162 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTTJEE AND COTTAGE G.UIDENEE. 



[ August 1, 1865. 



autnnm and winter. About the middle of June this year, I 

 took off a beautiful glass-box super of 3.5 lbs. cari'j'iug it into a 

 rather dark arbour. At first I tried whether the bees would 

 leave without my having resort to driving, but after waiting an 

 hour, and finding the bees apparently almost as niunerous as 

 at the commencement, I proceeded to drum them out, and in 

 five minutes the majority of the bees had ascended into the 

 upper receptacle. 



I think, then, that enough has been said to demonstrate the 

 fact that di-iviiig can be safely resorted to for the puqiose of 

 freeing supers from the bees, xiro'sided due care and pi'ecaution 

 be taken, that much needless waste of time may be saved, 

 and the operator be preserved from all appeheusions of the 

 coveted stores being appropriated by the bees instead of by 

 himself. I shall be pleased if the foregoing hints be of use 

 to other apiarians. — S. Bevan Fox, Exeter. 



BEES IN 1865. 



I COMMENCED bee-keepiug about the 20th March last, Avhen I 

 purchased a hive of bees, a last year's swarm, and at that time 

 very hght, but \vith plenty of bees, and half full of comb. I fed 

 them for a short time and soon they began to work. As in 

 May they increased very fast, I wi-ote to ask you how to make 

 an artificial swaim in order to stock a set of Nutt's boxes, when 

 you replied that it was too difficult a task for an inexperienced 

 bee-keeper. My bees, as I stated, were so situated at a distance 

 that I could not watch them, so that if they swarmed I should 

 be very likely to lose them. I, therefore, resolved to make the 

 attempt. May 25th, between one and three o'clock, I took the 

 old stock off the stand placing an empty hive in its stead. The 

 full hive or stock I can-ied some distance off, then tui-ued it 

 upside down in a bucket, placing the pavilion over it, first 

 securing the zinc slides and covering them witli straw. I then 

 tied a cloth round where the hives met iind began tajipiug the 

 old one. They buzzed awhile and then began to march up the 

 sides of the pavihou and clustered at the top. I tUted the hive 

 and saw the combs were quite deserted. I then placed the 

 pavilion on a cloth and took the old hive back to its stand. 

 The bees that had mustered, laden with pollen, &c., rushed in. 

 They seemed disturbed for a time and searched the hive all over. 

 The swarm I took a mile and a half off and left it. 



The old stock went on well, all busy carrying honey but very 

 few pollen. They each day increased in numbers and soon 

 showed signs of swarming by hanging out, so I tried again on 

 June 20th, and drove the bees in a flat-topped empty hive, but 

 in turning the old hive down on the stand I dropped a large 

 piece of comb filled with honey ; I took it away, but the sun 

 being so hot caused more to drop, so that the bees could not 

 get either in or out. I then thought it would be best to take 

 the old hive away and put the di-iven bees back on their old 

 stand. They have now quite fiUed the empty hive with comb. 

 I strained 20 lbs. of beautiful honey from the old hive, but 

 found no brood. The swarm went on increasing in numbers 

 and stores, soon filling the pavihon with comb and honey. 



I went to see them on the 2nd of July, when I found them 

 hanging out in a gi-eat cluster at the front ; so on July 3rd, I 

 smoked them in, but during the day they had coimnenced 

 ■working in two glasses that I put on, and at night I brought 

 them home and put the hive together, opening one of the end 

 boxes which they soon took possession of, and commenced 

 comb-building. I then perceived a quantity of dead bees in 

 the side box and several bees fighting, and as I had just read an 

 answer given by you in a similar case, advising an opening in 

 the end box for the exit of the bees, I made one three-quai-ters of 

 an inch-long by three-eighths of an inch high, but that night 

 turned out cold and wet. The wind from the south-west so 

 blew through the opening I had made that next day there 

 were not so many bees in the side box, but they had cleared all 

 the dead out, and have since quite deserted it. ' I have stopped 

 the hole with a cork. The weather is stiU cold and showery, 

 so I suppose it is too cold in the box, but they have almost if 

 not quite filled two of Neighbour's beU-glasses, so I should Uke 

 to hear if I have done right. I should also like to know the 

 best way to join bees to others, if by fumigating and securing 

 the queen, or driving ; and whether it matters securing the 

 queen, and how, if di'iven ; and what respecting queen encase- 

 ment, tor I cannot see the inside of my hives as if they were 

 bar-hives. — A New Beginner. 



[Your question and auswerfreferred to transferring an old 

 Btock of bees to a Nutt'a hive, not to stocking it with an arti- 



ficial swarm, in which you appear to have succeeded admirably, 

 where a beginner might well have failed. Your attempt to 

 force a second swarm on the 20th Jime, was a mistake. As 

 you found no brood in the old hive on that occasion, the pro- 

 bability is that the young queen had not begun egg-laying, so that 

 the falling of the combs was very likely the best thing that could 

 have happened, as without eggs or brood no queen could have 

 been reared. Unfavourable weather was, probably, the sole 

 reason of your bees deserting the side box. The best mode of 

 effecting autumnal unions is by chiving, as recommended in 

 page 59 of the fifth edition of '"Bee-keeping for the Many." 

 We always remove one of the queens, but it does not appear to 

 be very essential, as it is only in comparatively rare cases that 

 we have found both sacrificed.] 



NUTT'S COLLATERiVL BOX-HrS'E versus 

 STORIFYING. 



H.wiNG read at page 40 of " our Journal '' " Squib's " letter 

 asking your opinion respecting " Nutt's collateral boxes " as 

 compared with the storifying system, I may perhaps be 

 allowed to make one or two remarks respecting both methods as 

 they have answered with me. I have three stocks in three differ- 

 ent kinds of hives. No. 1 is in a set of Nutt's collateral boxes. 

 Last season I took about 20 lbs. of pure honey from one box, 

 and 15 lbs. from the other box, leaving the breeding-box un- 

 touched, and I shaU obtain as much from it this season. 

 No. 2, is on the storifying principle, in a square box 16 inches 

 square by 10 inches deep. I have given both the same atten- 

 tion in every respect, and as far as the season has passed I feel 

 sure I shall not have half so much honey from No. 2 as from 

 No. 1, for at present they have not quite filled a glass super of 

 8 inches diameter. No. 3 is a hive I had sent me from Ger- 

 many in a straw skep last February, and when it reached me 

 it was in a sad state, suffering fi'om dysentery ; but following 

 yoiu- directions, for which I beg to thanli you, and keeping the 

 floor-board scrubbed eveiy morning with boiling water and 

 soda, they recovered, and increased so rapidly that at the end 

 of May they were stronger than No. 1, which is thi'ee years 

 old ; and I was compelled to place a frame-hive alongside of 

 the straw skep, and so let them pass through the latter to 

 prevent their swarming. I tried to drive them in the spring, 

 as directed by Mr. Woodbury, but failed, and I find they are 

 more reluctant in leaving a straw for a box-hive. This German 

 hive is also placed in a collateral position with the frame-hive, 

 which last they are also fiUing, and from them I shall not 

 have much less than 40 lbs. of honey. But much depends on 

 the management, and I admit I am not so well versed in the 

 piling system as in the collateral ; but what may answer with 

 one person may be a total failm'e with another. All I can 

 add is, that I find the bees prefer working on a level in pre- 

 ference to carrj-ing their stores up two hives ; and therefore 

 I world recommend "Squib" to try both ways, as being the 

 best advice of one who uses Nutt's hives. — T. S. 



[We are very glad to " hear both sides ;"' but in order to 

 give the storifying system a fair chance you should try it with 

 a stock-hive of reasonable size. A box 16 inches squai'e by 

 10 inches deep is much too large for the purpose.] 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



BuTTERFirEs andMoths IT. R. ilrdSv).— Stainton'8 "Manual of British 

 Butterflies and Moths," in two small volumes, will suit your young friend- 

 It is pubUsbed hy Van Voorst, and is cheap. 



Stewakton Hive (Yorkshire] — Mr. Eaglesbam, we believe .is dead- 

 Apply to Mr. Paton, Joiner, Stewarton, Ayrshire. We are informed that 

 more than two hundi-ed sets of these hives have heen sent from Stewarton 

 this year. 



Unfertii,e Queen {A Eeadcr). — An examination of the spermatheca of 

 the queen bee which accompanied your letter, proves it to be. like that oj 

 the queen submitted to me by " R. S.," destitute of the slightest trace of 

 spermatozoa. She may, of course, be either a young qiieen or a very old 

 one. If a young queen she has certainly not been impregnated — if an 

 old one she has become completely exhausted, and if she laid eggs they 

 would (like those of a virgin queen I prodtiee drones only. A few lines 

 stating how far the actual historj- of the defunct queen either con'oborates 

 or contradicts the conclusion at which I have arrived will greatly oblige 

 — .A Devonshire Bee-keeper. 



Dimensions of Woodbury FRA3iE-Hi\-ES(J.Coirfl?70.- Woodbiuy frame- 

 hives are 14J inches square by 9 inches deep inside. Full directions for 

 constructing them, from the pen of llr. Woodbuiy himself, are given in 

 the fifth edition of "Bee-keeping for the Many" which you cau obtain 

 from this office by sending five postage-stamps. 



Uniting Bees (R. C.).— The best mode of condensing yom* ten stocks 

 into five is by driving and uniting adjoining stocks as recommended and 

 described in page 59 of the lifth edition of "Bee-keeping for the Many." 



