November 5, 1S7-4- ] 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICaLTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



415 



on the honey bee, to be delivered on behalf of the above Associ- 

 ation by Prank Cheshire, Esq. The lecture will be illustrated 

 by large and original diagrams, models, and hives with and 

 without living bees. 



IVY HONEY. 



Oua bees here have been extraordioarily active the last week 

 collecting honey from the ivy blossoms. It is so plentiful that 

 cells long empty are now fiUing fast, and my stocks are getting 

 quite heavy again. This houey tastes exactly like the ivy leaf 

 when chewed in the mouth, and is equally acrid, only of course 

 much sweeter. Will Mr. Pettigrew say that this acrid taste is not 

 existing in the crude syrup gathered in the flower, but is de- 

 veloped in the stomach of the bee when the honey has been re- 

 swallowed and transmuted according to his theory ? I have 

 found ivy honey in every respect the same whether in the open 

 cells or sealed-up, with this only difference, that in the open 

 cells it is somewhat more fluid. — B. & W. 



HIVES. 



A SHORT time ago a correspondent requested me to give a 

 description of the hives which I use and recommend. This 

 woodcut [fig. 116), will help him and other readers of the 

 Journal to their shape and ap- 

 pearance. There are three 

 sizes — viz., IC-inoh, 18-inch, 

 and 20-inch hives ; that is their 

 width inside measure, and they 

 are all 12 inches deep. When 

 well filled they weigh respec- 

 tively 60 lbs., 100 lbs., and 

 13Q lbs. They are made of 

 wheaten straw, neatly and 

 firmly built. They are made 

 in Ayrshire. Very few English 

 skep-makers can produce hives 

 equal to them. I have suc- 

 ceeded in teaching three or 

 four persons only in England to make excellent hives, but they 

 do not make them for sale. In Scotland the makers use tubes 

 in sewing hives, and thereby produce them much neater and 

 firmer than those made in this country. In Scotland the sizes 

 we have used are fast being introduced into practice. A few 

 days ago an apiarian in the north of Aberdeenshire wrote — 

 "Bee-keeping here is in a sort of transition state. A great im- 

 pulse has been given to it by the publication of your book. The 

 general size of skeps with us used to be from 11 to 13 inches wide 

 inside, and about 1 foot deep. These small skeps are fast going 

 out of use; and 16-inch and 18-inch skeps are in numerous 

 instances used all over the county, as well as in the neighbour- 

 ing county of Banff. The heaviest hive here that I have heard 

 of belonged to Mr. Gordon, of Gartley, the weight gathered 

 being 161 lbs. gross. Two at New Pitsligo weighed 128 lbs. and 

 126 lbs. respectively. Mr. Cruicksbanks here had one 120 lbs. 

 One was 109 lbs., and two more (one of which was mine), weighed 

 10-t lbs. each. This one of mine gathered 10 lbs. iu one day. 

 A l l were swarms of the present year. Mr. Gordon's and Mr. 

 Crnickshanks' were filled by swarms that came off at the same 

 time and joined together. All were late swarms obtained about 

 the 6th of July." 



The mention of such figures astonishes many bee-keepers in 

 England ; but let me say for their encouragement, that many 

 bee-keepers in Scotland were equally astonished a few years 

 ago by the published accounts of bee-keeping in my native 

 parish — Carluke, Lanarkshire. This year Aberdeen and Banff 

 have beaten Carluke by nearly 20 lbs. per swarm. Let us 

 hope that many bee-keepers of England will emulate the 

 apiarians of the north. I know no reason why they should not 

 surpass the Scotch. Swarming is earlier here, and our climate 

 is better. In 18G5 I called on a cousin in Carluke. He was 

 amongst his bees at the time. "Well, Robert, how are your 

 bees doing '?" He answered in these words, " I have some awfu' 

 braw swarms ; if they get a gie gude turn on the heather, they 

 will be twa hunner punds a-piece." The secret of all this lies in 

 the use of proper hives, and the hives used by us and the ad- 

 vanced bee- keepers of Scotland have not been altered or im- 

 proved for fourscore years. They are comfortable and capacious 

 domiciles for bees, and easily managed by their owners. Cross- 

 sticks are used in them, to which the bees fasten their combs, 

 and thus they are made secure for travelling. It would be a 

 great gratification to me to be able to commend bar hives as 

 highly as those already noticed. Neither my commendation 

 nor condemnation will interfere much at present with their 

 adoption and use by amateurs. They will have their day 

 amongst such apiarians, will undergo many modifications and 

 improvements, and, when perfected and widely spread, they will 

 probably go into disuse. " Is it because they are made of wood 

 that you venture on making these predictions?" No. Of course 



all kinds of hives would be better if made well and substantially 

 of straw. The frames inside the hives render their combs 

 moveable. This is their distinguishing feature. 



Bar frames can never help bees anywhere. They cannot 

 teach bees anything, and the fewer hindrances we put in their 

 way the faster they get on. Bar frames in bee hives are both 

 unnatural and obstructive. Some may say, " We all know that, 

 but lately we have made our frames without the bottom bars, 

 so that the bees can make their corabd li inch longer." This, 

 doubtless, is an improvement which may encourage the ad- 

 vocates of this kind of hive to advance further in the same 

 direction. 



Again, bar-frame hives are not made to be enlarged by ekes. 

 Their makers and patrons have not yet thought of making pre- 

 parations for holding in a single hive 150 lbs. weight of combs. 

 Three of the best bar-framers would be needed to hold so much. 

 The Stewarton hive is made for enlargement, and is managed 

 on a principle. When the bees require space they get it. 



Again, if managed on the non-swarming principle, bar-frame 

 hives are filled with brood from side to side. About the swarm- 

 ing season and afterwards it is impossible to get a bar of virgin 

 honeycomb out of them. It should be borne in mind that the 

 bars are placed about half an inch apart ; the combs or bars 

 being about 1 inch thick. When honey is obtained plentifully 

 bees build their honeycombs more than an inch thick, some- 

 times 3 inches thick. They are better architects than their 

 masters, and know better how to furnish their houses than we 

 do. This year I should guess my hives on the moors gained 

 3 lbs. for every 1 lb. that the bar-frame hives gained standing 

 side by side. We are glad to let everybody know how much 

 our hives weigh ; but when I ask the principal bar-frame dealer 

 in this neighbourhood how heavy his hives are, he replies that 

 he does not keep bees for honey. 



Another objection to the use of bar-framers by bee-farmers is 

 this, that their combs are more liable to break down in being 

 removed to the moors. There are no cross-sticks to fasten 

 the combs to. This year, in the month of August, though 

 not very favourable for honey, the best of hives gathered from 

 30 lbs. to 40 lbs. each. Their moveable combs, it is said, make 

 them more profitable than other hives. Their honey can be 

 taken without the destruction of their combs by the honey- 

 extractor. Probably the introduction of this American slinger 

 has given them a popularity for a time. I think it has never 

 been proven that hives with moveable combs are the most 

 profitable. If so, where is the evidence ? 



To those of your readers who have a preference for bar-frame 

 hives, and who use them with a view to get pure virgin honey- 

 comb, let me suggest the use of hives large enough to hold 

 about fourteen bars, for in such hives the outer bars would be 

 often filled with honey, and not with brood. I am also of 

 opinion that the appearance and quality of bar-frame hives 

 would be greatly improved by having the straw worked into 

 their oirter frames by an accomplished Scotch skep-maker. — 

 A. Pettigbew. 



The AnjDSTrNG Hm;. — Now that the Crystal Palace Bee Show 

 is a thing of the past, I rather regret not having exhibited and 

 explained the principle of my "adjusting" hive, as it has 

 proved, and will continue to prove, a very successful hive when 

 a large produce of honey is the object desired. Our respected 

 and frequent correspondent " B. & W." is right in his suppo- 

 sition that this hive was described in The Journ.il of Horti- 

 culture some years since — so long ago, indeed, that a description 

 of it may not be unacceptable again, whilst the interest which 

 the Exhibition created is so fresh in one's memory. 



It was in 1847 that the stock hive was first tenanted by a 

 swarm, and in 1848 that the first opportunity offered of testing 

 the capabihties of the "adjusting" system; and on this first 

 occasion it proved satisfactory, the adjuster or remunerator 

 being nearly but not quite filled with honeycomb of 98 lbs. 

 weight. Again, in 1863 two supers worked on this principle 

 were obtained of the weights respectively of 112 and 109J lbs. 

 net : at the same time I feel confident that in neither of these 

 instances, nor indeed in almost any case, if supers of the same 

 capacity had been simply placed on the stock hive would they 

 have been more than partially filled, for the bees wuold have 

 been discouraged, and have been a long time in commencing 

 their comb-making, instead of at once clustering and beginning 

 in a small portion of the box of 6 inches only. What, then, is 

 this adjusting system ? It is a plan of cheating the bees into a 

 belief that they have just to fill a shallow storehouse of 6 inches 

 in depth with comb. They do so, and quickly too ; but they 

 find, to their astonishment perhaps, they must extend their 

 comb 3 or 4 inches more ere they reach the bottom ; and so on 

 again and again, working all the harder to fill up the vacant 

 space between their storehonse-and domicile. 



The original hive on this principle consisted of a stock box, 

 the dimensions being a cube of 12 inches inside measure. The 

 adjuster was 18 inches in depth, and made to slip easily down 

 over this box telescope fashion, and, when resting on the bottom 



