76 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 24, 1866. 



are brown. Are they a different species and superior to the 

 others ? What would yon estimate the weight of honey a 

 Woodbury hive should hold ? — A. M. 



[The mere shape of your hives is of no importance ; but 

 whoever told you that the ten-frame Woodbury hive was too 

 large for your locality was mistaken, as is proved by the bees 

 of the swarm clustering outside your eight-frame hive. Ad- 

 ditional room had better be given to them by putting on a 

 good-sized super. The so-called black bees are really a dark 

 brown, and yours do not differ from others in that respect. 

 The common bee is quite as dark as any nigger we have ever 

 seen. 



We scarcely understand your last question. A Woodbury 

 hive, like all others, should contain sufficient honey to enable 

 its inhabitants to stand the winter, say 13 or 20 lbs. If com- 

 pletely filled, it may contain nearly 50 lbs.] 



UNITING WEAK STOCKS. 



Last autumn I purchased twanty-four hives of bees, in com- 

 mon straw hives. Twelve of them I selected to take and twelve 

 to keep, the latter were second and third swarms, and very 

 light. I fumigated the twelve strong ones, and united the bees 

 to the weak lot, six out of the twelve of which had not 1 lb. of 

 honey each. These I fed all winter with syrup made of 3 lbs. 

 of white sugar with 1 lb. of water, and gave it at the top of the 

 hives in glass bottles, with black net tied over the mouths of 

 the bottles. 



I was obliged to winter the bives at the back of a south wall, 

 where the sun never shone on them at all through the winter, 

 and so damp was the place that the bottom boards were nearly 

 always mouldy, but I cleaned them and dried them before a fire 

 as often as I conveniently could. I likewise cleaned the covers, 

 and dried them. 



Early in spring, when the bees began to stir, I looked into 

 all the hives, and to my dismay found the inside of the hives 

 very wet, and the straw rotten ; the combs also were mouldy, 

 except where the bees had clustered. On the 80th of March I 

 cut all the mouldy comb away, and made a quantity of barley- 

 sugar, and fed the bees with it. I afterwards found that two 

 stocks out of the twelve were queenless, so I united them to 

 the weakest stocks. 



I then took a small allotment garden, in which I erected a 

 bee house, and placed my stocks in it. Since then they have 

 done remarkably well as far as working and thriving goes, but 

 they hung out, and would not swarm ; so, on the 21st of last 

 month, I drove them into empty straw hives. I then knocked 

 them out of the straw hives on to the ground, and put a Wood- 

 bury bar and frame hive easily over them. In this way I drove 

 seven hives, some of which went back, but I drove them again 

 the next day ; then I drove two of them again in about a fort- 

 night afterwards, and another swarmed of its own accord. 



My stock of colonies is now twenty — ten old stocks and ten 

 swarms, all doing well except one old stock, which is queenless. 

 Into this I should like to put a pure Ligurian queen. Can you 

 inform me where I could obtain one, and what her cost would 

 be ? — Israel Todd. 



[Write to T. W. Woodbury, Esq., Mount Radford, Exeter. 

 Perhaps he can assist you in obtaining a pure Ligurian queen.] 



CONSEQUENCES OF REMOVING A SUPER- 

 GREEN HONEY. 



I took a large straw super from a stock hive full of honey on 

 the 14th inst., and replaced it at once by a glass super covered 

 from the light. There was a good deal of brood comb in the 

 super, and I thought I saw a queen, but she was so draggled 

 with honey that 1 could hardly be sure. The comb was very 

 soft from the heat. Since Saturday a massacre has been going 

 on, and there are hundreds, probably thousands, of dead and 

 dying lying in front of the hive. Have I done anything wrong? 

 Shall I leave the glass super on ? The hive was a] very strong 

 one, and had never swarmed. The honey is of a pale green, 

 and in some parts turbid. — W. D. A., Hampstead. 



[We do not see anything wrong in your proceeding, unless it 

 should turn out, as appears probable, that by spilling some of 

 the contents of the super you have attracted robbers, and thus 

 induced an attack by the bees of other hives, which has resulted 



in the death of thousands as you describe. On the other hand, 

 it is just possible that one of those singular internecine wars 

 has broken out within the hive itself which sometimes, although 

 rarely, follow disturbances among bees, and for which it is 

 difficult satisfactorily to account. It can do no harm to leave 

 the super on for the present, but it should be removed when 

 the honey season is over. Green honey is a phenomenon with 

 which we are entirely unacquainted, but which must result 

 from some peculiarity in the pasturage.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



I kept five stocks through the winter, and they all com- 

 menced working well in the spring. Two of them were swarms 

 two years ago, and each of them threw off two swarms last 

 season ; another was a top swarm last year, another a second 

 swarm, and the last was two hives driven together. All at 

 once, however, the driven hive and the two old hives seemed to 

 fall off and to dwindle away. Can you tell the cause of it ? 

 There was not a drone among the bees in one hive which I de- 

 stroyed. Do you think it was on account of their not having 

 any drones that the bees did not breed ? 



The top swarm threw off a top swarm on June 20th, and a 

 second on June 23rd. Between the first and second swarms 

 the bees dragged four queens out, and, after the second, other 

 five queens. How do you account for so many queens, and the 

 second swarm so soon after the first ? We had a hive three 

 years ago that cast three swarms within eight days, and 

 dragged eight queens out between them. — A Constant Reader. 



[We are unable satisfactorily to account for the fact that 

 without apparent disease stocks sometimes seem to dwindle in 

 spring, until at last, as in your case, so few workers remain 

 that breeding languishes if it does not entirely cease. It is 

 certain that the absence of drones has nothing whatever to do 

 with it, whilst we have often proved that in these cases the 

 breeding powers of the queens themselves are not always de- 

 fective, since, when the population of their hives has once been 

 sufficiently recruited, they have frequently shown themselves 

 equal to the task, not only of maintaining, but of rapidly in- 

 creasing it. Swarms follow at short intervals when several 

 young queens mature nearly at the same time, but we can give 

 no reason for the fact that some stocks form many more royal 

 cells than others.] 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Preserving Eggs for Winter Use (Harriet). — Somo preserve eggs 

 by coating them with butter, or with anything that will render them air- 

 tight. Our own way is to keep them in lime, and we can put them on 

 the breakfast table in December as breakfast, and almost aa new-laid, 

 eggs. Take a large common breadpan ; fill the bottom with lime slaked to 

 such consistence that eggs being stuck in it will retain their position. 

 When the bottom is filled with them as closely as can be, but without 

 touching each other, pour lime in a liquid state over them till tbc.v are 

 covered, and a smooth surface is presented. As soon as this is the case, 

 and you have eggs enough to form another layer, follow t-fie same process 

 until the pan is full. You must, of course, suit the si^e of your pan to 

 the number of eggs you are likely to have. When they are likely to come 

 slowly it is better to have a deep vessel, as they should be put in fresh, 

 and it takes some time in autumn to obtain a large number. The appear- 

 ance of a drop of blood in the yolk of the egg and the dropped egg are all 

 unimportant. They merely remind us that the end of the laying season 

 is at hand. 



Brahma Pootras Vct/ture-hocked (J. AM.— So far from being neces- 

 sary that Brahmas should be vulture-hocked to be successful at a poultry 

 show, it is a very great disadvantage ; and if they are shown against 

 birds that are not so disfigured it becomes a disqualification. Neither 

 Cochins nor Brahmas should have vulture hocks. — B. 



Bretagne Cows (Jumcs H.).— You had better call on Mr. Baker, Half- 

 Moon Passage, Gracechurch Street. He sells this variety. If the price 

 do not suit you, we recommend you to inquire in Ireland for one of 

 tin- Kerry cows. They are not more than from 8 feet 2 inches to 

 3 feet 6 inches high. 



POULTRY MARKET— July 21. 



We are gradually drifting into autumn trade, but everything has been 

 out of joint through the unusual heat. A few fresh goods have made 

 very large prices, while many consignments have been thrown away. 

 Should the weather keep moderately cool, low prices only will be realised 



s. d. s. d 8. d. s. d 



Large Fowls S 6 to 4 Guinea Fowls OtoO 



Smaller do 2 0„ 2 6 Partridges 0„0 



Fowls 0„0 Hares 0„»0 



Chickens 1 9„2 ; Rabbits 1 £ » J ■> 



Goslings 0„0 0; Wild do £?"„ 2 



Ducklings 0„ u Pigeons ° o„u » 



