May 7, 1874.] 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



375 



little honey in them have more hrood in their combs, and more 

 bees covering them. Such hives yield larger swarms than those 

 better filled with honey, all other things being equal. If the 

 weather continue fine this hive will be ready for swarming in 

 ten or twelve days ; and if the weather become unfavourable it 

 will not be ready for three weeks, for bear in mind the bees 

 and brood have to fall back on their stores in unfavourable 

 weather. The consumption of honey would create space for the 

 population ; besides, the population sit more closely together in 

 cold weather. 



Mr. B. — All this is according to reason, and one can easily 

 understand that much depends on the state of the weather. 

 Last night about sunset, as I stood in front of this hive, I saw a 

 few bees coming out of the door a little way, and then going 

 back. What were they looking for ? 



Mr. P.— Nothing at all. The heat of the hive is becoiaing 

 great and rather uupleasaut, and causes the bees to seek a little 

 fresh air on the balcony of their house, like ladies and gentle- 

 men after dinner on a hot summer evening. If the wind were 

 to rise and veer round to the east you would find the bees not 

 Baunteriug on the balcony for a breath of fresh air, but arranging 

 themselves in the doorway in a very close cluster to keep out 

 the cold, or, more correctly, to prevent the heat of the hive from 

 escaping. It is a beautiful sight, that of a hen gathering her 

 chickens under her wings, and it is equally beautiful and inter- 

 esting to see the bees of a hive full of brood closing their door 

 with their own bodies. These things may seem out of place in 

 a calendar, but I think that they should be kuown by all who 

 wish to have a firm grip of the subject of bee-management. 



Mr. B. — You are right; what you have said tends to strengthen 

 my desire to possess a wide and comprehensive knowledge of 

 the habits and management of bees. This best hive of mine 

 may be ready for swarming in ten days. Would you advise me 

 to adopt your artificial mode of swarming, or allow it to swarm 

 of its own accord ? 



Mr. P. — All mine are swarmed artificially. We have no time 

 to waste in watching and waiting for bees swarming. It is 

 easily done, and answers admirably. Our first swarms some- 

 times fill large hives, and supers on them 30 lbs. each. Each 

 early swarm, in a fair season, will rise in weight to 100 lbs. 

 But we do not say it is better than natural swarming. All who 

 try our system of artificial swarming succeed beyond their 

 expectations, and continue year after year the artificial process. 

 They prefer it, because it prevents the loss of swarms and the 

 trouble of watching the bees. If you let yours swarm naturally 

 you may see eggs set in royal cells about three or four days 

 before the swarms leave. In artificial swarming the eggs are 

 not generally set till after the swarms are removed. Second 

 swarms come sooner after natural swarms than they do after 

 artificial ones. If you try your hand at the artificial mode as it 

 was described lately in the Journal, you may do it at any hour 

 of the day. Place the swarm on the old stand and the mother 

 hive a short distance to the right or left. The bees at first have 

 a tendency to go to the old spot and the old hive. The old hive, 

 if equally near to the old stand as the swarm, will naturally 

 attract the most bees ; hence we frequently disfigure the front 

 of the hive and doorway for twenty-four hours, so that the bees 

 do not know it. But if the old hive be placed a few feet to one 

 side of the old stand, and the swarm be placed on it, we find 

 most of the bees remain as divided, and all goes on well. If the 

 weather is not favourable for honey-gathering at the time of 

 swarming it is a stroke of good policy to feed the swarm, and 

 thus enable the bees to build combs in which to hatch brood. 

 If the swarm were hungered for three or four days after it was 

 hived it would be injured and hindered much. If the weather 

 is favourable at the time of swarming no feeding will be needed. 

 Mr. B. — I want to know something of virgin swarms, virgin 

 comb, and virgin honey. 



Mr. P. — These will be noticed next mouth. 

 Mr. B. — Supposing I wanted supers of honeycomb instead of 

 swarms this year from these two hives of mine, how would you 

 advise me to proceed ? 



Mr. P. — It is a question whether you would get as much super 

 honey on the non-swarming system of management as you would 

 on the swarming system. A great deal depends on the season 

 and time of swarming. Young swarms generally do better than 

 old stocks. As this season is not an early one, we shall be in 

 time to discuss this question next month. But let me say here 

 that if I were not wauting swarms from your hives I would eke 

 and enlarge them before I supered them, and thus have larger 

 hives and larger populations to fill the supers when used. There 

 can be no greater mismanagement of bees than the use of small 

 hives. In such hives the powers of both queens and bees remain 

 undeveloped. They act like the small iron boots that are placed 

 on the feet of the female children of China, cramping and crip- 

 pling them quite. If you, Mr. B, put your swarms into hives 

 IG or 18 inches wide, and be kind to them for a few days after- 

 wards in the event of the weather being unfavourable, you may 

 have the happiness of reaping a super of virgin honeycomb from 

 each swarm before the season is over. 



Mr. B. — Then you advise me to put supers on my BWarm 

 hives as soon as they are filled with combs ? 



Mr. P. — Yes. In superiug, it is important to induce the bees 

 to enter the supers and commence work in them at once. This 

 cannot be too strongly insisted on, for it is as natural fjr bees to 

 swarm as it is for birds to build their nests at the proper season, 

 and it is disappointing and discouraging to beginners to get 

 neither swarms nor supers when more experienced people get 

 both. A bit of comb fasleued in the crown of each super, and a 

 wooden ladder up to it, will heliJ the bees much ; and before the 

 super is put on the hive a piece of clean calico or paper should 

 be placed between the super and the crown of the hive, with, of 

 course, in the paper or calico a hole of the same size as the 

 crown hole of the hive. This paper is simply to prevent the 

 bees from building their combs on the crown of the hive, or 

 fastening them to it. If the paper or calico be not used, supers 

 have to be cut from the hive by a thin wire or knife, then raised 

 up by wedges of wood to let the bees lick the honey from the 

 cells broken by the wire. — A. Pettigbew, Sale. 



STICKING HIVES-ARTIFICIAL SWARMS. 



The old-fashioned practice of putting sticks across the skeps 

 for comb-supports is now generally abandoned in the district 

 where the writer resides. There is no need for them, and they 

 only impede the labours of bees and disfigure the combs. Per- 

 haps your readers may feel interested in knowing how the 

 celebrated James Bonar, who published his later work in 1796, 

 made artificial swarms. At page 138 he says, " To raise an 

 artificial swarm the hive must be gently turned up, and the top 

 of it placed in an eke, or in a hole made in the ground, on pur- 

 pose to prevent it from being overturned. An empty hive of 

 the same size must then be gently placed over it, mouth to 

 mouth, and a sheet or large cloth wi-apped round the joinings 

 of the hives to prevent any of the bees from getting out. The 

 rxudermost hive must then be rapped with both hands in the 

 manner a drum is beat, rapping chiefly on those parts of the 

 hive to which the edges of the combs are fixed, and avoiding 

 the parts opposite to the sides of the combs lest they should be 

 loosened, and, by falling together, crush the bees between them 



as well as the young in the ceUs The more bees 



there are in it (the hive) the sooner they will run into the new 

 hive, for the concussion of the hive by the rapping alarms them 

 as an earthquake alarms mankind, and they run to the upper 

 hive in search of a more safe habitation. . . . The sheet 

 may then be removed, and the edge of the upper hive next the 

 right hand lifted up, when .... the queen sometimes will 

 be observed to go up along with the rest. When all the bees 

 are thus removed it may be placed where the old one stood. . . 

 An empty hive should also be placed where the old hive stood 

 to amuse those bees belonging to it that may return. . . 



*' The operation may be easily performed at any hour of the 

 day, but the safest time is when they are most busy at work. . ■ 

 I have taken ofi four artificial swarms in one forenoon," &c. 



The lines — 



" Hos ego vorsiculos feci, tulit alter boiiorea. 

 Sic vos non vobia," 

 were said to have been written by — Vibgil. 



[I cordially thank the writer of the above for the extract from 

 Bonar's book, indicating that he was the inventor of artificial 

 swarming as practised by my father, and afterwards by others 

 in his neighbourhood who followed his example. In the " Handy 

 Book of Bees " these words were used : " Who was the inventor 

 of this artificial mode of swarming I cannot tell. My father 

 adopted it, if he did not invent, nearly seventy years ago." I 

 once heard him allude to Bonar's book, so there can be no doubt 

 that he derived the hint and practice from it. My father was a 

 working man, and though he was, perhaps, the largest and most 

 successful bee-keeper that Scotland ever jjroduced, he had no 

 pretensions or parade about his practice whatever. He kept 

 bees for profit, and managed them with the least possible amount 

 of labour. Bonar, by the publication of his invention, made it 

 possible for a labouring man like my father to make htindreds 

 of pounds by bee-keeping without the trouble of watching and 

 wasting time day after day for bees swarming. I think it should 

 now be called " Bonar's system." — A. Pettigkew.] 



Fe.\ther-eating Fowls. — Chickens kept in confinement very 

 frequently contract the habit of plucking and eating the feathers 

 of their mates. We were told by a gentleman fancier very re- 

 cently, that this might be prevented by affixing a bundle of 

 fodder in their place of confinement in such manner as to pre- 

 vent the fowls from trampling upon and soiling it, while they 

 were allowed free access to it to pick and eat such fragments as 

 their appetites might covet. — [American Pet-Stock Bulletin.) 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



ExTENSiTE PouLTRY-KEEPTNO (Affricola). — If you are eureegss will always 

 make from dd, to In. per dozen, your friend may make his poultry pay. Ha 



