July 16, 1874. J 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTIOULTUBB AND COTTAGE GABDBNBB. 



67 



a fair share of honey from the apple bloasoma and elsewhere, 

 so that tbose stocka which survived the wiutor in tolerable 

 health are pretty well supplied for the comiug season. Not 

 so the swarms of the year. And yet evidently a dry summer 

 following an open winter is more productive of honey than 

 a moist sumoiar following a wet winter, as was the case last 

 year ; for by this time last year my bees had become pauperised, 

 having eaten up in June almost everything they had gathered 

 in May. I observe, also, that the bees were twice or three times 

 as numerous last year as they are this ; breeding, in fact, going 

 on very languidly in all my stocks this year, wboreai last year 

 the population of all hives was overwhelming. We shall be 

 glad to know what experience other bee-keepera have to tell of 

 in other parts of England. — B. & W. 



BEE PHENOMENON. 



Nature sometimes plays queer pranks, and now and then we 

 witness eccentricities which upset all prior deductions derivable 

 from observations of Nature's laws. Such a case I am about to 

 set before your readers. On the 23th of June Mr. John Boulton, 

 of Ulverstone, North Lancashire, one of the most ardent and 

 successful of bee-keepers, in examining a hive of pure Liguriaus 

 noticed that it contained two fertile queens. Mr. Boulton has 

 been a bee-keeper for many years, and the phenomenon was so 

 contrary to all his preconceived notions, that he naturally felt 

 hard of faith, and kept his own council for the time being. The 

 hive is a square wood and straw, with eight bars, and on each 

 of the two centre bars were the queens, with their attendant 

 subjects, working in the greatest apparent harmony. The 

 queens had been hatched about a month previously. On the 

 following day Mr. Boulton made a further examination, and 

 seeing that the cells in each bar contained numbers of eggs, 

 called the attention of other bee-keepers to the fact. Each and 

 all were of opinion that one or the other of the queens would 

 soon be driven out; but up to the 4th inst. this had not taken 

 place. A friend of mine states that he can remember his grand- 

 father speaking of a similar occurrence ; but, of course, this was 

 mere surmise, as the hive was one of the old-fashioned kind, 

 and could not be examined with the same facility as the present 

 one, which is Woodbury's. 



Mr. Boulton is anxious for information as to what the result 

 may be, and also as to what course he should pursue. But in 

 order to arrive at this, it should be stated that in the spring he 

 was under the impression that the hive had lost its queen. Later, 

 on an examination, he found two young queens just coming 

 from the cells. They are both pure Ligurians, and have both 

 been fertilised ; the broods from them are also pure. The hive 

 has been visited by many bee-keepers, and discussion on the 

 question is very animated here. Would you and your readers 

 kindly give us the fullest information on the subject ? It would 

 be esteemed a favour by many subscribers of The Journal of 

 Horticulture, who naturally look to you for the solution of 

 matters of diiSculty. — J. R. R., Ulverstone. 



[We should be obliged by our apiarian readers sending us 

 notes on the above. — Eds.] 



BAISING- QUEEN BEES. 

 Mr. Pettiorew's theory of working bees removing eggs into 

 royal cells requires practical proof before we can accept it as 

 matter of fact, and I would suggest that a hive of bees be deprived 

 of their brood and queen now, while there are many drones and 

 eggs of all ages in the neighbouring hives ; and surely if they 

 do possess the faculty of transporting eggs, the stock will not 

 perish for want of a single grub. We know they will rob other 

 hives of honey at the risk of their own lives, then why should 

 they not transport a single egg to save the colony ? Perhaps it 

 is commonly done ; although I have been a suilerer in such 

 cases as sterility in young queens, and young queens being de- 

 stroyed by misadventure; and perhaps it may be proved to 

 account for the wonderful population of some hives as compared 

 with others in the same stand. At present I do not believe a 

 working bee has the power of securing an egg to the bottom 

 (or rather the top) of a royal cell. — Thomas P. Wabd. 



HONEY PROSPECTS. 



I NOTICED in my communication last week that the produce of 

 honey both this year and last, has been very scanty in the 

 flowers, and that from quite different causes. And yet I can 

 imagine that some of your correspondents in surprise will tell of 

 considerable gains in honey that have befallen them. If so, we 

 may be sure they have been blessed with heavier rains, or more 

 extensive honeydews than have prevailed generally. It may 

 also happen that here and there under the most unfavourable 

 circumstances of weather and climate, a stock or two have 

 proved exceptionally profitable. I know one or two such in- 

 stances in my own neighbourhood, where the honey produce has 



been generally very defective. How may this be accounted for ? 

 It can only be owing to some exceptional state of the stock at 

 the time when honey most abounded. At such time, perhaps, 

 swarming was at its height. Such was mostly the case iu May, 

 when almost all our honey hereabouts was harvested. We had 

 some fair ingathering just at that time, and those of my own 

 stocks which happened to be freest from internal commotions 

 and most populous, made the best of the opportunity. They 

 would have done much better but for the miserable condition in 

 which almost all my stocks found themselves at the close of 

 winter. 



I fear the exhibition at the Crystal Palace this year will give 

 but a poor notion of the capabilities of English bees. Certainly 

 not many of us would care to exhibit our supers. I have not a 

 single pound. Bad as last year was, I could have exhibited a 

 20-lb. super; not so this, although my stocks are in general 

 well supplied. I did not enjoy the supers of last year, having 

 been compelled to give them to the bees for food. Anything 

 more untoward for the exhibition could hardly be. Yesterday 

 a little honey was seen glistening in some combs in two or 

 three supers; to-day it has vanished, brilliant and delicious as 

 the weather is. All but farmers and bee-keepers are in ecstasies 

 about it.— B. & W. 



WAX. 



" A TouNQ Apiarian " naturally wants to know the cause of 

 combs being different in colour at various times in the season. 

 The combs built in his hives up to the beginning of June were 

 pale yellow ; since that time those built have been pure white. 

 He noticed the same differences last year. As the production of 

 was and comb-buildingare both interesting to youthful apiarians, 

 I will offer a few remarks here instead of giving an answer 

 through the " Letter Box." 



Thousands of people fancy that the poUen carried by bees into 

 hives is for the erection of combs, and many bee-keepers up to 

 the days of Huber were of the same opinion. Happily we live 

 in times more enlightened, when all students of apiarian science 

 know that pollen is gathered for other purposes than comb- 

 building; that bees carry into hives filled with combs great 

 stores of pollen ; that when a swarm is put into an empty hive it 

 vigorously commences to build combs, and generally has three 

 or four large cakes built before a particle of farina or pollen is 

 carried into the hive. 



Wax is a secretion of bees — that is to say, it is made, or manu- 

 factured, or secreted in the bodies of bees from the honey they 

 gather, as milk is a secretion of cows. Wax is both a secretion 

 and an excretion of bees ; for after it is formed in their bodies it 

 is excreted on the under side of the belly. Anyone interested 

 in the subject may satisfy his curiosity by seizing a few bees by 

 their wings duriag the comb-building season. Two small flakes 

 or laminae of wax may be seen exuding from many of them on 

 the under side of the abdomen. These scales or flakes of wax 

 thus excreted are the bricks and mortar of comb-building. 



Wax is costly in labour and materials. To fill a large hive 

 with combs a great deal of honey must be gathered by, or sugar 

 given to, the bees of that hive. Baron Liebig's experiments 

 indicated the consumption of 20 lbs. of honey to make 1 lb. of 

 wax. Though I believe his experiments were honestly made 

 and accurately reported, I cannot endorse them, for they were 

 made with 10 ozs. of bees only. Warmth has a great influence 

 on bees in building combs. Experiments must be rep-ated 

 again and again before one can place much confidence in their 

 correctness. Comb-building is a very costly affair, and when 

 this becomes generally known the bee-keepers of England will 

 utilise their empty combs in a way more satisfactory and profit- 

 able than they do at present. The bees in hundreds of hives 

 throughout England died last winter. How valuable are hives 

 with sweet empty combs at the present moment to those who 

 know how to use them for swarms, for nadiring, for supering ! 



*'Do you really advise bee-keepers to use secondhand combs for 

 supering and nadiring, as well as for swarms ? " Yes, certainly. 

 We use them in all these ways with very great advantage. 

 If 10 lbs. or 20 lbs. of honey can be stored up instead of being 

 consumed in comb-building there is considerable gain to the 

 bee-master. When a large swarm is put into a hive filled or 

 partially filled with sweet combs, the activity of bees in gather- 

 ing honey is most strikingly manifested. Neither time nor 

 honey is wasted in comb-building, and for a few days there is no 

 brood needing attention. But why use secondhand combs in 

 supers ? To have them rapidly filled ; and when hives contain- 

 ing discoloured combs are used for supering, it is with the in- 

 tention of putting such supers down for run honey, and keeping 

 the bottom ones for stock, and vice versa in the case of nadiring. 



As to differences of colour in newly-built combs, it may bo 

 safely affirmed that the cause of the difference lies veiled in the 

 honey from which the combs are made. No two kinds of flowers 

 produce the same kind of honey, or honey alike in all pirticulars ; 

 and no two kinds of honey produce (through the bees) the same 

 colour of wax. The wax built in spring from the produce of 

 fruit trees is yellow — darker from one luud of fruit than from 



