AuKust 15, 180r.. ] 



.lOUKNAL OF nORTICULTUKK AND COTTAGE GARDKNER. 



139 



keeping tlie liivo much closer and inipoding the progress of the 

 beos. 



Your correspondent's best plan would be to order direct from 

 any of the Stewarton makers a sinj^lo hive as a jiattorn (should 

 hciiot reiiuirt^ more), and if he wish to uda))t bars and slides 

 to the hives ho at present employs, he could add to his order 

 a quantity of bars and slides in length pieces, and these ho 

 could easily cut up to suit his purpose. These hives can ho 

 procured from Stewarton at a price at which no local tradesman 

 will undertake to furnisli them. .Tames .\llan, caliinct-maker 

 there, supplies me. — A Eenfrewshike Cek-kkki'Kh.J 



FECUNDITY OP LIGURIAN QUEENS. 

 Mv apiary is looking more flourishin;,' than before in conse- 

 quence of tiie wonderful bi'eeding powers of the Liginian queen, 

 daughter of one received from Mr. Woodbury. I made the 

 first swarm from this hive by removal on the Gth of May ; on 

 the 9th of .Tunc a very large swarm was thrown off, which has 

 tilled a lar^je super; on the 19th a good second swarm issued, 

 and a large poiiulation was left beliiiid, besides which I robbed 

 it of two brood-combs to strengthen other swarms, and a great 

 nimiber <if liees from this queen are working in two ' ' 'ck hives, 

 to which they seem to have been allowed ontv" ! without 

 opposition, i never saw anything liko the mul!: ;ilo of bees 

 this queen has produced, and drones are also very numerous. 

 —J. L. 



SlTrERING A SWARIM WHEN TIRT^D. 

 STRENGTHENING A WEAK STOCK— FEEDING. 



I COMMENCED keeping bees this season by purchasing two 

 first swarms, which were hived in Pajnie's flat-topped hives on 

 the 6th and 7th of .June respectively. I was absent from home 

 at the time, and, mistaking my directions, a small straw super 

 was placed on No. 1 two days after it was hived. On the 11th 

 of .July I took this super, completely tilled with sealed honey, 

 and weighing Oi lbs. nett. On the 13th, having taken out the 

 honey, I replaced the super in its former position, and it is 

 now apparently nearly full of sealed comb again. 



No. 2 was treated according to the direction in " Bee-keeping 

 for the Many," the glass super not being put on till the 

 eighteenth day after the swai m was hived. In the meantime 

 I fear a swarm had gone off, which was lost ; for the bees 

 appear to be greatly reduced in numbers, and have refused to 

 do anything in the super. The stock-hive, however, does not 

 weigh less than 20 lbs. Do you recommend me to join another 

 .swarm to this by driving, or to let the hive stand the winter as 

 it is ? 



On the 27th of .July I purchased a stock condemned to be 

 burnt, for the purpose of making an experiment in driving. The 

 experiment was perfectly successful, and I took about 1.^ lbs. 

 weight of honey from the hive from which the bees were driven. 

 The weather being very fine at the time, I did not feed the 

 driven bees ; they seemed to work well in their new hive, and, 

 after a day or two, began to carry in pollen abundantly. A wet 

 norning, however, made me nervous about their having enough 

 f )0d, and I determined to give them the " bottle.'' I took up 

 the, volume of The Jours.u, of Hokticultuf.e for 1863, and 

 found that the right proportion of sugar and water w-as 3 lbs. 

 of the former to 2 lbs. of the latter, simmered and boiled for 

 two or three minutes. I made my food according to receipt, 

 put it in the bottle, tied on the net, inverted it over the per- 

 forated zinc, and all seemed well ; but the next morning a dark 

 spot on the ground, covered with a cluster of flies, told a tale. 

 The syTup must have poured down through the hive, causing 

 great consternation to the inhabitants, and at length dropped 

 on the gi'ound, to the great delight of the flies. Since tliat I 

 have given them half a pound of honey ; and now I am feed- 

 ing with barley sugar put in at the bottom, Avhich, however, 

 they do not eat very readily ; in fact they seen to be in a very 

 weak state. 



If this experiment does not succeed, I am determined to tiy 

 again with another colony of condemned bees ; but I am 

 anxious to have a good receipt for bee-food ■without honey. 

 One person strongly recommends treacle and beer ; another, 

 .sweet worts, itc. The cook says if she had to make syrup 

 about the consistency of ordinary honey, she would put 5 lbs. 

 of loaf sugar to half a pint of water. This is very different 

 from the receipt in the Journal. I shoiild also be glad to know 

 whether the food ought to be given soon after the bees are 



driven, or whether it ia better to wait till night. — J. L. Stack- 



IIOUSE. 



[ Some persons recommend placing a small super on a swarm 

 immediately after hiving, and your success would seem to 

 indicate that the plan is a good one. If No. 2 appears weak, 

 wo should di"ive and add to it the beos from a condemned 

 hive. The fault was not in tho food, but in your management 

 of the bottle, which you should test before using, by filling it 

 with water and inverting it. If any run out after it is inverted 

 there is something wrong — the UKUith, perhaps, too wide — and 

 another must bo chosen. The inhabitants of two or three 

 condemned hives sluiidd be united, and fed liberally until they 

 have built combs, and stored them with a nett weight of from 

 15 to 20 lbs., if it be desired to form a strong stock, fit to 

 stand the winter. Food is best given at night.] 



RE:M0VING BEES. 



Be so kind as to inform mo at what time of year and what 

 hour of the day it will be best to move a hive of bees from one 

 side of s(nne buildings to tho other, a distance, perhaps', of 

 40 yards, but not in sight. 



[The best mode of removing a stock of bees so short a dis- 

 tance is, first to carry it to a new situation not less than a mile 

 and a half off, shutting them up in the evening with due care 

 for ventilation. In about three weeks time they may be brought 

 back to a new position in the neighbourhood of their old stance. 

 If moved direct it had better be done very quietly during the 

 depth of winter.] 



RETARDING THE DESTRUCTION OF DRONES. 

 REMOVING A QUEEN. 



I SHALL feel obliged if you will advise me as to the best 

 means of preserving the drones in one or more of my hives for 

 the purpiose of trying to breed a few late Italian queens. Al- 

 though the doctrine of parthenogenesis seems incontrovertibly 

 estabhshed, I should, nevertheless, prefer saving drones bred 

 by my pure queen. This pure queen is now in a bar and frame 

 hive furnished with a fair proportion of drone-comb, and 

 drones are beginning to come forth pretty freely, so that by the 

 middle of .July it will contain a considerable number of these 

 gentlemen. 'Would feeding in case of bad weather, or when 

 the honey harvest begins to fail, induce the bees to allow the 

 drones to remain unmolested ? If the hive still retains the old 

 queen, I would take steps for raising young queens about the 

 7th of August, as by the time they were hatched and ready for 

 the drones the cottagers would have taken down their bees, and 

 the annual massacre would be completed in almost every hive 

 which remained. I should not hke to risk my pure queen in 

 these experiments by removing her to a strange hive and 

 leaving her subjects to raise queens. — J. E. B. 



[Liberal feeding when the natural supply fails may do some- 

 thing to retard the destruction of drones, which, also, bees 

 possessing an old queen are not usually so prompt to com- 

 mence as those presided over by a queen bred this season. 

 Still it is more than probable that you will eventually be com- 

 pelled to remove the queen, and this may be safely done by 

 putting the comb on which she is found into a nucleus box, 

 together with two or three spare combs, and then brushing into 

 it the bees from two or three combs of her own hive. This 

 little colony. Being possessed of a fertile queen, may be rapidly 

 built up into a strong stock by the gradual addition of brood- 

 combs from other hives, and the queen will not run the 

 slightest risk by the removal. ] 



ARTIFICIAL VTSRSus NATURAL SWARMS- 

 DWINDLING STOCK. 



I WAS amused at your correspondent " A Devonshire Bee- 

 keeper " writing that he had had a misfortune in one of his 

 hives swarming natm'ally. I always imagined natural swanns 

 were best. I have not kept bees for many years and therefore 

 am perhaps not competent to give an opinion, but I have tried 

 artificial swarming twice and failed each time. The first time, 

 my new swarm disappeared the day after driving. This year, 

 having a large straw hive crammed with bees and more than 

 .50 lbs. weight of honey, I determined to tiy for an artificial 

 swarm, as the bees had been hanging out for two or three 



