480 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jano 15, 187K. 



cluster ontside before swarming, hence an internal examination 

 is necessary to ascertain if the bees are ready for swarming. 

 When a hive is ripe and ready for swarming two empty hivea 

 should be brought near to the place where it stands, also a table- 

 cloth or piece of calico, and a bit of fustian or corduroy (old) 

 about 4 inches square, rolled together. By holding one end of 

 the fastian to a red coal it ia fired and begins to smoke. By 

 holding the smoking end close to the door of the hive and blow- 

 ing hard on it, all the smoke is driven in amongst the bees, 

 which masters them completely. When the hive is raised o£f 

 the board it will be found that the bees do not rise or attempt 

 to sting. The hive should be inverted and placed on its crown 

 a few yards from its stand, one of the empty hives placed on 

 and over it, and the tablecloth rolled round the junction of the 

 two hives to keep all the bees in. The other empty hive should 

 be placed on the board to cover up the bees on it and gather in 

 outsiders. Now for the drumming or driving process. This is 

 done by beating on the full or bottom hive with the open hand 

 for about four minutes. Bees enough to form a swarm generally 

 run np in four minutes. The cloth is unrolled, and the swarm 

 is placed on the board of the old hive. The cloth is spread 

 over the combs and bees of the old hive, or it may be placed 

 on another board at once. This is artificial swarming, which 

 anybody may do in six or seven minutes. The swarm should 

 be placed some feet or yards to the right of the old stand, and the 

 mother hive as far to the left. If there be room enough to place 

 them 2 or 3 yards from the old place on either side all the better, 

 but no other hive should stand between them for some days. 



There are other modes of artificial swarming, but the one 

 here described is by far the nearest approach to natural swarm- 

 ing, and is therefore the best and most successful. All the bee- 

 keepers we know who have seen it done frankly acknowledge 

 that it ia about as perfect and satisfactory aa it can be. My 

 father practised it some twenty years before I was born, and for 

 some years before he was taught to use smoke to stupify bees. 

 Probably he learnt it from Bonnet's book on bees, which waa 

 published about one hundred years ago ; but of this I have no 

 evidence — Bonner's book waa never in our house in my day. 

 About eighty years ago my father and William Alexander (a 

 friend of his in Lanarkshire) were in partnership in bee-keeping 

 in an extensive way, and then they commenced to Bwarm arti- 

 ficially, and their mode of doing so (copied or invented I cannot 

 say) has been handed down unimproved to the present time. 

 I have practised it for half a century or thereabouts, and now 

 could undertake to swarm four or five score of hives in a day 

 without a failure. 



In natural swarming the old queen goes with the first swarm, 

 leaving young queens in royal cells in the old hive. In the 

 mode of artificial swarming now described the old queen goes 

 with the swarm ; and if the bees have not queens in royal cells 

 at the time, they soon begin to set and form them after the 

 swarm has been taken. 



In natural swarming there is sometimes a miscarriage — the 

 queen does not go with the swarm, and the bees speedily return ; 

 and if in artificial swarming the queen does not run up into 

 the empty hive or go with the swarm, the bees return to the 

 mother hive. No harm has been done, only a little labour lost. 

 But in nineteen cases out of twenty we find that the queens go 

 with the swarms. As our bees are often swarmed at a distance 

 from home we make sure of having the queens with the swarms. 

 Before placing the awarm on a board we turn the hivo contain- 

 ing the awarm on its crown, with a view to see the queen. But 

 this looking for and seeing the queen is not absolutely necesaary ; 

 indeed, very few beginners have courage enough to face twenty 

 thousand or thirty thousand bees, and look for the queen in the 

 crawling mass. 



There is no difficulty at all in artificial swarming. The diffi- 

 culty with inexperienced apiariana ia to know when the hive is 

 ready, and how many bees should be taken when it is ready. 

 Well, bees enough to cover all the combs thinly should be left 

 in the mother hive. When too many have been taken from it 

 the awarm should be removed from the spot, and the old hive 

 placed on it to catch all outsiders till it is strengthened by 

 numbers. If too few have been taken from the old hive, some 

 inore should be driven up and united to the swarm. A very 

 little experience enables bee-keepers to practise the artificial 

 mode of swarming with aatisfaction and success. Que object 

 lesson — one successful attempt, will be more convincing than 

 this long letter. — A. Pettigkew. 



OUE LETTER BOX. 



Bee Dress (H. E. JB.).— Inquire of Messrs. Neighbour, High Holborn, 

 Loudon. 



BKE3 Killed in Hive (T. IT.).— We think that there was no miEminage- 

 ment in hiving your swarms, though we cannot with certainty tell wby some 

 of the bees in one swarm were killed. They did nut belong to the swarm 

 that killed tbom. As all your hives were ready for swarming at the timo, the 

 probability is great that those killed belonged to one of your other hives just 

 on the eve of swarming. Let the bees in your old-fashioned hive remain 

 where they are till the 16th or 18th of this month, when the young queens 



and almost all the brood will have been hatched and perfected, then drive 

 them all out into a better hive. 



A Cast-odt Qoeen (A Derby Subscriber).— The bee Joa have sent is a 

 young queen. Doubtless three or four young queens were piping in your 

 hive for some days before your cast came off. The queen you found dead 

 and sent to us had left her cell rather too soon (before the day of Bwarmingl, 

 and was therefore killed and cast oat. If she had remained in her cell till 

 the swarm had gone she might possibly have been elected to bo the queen of 

 the old hivo instead of her sister now occupying the throne. It is a very 

 common occurrence for young queens to be cast out after second swarms 

 have left their hives. If their impatience will not let them bear confinement 

 in their cells for three days and nights they are killed and cast out before 

 swarming. 



Dkessing Rabbit Skins (H. B., £!/orii|.— Take the skin as fresh as 

 possible, and having mixed a sufficient quantity of salt and water till it will 

 bear an egg, saturate it with alum ; put the skin into this blood-warm, and 

 let it lie and soak twenty-four hours ; then take it out, and having tacked it 

 upon a board {the fur inwards), scrape the skin, and a thin membrane will 

 come off; then, having warmed up the pickle again, put the ekin into it a 

 second time, and let it remain five hours mere; after which take it out and 

 nail it upon a board to dry (fur inwards), and then rub it with pumice-stone 

 and whiting. Hare and other skins may be prepared in the same way. They 

 are always in best condition for preparing in the winter. Bub the soarfy 

 places on your Rabbits with sulphur ointment. 



Lat. 51' 



METEOBOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 

 Camuen Sqoare, LoNnON. 

 i'.4Q" N. ; Long. 0" 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 foot. 



REMARKS. 

 7th.— Fair all day, but not bright at any time, and eometimes very dark. 

 8th. — Fine moroing, bnt a cheerless day — no sun, no rain, and scarce any 



wind; very fine at night. 

 9th. — Ball Bunle^s day ; a little rain in the evening. 

 10th. — Fair, but dull, heavy, and thunder-like in the moming, but clearing 



off before coon, and very flue afternoon, evening, and night. 

 11th. — Splendid morning; a very beautiful day throughout. 

 12th. — A very fine morning and afternoon, but rather cloudy and atorin-lite, 



with heavy air in the evening. 

 13th.— Very dull, dark, and etorm-like all day, but no rain till 7 p.m., from 

 which time it fell rather heavily for some time. The evening closed 

 in more than an hour earlier than on the preceding day. 

 Some of the days were very oppressive and storm-like, but not very warm» 

 the mean temperature only exceeding the mean of the previous week by 

 about 2''.— G. J. Symons. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— Junb 14. 

 A BETTER tone has ruled the market since our last report, and all clasees 

 of goods have been more readily cleared. Outdoor Strawberries from the 

 west of England me arriving in fair quantities, but show signs of the back- 

 ward season, and it is quite evident that a week will elapse before any supply 

 reaches us from near home. 



FRUIT. 



s. d. B. d. 



Apples j Bieve 1 6 to 6 



Apricots box 16 4 



Cherries bux 1 6 



CbestDutB bushel 



Currants i sieve 



Black do. 



Figs dozen 9 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. a 



Gooseberries quart S 



Grapes, hothouse.... lb. 3 lu u 



Lemons ^100 6 12 



Melons each 2 10 



5 















15 







1 

 9 



s. d. s. A, 



MalborrioB lb. OtoO 



Nectarines dozen 8 21 



Oranges q?^ 100 6 13 



Peaches dozen 8 3J 



Pears, kitchen.... dozen 



desi^nrt dozen 3 12 o 



PineAppleB lb. 10 4 



Plums i sieve 



Quinces bushel 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries lb. 1 





 

 

 



Wuluuta bushel 4 10 



ditto ^100 1 6 a 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokea dozen 



Asparagus ^100 



French bundle 



Beans, Kidney.... *>103 



Beet, KeJ dozen 



BroccoJi bundle 



Brussels Sprouts i sieve 



Cabbage dozen 



Carrots bunch 



Capeicuma ^100 



Cauhflower dozen 



Celery bundle 



Coleworts.. doz. bunches 



Cucumbers each 



Endive dozen 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish bundle 



Lettuce, dozen 



French Cabbage .... 



Leeka bunch 



Mushrooma pottle 



Muutard & Cress punnet 

 Onions bUBhel 



pickling quart 



Parsley.... doz. bunches 



Parsnips dozen 



Peas quart 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



New lb. 



Radishes., doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Salsafy buadle 



Scorzouera bundle 



Seakale basliet 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes dozen 



Turnips bunch 



Vegetable Marrows 



