January 27, 1876. ] 



JOCHNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



81 



1 local, E. Pontine. 2 local. Mrs. Radclyffe. Black Ecut Indian— Cap and 1, 

 S. Burn, a ai.d .4. J. W. Kelleway. Any other variety— Cu\t, 1.3, and 1 Local 

 and Cup. Sir W. Mitrriott. Mart, a and -i local, C. II. Mayo. Selling Clans.— 1, U. 

 Feast, a, T. M.iorc. S, J. Hedges. Turkkvb.— I, Kev. N. J. Rmley. a and 1 

 local. E. Pontine;. 3 and 2 local, .MrB. Radctyffe. Geese.— I and 1 local, Mrs. 

 RarlclytTe. 2 and 2 local, E P..utinn. B, J. K, Fowler. 



Pheasantb and PijEON3.—P/ie«M(tnN.—l. Sir W.Marriott, Bart. 2. Mrs.W. C. 

 Druinmond. b. W. C. Drummor.d. Ciirrjfrs.— Cup and 1, H. Yardley ; 2, A. 

 Beath; H. Jacob. 1 local, H S. Hanttford. Pontent. -Cock, -Cap a, d 1, H. 

 Pralt. 2, A. Heath. Scii.-l and 2, H. Pratt. Tumhters.—i up, 1, a^d 2, H. 

 Yardley. Barts.— I, B. Yardley. i', P. H. Jonea. 2 local, C. Parsons. Tnrbitl.- 

 1, C. A. Crater. 2. P. H. Jones. 2 local. C Parsons. Jacobins.— 1 and 2, J. 

 Andrews. 1 local, C Par..ion3. Fantails — Cup, 1, and 2. J. F. Loveridge. 

 1 local. Mrs. C. Parsons. iS'iiiia.— 1, MiiS A. Brooke. 2 and i local. C. Paraous. 

 Antiverpa.—l,J. J. Bradlev. 2, G. Colson. Drartoons, Silver,— i, 2, and 1 Local 

 Cup. W. Bishop. 2 local. *W. Osmond Blue —Cup and 1, R. Woods. 2, W. 

 Bishop. Bed or Yellow.— \ and 2. R. Woods. Wlntc —1, 2. and Point Cup, W. 

 Bishop. Any ot'tcr distinct variety and local.— 1, F. brauud (Owls). 2, H. 

 Yardley. 1 local, Mrs. C. Parsons ilce|. 2 local. O. C. Farrer {Frlllbacks). 

 Selling Cfoju.— 1, Mrs. W 0. Drummond. 2, W. E. llootes. 3, C. Parsons. 



THE WONDERS OF A BEE HIVE.— No. 3. 



The first fortnight of the life of a queen bee is very eventful, 

 often very tragical and calamitous. More queens are hatched 

 than the exigencies of hives require. The supernumeraries are 

 destroyed either in royal battles or by the community before 

 they are many days old. Even after aH the supernumerary queens 

 have been killed and the rest enthroned, every one iu its own 

 hive, young queens are exposed to danger daring the honey- 

 moon season of their lives, which happens before they are four- 

 teen days old. Many queens never return from their first tours. 

 Some of them may be drowned in ponds and rivers, some caught 

 by birds, some miss their way home. We cannot tell how they 

 are lost. Much of their life indoors is surrounded by mysteries 

 which man cannot penetrate, and his eye cannot follow them 

 over fields and forests outside. 



All queens that have been successful in their outdoor excur- 

 sions have the maternal duties of their hives to perform. The 

 office of a queen is no sinecure. What common working bee is 

 so heavily taxed with toil? What life so laborious, monotonous, 

 and exhausting as that of a queen bee? Where can a life be 

 found more exemplary for patience and perseverance? Four 

 years of heavy work unflinchingly met I No holiday — no plea- 

 sure excursion for a queen bee ! No day of rest does she ever 

 seek! And who dares affirm that she ever has one hour of 

 sleep ? 



Queens commence laying -when they are about ten days olJ, 

 generally speaking, and continue to lay duriug the summer 

 months till the time of their decease — viz., when they are four 

 years old. A few die when they are three years old. Their 

 fertility is one of the wonders of bee history. We are not aware 

 that it has been accurately ascertained how many eggs a queen 

 lays every day. So far as my own experience goes it leads me 

 to put the number beyond 2000 daily. Langstroth put it be- 

 tween 2000 and 3000 daily. Some experiments made in America 

 indicate that our estimate or guess is much under the number. 

 One writer informs us that through a glass hive he saw a queen 

 laying eggs at " the rate of six a minute." If she kept on at this 

 rate 5000 would be laid in twenty-four hours. Even 2000 eggs 

 laid daily for months by one queen seem a marvelloubly large 

 number. The prolific character of queen bees has not been 

 sufficiently pondered by many apiarians, otherwife their hives 

 would have been constructed much larger. More than half the 

 eggs laid by queens are destroyed for want of room to set and 

 hatch them iu the present race of hives. 



Have queens the powers to repress egg-laying? Can they lay 

 and cease to lay when thty like? I have never seen any evidence 

 indicating that they could lay or cease to lay when they like, 

 or even to lay according to the wants of their hives. Dr. JBevan 

 was wrong in stating that queens have two great seasons of egg- 

 laying — viz., one before swarming and another after swarming. 

 He fancied that queens stopped laying before swarming and 

 recommenced afterwards. Thet is erroneous, for queens con- 

 tinue to lay up till the moment of swarming, and they will lay 

 eggs on the flight board in the act of swarming. If a first swarm 

 be hived amongst empty combs we invariably find that the 

 combs are speedily filled with eggs. There is no cestation of 

 egg-laying at the swarming season. One of the easiest ways of 

 finding how many eggs a queen bee lays is to put a first swarm 

 into a hive cf empty combs for thirty-six hours and then count 

 the eggs laid during that time. In seasons of inclement weather 

 there sometimes seems to be a cessation of egg-laying. No eggs 

 are set — the cnmbs become empty. This is a very common 

 occurrence, and has led some honest men to think and say 

 that the queens have become barren for a time. I have not 

 been able to t ndorse this opinion, for I find that in hives with 

 plenty of honey in them egg-laying is seldom discontinued 

 during the multiplying seasons. 



In hives on the borderland of starvation during inclement 

 weather we find that eggs are not set, and often much of the 

 brood that is half hatched is torn from the cells and cast out of 

 the hive. The bees anticipate a famine and wisely cast out 

 their young. The instinct that causes them to cast out their 

 young may teach them to destroy eggs, and thus save them- 



selves from the burdens of an accumulation of brood. I do not 

 say that cold inclement weather does not influence the produc- 

 tive powers of queen bees, as it certainly does in the case of 

 fowls ; but I have not found material enough in the evidence 

 adduced by some writers on this question to convince me that 

 queen bees have ceased to lay when eggs are not set. 



How the queens or bees know male from female eggs is a 

 wonder to many. Male eggs are laid or set in drone cells, and 

 female eggs in worker cells. Can a queen bee, by a mere act of 

 her own will, determine gender before the egg is laid? If not, 

 how comes it to pass that each kind of eggs are placed in appro- 

 priate cells? If the queen cannot determine and destine the 

 sex of the eggs, which "great bee " knows the difference between 

 male and female eggs, and separates the one from the other 

 after they are produced ? Such questions lead us into a wil- 

 derness of thickets, and leave us to find our way out as best 

 we can. 



After the first fortnight of her life a queen bee discharges the 

 duties of maternity. The drain on her strength by such mater- 

 nal functions must be very great. Some one has said that a 

 queen is an enormous eater. No one will dispute this. Con- 

 stant feeding and generous food are necessary to keep her at 

 work. Strange that a bee of fragile build should lay so long and 

 well. " You must admit that a queen bee has one airing and 

 holiday once a year — when the bees swarm." Tes, she does go 

 with the swarm ; but it cannot be called a holiday or pleasure 

 excursion. She is a creature of circumstance then and follows 

 the majority. 



One of the wonders of a bee hivejis the fact that the inability 

 of a queen to fly far is taken into consideration by the com- 

 munity before they emigrate. Old and pregnant queens go 

 with first swarms, which settle or alight on branches near home. 

 First swarms seldom go many yards from the old stands. 

 Second swarms or casts have young unfertilised queens, and these 

 often go farther from home. First swarms with old queens are 

 afraid to depart if the weather be at all threatening; second 

 swarms are less paiticular about the weather or the hours of 

 swarming. 



Though the queen leads a life of drudgery and monotony she 

 leads it most contentedly amid an affectionate and admiring 

 people, who study her every want and remove every pebble out 

 of her pathway. She is the highest personage iu the realm and 

 receives the greatest homage. Disloyalty finds no place within 

 the sphere of a bee hive. A queen hveo to see generations of 

 her own progeny come and go. The time of her dotage arrives 

 —the doctor sees that her end is nigh — a gentle push will put 

 her aside, for she staggers in her gait. The bees, knowing all 

 this, make preparations for her dethronement by rearing young 

 queens, one of which must be chosen as her successor, — 

 A. Pettigbew. 



EKES YEKsus SUPERS. 



A QUESTION from a correspondent on the subject of ekes, which 

 has been forwarded to me by special request ol the writer, gives 

 occasion for a few remarks on the subject generally. I am the 

 more induced to write upon this question because I have written 

 on both sides during the last year or two in the pages of this 

 journal, and I may be charged with uttering an "uncertain 

 sound," than which nothing can be more disastrous either in 

 regard to religious doctrines or (to pass by a bound to the 

 humbler region cf ) bee economics. 



Latterly I have said a good deal touching supers, and your 

 readers are iu no doubt as to my opinion of the superiority of 

 these, in point of profitable management, to the old-fashioned 

 use of ekes. But this depends a good deal upon the relative 

 nature of quantity versus quality in the production of honey. 

 If you want a great quantity of honey and are not particular as 

 to its coarseness, and if you aim at honey in the jar rather than 

 honey in the comb, then no doubt a judicious use of the eke 

 system of space-enlargement will be your best policy, and the 

 plan suggested by your correspondent " F. J." will be found very 

 practicable. We should agree with him entirely if, instead of 

 saying that working bees with ekes is the best plan of " making 

 money," he would write of "making hooey;" for I believe 

 that at least a third cf tlie quantity made by the use of ekes if 

 collected in supers would make more money. His plan is as 

 follows : He would use plain wooden boxes, not bar-frames, 

 "16 inches square and 45- inches deep." I should prefer at 

 least 6 inches for the main box. "F. J." continues, "When you 

 hive a swarm in one of these put an eke to it, which will make 

 the stock box then 9 inches deep As soon as they have this 

 full and want room add another eke same size, and if the season 

 allows them to fill this add another. Supposing this to be done, 

 the hive would he 18 inches deep. Each division should have 

 an adjusting board between, so as to keep the combs separate in 

 each." At the end of the season he proposes " to drive the beea 

 down to the bottom of the hive with a puff of smoke," after 

 removing the top board of all on the uppermost box, " and 

 taking off the top box or two, which can easily be separated with- 

 out breaking the combs ; " a loose top could then be screwed on 



