Jannary 1, 1S71. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



23 



the latter part of their letter. The highest-coloured birds we have 

 shown have been moulted by myself — I moulted ninety-eight, 

 some of the best not having been yet sent out. — E. Bejirose. 



"P.S. — It is my intention at the close of the season to leave 

 the fancy." 



There is no need to pursue the subject further in our columns. 

 —Eds.] 



THE BEE-KEEPEB'S CALENDAB FOE 

 JANUAEY. 



In commencing a calendar in The Journal of Horticulture, 

 I will state that during the last few years a considerable ad- 

 vance has been made in apiarian science by a wide-spread 

 section of intelligent bee-keepers. The granite of common sense 

 is cropping-iip to the surface in most of the counties of England, 

 and it is on this foundation that all good and successful manage- 

 ment in the past has been achieved. The progress made in 

 practical bee-keeping of late is so perceptible, that I cherish the 

 hope I may have the happiness of knowing that thousands of the 

 rural popiilation of England derive a substantial income from 

 bee-keeping. 



Some three months ago I received an invitation to visit a 

 village in North StatTordshire. About a couple of hours after 

 my arrival almost all the leading bee-keepers within five miles 

 of the village came to spend the evening with me and my host 

 in conversation about bees. Bee-keeping in that neighbour- 

 hood had made no progress from time immemorial till about 

 three years ago, when a book of modern date on the practical 

 management of bees fell into the villagers' hands. They now 

 keep bees for profit, some having fourteen hives, some ten, some 

 seven, and others four hives. I am happy to say that I never 

 met more advanced and intelligent bee-keepers before or since. 



If I have to pilot the steamer for twelve mouths, let me, 

 before I mount the paddle-box, wish all the crew and passengers 

 " A Happy New Tear," and express my hope tliat we shall have 

 fair weather, and a pleasant as well as a prosperous voyage. 



JANUAEY. 



If bees have food enough in their hives now, the less they are 

 disturbed — indeed the quieter they sit amongst their combs, the 

 better. Though all healthy hives are benefited by the bees 

 taking an occasional airing ih mild weather during the winter 

 months, the inmates of healthy hives sit more quietly and closely 

 together than those of unhealthy hives. On t>iruing-up a hive 

 infected with foul brood, we invariably find the bees sitting 

 very loosely in it, and that they at once begin to spread them- 

 selves over the combs. On turning-up one of my own hives 

 lately, I saw the bees act in this way, and suspecting the cause 

 I applied some smoke to enable me to esamine it thoroughly, 

 when I found it extensively diseased. The bees will be shaken 

 out of it into a hive of sweet combs some night this week. 



Though September and October are the best time for feeding 

 bees for the winter, many bee-keepers fail to give enough food 

 at that season, and continue to feed them for months afterwards. 

 Such late feeding is attended with the risk of inducing the bees 

 to commence breeding, and the brood being chiUed to death by 

 frosty weather. There is also some difficulty in getting the 

 bees to take food during cold weather, when they naturally seek 

 warmth by crowding together. If necessary to feed in January, 

 let the food when given be warm, say about 100% or blood heat. 

 If the bees will not take it, let them be brought into a hothouse 

 or warm room, and there fed with warm syrup, keeping them in 

 their hives. In such a case I pour the warm liquid over bees 

 and comb, and keep them shut-up for twenty-four hours. 



Is it necessary to ventilate hives in winter ? No: the smallest 

 door possible affords tlie bees air enough during winter. With 

 wooden hives ventilation is an advantage, as the greater part of 

 the moisture which (without ventilation), condenses on the 

 insides of the hives and rots the combs, is carried through the 

 ventilating holes. Where wood hives are used, the crown holes 

 should be covered with fly-proof wire, and used as ventilating- 

 shafts ; and where such hives have no crown holes, I have seen 

 the combs saved by boring holes through the crowns and sides 

 with gimlets and small brace-bits. 



During the winter both honey and bees should be protected 

 ■from house and field mice ; during the summer they need no 

 protection from such robbers, but in winter bees sit so closely 

 together in the centre of their hive, that mice frequently enter 

 without molestation and devour the honey in the outside combs, 

 and will even kill the bees and afterwards eat their heads off. 

 How the sagacious mice manage to take bee by bee from the 

 mass and carry them outside the hives without being stung is a 

 marvel ; but they do it. I have known many hives nearly 

 ruined by mice eating the heads of the bees, and leaving the 

 bodies in heaps outside. To prevent these depredations we 

 contract the doors of the hives in winter by using pieces of wood 

 with doorways in them, sufficiently large to permit bees to carry 

 out their dead, aud small enough to exclude mice. 



As wet and cold are hurtful to bees, I may here refer to the 

 protection from these needed in winter. It has been stated by 



some one that bees die in a temperature of 31 '^that is to say, 

 when the mercury falls to within 2' of the freezing-jjoint inside 

 a hive, bees cannot hve. I have not yet put this to the test 

 of experiment, but if it is a fact, the importance of covering 

 bees well in winter cannot be too highly insisted on. The best 

 and neatest covers for hives which I have ever seen were soma 

 I lately noticed in Staffordshire. They might be called wooden 

 cases for hives, and were about 20 inches wide and nearly as 

 deep. They stood on floor boards and had moveable lids. The 

 hives placed inside were well protected and easy of access. 

 The cases were large enough for supering, ekeing, and feeding 

 inside, aud cost 15s. each. I saw eighteen in one garden, where 

 they had a very pleasing appearance. Between the hives and 

 the cases there is space enough for some uuder-covering in frosty 

 weather. I have never seen covers so complete and satisfactory. 



During the active months of summer there may not be space 

 for all I have to say in the first number of the month, and it 

 may, therefore, be necessary to continue my remarks another 

 week. As I am anxious to make these notes as comprehensive 

 as possible, if any of your readers find difficulties in bee-manage- 

 ment, on stating them to the Editors they will receive the best 

 consideration and attention. — A. Pettigeew, Sale, Cheshire. 



BEE-FAEMING. 



In answer to "G. H.'s" query whether I kill the queens ex- 

 cepting one when uniting three or four swarms, I believe it is 

 the best way to do so, as a young queen may be selected for 

 stock in that manner; but in my practice I have not done so, 

 simply because in this part of the country we keep the heaviest 

 hives for stock (.so that there may be no danger m wintering), 

 and such often happen to be the first swarms, consequently 

 second swarms and old stocks which have young queens are 

 generally condemned. These are what I have had to unite, and 

 as I did not fear securing a queen out of the lot, I have taken no 

 further trouble, exceptmg in my own apiary, where I have 

 followed the practice laid down in the " Handy Book of Bees " 

 — viz., to take the heaviest hives for honey, and feed the lightest 

 to the required standard. I seldom find much difficulty in pre- 

 venting the bees fighting. I beheve scent is the bond of union ; 

 for if fighting is going on, by blowing smoke of corduroy or fus- 

 tian vigorously amongst them the commotion ceases at once. 



When taking my friends' bees, which are kept in the sraaU 

 old-fashioned hives, I proceed thus :— Suppose four hives have 

 to be taken, I get four empty hives, blow a little smoke into each 

 of the condemned ones, and proceed just as in artificial swarm- 

 ing, only drumming longer, or till the bees are all out or nearly 

 so. I then place the bees on the original stands and take the 

 honey-hives into some dark outhouse, turn them bottom up- 

 wards, aud in the course of half an hour what few bees are left 

 in the honey-hives will be glad to escape to their original stands 

 as soon as light is admitted. I then take the two hives next 

 each other, and dash one on its own slab and place the other on 

 it, taking care to fumigate them equally. I wait a short time 

 while these unite, which wiU not be long in September or Oc- 

 tober. I then treat the other hives in the same way, and 

 perhaps not more than a score of bees will be lost. I have 

 united stocks in my own garden without the loss of a single bee 

 excepting a queen, which I found underneath the hive. 



Respecting the other query on supering I cannot say much, 

 for I have only tried twice — once in 1872, and once in 1873 — and 

 have succeeded pretty well by simply placing a little guide- 

 comb in the glass, putting it on an adapting-board, and then 

 over the circular hole— say 3 or 4 inches in diameter — in the top 

 of the hive, without any restrictions to the queen or drones. 

 I am thinking of trying several experiments in supering next 

 summer, aud if the weather be favourable your correspondent 

 will be welcome to my experience. — Thomas Bagshaw, Longnor, 

 near Buxton. 



WHA.T IS HONEY? 



The discussion of " What is Honey ? " recalls the old contro- 

 versy of " The Chemistry of Honey," where it was held on the 

 one side that even sugar and water after passing through the 

 body of the bee and stored-up became converted iuto veritable 

 honey, a doctrine from which our Editors, if I remember, as 

 well as the present writer, entered their dissent. 



Mr. Pettigrew is perfectly correct in treating, for practical 

 purposes, sealed honey as a distinct article from the unsealed ; 

 the latter, as I have taken occasion before now to point out, 

 will not thicken nor consolidate, even after frost sets in, while 

 the former will stiffen-up and crystaUise during midsummer 

 heat ; hence the great necessity for bee-keepers on breakmg-up 

 hives to keep the two perfectly separate. Unsealed honey is 

 always better given at once as feeding to bees, otherwise mixed 

 with the sealed it has the effect of keeping the whole thin and 

 induces fermentation. 



I related a few years ago how I found a very capital straw 

 hive, driven on the twenty-fourth day after swarming, had, at 



