216 



JOUENAL OF EOBTICULTOEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ Beptembet 17, 18S& 



or wood, with either fleeces of wool or several thick plies of 

 woollen cloth, thereby indncing bees to accept often a snper 

 and work steadily and coutinaously in it, while at a lower tem- 

 peratnre such wonld never have been taken to. 



It 13 mainly to the facility with which heated air ascends, 

 and bees being naturally inciined to store honey in the upper 

 portion of their domiciles, to which is to be ascribed the great 

 snccesB of the storilied system, and its superiority over Nutt's or 

 any other collateral system, now so genorally admitted by all 

 practical apiarians. All stock hives should possess facilities for 

 enlarging to a very considerable extent the entrances during 

 the working season, and it is there only th^.t ventilation is re- 

 quisite, and the want of it in the fixed small ones of cot- 

 tegers' hives, and the stifling overheating effects on the brood 

 while built out preparatory to swarming, may, to a considerable 

 extent, account for the prevalence of " foul brood " in such 

 stocks, in comparison with swarms. 



The greet advantage of placing the empty super upon the 

 filling one, instead of between it and the stock hive, doubted 

 by some of your able contributors some time ago, 1 have had 

 most ample opportunities of verifying in the present season 

 with the most satisfactory results. 



Acting on the principles hinted at above, I am never troubled 

 with either brood or pollen in supers of my storified colonies, 

 although some twelve years ago I was much annoyed with both 

 in boxes and glasses, set over a central hole in common straw 

 hives ; and as an example of the benefits of the storifjing 

 system under judicious management, 1 may state that one 

 hybrid Italian colony in Stewarton boxes has yielded me eight 

 octagon supers of 20 lbs. each, or a harvest of IGO lbs. of honey, 

 independently of body honey, and what is yet contained in two 

 supers partly combed still upon it. This octagon pile, standing 

 over 4 feet in height, when in full work, with three largo en- 

 trances for the bees, was to many apiarian friends the greatest 

 marvel they had witnessed, at tho same time being the most 

 profitable stock of bees ever possessed during this, the finest 

 season experienced by their owner, since becoming — A Een- 

 PBEWsniRE Bee-keeper. 



hatching-out of brood. Thus it will be seen that the progress 

 of the colony is retarded by restricting the queen to com- 

 paratively few cells, when it would be an easy matter to nadir 

 the stock, and thus encourage breeding below, whilst insuring 

 the purity and value of the supers, " and," I think I hear some 

 of you exclaim, "produce a lot of worthless drone comb!'" 

 What then ? Better to have it in the nadir than in the super, 

 as would probably be the case if a nadir were not used. When 

 a super is put on, and comb-building commenced in it before 

 tho stock hive is fully charged with brood, and whilst the queen 

 is still in tho height of her laying, the bees will not readily 

 build drone comb ; and if the weather be fine the cells will be 

 extended and filled so rapidly, that a fine well-finished snper 

 will be the result. 



Drone comb in supers is an annoyance to many, and how to 

 avoid it is a puzzle ; but if wo only watch and endeavour to 

 assist nature a little, many such difficulties may be expected to 

 disappear. — A LANAr.Ksnir.E Bee-iceei'er. 



THE USES OF SUPERS. 



The use and management of supers have been so often ad- 

 vocated and explained in " our Journal," that it might almost 

 be deemed unnecessary to say more, were it not that there are 

 many new bee-keepers, who, not having perused the preceding 

 papers, may yet be unacquainted with the economy of the hive, 

 and are therefore seeking information on the subject. As, 

 however, the question at present is how to prevent the queen 

 from entering supers, I will direct my attention principally to 

 that point. 



In the first place, then, I would ask bee-keepers if they have 

 ever seen a division in the brood within the hives in springs 

 i.e., the qaeen depositing her eggs on the opposite sides of the 

 hive ? I say no ; but she rather concentrates her eggs as 

 much as possible (leaving only here and there a chance cell 

 filled with pollen and water for the larva, and honey for the 

 newly-hatched bees, so that they never require to visit the un- 

 occupied part of the hive in order to obtain food), the patches 

 of brood gradually increasing in size until they extend to the 

 edges of the combs — the very time at which, as I stated in 

 my former letters, swarming may be expected, and when in 

 many cases supers are put on. I will not now repeat the direc- 

 tions already given, but wiU merely state what occurs at this 

 period. 



We may, then, suppose that the snper has already been 

 begun, and that every cell in the stock hive is occupied. The 

 queen uneasily searching every part of the hive, and following 

 the track of the workers into the super, will there deposit her 

 eggs. To prevent queens passing into supers by means of 

 gratings, however accurately they may be constructed, is as im- 

 possible as it would be to forge an iron hoop that would exactly 

 fit every one's head, whatever size it might be. That which 

 will prevent one queen from passing through will readily admit 

 another; and what, after all, is the difference in size between 

 a small queen and a heavy-laden worker? A queen, after 

 gaining access to a super, will, if fertile, commence laying eggs, 

 either in the centre or where the bees are most numerous, just 

 in the same manner as in the stock hive, until she comes in 

 contact with the elongated cells partly or wholly filled with 

 honey, when she will again return to the stock hive, and fill 

 up what cells have been emptied during her absence by the 



FAILURES IN UNITING BEES. 

 I began keeping bees in Woodbury ten-bar hives in June 

 last, and stocked four in that month from straw hives by trans- 

 ferring bees and combs. My apiary now consists of eight hives 

 — four ten-bar Woodburys, two small box hives, and two straw 

 hives. The season here (Worcestershire), since the latter part 

 of May has been exceptionally bad, and 1 have therefore been 

 obhgcd to feed liberally, in addition to the honey the bees had 

 collected. 



Being anxious to ligurianise the Woodburys, if I can get 

 them into a sufficiently strong state to live through the winter, 

 I persuaded several people to let me deprive the hives of the 

 bees they intended to take this year. The first two or three I 

 operated upon and united were very successful, with the loss 

 of but few of the bees. I marched the bees into an eke, or be- 

 tween two thick sticks placed upon a cloth, and set the Wood- 

 bury hive upon the top ; but those I have done since, I have 

 been very unfortunate with, though I have operated in exactly 

 the same manner and under precisely the same circumstances. 

 In one case the bees seemed to remain in a heap dead, and in 

 another case, upon looking on the following morning at the 

 hive I had attempted to unite, I was disappointed to find the 

 garden round the hive strewn with half- dying bees, in the 

 front under the alighting-board a heap, and on the floor-board 

 inside the hive a large quantity of dead bees, also quite blocking 

 up the entrance to the hive. I should be much obhged if you 

 give me some information upon this subject. — E. J. C. 



[Kead Mr. Woodbury's articles on " Utilising and Uniting 

 Condemned Bees," which appeared in Nos. 356, 357, 358, and 

 369 ; also that on " Uniting Bees," in page 198 of our present 

 volume. The bees which " remained in a heap dead," had 

 doubtless perished of suliocation after being driven ; those 

 which were strewn about the garden had been lolled or wounded 

 by the other bees. It appeai-s somewhat doubtful whether it 

 may be possible at all times to insure entire exemption from an 

 occasional fatal quarrel of this kind, but the most hkely mode 

 of avoiding it seems to be that pointed out by Mr. Wood- 

 bury — viz., to subdue both parties by subjecting each to the 

 operation of driving. 



The insect which yon sent is a hornet.] 



BEE lEEEGULARITIES. 



If your correspondent, Mr. H. Cullen, had examined the hive 

 referred to in page 104, he would in all probabiUty have found 

 two or more queens, either inside or just as likely outside the 

 hive, in a state of incarceration ; the cause of the erratic ma- 

 noeuvring being that the two queens were held in confine- 

 ment by their subjects. When the commotion of swarming 

 commenced, instead of one swarm leaving, the two swarms 

 made an attempt to leave at the same time, when the bees let 

 go their charge, and the two queens coming in contact with 

 each other their loss was almost certain. This was the cause 

 of the two streams of bees ; the one lot returning to find their 

 queen, while the others were in search of her, when both lota 

 had ultimately to return to their hive. I have seen similar 

 cases in my own apiary, but I always found the queens locked 

 in a deadly embrace. I may mention a case that happened a 

 few miles from my place this summer, when two swarms 

 I issued from the same hive in one day with only two hours-' 



