Jaly 4, 1865. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTT \0E GARDENER. 



19 



inferiority of what arc called " artifltial " queeus, wliicli are by 



iomo suppospil to bo so dcticient in instinct as to be more prone 

 to go astray than natural queens, to which, indeed, it is ima- 

 >;iued they are also inferior in fecundity. My experience, \yliich 

 is now a pretty extensive one, satisfies mo that there is no 

 fonndation wliatever for this belief. " Artificial " queens, so 

 oalled, are really as natural as what are genernlly denoniinated 

 •' natural " ones, from which they do not, moreover, differ in 

 the sliKhtest respect. Their fecundity is the same and their 

 instinct by no means inferior. It will be observed that the 

 only "natural" queen that has been produced in my apiary 

 during this season was also the only one to go astray. 



So abundant has been tlie honey harvest that one of my old 

 stocks compelled me, rather late in May, to put on a super. 



Notwithstanding; repeated deprivations of bees and brood for 

 the pui-pose of stocking " nuclei," honey poured in so rapidly 

 that the breeding sjiacc was fast reaching the vanishing point 

 when I tardily afforded tliem the much-required accommoda- 

 tion. This was at once taken possession of, and all went well 

 until the 13th of .June when a swann emerged, but did not 

 cluster, and presently returned to the parent hive. Knowing 

 that the queen was disabled in one wing through ill-treatment 

 liy a swai-m of black bees wliich were united to her subjects in 

 tiie autuimi, I instituted a diligent search ; but failing in finding 

 her, hoped she had not attempted to take wing, and turned my 

 attention to the old hive, which I examined likewise witliout 

 success, but from which I excised every royal cell I could find. 

 On the 19th of .June I repeated my examination, again excised 

 whatever royal cells I could discover, and introduced a young 

 queen hatched on the 11th and which hail exhibited signs of 

 fecundation. A subsequent examination, five days aftenvards, 

 revealing huncU-eds of eggs in the first coml) lifted out was so 

 satisfactory that it was not further proceeded with, and the 

 stock working vigorously has now nearly completed its super, 

 tlie nett contents of which when filled will not be much under 

 iO lbs. and which I hope to he able to allow Messrs. Neighbour 

 to exhibit at Phnuouth during the forthcoming show of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society. 



in conclusion I would invite such of the readers of " Our 

 .Tourual" as may be disposed to doubt the possibilityi of an 

 experimental apiary being also a thoroughly prosperous one to 

 pay a visit to that of — A Devonshire Bee-keeper. 



BEES IN YORKSHIRE. 



As reports from this district are very rare in the .Journal, it 

 may interest your apiarian readers to know that the season so 

 far has been a favourable one for bee-keepers. Swarms have 

 been nrmierous, and there is no lack of honey. We have had 

 more than five weeks of fine weather, interrupted only by three 

 days rain ; and although the excessive heat and drought are 

 uot very favoiu'able to honey-gathering, yet the continuance of 

 so many fine days without a break, adds continually to the 

 .-tores of the hive. The cold nights also have induced frequent 

 hea\'y dews, which always tell well. 



The hives here stand rather thick on the ground, there being 

 upwards of forty within the radius of a mile ; but I believe all 

 are doing well. As soon as our chickens ai'e hatched and may 

 be safely counted, I hope to give some account of my own pro- 

 ceedings and those of one or two of my neighljours. Mean- 

 while, for the sake of comparing with other districts, I note the 

 large nmnber of double swarms which have occurred this season, 

 the union taking place without fighting, except in the case of 

 the queens ; al.so, the prevalence of drone-comb in the supers. 

 .Vm I right in attributing this to an iibmidance of honey, which 

 can be stored more rapidly in this way than in worker cells ? — 

 F. H. West, Fotternewton, nrar Leeds. 



[We shall be obliged by reports of the results of the honey 

 harvest from different localities. The ingathering from the 

 lime-tree blossoms is now at its height near London. — Eds.] 



THE MASON WASP. 



On the front of the gentleman's house where I reside _ as 

 gardener, I was staking some sweet peas, when my attention 

 was drawn to something like earth on the ledge outside the 

 window, but upon closer examination it prtjved to be a nest of 

 larv.T, like little catterpillars. There were four closed tubes 

 rather larger than tobacco pipes, one of which I broke off to 

 see what it was like. I took the top off one of the other tubes 

 anil stood looking at the minute grubs. In a few minutes a large 

 wasp cau.e humming up and alighted on the top where I had 

 made the hole. It looked very closely at the hole which I had 

 made, then tlewaway, and I thought no more of it till looking 

 on the gravel there was the wasp. Up it flew to the tidies and 

 deposited some very fine dust or sand, and then fonned it mto 

 a puddle, and filled the little hole up wliich I had made, and 

 then flew away. — J. B. 



[The wasp which formed the mud cells described above, is 

 one of the Solitary Mason wasps (Odyuerus), of which there is 

 a considerable niimber of British species. We shall be glad to 

 see a specimen of the wasp itself, as the cells were rather 

 imusual in form. — W.] 



The To-iD a Bee-eater. — I have heard that our common 

 toad would devour bees, but I would not believe the assertion 

 until last week. I was then watching my bees as they were 

 '•oiuing in and out of the hive, and to my surprise I saw a 

 large toad in front of the bees, in a bed of cabbages, devouring 

 them as fast as they flew down or near where he was. Will you 

 inform me whether this is a usual occurrence ? — James N . 



[It is well known, and has been long known, that the toad is 

 a most determined apicide. — Eds.] 



BEES IN NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 



The Times of Friday last says :— " On Wednesday after- 

 noon, about five o'clock, not a little excitement and astonish- 

 ment was caused in New Burlington Street by the circumstance 

 of a swarm of bees alighting on a cab wliich had just drawn up 

 at a restaurant. A man having procured a hive, set to work, 

 and with assistance succeeded in securing the whole of the 

 unexpected visitors, and took them away. A swarm of bees is 

 rarely if ever seen in the streets of London, but it is not an 

 uncommon occurrence for a swarm to stray considerable dis- 

 tances." Referring to the foregoing paragraph, Mr. Alfred 

 Neighbour writes us as foUows :— " The bees were ours. A 

 swarm, being ordered to be sent into the country the following 

 morning, was placed temporarily on the leads at the back of 

 this house (149, Regent Street). The sun shining hot on the 

 hive, or some other cause, induced them to decamp. Some 

 one told us that the bees had arrested the progress of a cab, 

 and we sent our man to bring the truants back, which he suc- 

 ceeded in doing, followed by a crowd to this door, who were 

 evidently amazed at the sight of the " 'oney bees," as the 

 cockney' lads called them. Cabby had to be compensated for 

 the loss of his fare, and so you may imagine that not a little 

 commotion was caused. I thought that from the cireumstHUce 

 of the paragraph appearing in the ' leading joiu-nal' you might 

 make an extract for The Journal of Horticulture, and that 

 it might be as well to put you in possession of the real facts. 

 New Burlington Street is the next street to this going towards 

 Oxford Street." 



CAUTION. 



The following advertisement has appeared in several recent 

 Numbers of the Times : — 



" How to Take the Honey out of the Hive without Destroying 

 the Bees. Full particulars will be sent to any part of the 

 United Kingdom on the receipt of 12 postage stamps and a 

 directed stamped envelope. Apply, &c. Warranted perfectly 

 safe." 



Lest any of our apiarian readers should be induced by the 

 above to part with a shilling in the hope of learning " some- 

 thing to their advantage," we may state that the operation 

 prescribed by the advertiser is neither more nor less than that 

 of stupefying bees by means of chloroform, a process which 

 has already been fully tested and most emphatically condemned 

 by several of our ablest apiarian contributors. 



OBTAINING AN ARTIFICIAL SWARM. 



I purchased a swarm of Ligurian bees on the 5th of last 

 month, and put them into a full-sized Woodbury bar and frame 

 hive. As far as I can see, the hive appears to be fuU of cr mb ; 

 I would like to have an artificial swarm from it. I 'ntend 

 taking the swarm off in the following manner, which ha lieiu 

 recommended in the Journal— viz., by taking a brood comb out 

 of tlie hive, and putting it into a smaller hive, and placing the 

 empty hive with the brood comb in it on the place where the 

 other hive stands. I suppose I must do this in the middle of a 



