April 1, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



267 



in a wide-mouthed bottle in one pint of methylated Bpirit. Ton 

 have only to mix those two articles, and with an occasional shake- 

 up the varnish will be ready for use in a few days. It dries very 

 quickly, you can lay on two or three coats in an hour, and the 

 cage may be used immediately. For any parts reijuired to be 

 painted black, a small iiuautity of lamp black stirred into a 

 portion of the above varnish is excellent. 



In the spring of every year, say the end of February, and again 

 in August, or as frenaently as you may consider desirable, 

 wash your cages over well with strong salt and water, which will 

 destroy all insect life, and give them a thorough scrubbing and 

 rinsing in clean water : this must be done inside and out. If 

 necessary when dry give one coat of white to the inside, and 

 revaruish the outside. Thus you can avoid the red mite. — 

 J. Packhau, 



BEE OUT-LOOK FOR 1875. 



The dawn of the second quarter of the year is always interest- 

 ing to humanity, at least in the northern hemisphere ; and to 

 whom is it more interesting than to the beekeeper ? for all his 

 labours are, as it were, concentrated in the three approaching 

 months of April, May, and June. 'Tis true that the main honey 

 harvest is usually gathered in .July, but by no means invariably 

 so. The months of May and June frequently boast of the prin- 

 cipal ingathering of the year. What, then, of the season of pro- 

 mise that is now before us ? Everything is hopeful this year 

 to all bee-keepers whose stock is vigorous, even though the 

 spring is very late and breeding has not been advancing at a 

 rapid rate, for the winter has been on the whole everything 

 that could have been desired. Snows and frosts have enriched 

 and opened the ground, preparing the way for the fertilising 

 influence of the winds of March and the showers of April : hence 

 I augur an abundance of saccharine matter this summer. So 

 Hope is on the tiptoe of expectation. 



We trust, then, that all earnest bee-keepers are on the alert, 

 and have everything in order. The first thing to do, if not 

 done already, is to put the hives in the best possible condition 

 for ulterior work. Floor-boards should be cleansed or renewed, 

 old comb and superfluous drone-comb should be cut away, both 

 being replaced where possible (as in all bar-frame hives) with 

 fresh worker comb saved from stocks which may have failed 

 during the winter. Queenless hives should be broken up, and 

 their population joined to a neighbouring stock. Itis a wretched 

 waste of good material to let these die-out. For the same rea- 

 son all unusually weak stocks should be united to others. Let 

 these various operations be carried out on the first balmy day 

 when the sun is out, and let not the soothing influence of smoke 

 be overlooked in all manipulations of hives. Success often de- 

 pends upon its use. 



Next have recourse to a system of continuous feeding, not in 

 large quantities to supply inducements to the bees to store it, 

 but just enough given on warm days to stimulate the hive into 

 activity, and especially the mother bee, by increasing the 

 internal heat, which feeding always produces. Take care, how- 

 ever, to avoid creating a strong upward current of air, which 

 would chill the brood. For this reason close up and cease 

 feeding at night, and by day also, when the wind is cold, 

 especially if it blows in the direction of the entrance. 



Where hives are small it is excellent policy to add ekes to 

 them in the spring. The bees will gladly lengthen-out the 

 combs as the queen's activity increases, and every inch added 

 thus to the hive affords room for the rearing of many thousand 

 bees, whose addition to the population will both furnish large 

 swarms and increase in proportionate ratio the honey harvest 

 of the year. Ekes added for increase of honey space later in the 

 summer are a mistake. 



Where possible, and especially in cold situations, keep the 

 hives as warm as possible by narrowing the entrances, so as to 

 diminish the indraught of wind, and cover them up with carpet 

 or straw coverings to prevent loss of heat. Of course we must 

 open the entrances as the season advances, and allow the bees 

 as they grow in numbers every facility for speedy and easy 

 ingress and egress, more particularly so in hot weather. 



Simultaneously with the increase of the population by the 

 addition of ekes to the hive below, space for honey-storing 

 should be given above in supers. These should be not more 

 than i or 5 inches deep at first; but they can be enlarged as 

 they get filled by affording ekes of the exact length and breadth 

 of the super, say 3 or more inches deep. They can be easily 

 secured to the super (as to the hive below) by a few hooks and 

 eyes. This method of enlarging the super is far preferable to the 

 usual plan of introducing an entirely new super, which often 

 puzzles the bees and delays their working, besides tending to 

 the formation of swarms. Of course I am here supposing that 

 honey is the principal object of the bee-keeper. It matters 

 little whether hives of wood or of straw are used, ekes of either 

 material can be used at pleasure. 



All material necessary for the sake of working the apiary to 

 the best advantage should be prepared at once, such as hives, 



supers, boards, &o. It saves a world of trouble and confusion 

 to be prepared beforehand. Take care also to sweeten all hives, 

 new ones especially, by exposing to the air a month before use. 

 Many valuable swarms have been lost by inattention to this 

 necessary rule. — B. & W. 



BEE AND HONEY EXHIBITIONS OF 1875. 



It is, I think certain, that there will be an annual exhibition a' 

 the Crystal Palace in the month of September. I have been 

 told that the apiarian fute there will come oil about the 20th of 

 the month this year. I have heard that there will be a bee 

 and honey show in Glasgow about the Sth of September, and 

 that i'40 will be offered in prizes. In connection with the fruit 

 exhibition at the Manchester Botanical Gardens in the first 

 week of September there will be another apiarian fete. I called 

 there the other day, when I was told that the Society would give 

 £25 if the bee-keepers would raise J:'2.5 more, thus making a sum 

 of -iSO to be offered as prizes. 



We hear of many small places offering prizes for bees and 

 honey in connection with floral exhibitions ; but the Crystal 

 Palace, the Manchester, and the Glasgow Shows will, we trust, 

 do much to popularise bee-keeping. 



We shall probably hear of Dundee, and Aberdeen, and perhaps 

 Exeter following the example of the larger towns. The interest 

 taken in bees and bee-culture is increasing very fast. As to the 

 Manchester fiite I have of late been so much engaged that I have 

 had no time to see any of my neighbours or consult them about 

 a schedule of prizes. As soon as one can be drawn up it will be 

 sent to the Journal of Horticulture, and other publications for 

 insertion. — A. Pettigrew. 



LIGURIANS V. BLACK BEES. 



I AM at a loss to see any need of such a trial between Ligurians 

 and black bees as suggested by Mr. Pettigrew. Why should 

 not each apiarian follow his taste and keep the variety he likes 

 best ? As to the fancy for Ligurians dying out, this is quite ai 

 mistake, at present at any rate ; for I am in a position to know 

 that many hundreds of English stocks are annually Ugurianised, 

 and that this breed is increasing in both north and south very 

 rapidly. 



The results of experience with Ligurians have been so often 

 recorded, and almost without exception favourably, that it seems 

 to me superfluous to keep telling the same tale over and over again. 

 The importers of Ligurian queens in London last autumn had 

 so many orders that many remained unexecuted, and I have no 

 doubt the demand this summer will be stUl greater. I never 

 heard an instance of a bee-keeper who had adopted Ligurians 

 to any extent afterwards abandoning them for his old friends. 

 Mr. Pettigrew has, he says, not tried Ligurians, therefore from 

 his own experience he is not competent to judge, and the most 

 that can be said against them appears to be that they are better 

 breeders but not better honey-gatherers. Hundreds of bee- 

 keepers will affirm they are better in both respects ; but admitting 

 the first, I am at a loss to know how the other can but follow. 



Mr. Pettigrew himself is a great advocate for strong stocks 

 and rightly, as a hive with C0,000 bees is much more Ekely to 

 produce a large harvest than two of 30,000 each. If, therefore, a 

 Ligurian queen will breed three bees while a black queen is 

 breeding two, it follows that more work will be done. 



The most profitable bee-keeping in the world is probably 

 carried on in America, where it is followed as a business by 

 many people. There a man's harvest in honey is reckoned by 

 tons and tens of tons. One bee-keeper last year made $30,000. 

 by the sale of 67 tons of that sweet produce. Many bee farms 

 muster one thousand and even two thousand stocks ; and so well 

 is the superiority of the Ligurian variety appreciated that it is 

 generally cultivated— the importance also of never leaving a 

 stock without a fertile queen (as is the case after the natural 

 swarming) results in a very large business being done by 

 dealers in supplying such bee-farmers with fertile queens ready 

 at need. 



In a number of the " National Agriculturist " now before me 

 I find no less than twenty-eight advertisements from breeders 

 and importers of Ligurian queens ; as much as $G being priced 

 for fertile Ligurian queens. Business is also done in selling. 

 Ligurian bees' eggs for queen-breeding, and for this purpose the 

 combs containing eggs are cut into strips, packed in little boxes 

 with a number of bees to keep the eggs warm, and then dis- 

 patched far and near by mail for use in nucleus hives. I do not 

 see why this plan should not be adopted in England as well as 

 the distribution of ripe queen cells, although the disadvantage 

 would occur of uncertainty as to pure impregnation. Where the 

 would-be queen-breeder has the advantage of a Ligurian apiary 

 near him his chance of success would be very much increased, 

 but in my opinion even a cross-bred stock is more valuable than, 

 pure blacks. .... 



I think bee-dealers here are wronged when it is insinuated 

 that the praise of Ligurians are sung for the mere purpose j£ 



