Muoh 26, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



267 



fed, returned qoiokly, and money paid to stated date. May it 

 and all other shows managed like it Hourish. 



CRYSTAL PALACE BEE AND HONEY 

 SHOW. 



If my letter on the above is calculated to injure honourable 

 and profitable apiculture, I bep leave to apologise moat sincerely 

 both to Mr. Symington and all other apiculturists, for nothing 

 can be further from my inteution. I may be wrong, and if so, 

 shall be glad to be put right ; but I have an idea tliat all this 

 to-do about " most improved " hives and breed in bees is mere 

 moonshine, except to the vendors of those hives vphich are the 

 acme of perfection, and those fine strains iu breed which are to 

 revolutiouise the profession altogether. 



I understood the schedule was simply a proposed one, and 

 that criticism was invited, and as such I took the liberty to re- 

 view it and state my opinions. As Mr. Symington's views differ 

 from mine, and as he has given reasons for some of those views, 

 perhaps you will kindly allow me to answer some of them. As 

 an amateur bee-keeper, I admit that I should consider the 

 honour to win a prize at the Show far greater than the money 

 appendage, but I think that out of such a handsome prize fund 

 the Show might have been made more national by reducing the 

 number of classes and increasing the money value of the prizes, 

 thus inducing those who seek profit as well as honour to come 

 from a distance. 



Then as to the definition of hives. Mr. Symington says that 

 there is a class for every kind of hive in use, from a " straw skep 

 to the most elaborately-constructed bar-and-frame hive," but I 

 notice the skep is in connection with the box, and I contend 

 that the skep comes nearer to what Mr. Symiugton desires than 

 any box can do — viz., simplicity in construction, ease in mani- 

 pulation, and likelihood to secure a good yield of honey ; but a 

 maker or vendor of fancy boxes, &c., may say differently, " for 

 love is blind, and self has a long arm." Of course, if amateurs 

 have a desire for something in the fancy line, by all means let 

 their desire be gratified ; but it really is too much to recom- 

 mend their " fancy goods " to the cottager as being the most 

 profitable. 



What will the importers and vendors of Ligurian queens say 

 to Mr. Symington's next answer ? If there is no certainty that 

 handsome queens produce handsome progeny, &c., why should 

 their relative value be more ? The fact must be that it is all a 

 lottery and should be a caution to intending purchasers. 



Then there is this " largest breed." Mr. Symington accepts 

 the idea of their being able to do more work, but wants proof 

 that they will require more support, and then confines " any 

 nationality " to two and a hybrid. When I was at Manchester 

 I heard one of the Judges talk about African and Egyptian bees, 

 some kinds being brown with white stripes instead of the yellow 

 as in the Ligurian ; and I in my ignorance, when this " largest 

 breed" was mooted, thought there might possibly be some liind 

 as large as humble bees. Then it is thought likely that conti- 

 nental breeders may come hoping to make a trade of the progeny 

 of "prize strains," whereas, according to Mr. Symington's own 

 showing, it is all uncertainty of like producing like. 



I am glad Mr. Symington admits that Class Q in honey is 

 introduced as a premium to purchasers of the extractor, because, 

 if I mistake not, I have seen a letter of his elsewhere stating 

 that honey so obtained is inferior to run honey. 



I am glad to hear that there are many cottagers that keep bees 

 in the neighbourhood of London, and wish the same could be 

 said of all our large towns. 



Mr. Symington concludes that I am against improvement 

 because I believe in the straw hive. Nothing could be further 

 oft the mark. By all means let there be a trial to improve, but 

 let the improvements have a satisfactory status before they are 

 puffed off as the Al in apiculture ; and I ask. Which is the most 

 advanced bee-keeper — the man who obtains a given amount of 

 honey from a hive costing, say, 7s., and taking little time to 

 manage, or the man who spends several times that amount and 

 gives more time to secure the same result 1 If Mr. Symington 

 can show me how I can obtain more honey and wax than I now 

 do at less cost I shall bo much obliged to him. 



If it be true that fertilisation of queens always takes place 

 when on the wing, how can you be certain of its being with a 

 selected drone unless you see it '? I can but imagine one way of 

 securing it if it can be done at all ; that is, get your queens and 

 your selected drones and steam away into mid-ocean beyond the 

 power of the bees reaching land where other bees are, and I 

 think that would not be profitable : so that is how I make it out 

 profitless and uncertain. 



There are unfortunate occasions when we see men attempting 

 to do tilings which we can only pity or iaugh at them for; and 

 if we saw a man attempting to "cure rotten eggs," that surely 

 would be such an occasion. No doubt there are men bold enough, 

 as the one quoted, to bring recipes out for the cure of all dis- 

 eases. It was so in the cattle plague ; but the best remedy was 



j found to be to stamp it out wherever it occurred, and so it will 

 be found with foul brood, if infectious as reported. 



I must now conclude this long letter with stating that I have 

 faith in my brown bees and Pettigrew straw hives, and shall 

 not shrink from — nay, I invite— a public trial on fair and equal 

 terms for honey and profit between my brown bees and those of 

 any nationality, and my Pettigrew straw hives and those of any 

 other kind however elaborately constructed.— Thos. Bagbhaw, 

 Longnor, near Buxton. 



VARIOUS MODES OP FEEDING BEES. 



It is well known that thousands of hives of bees have 

 perished from want of food during the autumn and winter. I£ 

 bees obtain food enough it does not matter much how they get 

 it. I have never, so far as I can remember, lifted my voice or 

 pen against any mode of administering food to bees, knowing 

 well that almost all apiarians from the highest to the most 

 humble follow their own convictions and practice in this 

 matter. Having many hives of bees and but little time to spend 

 amongst them, the easiest and speediest ways of feeding and 

 managing them are here invariably adopted. If many of the 

 readers of this Journal were to witness giving 30 lbs. of syrup to 

 thirty hives in less than half an hour, they would probably 

 marvel at the easy and speedy mode by which it is done. If 

 they were to see half a dozen hives swarmed artificially, and 

 all the swarms properly hived, placed, and covered within an 

 hour, their notions as to the difficulties of bee-management 

 would at once be materially modified. In this letter the aim is 

 simply to describe some of the many modes of feeding bees. 



1. Feeding from the Toj) of Hives.— Thia is a safe mode, and 

 may be done in many ways. In all cases of feeding at the top the 

 crown hole is opened, and through it the bees carry down into 

 the hive the food given. What is sometimes called the Lanca- 

 shire bee-feeder is a circular trough, about 9 inches wide and 

 8 or 4 deep, with a tube through it, and a wooden float in the 

 trough. The bees go up through the tube on to the float. la 

 using a feeder of this kind for the first time, it is desirable to 

 drop a little of the food amongst the combs and bees, and thus 

 entice them to go up for more. 



Another mode of administering food at the top is by a wide- 

 mouthed bottle, the mouth of which should be covered with a 

 bit of net cloth or leno, and then inverted on the crown hole of 

 the hive. The bees suck the syrup through the cloth, or catch 

 it as it oozes out. 



A third method is to have a straw super or small hive filled 

 with empty comb. By pouring the syrup over the combs, and 

 then placing it over the crown hole, the bees speedily carry 

 every drop of syrup below, leaving the super of combs quite 

 empty, and ready to receive a fresh supply. This is a very 

 simple and natural way of feeding in spring and autumn. If 

 used in summer the bees would not leave the combs of their 

 own accord. Those who have neither bottles nor Lancashire- 

 feeders may succeed without them, iu feeding at the top of their 

 hives, by dipping a few pieces of empty comb in syrup, and then 

 laying them on the tops of the hives, and covering all up with 

 straw supers or small hives. 



2. Feeding Below. — The tin trough, about 1 foot long and less 

 than half an inch deep, holding about half a pint of syrup, is an 

 exceedingly handy appliance for feeding bees during the spring 

 months. It is placed on the flight board, filled, and pushed 

 into the hive by the door. Some people fancy that the tia 

 trough wiU attract robbers. We have used it for fifty years 

 without attracting robbers. It is used at night or in cold 

 weather when bees are not flying about. 



The feeding-cistern with a trough attached to it holds about 

 a quart, and is also used at nights. The cistern supplies the 

 trough as the bees take the syrup, till all is gone. Both of these 

 appliances can be used without uncovering or touching the hive 

 to be fed. 



A feeding-board is used when large quantities are given to a 

 hive. It is made by cutting a circular hole, 10 inches in di- 

 ameter, out of the centre of a floorboard, and fitting-in a tin 

 trough about li inch deep. There is a channel to the edge of 

 the board connected with a funnel, by which the trough can be 

 refilled without touching the hive. Our feeding-board holds 

 three quarts, or 6 lbs. of syrup, and is frequently used in filling 

 supers with honey artificially. When hives are not filled with 

 combs I often use soup-plates, pie-dishes, and flower-pot saucers 

 in feeding the bees. When used, a few chips of wood are 

 placed as floats on the syrup to keep the bees from drowning, and 

 they answer admirably. 



As most of our hives are at a distance from home during the 

 swarming, we use tin dishes made to order for feeding swarms. 

 When a swarm is hived, one of these dishes is filled with syrup 

 and placed on the board, inside of course ; and if the weather is 

 unfavourable for honey, the dish is refilled, and thus the bees 

 are furnished with materials for comb-bnUding. These materials 

 (sugar and water) are cheap, and when used prevent the waste 

 of so much honey in comb-building. To feed young swarms, 



