198 



J0X3BNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEK. 



( September 10, 18C8 



cooked, others raw. All I have spoken to about the matter 

 state that the bees leave nothing but a perfect skeleton. Do 

 yon approve of this ? — H. C. 



[It your three stocks are, as you state, healthy and strong, 

 and you neither wish for their honey nor desire to diminish 

 their number, we should by no means advise you to risk the 

 bees of either of them for the sake of attempting to strengthen 

 one of the others. 



A discussion on the supposed carnivorous propensities of 

 bees took place in our columns during the autumn of 1864. It 

 ended by one of our most valued contributors submitting the 

 alleged fact to the test of actual experiment in a variety of 

 ways, and reporting the result, which was, as might have been 

 expected, that bees can make no use whatever of animal food 

 in any shape or form.] 



UNITING BEES. 



TffE two failures related by " H.," in page 162 of "our 

 Journal," lead me to believe that an article enunciating what 

 I conceive to be the true principles to be sbserved in order to 

 effect peaceful unions of adult bees, and also describing some 

 of the various modes in which these principles may be put into 

 practice, will not be without interest to apiarian readers. 



In the first place, then, I am so convinced by experience 

 that I think we may lay it down as an axiom, that bees are 

 never more likely to unite peaceably than jast after they have 

 been subdued by the operation of being expelled from their 

 hives by driving. 



Secondly, That a number of bees presenting themselves 

 peaceably at the entrance of a hive, and, as it were, asking for 

 admittance with vibrating wings are very frequently received 

 without demur, and that the chances of peaceful fraternisation 

 ii sought in this manner are much increased when the suppli- 

 cants present themselves with well-distended honey-bags. 



It will be perceived, therefore, that both these conditions 

 were most perfectly fulfilled by the Eev. P. V. M. Filleul, 

 better known, perhaps, to the present generation of readers as 

 " B. & W.," who when writing to the then Cottage Gardenek, 

 about eighteen years ago, under the iiom de plume of " A 

 CouNTiiT CuKATE," declared that he had found that if the in- 

 habitants of two or more stocks of bees were driven in suc- 

 cession into the same empty hive a peaceful union would be 

 the result. I may, indeed, at once confess that I do not believe 

 that this simple process can be improved upon, and that it is 

 the one which I should myself adopt if I were desirous of 

 uniting the inhabitants of two common hives situated in the 

 game apiary or within a short distance of each other. 



Mr. Payne's process, on the other hand, is based entirely on 

 the second of my two propositions. He advises that the bees 

 which have been expelled from a hive by driving should in the 

 evening of the same day be knocked out on a cloth spread on 

 the ground, and the stock to which they are to be united 

 having been placed over them supported on a couple of sticks, 

 it is expected that a peaceful union will be effected by the 

 morning. In this case the houseless bees are just in such a 

 state as to render it likely that they will be favourably received : 

 they are well filled with honey, and wo may be very sure that 

 they make their ascent into the inhabited hive with uplifted 

 tails and vibrating wings. I believe that in the majority of 

 cases their advances are well received, the urgently-required 

 shelter being unhesitatingly and ungrudgingly granted to them, 

 and in this case, as Mr. Payne says, " all will be peace and 

 harmony." Bat unfortunately there is a reverse to this de- 

 hghtful picture, and in far too many instances, as was ex- 

 perienced by " H.," daylight reveals, as I have before stated, a 

 sickening scene of slaughter so extensive as to make it more 

 than doubtful if sufUcient bees survive to render the attempted 

 nnion of the slightest advantage to the stock intended to be 

 benefited thereby. 



Some of the various modes in which the principles which I 

 have enunciated may be reduced to practice, will, I think, be 

 best illustrated by describing my proceedings after a bee-driving 

 expedition, which took place on the 27th ult., and which re- 

 sulted in my bringing home three lots of bees. The first was 

 a large mass of bees, being the entire population of a very 

 strong stock, the second a comparatively small cluster from a 

 weaker colony, and the third the combs and bees of an un- 

 fortunate swarm the whole of the combs of which had by some 

 accident been detached from their foundations, and remained 

 when the hive was lifted in a confused heap on the floor-board. 



I commenced proceedings the following morning by looking 

 over a frame-hive containing a colony of black bees, the queen 

 of which I captured and placed in a cage which I secured inside- 

 an empty box in contact with the crown-board. Putting this box 

 on the old stand, I fixed immediately in front and in close con- 

 tact with its entrance, a platform consisting of a half-inch 

 plank some i feet long by 16 inches wide, upon which I shook 

 and brushed off the bees from the combs of the frame-hive, 

 which as fast as they were cleared I conveyed in-doors out of the 

 reach of robbers, whilst their rightful owners skedaddled in 

 profound dismay to avail themselves of the cheerless shelter 

 afforded by the empty box, and solace by their presence the 

 captivity of their queen. When all the combs were cleared 

 they were again arranged in their own hive, which was once 

 more replaced on its stand and deepened by a square frame 

 about 2 inches in depth being added above the frames. The 

 cage containing the queen having been transferred to the crown- 

 board of her own hive, all her bees were knocked or brushed 

 out of their temporary refuge on the top of the exposed bars, 

 and the crown-board put in its place. Whilst the confusion 

 thus produced was at its height, I brought out the mass of 

 fallen combs, and separating layer after layer brushed oS the 

 bees upon the platform, keeping a bright look-out for the 

 queen. All these houseless strangers rushed with vibrating 

 wings to the nearest shelter, which was, of course, the dis- 

 turbed hive, where, as I had expected, they were received with- 

 out opposition, but no queen could I find, and I am disposed 

 to believe that none was present. As soon as this was finished, 

 and the denuded and fragmentary combs conveyed in-doors, I 

 brought out the hive containing the bees from the weak stock, 

 and whilst the rear-guard of their predecessors was still buzz- 

 ing forth what the Germans ciU the " swarm-tuue," the entire 

 cluster was knocked out amongst them on the platform ; the 

 same result partially followed, and the bulk of this second im- 

 migration of strangers speedily found their way inside. Still 

 in this case success was evidently not perfectly complete, and 

 finding after some time that a good deal of confusion continued 

 to exist at the entrance whilst many bees obstinately clustered 

 and hung about the platform, I raised the latter and keenly 

 scrutinised the recusants, whose stubborn obstinacy I was in- 

 clined to attribute to the presence of a queen. Nor were my 

 anticipations unfounded, for her majesty was almost the first 

 bee that met my view. Attempting to seize her, she eluded 

 my grasp, and taking wing was in an instant out of sight. Her 

 absence under the circumstances was, of course, no loss, and 

 1 replaced the platform in the full belief that the truants would 

 speedily betake themselves to the proffered shelter. In this 

 expectation I was, however, doomed to be disappointed, for 

 things remained as before, and finding that no change for the 

 better had taken place, I again lifted and examined the platform 

 and with the like result, for there once more I speedily espied 

 the errant queen. I did not bungle this time, but at once 

 seized her and popped her in at the top of the hive. The 

 change that ensued was almost instantaneous — confusion was 

 at an end, and the platform being replaced the former re- 

 cusants at once set up the " swarm-tune," and in joyful pro- 

 cession marched directly into their new home. Next morning 

 I examined the hive and finding a fine queen at liberty therein, 

 I removed the captive but rightful monarch and left the usurper 

 in the enjoyment of the sovereignty which she had won. I 

 should add, that this union of the inhabitants of three colonies 

 was most successful, not more than a score or two of bees 

 being lost in effecting it. 



The large body of bees which I had secured from the strong 

 stock were manipulated in a somewhat different manner. In 

 this case the queen had been removed some days previously from 

 the stock to which they were to be united, and I commenced 

 proceedings by standing the straw hive containing the new 

 comers in the place of the queeuless colony, erecting the plat- 

 form which I have before described immediately in front of it. 

 Upon this I shook and brushed off all the bees from the combs 

 of the removed stock, eradicating every royal cell during the 

 operation, and conveying the combs in-doors. Having then 

 replaced them in their hive and deepened the latter by the ad- 

 dition of au empty box above the bars, I returned it to its 

 place and knocked down into it the now conjoined cluster of 

 bees, putting on the crown-board immediately, and leaving it 

 undisturbed for the rest of the day. Next morning I lifted oS 

 the upper box and was rather surprised to find that it con- 

 tained the great bulk of the bees, comparatively few having 

 CQUgregated among the combs in the lower hive. Having put 

 a ehallow wooden frame on the top of the latter, I cautiously 



