July 10, 1858. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



37 



Around this neighbourhood there are many bees kept, but I 

 cannot hear of any one else having to complain of the sparrows. 

 My employer has a dozen hives, and I have watched to see if 

 their bees get picked up, but I havo never seen them thus 

 attacked, nor were mine until this year. 



My practice in driving bees is, after the bees have been 

 driven in the autumn, to unite them to other stocks, but I 

 kept one stock in a hive by itself, feeding it liberally through 

 the winter lust year, and it will well repay mo for my trouble, 

 it being now a strong colony, with bees hanging out at tho 

 hive, when I put on a small super and found the hive very 

 heavy. 



The syrup I fed them with was made from 12 lbs. of sugar 

 without any honey in it. 



Around here cottagers are still very fond of the match or 

 sulphur, and my employer kindly allowed me to go and drive 

 several hives for parties around here, to introduce the system 

 of driving instead of destroying ; but I find most of them did 

 not live through the winter, which I attribute to their not 

 being well and liberally fed. 



Swarms have been very late around here, and many have 

 returned to their hives again after being hived. One of mine 

 has been hived twice and returned both times. A neighbour's 

 did the same, but stayed tho third time. Our rector had one 

 which swarmed, went back, and stayed the second time. He 

 had another the other day, and they have not come out again 

 as yet. — M., Sheldon, near Birmingham. 



SUPERIORITY OF THE LIGURIAN BEE. 

 The readers of " our Journal " will, I think, be interested 

 in what I am doing with my new apian friends the Ligurians. 

 I am endeavouring to test their qualities by a simple expert- 

 mentum cruets, by the adoption of the old straw-hive system, 

 pure and genuine, and of course my experiments in this direc- 

 tion, in omnibus ceteris paribus, will settle certain criteria more 

 satisfactorily than the more scientific mode of propagation by 

 artificial swarming. I am hiving them, then, this season, by 

 the old method : stowing away the swarms as they make their 

 appearance, and am brought to these conclusions : — 



1st, As regards the localities which they select for swarming, 

 I see no difference in any respect whatever between the Ligu- 

 rian and common black bees. All mine have alighted favour- 

 ably for hiving, and that not more than a few yards from their 

 domiciles. 



2nd, As regards their comparative good nature, my conclu- 

 sions are that they are far more energetic and irascible in 

 defending their queen than are common bees, and without a 

 bee dress and strong gloves it would be, in nine cases out of 

 ten, absolutely dangerous to attempt to hive them, if not im- 

 possible. When in their hives I do not perceive that they are 

 less harmless than their less aristocratic confreres. 



3rd, They are prolific to a degree, and with a rapidity which 

 is perfectly astonishing, as the following results will show. I 

 began the present season with six Ligurian stocks, I think 

 pure : — 



1st, Swarmed May 27th, and threw out a large swarm of cast 

 and colt. June 8th. 



2nd, Swarmed June 3rd ; cast June 15th. I expect every 

 moment a third swarm from this. 



3rd, Swarmed also June 3rd ; cast June 19th ; colt. June 21st. 

 4th, Swarmed June 8th ; cast June 19th ; colt. June 21st. 

 5th, Swarmed June 9th ; cast June 20th ; colt. June 22nd. 

 6th, Swarmed June 23rd. This was my best and strongest 

 stock, but it had a large box beneath the hive, which accounts 

 for its being last. 



Besides this, I have had two maiden swarms, and expect 

 another to-day (June 26th). The first maiden swarm came 

 after having been hived twenty days ; the second in twenty- 

 nine days. This surely shows that the Ligurians are as active 

 as they are prolific. 



4th, This proves also that the old system cannot be adopted 

 with Ligurians without doubling at least the size of their 

 hives. To make my experiments absolutely and fairly compara- 

 tive, I used hives of the usual kind, in common use in my 

 neighbourhood. I daresay some will smile and think this a 

 bungling system of experimentation ; but at all events I have 

 got some facts worth having. About the honey harvest I can- 

 not speak with any certainty ; but when I ponder on their multi- 

 plication I cannot help thinking of " poor curates " with large 

 families and no prospect of preferment. Nous vcrrons. I began 



tho soason with six hives. I have already, with these, twenty- 

 throe ! and have capped at least half-a-dozen more ! ! — Willia}- 

 Law, Miirstun '1'ruxsel! Rectory, Theddingworth, Rugby. 



1\S. — Since the above was written I havo had another second 

 swarm, and unless I had takon means to prevent it, should 

 havo had on Saturday last (30th June), two more maiden 

 swarms, and one of those from a cast, which came out on 

 8th of June. The account of the Ligurian department of my 

 apiary, therefore stands thus : — I began with six hives ; I have 

 now in full work, and with every prospect of making good 

 stocks, twenty-three hives, and had I not prevented two from 

 swarming, should have had twenty-five ! All this is the re- 

 sult simply of natural swarming, in which I have allowed the 

 bees to follow their own instincts. My experiments have been 

 carried out on the fairest principles I could adopt, and are 

 strictly comparative. I had no other object than simply to 

 ascertain for myself, and in my own way, whether the Ligu- 

 rian bee is really so superior to the common species as it has 

 been described to be, and I have no hesitation in saying that 

 the result is that I am so thoroughly convinced of their supe- 

 riority in every way, that I mean to keep no others. 



[It may not be amiss to add that the above extraordinary 

 results have actually been achieved by two stocks which left 

 my apiary, one in the autumn of 1864, and the other during 

 the spring of 1865. — A Devonshire Bee-keeper.] 



SECOND SWARMS— TAKING HONEY FROM 

 SUPERS— LIG URIAN S . 



Being as yet but a novice in the management of bees. I am 

 anxious for information under the following circumstances. I 

 began this season with three good strong stock hives : — 



No. 1 is rather a small common straw hive, and it gave mo 

 on the 26th of May a very fine swarm. 



No. 2 is also very strong, and in a large wooden hive, having 

 externally nearly the same appearance as Tegetmeier's hive, as 

 figured at page 13 of " Bee-keeping for the Many," but 

 arranged inside in the following manner : — The bottom or 

 main part of the hive is 13 J inches square inside by 11 inches 

 deep, fitted with eight bars from front to back of the hive, and 

 which, unfortunately, are fixed, and prevent my obtaining 

 artificial swarms. Above the bars half-inch strips of wood 

 are fixed, dividing the top into four equal squares, into 

 which fit four six-inch square moveable boxes or supers ; by 

 placing thin sheets of zinc or glass under the supers, com- 

 munication with the hive is cut off, and it can again be restored 

 at pleasure to any one or all of the supers by drawing out the 

 sheets of zinc or glass. From the half-inch spaces between 

 the bars affording such free access to the supers I never 

 have the least trouble in the bees taking to them. I may add 

 that the two sides of the bottom or main part of the hive are 

 furnished with a window about 5 inches square and covered 

 with a sliding shutter ; the supers also have each a small 

 window about 3 inches square, which is very convenient for 

 ascertaining the state of the supers, and also, in my case, 

 adds very greatly to the pleasure I have in watching the 

 progress and rejoicing in the prosperity of my industrious little 

 favourites. A moveable casing of half-inch wood forms the 

 roof and covers the supers, and in winter I keep it neatly 

 and warmly thatched with hay and straw down to below tho 

 floor-board, my object being to encourage early breeding. 



This hive, No. 2, sent off a very strong swarm on June 6th, 

 and at the present time has the four supers well filled with 

 honey, and also a good quantity in the bottom or main part of 

 the hive. 



No. 3 is a large-sized straw hive, and very strong (it is a 

 swarm from No. 1 of last year, and came off on May 19th). 

 This year No. 3 has given me, June 3rd, a strong swarm which 

 came off by 9 o'clock a.m. 



Now as I have been anxious to increase the number of my 

 hives, I have expected second swarms from each, being so 

 strong, in about from nine to fourteen days from first swarms, 

 but up to this date I have had none, although for the last four 

 or five days each of the three hives has clustered outside en 

 masse, quite equal to anything I have seen preceding first 

 swarms, the inside of the hives also appearing much disturbed, 

 but as yet I have failed to hear tbe cry of a queen in any of 

 the three. The maximum temperature here in the shade has 

 been during the last eight days as follows: — June 21st, 70°, 

 67°, 78°, 83°, 87°, 91°, 75°, and to-day, June 28th, 76°. This 



