AuRuxt 7, 1866. J 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



115 



It may also well bo supposed that the trachcan system of the 

 Egyptian bee will be strengthened by a greater activity during 

 our winter. On the 16th of this month (Junuary, 1865), the 

 bees of an Egyptian stock were flying quite strongly at 4° in 

 the shade, aud 9° B. in the sun, betwen 10 and 11 o'clock in 

 the momiug. No bee got chilled, and no sigu of dysentery 

 could bo perceived. I could not suppress my curiosity, and 

 opened an Egyptian stock. When I merely looked over the 

 floor of the hive I was greatly delighted, for but a few dead bees 

 lay there. The stock was perfectly healthy, and the queen, with 

 her abdomen full of eggs, paraded the combs as if in summer. In 

 two hundred to three hundred cells, eggs and larva; were found. 

 To-day (January '28th), at noon some bees were seen at the 

 entrances of all the stocks, and in the Egyptian stocks also 

 there is as yet no trace of dysentery. These observations speak 

 strongly for a fortunate- wintering of the Egyptian bee." 



I may here add, that Herr Vogel'a favourable anticipations 

 were completely verified. His Egyptian protegees passed the 

 ordeal of the German winter of 1864-5 unscathed, and were in- 

 troduced into my apiary rather late the following summer, with 

 what result will in due course be related by — A Devonshire 

 Bee- keeper. 



(To bo continued.) 



REMOVING SUPERS— DRIVING— WOODBURY 

 HIVES. 



I mil eight stocks of bees in an old straw hive, and one, or 

 rather two, swarms which I put together in a Stewarton hive, 

 where they are working away most beautifully and peaceably. 

 The super is now nearly filled with honey, but the cells are not 

 yet sealed- up. How soon may I take that away? and am I to 

 put on another on taking that off ? The hive is now three 

 boxes in height. I notice a good number of, I think, young 

 bees out the last few days on the landing-board, and I fear 

 putting a fourth box under the brood one lest it may prevent 

 storing going on in the super; and though the bees are out, I 

 thiuk it is not through want of room, but excess of heat. 



I would wish much to avoid destroying the bees for their 

 honey, and as I purpose next year working the Woodbury hive, 

 would you say, drive the bees to be deprived into the old straw 

 hive, feeding them during the winter, putting all the swarms 

 from the stocks into Woodbury hives next year ; or should I 

 drive into Woodbury hives ? If I should do the latter, I can 

 have them made at onee. 



I never drove a hive in my life, but hope to learn ; so if I 

 drive a quantity equal to a good swarm (and if there is brood 

 in the hive, the nurses will, I understand, stop to mind that), 

 will not the little colony he so weak as to be at the mercy of 

 their stronger neighbours, honey, not swarms, being my object 

 now ? I am particularly anxious to know the system of driving 

 theoretically before I practise it. 



I do not know the meaning or use of the adapting-board in 

 the Woodbury hive, and I would wish to understand its use 

 before having any hives of that description made ; and though 

 they may be difficult for a beginner to manage at first, do you 

 not consider it the best hive for all practical purposes ? — John 

 J. Surni, Uathcouney. 



[We doubt whether the bees will, so late in the season, seal 

 over the cells which still remain open in the super ; but you 

 must form your own opinion on this, and also as to whether 

 the honey harvest is over in your locality. If it be so, and we 

 should deem it probable, the super had better be removed at 

 once, and temporary room may be given to the bees, should 

 they require it, by nadiring. In driving a stock of bees do not 

 attempt half measures, but drive all or none. In your case 

 we should drive the inhabitants of two adjoining common 

 stocks one after the other as rapidly as possible into an empty 

 straw hive, then cut out the combs and fit such of them as 

 contain brood into the Woodbury frames, temporarily securing 

 them with zinc clips, binding-wire, slips of wood, &c, as in- 

 genuity may suggest. It will go hard if out of two hives you 

 cannot furnish at least six, and perhaps eight or ten, frames 

 with worker combs (drone combs should, of course, be rejected), 

 containing more or less brood as well as some honey, and yet 

 contrive to retain the lion's share of the latter for yourself. 

 Having thus, either wholly or partially, furnished their new 

 habitation, the bees may be inducted into it by being kmeked 

 out on the top of the bars (the crown-board being removed 

 for that purpose), or on a cloth spread on the ground and the 

 hive placed over them, resting on a couple of sticks about an 



inch in diameter, and laid down on tho cloth 8 or 9 inches 

 asunder. As soon as the bees have ascended they should be 

 put in the place previously occupied by the old hives. At the 

 expiration of forty-eight hours all artificial support may bo 

 removed from the combs, and the stock should then be fed up 

 to a sufficient weight to stand the winter. The adapting-board 

 of tho Woodbury hive must bo substituted for tho crown-board 

 whenever a super is put on. We believe it to bo the best hive 

 for any bee-keeper who aspires to become also a bee-master.] 



BARS OF WOODBURY HIVES— PUTTING IN 

 GUIDE-COMBS. 



Why should the bars in Woodbury hives be made to separate 

 from the frames ? Would they not 1)3 better if fixed to them ? 

 I think they would. What are they left loose for ? and should 

 guide-comb be attached to every bar before putting in a swarm ? 

 Would rubbing the bars with beeswax be sufficient, as guide- 

 combs cannot always be had? I am making a number of 

 Woodbury hives for my apiary. — S. H. 



[Mr. Woodbury, in the description of his frame hive, which 

 appeared in page 73 of our third volume, states that he has 

 found the power of separating his bars from their frames very 

 advantageous, in enabling him to use frames in stock hives and 

 bars in supers without forfeiting the advantages arising from 

 the unlimited interchangeability of every comb in every super 

 in the apiary ; and we may add, that we know other scientific 

 apiarians who, having commenced with the ordinary frame, 

 have, in order to obtain these advantages, afterwards adopted 

 what Mr. Woodbury has styled his " compound bar-frame." Use 

 as many guide-combs extending to as nearly the entire length 

 of the bars as you can procure. These may, however, be eked 

 out by being alternated either with the ribbed Woodbury bar 

 or with flat bars, to which are attached strips of artificial comb. 

 Rubbing the bars with beeswax is of little or no use.] 



SPARROWS EATING LIVE BEES— LONGEVITY 

 OF BEES. 



Notwithstanding the doubts of one of your late correspon- 

 dents, I have had again, for the third time, to make a raid upon 

 the sparrows' nests round my dwelling, to prevent their young 

 being fed with living bees from my apiary. So determined, 

 however, were they at this work, that in a day or two after- 

 wards I detected one cock bird over and over again flying up 

 at the hives like a flycatcher, and carrying off bees returning 

 to their homes heavily laden, and with them he was feeding in 

 a neigbouring bush two young birds, sufficiently fledged to have 

 escaped from the nest. He at last brought them down close 

 to the hives, so as to save himself the trouble of a flight to and 

 fro, and set to work in a most determined manner. This was 

 too much for my philosophy, so calling my gardener we had 

 only to wait about five minutes, when back he came again, 

 and he was then and there shot, in flagrante delicto, and I only 

 hope that his two children will learn a salutary lesson from 

 their parent's fate. Another couple detected in the same act 

 shared a similar fate, since which I have not been troubled. 

 I cannot help thinking that a bee-eating sparrow is like a man- 

 eating tiger in India, which, having once tasted a forbidden 

 food easily obtainable, can only have the fatal propensity de- 

 stroyed by death. 



With regard to the life of the working bee, particularly 

 during the working season — say from April till August, I think 

 it is very short, rarely exceeding two months. In proof of this 

 a singular circumstance happened to one of my hives contain- 

 ing Ligurian bees, obtained in May from Mr. Woodbury, which 

 I will here relate. On the 1st of June I had a prime swarm 

 from an ordinary stock of black bees, which had hardly settled 

 in an adjoining hedge, when my only Ligurian hive unex- 

 pectedly threw a swarm, which at once joined the other. A^ I 

 was absent at the time in the City, my gardener was afraid to 

 hive them together, irrespective of the chance of being stung, 

 as they were evidently in a state of great excitement. On my 

 return home, I after some difficulty got them into a large hive, 

 having first captured the Ligurian queen, whose person dm 

 the operation I could not mistake from the large size and 

 golden colour of her body. I then determined to return t! 

 united swarm to the original Ligurian stock, which I did 

 during the evening (a process which I have always performed 



