64 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ Jannary 16, 1868. 



■would answer for feeding driven bees. Its not being affirmed 

 that it wotild do so, I had resolved to try it myself. Out of 

 nine driven lots of bees on the 31st of July I kept thiee, and 

 designate them thus : D, beat-outs (two joined, 5 lbs. weight), 

 placed in an octagon, straw, bar-and-frame (3), hive, home-made, 

 and inducted at the same time as driven ; and E, beat-outs 

 (single, 2* lbs.) placed in a 13-inch square box hive with bars and 

 frames. To feed these, I purchased a quantity of the cheapest 

 coarse brown sugar I could procure, made it into syrup, and 

 commenced feeding therewith from the top of the hives, keep- 

 ing the supply constant. This was readily taken by the bees, 

 and in fifteen days D's hive was nearly combed, and a little 

 food stored. E had six combs about halfway down, also a little 

 stored. The weather being warm and open, and the scent from 

 the syrup being strong, wasps were very troublesome. 



I discontinued feeding for three weeks, when I again began 

 ■with the same kind of food, but now I could not in any way in- 

 duce the bees to take it. Day after day a few bees might be seen 

 at the full feeder, apparently indifferent ; store the food they 

 ■would not. I tried adding honey to it, but with no better success, 

 and after a week's farther trial I was still no nearer my object of 

 inducing them to store their combs, so I gave up the attempt, 

 and tried the best brown sugar. This they at once began to 

 store; also to extend their combs. Theywould store any amount 

 — in fact, the two hives have been made up to weight with 

 this. They have a fair share of sealed comb. I weighed them 

 on the 4th of December, and found that each had con- 

 sumed 2t lbs. from the 17th of October. To establish each 

 hive of bees cost 8s. 6rf. They are healthy, and, I believe, will 

 be found all right in the spring. 



From this trial it would appear that the coarser sugar will 

 not answer, except for the first week or two of comb-building. 

 The combs are remarkably white. Personally I should object 

 to its use, as from the very strong scent emitted wasps are ex- 

 ceedingly troublesome to the bees ; besides which, bees from 

 other hives attempt to rob, causing fighting and restlessness at 

 hives. 



A few further notes relative to the driven single lots of bees 

 of the autumn of 1866 may not be without interest (for their 

 previous history see vol. si., page 399). From the time of 

 driving, each hive of bees was rapidly fed up to weight. They 

 ■wintered well, and became active and strong. Of the two given 

 away, one threw a swarm on the 11th of last June, and a cast 

 on the 23rd. From the other a swarm issued on June 16th, 

 and from some cause returned ; but on the 1st of July it threw 

 off a very large swarm, which was retained by myself, and dis- 

 tinguished as C. At its head there was a fine and prolific 

 queen. This did not swarm ; it became, and stUl is, very 

 strong, and had the season been favourable would, I have little 

 doubt, have given a handsome super : even as it was, it gathered 

 more than either of my old stocks. I now dismiss them, merely 

 expressing confidence in the experiment, and assure other bee- 

 keepers who may desire to ti-y the like, that they need have no 

 fear of the result. 



The year 1867 leaves me with sis hives of bees, one being 

 Italian, and I think all are in favourable^condition. — J. G. C, 

 South Northaiiq'tunshire. 



departed ere its full blossom was shed, and to this cause 

 must be ascribed the deficiency of the honey harvest in the 

 locality where I reside. However, with glasses well filled, one 

 of which weighed 25 lbs., and stocks sufficiently stored to 

 carry them through autumn and winter, I have not much room 

 for complaint. There were also a few fine days in August, 

 during which considerable progress was made in honey- 

 gathering. 



Though the season, therefore, has not been equal to many 

 others, it can bear most favourable comparison with 1853, 

 1851, and 1862, when the collection of honey was nil. 



The same thermometer, in the same situation, which 

 this year indicated 70° for upwards of several days, never rose 

 above 58° during June and July in 1862, and I had not a 

 single swarm. With Mr. Lowe I regard a " swarm on the 

 ■wing " as one of the most beautiful sights that the eye can 

 behold. 



There is this year, in my immediate neighbourhood, a 

 peculiarity in the character of the honey from which I am 

 happily exempt — viz., it is dark, treacly, and insipid, and so 

 offensive to the eye as to repel many from eating it. The 

 aphides bear the blame, and perhaps they deserve it. 



December, now closed, has been a very ti-ying month to bees, 

 owing to the sudden and frequent changes of temperature. The 

 10th proved a most destructive day. It was fine and mild till 

 about 2 p.ii. The hives felt the influence, and sent out their 

 inmates in myriads ; but an unexpected cold set in. Bees on 

 the wing were chilled before they could return to their homes, 

 and they perished in vast numbers. I was from home at the 

 time, but on the following day I collected about three thousand 

 immediately in front of the hives, and succeeded, by the appli- 

 cation of a little heat, in recovering a good many. The consti- 

 tutions of resuscitated bees that have been subjected to any 

 lengthened exposure are, however, always to some extent under- 

 mined, if not destroyed. 



In common with those readers of the Journal who wel- 

 come it for the apiarian page alone, I perused with much 

 interest the account given of the Egyptians' doings in Edin- 

 burgh. The short interval between first and second swarms, 

 and the vast numbers of young queens reared to supply the 

 place of the old one, are features quite new in our past ex- 

 perience. 



No one has yet responded to Mr. Woodbury's request for ' 

 suggestions as to how humble bees might be conveyed to Aus- 

 tralia. I have found their queens during winter hybemating 

 in a mound of garden earth, apparently without any protection 

 save what the earth afforded. 



Might not mould, mixed with moss, be put into a small jar, 

 and the jar be deposited within a Syrian water cooler, and be 

 thus made to answer the purpose of an ice room ? 



I throw out the suggestion, which may be worth nothing, in 

 the hope that others wUl follow. — E. S. 



HONEY HAIl^^3ST OF 1867. 



Eepop.ts of the honey season of 1867 from dift'erent parts 

 of the kingdom have now appeared in the Journal, but, so far 

 as I have observed, not one has been sent in from Dumfries- 

 shire. 



Here, as in Edinburgh, the bees came through the winter 

 splendidly, being injuriously afi'ected neither by the severe 

 frosts of January nor the mild open weather of February. On 

 the 15th of the latter month pollen-gathering commenced, and 

 when March arrived the apiary was fuU of promise ; but from 

 that time forward the weather became cold and ungenial, and 

 during the early part of June the most flourishing hives were 

 found to be retrograding, and would soon have perished from 

 their stores becoming exhausted, had not a favourable change 

 taken place on the 17th. 



The last week of June and first thirteen days of July were 

 all that the apiarian could desire, and the bees were not slow 

 in taking advantage of the opportunity offered of collecting 

 from such flowers as could be fonnd. Had the white clover 

 been as abundant as in former years, the yield of honey would 

 have been large, but it was both late in making its appearance. 

 and very scant when it did appear. The fine weather had 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



■WrNG OF Bkown Red Ga.ve Cock {An Inquirer).— k dai'k russet brown 

 bar is the proper colour on the winjr of a Brown Red Game cock, and not 

 black. There is often a pi-een bar across the middle of the wing, bat not 

 always. The lower end of the winf? should be of a dusky, dark, smoky 

 bro^-n, and not black. A Brown Red cock should show no black at all, 

 except in the tail, legs, nails, beak, and eyes: and should "cut out" very 

 dark, with dark flufl' at the root of the tail.— Newmarket. 



Turkeys at the Han-ley Show^ (.4 Lool-er-on). — 'We are not acquainted 

 with the weight of the birds. You seem to overlook the fact that great 

 weight is not the only qualification for success. Birds in best condition 

 at Manchester might be not in high condition at Hanley. 



Geoo-d Oats (Buneim).— Write to Mr. Agate, Slaugham Mills, near 

 Crawley, Susses. 



Egg Testers (C. i.).— 'We have no faith in them. We certainly would 

 not place eggs a month old under a hen if we could have others more 

 fresh. "We do not mean that some of them would not produce chickens ; 

 but, as a rule, eggs not more than a fortnight old produce the strongest 

 chickens. 



Man-gold W'crtzei, ron Fowls (TF. GoUing).—lt boiled it is a veiy 

 good addition to their food. 



Makdaets and Caeolixa Ducks (S. B.).— They would not succeed in 

 a space G feet square. 



Cheap ErncrEXT Htve— Ligitbiaks (.Ycio Sutsmicr).— Try Payne'3 

 Improved Cottage Hive, described in page 5 of "Bee-keeping for the 

 3Iany," but of a rather larger size, say 16 inches diiuneter by 9 inches 

 deep, and adopt the storifying system in place of the colLateral. ^ Write 

 to Mr. Woodbury, Mount Radford. Exeter, for information regarding Li- 

 gurians. You will find in "The Gardener's Almanack ■' for the present 

 year, published at this office, price Is., or free by post for fourteen stamps, 

 a bee calendar from 5Ir. Woodbery's pen, which is prououaced by com- , 

 peteut authority to be the most complete. 



