September 18, 1866. 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



233 



HAMBuncris (Silver-spnnyled). — FirBt, V. Rotter. Seeond, J. Collinson. 

 Chtektiu.— First, -i T. BoUihope. Second, T. V.Johnson. 



HAMiuu.-iis (Golden spangled). First. J. Potts, Sunnislde. Second, 

 w. Whitfield, Hetton, Chickem.— Flrst,J. Armory. Second,T. Dobson, 

 Wolsinghiun. 



Bantam (Any colour). — First, W. Lawrenson (Black Red). Second, J. 

 Wilson (Dnckwing), ■ First, W. Lawrenson (Duckwlng). Se- 



cond, J. Collin BlacB Red). 



Turkeys.- Prize, J. Sanderson, Bradley Sail. 



<tei:m\ !', i. , . r. V. Johnson, Frosteriey. 



Docks (Aylesbury).— First, J. Fryer, Crook. Second, H. S. Stobnrt, 

 Witton Tower. 



Docks (Houcn).— First, II. S. Stobnrt. Second, Miss Coatee, SI. Helen's. 



Ducks (Any other br 1) First, Misa Leng, Honghton-le-Side. Se- 



cond, W. Newton, Wolsingham. 



Pioi on ■ Pint and Second, A. Bngless, Carville. Highly Commended, 

 J. Proud, South Shield, Tow Law ; J. Armery ; W. \\ bitfield. 



BEE MANAGEMENT. 



Will you be good enough to tell me whether I have acted 

 properly in regard to what I have done in my apiary '? 

 ABODE FGH 

 The above letters represent the position of eight bee-hives. 

 A, B, C were swarms of the present year. E, F were stocks of 

 three or four years standing. F being somewhat weak, I drove 

 out the bees three or four weeks ago and joined them to E, 

 making it very strong. As F had swarmed some three weeks 

 previously there was no brood in it, but as nearly as I could 

 judge some 15 lbs. of honey. About a week ago I drove 

 A, B, C, and put the united families into F, making it occupy 

 the place of B. Is the stock so formed likely to do well without 

 further trouble ? 



Another question I wish to ask is this — In "Bee-Keeping 

 for the Many," as well as other works which I have consulted, 

 I find it said, that at the end of the season stocks should be 

 so made up by feeding, if necessary, as to weigh from 20 

 to 25 lbs. Now, I have stocks weighing from i0 to 45 lbs. 

 or even more, one weighs 50 lbs., but being in common straw 

 hives I cannot take any honey from them. Is it, therefore, 

 any detriment to the bees that the weight should be so much 

 more than that which bee-books mention as the proper weight V 

 In fact, may the stock hives be of any weight whatever pro- 

 vided they do uot fall below 20 or 2" lbs. : 



Another question is the following : — H is a Woodbury frame- 

 hive full of bees and very heavy, but I find on inspection that 

 more than half of each comb is filled with brood and pollen. 

 Could I without injuring the stock cut off from the tops of 

 three or four combs such honey as is pure '.' It was a swarm 

 of the present year ? 



May I also inform you of a remedy which I have found 

 serviceable to prevent the swelling which frequently arises after 

 a sting from a bee ? The bee-keeper must expect an occasional 

 sting notwithstanding every precaution, and in my case and 

 that of each member of my family, the subsequent swelling, 

 especially if it occurs on the face, is extremely inconvenient, not 

 subsiding for two or three days. No remedy that I have ever 

 seen recommended is a certain preservative against this. The 

 plan which I suggest is, that the place stung should im- 

 mediately be punctured with a needle sufficiently deep to draw- 

 blood, and that such puncture should be repeated, if necessary, 

 so that blood may continue to flow for half an hour or so. If 

 this course is adopted the poison seems to be so entirely drawn 

 away that there is really no swelling to cause one any incon- 

 venience whatever. I confidently affirm that the slight pain 

 caused by the puncture is far preferable to the inconvenient 

 disfigurement which usually results from the sting of an 

 enraged bee. 



I have been rather wishing to take to poultry-keeping, but 

 am somewhat discouraged by the dishonesty which I find so 

 frequently complained of in your pages. When I read of such 

 tricks as boiling eggs before sending them to parties purchas- 

 ing, painting fowls' legs, and withholding prizes from the 

 prizetakers ; when I find that almost every Number contains 

 the complaint oi some aggrieved or victimised poultry fancier, 

 I cannot help thinking that my best plan is to do nothing 

 ■which might expose me to the machinations of such un- 

 principled scoundrels. I cannot, therefore, help congratulat- 

 ing myself on having taken to bees rather than to fowls. — 

 Charles H. C.uvtwbight, Field Broxtghton, near Cartmel, 

 I.ancn 



The throe united families domiciled in F, are likely to do 

 well if fed up to a sufficient weight to stand the winter by 

 the. end of .-oext jztocth (October). 20 to 25 lbs. is named as 



the minimum weight, which may be exceeded to any extent 

 consistent with leaving a sufficient number, of brood-cells free 

 to permit of the queen replenishing tho waning population 

 early in the spring. It would do the stock in the Woodbury 

 hive less harm to remove the two side combs altogether than 

 to mutilate three or four combs in the way you propose.] 



MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 



Dr. Plot, speaking of the management of bees in this 

 county (Stafford), says : — " At the worshipful John Whitehall, 

 of Pipe Ridware, Esq., who is a most intelligent bee-master, I 

 was shown great variety of hives, most of his own contrivance ; 

 some being made square, others round, both placed over one 

 another with drawers of wood between, like the colony hives in 

 Oxfordshire. Others he had made out of hollow trees, which 

 were sawn asunder at proper distances, which, no doubt, are as 

 agreeable as any kind whatever, these being the first natural 

 hives for bees before they were brought under an artificial 

 regimen ; and therefore it was, no doubt, that both Columella 

 and Palladius commended them for this purpose. ' Ligno 

 arborU fabricentur' — let the hives be made of hollow trees, 

 say both these grave authors in their chapters on bee-houses ; 

 and Virgil tells us they delight to live exetaquc arhnris antro. 

 But the hives he preferred before all the others he made of 

 brick, there being several stalls or galleries of them divided 

 into squares of brick on three sides, with windows behind and 

 before to see their working, the fore south windows in summer 

 being covered with malt to preserve the honey. Within these 

 squares of brick he sets his frames of wood for the bees to work 

 on, which he can take away as the bees work downward. He 

 makes use, notwithstanding, both of straw and wicker hives 

 covered with cowdung and lime, but neither of them made 

 after the ordinary manner — viz., not conical at top, but cylin- 

 dracious and open at top and bottom, which he places first on 

 the top of the brickwork, and underneath again to receive the 

 bees at last, so as to be conveyed again to the top of the brick- 

 work as at first ; of which brick hives he has some single, 

 others many together, but the single he counts best because 

 the most manageable." 



Perhaps some of your numerous correspondents may be able 

 to give us further particulars of this Staffordshire bee-master's 

 operations. — G. L. 



(The " frames of wood " herein adverted to were most pro- 

 bably horizontal frames, or more properly speaking, square 

 boxes, of which the uppermost were removed as the bees worked 

 downwards after the manner advocated by Wildman. ] 



UNWELCOME VISITORS. 



Some five or six years ago my apiary was reduced to two 

 hives, a Nutt's collateral, and a swarm from it, taken in a straw 

 hive fitted with window and flat top for super. The bees 

 appeared to be flourishing, and I left them alone, having other 

 things to think of. 



On looking at them one day towards the end of the season, I 

 was surprised by an unusual stillness. I opened the window- 

 shutter of the straw hive, and, to my dismay, perceived a mon- 

 strous slug reaching right across the window. If I had seen an 

 elephant on my lawn some morning I should hardly have been 

 more astonished or perplexed. However, it was easy to see how 

 to remove it, although how it found its way in is to this day a 

 mystery. Fortunately the window was in a wooden frame of 

 my own construction, and was easily removed ; the intruder be- 

 ing seized, and slaughtered without mercy. He was of alder- 

 manic proportions, and if ever slug soup could be good it should 

 be of such honey-fatted slugs; for he had eaten bees, i 

 honey, and all. A few survivors were huddled in the corner 

 of tliu comb, which they had broken open like drunken sailors 

 in the spirit-room of a sinking ship, or like the companions 

 of Ulysses waiting for Polyphemus to eat them. Thi- 

 was utterly ruined, there being neither queen nor brood- cell 

 left. 



I now began to watch the other hive — Nutt's collateral. I 

 soon found something wrong there; but it was not 60 easy t( 

 get a correct view of the inside. However, the end of it was 

 that a similar monster was at length discovered, but not until 

 he had wrought the like havoc as the first. So I lost my whole 

 stock. These slugs must have measured little, if anything. 



