November 27, 1806. J 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



417 



ordinary power thus possessed by the virgin female, whether 

 in the form of a queen or a worker, of producing males, may 

 in certain cases be the only means by which, a colony may be 

 restored from an abnormal to a normal condition ; for is 

 there any reason to suppose, let me ask, that the queen is 

 incapable of being fecundated beyond a certain period of her 

 existence ? 



On the 20th of June I dislodged the Egyptian queen and 

 bees, and put them into a combed Huber hive, using the 

 combs of the former for queen-rearing, but was much disap- 

 pointed at the sparseness of my materials, there being but 

 few ova and young larva'. The drones matured and maturing 

 were legion. 



On the 30th of June and 7th of July, I repeated the same 

 operation, ultimately domiciling the colony in a full-brooded 

 Huber of the current year with combs constructed by Italians, 

 where it has been allowed to remain ever since, and from which 

 every vestige of the Italian element has at the present time 

 almost disappeared. 



From these manipulations I succeeded in rearing twelve 

 queens, seven of which were fertilised and became the heads 

 of so many colonies. Two disappeared, and one of very small 

 size I found encased and dying in a cluster of bees on the 

 floor-board, a few days after her birth. Three others I reared 

 towards the end of August from a small piece of comb. One 

 of these disappeared, and the other two arc still, to all ap- 

 pearance, unfertilised. A few days ago I introduced both suc- 

 cessfully to very strong colonies of English bees deprived of 

 their queens, and intend to keep them over the winter if 

 possible. 



The following are the periods of the maturing and oviposit- 

 ing of the qneens reared : — 



The queen of No. 1 was reared in a unicomb with a sparse 

 population, and it emerged from the cell after being eleven days 

 sealed. The queen of No. 8 matured on the tenth day after 

 the operation, the shortest period in my experience. On 

 another occasion I had an Italian queen which matured on the 

 eleventh day. — J. Lowe. 



(To be continued.) 



On the evening of the 6th of June the stock of Egyptian 

 bees most kindly presented me by my friend Mr. Woodbury 

 arrived safely. These bees comprised the entire tenants of 

 one of his frame hives, and had been transferred by driving to 

 a flat-topped straw hive for facility of transit. Although they 

 had just experienced a coach journey of ten miles or so over 

 rough roads, with the customary bustle at the inn door, and 

 not over-careful porters, yet when delivered into my hands 

 nothing could be quieter or more satisfactory than their con- 

 dition. As it was late when I received them, I thought it 

 better not to transfer them to their future tenement until the 

 following day. I therefore placed them upon their stand, after 

 removing the net which had so amply provided them with air, 

 but effectually confined them during their journey, at first 

 taking a peep into the hive, which revealed, to my exceeding 

 delight and satisfaction, a cluster of the beautiful little fellows 

 occupying fully two-thirds of the space. There were no mani- 

 festations of resentment upon the removal of the wrappers, 

 not a bee having left the cluster : in fact, I was struck by their 

 quiet behaviour under the circumstances ; but the previous 

 summary proceeding in expelling them from their own hive 

 may, however, have subdued them for the time. 



On the evening of the 7th a nine-frame box prepared with 

 strips of impressed wax sheets of home manufacture was 

 ready for the bees, and with great facility they were trans- 

 ferred to their new abode, settling in it so quietly and quickly 

 that I was enabled soon to close up, cover, and lower down the 

 hive, and place them upon their stand. I was surprised at 

 the number and great beauty of the drones, their superiority 



in the latter respect over the Italians being vory manifest. 

 They worked well through June, quickly filling their hivo 

 with comb and honey, increased in numbers until densely 

 crowdod, gave mo also a few pounds of honey in a glass super, 

 and now, in the middle of November, are far more populous 

 than any black stocks in my possession. I am inclined, there- 

 fore, from this satisfactory state of affairs to think that their 

 queen is a most prolific creature, and I look forward to and 

 expect notable doings next summer from them. 



And how about their extreme irascibility ? I must tell my 

 tale, as well as those other fortunate possessors of Apis 

 fasciata — but how different my experience! I have manipu- 

 lated upon them as freely as upon any other hives ; neither 

 myself nor any of my friends have j - et experienced any mani- 

 festations of their anger. This is so adverse to the accounts 

 given by others, that some extenuating cause must bo found to 

 account for it. In the first place, I am singularly fortunate 

 amongst my bees, my constant presence may have rendered 

 them peaceable and tame, and coolness and quiet in my opera- 

 tions amongst them have their influence in subduing anger. 

 Surely there must be something wrong when our friend Mr. 

 Woodbury, so used as he is to the repeated examination of his 

 hives, should have been so troubled by them. Just now, 

 whilst jotting down these remarks, I have tried their temper 

 by stepping into my garden and removing the crown board of 

 their hive, passing my hands over the frames amidst a dense 

 mass of bees covering the bars. I experienced no incon- 

 venience from this operation. Whether it may be different 

 by-and-by I do not know ; but at present, and since I have been 

 the possessor of this stock of Egyptians, I cannot endorse the 

 character given them of extreme irascibility and impatience of 

 manipulation. — George Fox, Kingsbridgc. 



APIARIAN VARIETIES. 



The following extracts are taken from an article written by 

 the great German apiarian Dzierzon during the spring of the 

 present year. For the convenience of English readers I have 

 thought it better to alter the thermometrieal readings from 

 Reaumur's scale to that of Fahrenheit. — A Devonshire Bee- 

 keeper. 



Early Breeding. — As we know that strong stocks of bees 

 often begin breeding in January, we find that in former years, 

 when a little mild weather has occurred during that month, a 

 tolerably large quantity of brood has been deposited even in 

 weak stocks, although it has generally been destroyed by severe 

 weather in the beginning of February, owing to the bees being 

 compelled to cluster together and betake themselves to the 

 combs which contain honey, leaving the brood exposed to the 

 cold. It was therefore to be expected that during the winter 

 of 1865-0, which was for the most part exceedingly mild, egg- 

 laying would have commenced earlier and have been more 

 extensive than usual, but this has been by no means the ease. 

 During an examination of strong stocks well provided with 

 pollen, which I undertook after the middle of February, I found 

 either no brood at all, or else much less than existed three 

 weeks earlier in former years, and in much weaker stocks. 

 How, then, is this phenomenon to be explained ? Many would, 

 perhaps, believe that the bees, taught by instinct, foresaw a 

 still greater degree of cold during a second winter ; but if so, 

 why did they not foresee the same in former years ? Evidently 

 something remains to be explained. Moisture, of which we 

 are aware bees have great need in the preparation of food for 

 their young, will, it is well known, promote breeding ; whilst 

 its absence, during even a higher temperature, will restrict and 

 hinder it ; but with a mild atmosphere, when the temperature 

 outside and inside the hives differs but slightly, it is natural 

 that little or no moisture should be condensed in their interior.* 

 Then, also, during mildjweather the bees remain much quieter, 

 as they require to make no great exertion to supply the loss of 

 heat ; whilst the temperature in the centre of the hive may 



* Owing, probably, to their distance from the sea, and the air being 

 denuded of moisture during its passage over the vast sandy plains of the 

 Continent, there appears no reason to donbtthat the atmosphere of many 

 parts of Germany is much drier than that of England. For this reason, 

 and in order to supply the bees with water without compelling them to 

 seek for it in the open air during cold weather, German apiarians endea- 

 vour to promote the condensation of a certain amount of moisture within 

 the hive itself, thus reversing the practice of English bee-keepers, who 

 generallv regard the presence of internal moisture as an unmitigated 

 evil, and one that is by all means to be avoided.— A Devonshire Bee- 

 keeper. 



