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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( Jane 4, 1874. 



crease of hives by swarming than of honey. This is most nn- 

 fortunate for all whose short-Bightedness did not feed sufficiently 

 what stocks they had, or whose courage failed them after so 

 disastrous a summer as that of 1H73. Such persons in many 

 instances have to begin over again, where others, wiser than 

 they, are in a position to profit by a season which bids fair to 

 recompense all perseveringbee-keepers with abundance of honey. 



There have been instructions given in this Journal for the 

 management of artificial swarms, and some cautions have been 

 laid down. Let me add at least one caution, which, as far as my 

 memory serves me, has not been given. Beware, after driving 

 a swarm out of any hive, of letting the driven stock stand as a 

 separate hive to rear its queen. In many cases utter ruin of the 

 stock so treated has been inevitable. It is an excellent plan to 

 drive a swarm out of a hive quite early in May. In some very 

 forward years it may be done in April. This swarm, in its new 

 hive, should always be put in the place of the driven stock. 

 About this there is no difficulty nor risk. The swarm, with its old 

 queen, will do well in the old accustomed place. I have never 

 known an instance of failure. It is with the driven stock that 

 the treatment may be unfortunate. The mostsafe and altogether 

 the better treatment is to put this aside on some temporary 

 stand in a quiet spot some 20 or 30 yards from the old place for 

 twenty-four hours, during which time the older bees will slip 

 away one after the other, and rejoin their companions and their 

 queen. It is not a bad plan to disturb them with a little smoke 

 of fustian or brown paper. The latter is equally efficacious, and 

 always procurable ; but Mr. Pettigrew, for some queer reason, 

 belauds fustian smoke as of special virtue. So disturbed they 

 sooner move, and it is desirable that they should rejoin their 

 queen the same day if possible. Those who move a day later 

 are often received unkindly by their old companions, as if they 

 had undergone some suspicion of treason, having probably 

 during the night made some preparations to repair the loss of 

 their queen. The more entirely the old hive is denuded of bees 

 at the end of twenty-fonr hours, the more successful will he its 

 treatment if it be not left to itself. In this case, if left to itself, 

 it would take a long time before any attempt were made by the 

 young bees to replace their lost queen, and much brood would 

 inevitably be sacrificed. Frequent, indeed, is the failure of 

 driven hives so treated. The best treatment is to move to a 

 new stand in the busiest part of the day some other strong stock, 

 and to put in its place the denuded hive. In this way attention 

 is drawn immediately to the revolution that has taken place. 

 There will be no fighting with the few strangers, mostly young 

 bees, in the substituted hive, and the loss of the queen will be 

 repaired with the least possible delay; nor wiU the brood suffer 

 injury at aU. 



It so happens that my best three hives this spring had taken 

 possession in each case of the supers of last year, which I 

 allowed to remain on the hives during the winter. The hives 

 below had no honey whatever, so the bees wisely ascended to 

 the better-stored attics. I have just made three beautiful 

 swarms with these supers. Finding that the bees had increased 

 so much as to have not only filled the supers with brood and 

 honey, but that in each case they had overflowed into the hives 

 below, I proceeded to make my swarms out of them. In one 

 case, on taking off the super and putting it by for awhile, it be- 

 came evident that the queen had gone down below. There was 

 no difficulty, therefore, after allowing the adult population to 

 fly on to their old home, in shifting a strong swarm and putting 

 the now deserted super in its place. All has gone well with 

 this swarm without any driving. In the case of the two other 

 supers the queens happened to be there, and were dislodged by 

 driving ; otherwise the treatment was the same, and the suc- 

 cess so far is alike. Of course the driven bees with their queens 

 were at once set over the stocks from which the supers had 

 been taken. To avoid confusion iu the apiary, these swarms 

 were made on separate days. Thus it will be seen I have nine 

 strong stocks in place of sis, aud if I were chiefly desirous of 

 increasing my hives, I should proceed to make a lot more out of 

 these six in the course of a fortnight or three weeks from the 

 time I made the former swarms. Nor do I expect to lose in 

 honey, for, as all these nine hives are overflowing in population, 

 they may reasonably be expected to fill some supers, especially 

 those which retained their queens, and where, in consequence, 

 there is no check to the continuous breeding of young bees. 



In cases where the hives so treated are very full of brood 

 there must be an outlook for swarms at the time the young 

 queens will be issuing from their cells, and my experience leads 

 me in most years to look for such issue as almost certain. To 

 avoid risk of losing them iu my own case, I intend at the expi- 

 ration of about ten days from the day of their forming royal 

 cells, to repeat the process of the ten days before, iu order to 

 weaken the population, aud so reduce to a minimum the chances 

 of their swarming. As this is still in the future, and I may 

 vary the details, I shall report progress hereafter. Let me, how- 

 ever, repeat my caution, that in no case should the denuded 

 stock, after queen and bees have been removed from it by 

 driving er etherwise, be established as a separate stock. To 



insure its safety it must be re-supplied with bees from some 

 other hive. 



I have had much experience with artificial swarms, and with 

 varied success; I now give the result of it. Cutting out royal 

 cells for the manufacture of separate swarms I have not found 

 in practice to be always reliable. Theoretically there is nothing 

 to be said against it. But whatever be the cause, I have not 

 found it so successful as to warrant my recommending it for 

 general adoption. The safest of all plans of artificial swarming 

 is undoubtedly the " three-out-of-two-hive " system. There is 

 the minimum of risk and loss with the maximum assurance of 

 success. — B. & W. 



BEE-KEEPEB'S CALENDAR FOE JUNE. 



Mr. p. — Last month, Mr. B, you asked about virgin swarms, 

 combs, and honey. Virgin swarms are the products of swarms 

 of the passing or current year. They are the grandchildren of 

 stock hives. For such swarms ihe term virgin is a misname, 

 and was doubtless given to them in ancient times when people 

 were ignorant of the natural history of bees, and fancied that 

 swarms were formed of young queens and young bees only. 

 Old queens go with first swarms ; and as it is from these that, 

 in Great Britain, virgin swarms are obtained, the old mother 

 queens are of course in them. Swarms from swarms of the 

 passingseason are what are very improperly designated *' virgin."' 

 Thus understood, no one has a desire to give them another name. 



Mr. B. — Do you approve of taking virgin swarms ? 



Mr. P. — No, unless it be to increase the number of stocks ia 

 very fine early seasons. If honey is the object sought, I think 

 that the practice of taking swarms from swarms the same 

 season is not the most profitable one. Virgin comb is a term 

 more proper and justifiable than virgin swarms, inasmuch as it 

 indicates honeycomb which has never been used for breeding 

 purposes ; and this comb may generally be had from the hives 

 of first and second swarms as well as from virgin swarms. Combs 

 become thickened and discoloured by being used for rearing 

 young bees ; indeed, after being once used in this way they 

 should not be sold or eaten as honeycomb. Hives managed on the 

 nou-swarming system do not often contain pure honeycomb, for 

 bees will, before swarming, try to fill every empty comb with 

 brood ; but supers may be tilled on such hives with combs and 

 honey unsurpassed for purity and excellence. Virgin honey, if 

 it means anything at all, is pure honey obtained from virgin 

 combs. 



Mr. B.' — I had a natural swarm from my best hive a week ago. 

 I happened to be in the garden at the time, and saw the whole 

 afiair. It was a grand sight. One continuous stream of bees 

 gushed out of the door of the hive, and ran on to the point of the 

 flight-board before they took wing. It was an exodus pell meU. 

 In their impetuosity to be off some tumbled over the flight- 

 board on to the ground. For some minutes there was a cloud of 

 bees over my head, and their noise was prodigious. Speedily 

 they began to settle on the branch of a gooseberry bush close to 

 the hive, aud soon after they were all hanging in a large cluster 

 or bunch. I shook them into a hive, and at once placed them 

 where you see them. Some people, I understand, sprinkle 

 syrup on the inside of their hives before they put swarms in 

 them. I used nothing of the kind ; simply hived the swarm, 

 and all has gone on well. 



Mr. P. — You have acted wisely, for bees in swarming carry 

 with them enough to keep them alive for three or four days. 

 The beautiful gush from the hive to the point of the flight- 

 board, as seen iu the act of swarming, is owing to the bees 

 being so full of honey that they cannot rise on the wing till they 

 have filled their bodies with air. Pigeons and sparrows in 

 being shot from a trap illustrate what I mean. If the trap or 

 box is shaken on the withdrawal of the lid, and the bird made 

 to fly before it has taken an inspiration or two, it rises heavily 

 and slowly, and is easily shot ; but if it fill its body with air 

 before it stirs, it goes off like a dart. Pheasants hop and bees run 

 while they are filling their bodies with air, and those that you 

 saw fall over the flight-board could not rise on the wing till they 

 got more air sucked-in. So heavily laden are emigrant bees, 

 that they come to the ground in thousands if a cloud intercept 

 the rays of sun while they are on the wing. I am glad your first 

 swarm alighted on a bush, for if it had settled on the trunk of a 

 tree or high branch, you would have felt somewhat nervous in 

 climbing the tree to cut the branch and carry all to the bottom, 

 and there hive them ; and this is often more easily done than 

 sweeping them from the boles of trees into hives. Ton also did 

 right in placing the swarm where it is as soon as the bees were 

 hived. 



Mr. B.— Now let us turn up and examine the mother hive, for 

 I am anxious to see the queen cells and to know when I may 

 look for a second swarm. 



Mr. P.— One, two, three queen cells filled and sealed up. Tou 

 see them all very plainly, and could easily cut them out. The 

 queens in these cells will be matured and perfect in two or three 

 days, when piping will commence. 

 I Mr. B. — How do you know that ? 



