel sure this has only to be widely made 

 known and help will come, for there wants but a small per- 

 centage of the many thousands who have visited the Crystal 

 Palace and Alexandra Palace shows to become members of the 

 -Association, and the Committee will be stimulated to grander 

 works in future. The Association in their shows havo never 

 aimed at making a profit ; entrance f^^es were always nominal, 

 never more than Is , and nothing to cottagers. All the cfiicers 

 have worked for love. The prizes and expenses of each show 

 amount to about llt>", to which the 2.30 members' subscriptions, 

 mostly .5.S. each, go but a small way. The result has been the 

 Committee have had each year to go round with the hat to make 

 both ends meet, and I fear the same means must be adopted this 

 year to create a prize list. Now let me ask bee-keepers who read 

 my appeal to further the good work by joining the Association 

 without delay. The amount of snbfcription is optional, need not 

 be more than 5s. per annum, and I shall be happy to give any 

 desired information on the subject. — John Hu.nteb, Eaton lli.ie, 

 Ealing. 



STRAW VERSUS STEWARTON HIVES. 



I NOTICE in the letter by "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeter" 

 in the Journal of February Ist an answer to Mr. Liwe's inquiry, 

 whether it is the form, material, or constriiction of the Stewarton 

 hive which enabled it tn outdo the straw hive. He says that 

 the straw hive in question ia the usual dome-shaped, but he 

 _ does not state what size it was, and which I take to mean the 

 common small round-topped hive which Mr. Pettigrew is doing 

 bis beet to get replaced by larger hives, the small hives being 

 next to worthless. 



I do not consider it quite fair of the "Eenfbewshibe Bee- 

 KEEPEB," to put one of the sort of hive I mean against the 

 Stewarton for compari-on, and then publish the difference 

 — viz., "Straw i*. Stewarton;" because in my opinion, if it 

 had been an IS inch Pettigrew straw hive, under the fiame cir- 

 camstances it wonM have shown a very different result, both 

 in breeding more bees to work and gather honey, and having 

 eomewhere to put it when it was gathered, for, as a rule, if 

 there :.'< honey to be had the bees will have it; and also an 18-iuch 

 Pettigrew hive will hold large supers on the top of almost any 

 kind without any fear of them falling off, and there is a large 

 h:>le on the top ready mad« for sup* ring. 



Next, the super used being of glass ma'le the result of the 

 straw hivo still worse ; whereas if it had been a hive that would 

 have held a straw cr wood super it is very probable that there 

 would have been much mf re honey stored in it, and not so 

 much would have been consumed in c mb-building. 



If the " Renfrewshibk'Bee keeper" would this next season 

 try an is inch Pettigrew straw hive against the Stewarton, both 

 equal in health and strength and under the same cireumstances, 

 without partiality to either, and then publih the results in the 

 Journal, he would give valuable assistance to bee-keepera in 

 generil. 



I reduced my bees last au'nmn to five good hives, all of Pet- 

 tigrew'a style. Two of these succumbed to the long cold weather 

 at the beginning of the year, and two I had promised to friends 

 before I lost the others, and therefore I was left with my is-inch 

 hive. My garden is bounded on one side by large ironworks, 

 coke ovens, Arc, and the other side? are dotted over with pita 

 and other works, so that my beea have only about one-half the 

 ground to work oi that mo.st bees have, and that at some distince 

 off. They had to be fed until the middl.i r.f Jane to keep them 

 alive, and then the weather was grand for them, and they gained 

 in weight and numbers rapidly. They were ready to swarm .ibout 

 the first week in .July; but the clover was coming ii. to flower 

 jnat then, and the weather so good I wanted to keep them in a 

 short time longer, bo I put an eke under and a super on the top 

 to hold about 5 lbs., more to prevent them swarming than for 

 filling. About a week after they were so full and the weather 

 80 hot I dare trust them no longer, and I expected finding they 

 had gone when I returned home from w.irk every night. 



I took the Btraw super off fall on the Saturday afternoon, 



then I weighed the hive, &o. ; it was 82 lbs. I had a splendid 

 first swarm at night, 7 lbs. good weight, with plenty of beea left 

 in the stock. About ten days after I took a second swarm out, 

 successfully as I thought, when I left them at night; but in the 

 morning there was a nice mess, there had been an accident. 

 Through the weather being so hot it had made the combs very 

 soft, and some honeycomb had fallen down after I left them, 

 the cross-sticks cutting it in pieces as it fell, and all the re- 

 maining bees were on the board and out on the front of the hive 

 half drowned in honey. I did what I could for them, and put 

 all I could to the second swarm; but bees when covered with 

 honey cannot clean themselves, and will not stay in the hivo, 

 and they were creeping about in all directions, but there waa no 

 helping it. It was at the very least 20 lbs. out of my way, 

 besides the loss of a good turn-out. I took 21 lbs. of honey out 

 of it and the 5 lb. super. 



'The first swarm of 7 lbs. weight of bees were put into an 

 IS inch Pettigrew hive, and this they filled with combs in eight 

 days aft r. I therefore put a straw super on it, and in three 

 weeks from putting them in took the snper off full and a virgin 

 swarm out of it of 6 lbs. weight, which wore put into an 18-inch 

 Pettigrew hive, and fed them for the winter, and three weeks 

 after that I turned the remainder out a good turn-out, and put 

 it into a IG-inch Pettigre^v hive full o! new combs and fed them 

 for the winter. I took a .5-lb. super and 29 lbs. of hijuey equal 

 to super honey, all stored in the first three weeks (the weather 

 broke up aftert, beside filling the hive and super with combs, 

 lu all I obtained over GO lbs. of the finest honey from the stock 

 and its swarms, which in my locality I think no other sort of 

 hive would have beaten. It apeaka very well for large straw 

 hives in a poor place, ao what will they not do in a good place ? 

 and while they do ao well with me I can do nothing elae but 

 recommend them. They are the cheapest sort of hivea for the 

 working man, and answer all the purposes he wants with 

 them. I introduced them to several of my friends last sum- 

 mer, who are now using them, and also the artificial swarming 

 principle. 



I try to get as much honey in the hive as I can, because run 

 honey is the sort wanted here, and supers have to be run the 

 same. I sold about 56 lbs. at Is. 6d. per lb., and if there had 

 been more to dispose tf it would have gone at the same price. 

 — P. E.UNFOKD, Wigan. 



THE BATTLE OF THE HIVES. 



Since penning a few remarks under the above heading we 

 have been favoured with two papers by ''A Renfrewshire Bee- 

 keeper." In the article of 1st February I am reminded of a 

 former controversy on the same subject carried on in this 

 Journal in the beginning of 1873, in which I with other well- 

 known bee-keepera took part, and I am informed for my com- 

 fort that my views when then enunciated were considered ao 

 latitudinarian and theoretic by the fraternity, *' that little sup- 

 port " was accorded to them. 



In looking into the Journal of that date I find a keen con- 

 troversy was being waged on this same question, and with the 

 view of settling it various competitive tests were proposed as 

 between the respective hives named, but very properly no such 

 competition ever came off. On the 27th February of the abovo 

 year (1873) I wrctn an article on the question at issue, iu which 

 I very fully nude known my views upon the whole subject, and 

 conclusively showed, I think, so far as amount of stores wns 

 concerned, that though all the best hives named were engaged 

 in such a contest, a common box taken from a tea warehouse 

 (however ludicrous) might be the winner. 



Let us see, therefore, from the following quotations how far 

 "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper" is justitied in saying that 

 my views received ** little support from the fraternity." 



Mr. Abbott writes: "I entirely deny that any merit ia due to 

 any class or variety of hive, as a means iu itself, of acquiring 

 honey." Mr. R. Symington said : " I had a good laugh over Mr. 

 Lowe's fancied contest and the championahip of the tea-cheat. 

 There is no doubt auch a reault might follow. That the hive 

 itself, be it straw, wood, cr a combination of both, with move- 

 able combs or without, round, octagon, or square, has a direct 

 iniluence upon the nett result of honey to be obtained in one 

 season, I for one do not believe." Mr. S. Bevan Fox ia the only 

 one who gave forth a dubious utterance. He writes : " I cannot 

 Bay that I have much confidence in the infallibility of Mr. 

 Lowe's judgment." Then, in summing-up, your excellent cor- 

 respondent, "B. & W.," thus gives his opinion : " Mr. Lowe's 

 valuable mojiograph on the subject, happily corroborative of my 

 own opinion, puts the question in its true light," and thus the 

 " best hive controversy " of 1873 waa summarily dismissed. On 

 these quotations I make no comment, they speak for themselves. 



Let us now revert to the teat case cf the two hives — the straw 

 and the Stewarton — in the " Renfrewshike Bee-keeper's" 

 garden as narrated in a previous article, but which ia more fully 

 explained in his paper of Ist February. By this explanation we 

 have additional light thrown upon the case, and consequently 



