Juno 2:., 1874.1 



JOTJENAli OF HOETICULTURE AKD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



523 



extra prizes were givea at Sheffield, all of which time proved to 

 be of the best quality, no doubt the competition under the pre- 

 sent schedule will ensure a very extended competition. The 

 management of the Sheffield Show is sure to be good, as old 

 practical exhibitors have iilaced themselves at tlie helm; and 

 under such guidance every rule is sure to be strictly enforced, 

 so that perfect order and regularity may rule the day. 



HOPEFUL SIGNS. 



" Give us a guide " is a cry that comes from a large section of 

 humanity. Jinny men of all grades and occupations are eu- 

 tangled in dilHcuities and surrounded by fogs. Their efforts to 

 be successful have been failures ; they have never been able to 

 touch the fringe of the garment of the good thing which has for 

 a long time been before their imaginations. Many bee-keepers 

 after years of trial and expense have to lament their want of 

 success. Constant failures have nearly wearied them out. New 

 kinds of hives, inventions of all sorts, are adopted. Disappoint- 

 ments follow. Is there no road to success ? Yes, there must be, 

 ior many bee-keepers realise large harvests of honey. They are 

 satisfied with both their bees and their hives. New and im- 

 proved kinds are not in the line of their thoughts. They often 

 yearn for fair and warm weather. Such bee-keepers are their 

 own teachers and guides. We fancy that by-and-by the major 

 part of the bee-keepers will be successful. The natural history 

 of bees, and their profitable management, are much more widely 

 known now than they were some years ago. Large hives are 

 bought up as fast as they are made; indeed, the demand for 

 them is far greater than the supply. The lives of bees are not 

 sacrificed in the brimstone pit as they once were in thousands 

 of instances. Wherever the light of knowledge dawns the pit is 

 considered a barbarity. Stock hives are made doubly strong by 

 adding to them the bees of condemned hives in autumn. Many 

 letters come from country districts, asking where honey and 

 honeycomb can be sold. Never in my time has bee-keeping 

 been so popular as it is now; never have I known so wide and 

 extensive a demand for swarms and stocks from persons wishing 

 to commence bse-keepiug. All this, too, after so many years un- 

 favourable for honey gathering. Honey and honeycomb are, bo 

 far as my experience goes, in greater demand than they were 

 many years ago. In England the demand is far greater than 

 the supply. Prices range between Is. and Is. ijd. per pound 

 wholesale. They have never been higher during the last fifty 

 years. Sugar, too, never was so cheap in this country as it is 

 now ; lib. of good sugar for 3d. makes 2 lbs. of syrup ; and 15 lbs. 

 of sugar, costing only Ss. 9fZ., will keep a very strong swarm in 

 excellent healtli from September to March. Feeding bees in 

 bad seasons now is a mere trifle compared to what it was iu our 

 younger days, when raw sugar cost lOd. per pound, and loaf 

 sugar Is. 



When I commenced this letter it was my intention to give a, 

 few details of " odds and ends," or things to be remembered in 

 bee-keeping ; but now, having been led into another track, it 

 will be closed with a remark or two on the fundamental principles 

 of good management. 



1st. Large hives, simply constructed, cosy, and warm. Ever 

 since 1844 I have been repeating this cuckoo song : If you want 

 Taoney and honeycomb in great quantity, or great profits, keep 

 large hives. The experience of every year tends to make us 

 emphasise the advice so often given. Small hives may be used 

 for increase of stock till large hives take their place ; but large 

 results cannot be obtained from small hives, which, when full, 

 gather and yield but little honey. The vast powers and industry 

 of bees can never be developed andj understood where small 

 hives only are used. 



Last winter a gentleman living about two miles distant from 

 this place sent his gardener for a couple of hives of bees. He 

 wanted them to set the fruit in his peach houses. The gardener 

 chose the largest hive I then had, measuring 10 inches deep by 

 18 inches wide. Some time ago I called to see the gardens and 

 bees. I found the larger hive had had a moderately-sized hive 

 placed on it as a super. This super, larger than most hives in 

 England, was half full of combs when placed on the other. I 

 removed the super, which I found full of honey and brood, 

 weighing, I should think, about 35 lbs. The large hive was 

 heavy, and filled with brood and honey from side to side and 

 from bottom to top. Never have I had a more convincing in- 

 stance of the value of large hives than this. In both hives 

 there would be, probably, 5000 cubic inches of space well filled. 

 Any intelligent apiarian, on seeing these hives dissected, would 

 very naturally have concluded that no one yet has been able to 

 estimate aright the fertility of queen bees or the value of large 

 hives. The honeycomb was taken from the super and placed 

 on dishes— I guess about 22 lbs., and the broodcombs were put 

 aside. A very large swarm was taken from the old hive and 

 put into a new hive, 18 inches by 12 inches, before I left the 

 garden. 



2nd. Swarming is better than non-swarming as a system of 

 management. It is natural, and tends to health and activity. 



There are differences of situations, pasture, and seasons, and 

 therefore it is difficult to lay down a rule or guide as to when 

 swarming should be discontinued. In this neighbourhood we 

 take all the first swarms we can get till the end of June, and 

 some second swarms. In late seasons we take some early in 

 July, but not often. After June, swarming is prevented by ekes 

 or enlargements, or by supering. 



3rd. Young combs and young queens ; both are important. 

 Hives with young combs generally thrive better than those with 

 combs in them more than two years old. There are exceptions ; 

 still the rule holds good. Queens die when they are four years 

 old, and many of them die when only three years of age; it is 

 therefore unwise to keep a queen beyond three years. 



If these simple hints be borne in mind, and carried into 

 practice, the bee-keepers of England will produce ten times as 

 much honey as they do at present ; satisfaction will take the 

 place of disappointment, and wherever milk can be obtained 

 from the cow, and water from the pump (in the country), bee- 

 keeping will be a source of enjoyment to the rich, and a source 

 of profit to the poor. — A. Pettigbew. 



BONNER'S METHOD OF ARTIFICIAL 

 SWARMING. 



I AM glad to find old Bonner getting somewhat of his due at 

 last. I often remarked to friends that I believed he was the real 

 author of much that has been published of late years under 

 other names. In support of this, and for the benefit of your 

 numerous readers, I take the liberty of enclosing the following 

 verbatim copy of Bonner's directions for artificial swarming, 

 extracted from his book of 1795. Of course his method applies 

 best to the common straw hive, though I have practised it suc- 

 cessfully with wooden ones. He says : — " To drive all the bees 

 out of a hive, at any season of the year, either to reinforce 

 another hive or 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 purpose, to prevent it from being over- 

 turned. An empty hive of the same size must then be gently 

 placed over it, mouth to mouth, and a sheet or large cloth 

 wrapped round the joinings of the hives to prevent any of the 

 bees from getting out. 'The undermost 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 tile 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 cells. 

 Even the queen herself might be in danger of suffering. By 

 not adverting to this I have seen the loose combs and bruised 

 bees fall out upon turning up the hive, all of which are a con- 

 siderable loss. The older any hive is there is the less danger of 

 loosening the combs, and the more bees there are in it the sooner 

 will they 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 habita- 

 tion. 'Those that enter first, finding themselves safe, invite 

 their brethren by their sounding to follow them, which they 

 quickly do. The sheet may then be removed, and the edge of 

 the upper hive next the right hand lifted up, when, upon a 

 narrow inspection, the queen sometimes will be observed to go 

 up along with the rest. 



" When all the bees are thus removed into the new hive it 

 may be placed where the old one stood, which will collect all 

 the bees together, and within ten minutes they will fall a- work- 

 ing as busily as any natural swarm. It is necessary before this 

 operation to remove the hive 8 or 10 yards at least from every 

 other hive to prevent disturbance from other bees. An empty 

 hive should also be placed where the old hive stood to amuse 

 those bees belonging to it that may return loaded from the 

 fields. This operation may be very easily performed at any 

 hour of the day, but the safest time is when they are most busy 

 at work, as they are not then so ready to sting the operator. In 

 this manner I have taken off four artificial swarms in one fore- 

 noon, and hardly received a single sting, for the operation is 

 quite easily performed, especially in the middle of the day." 

 'Then follow directions for reinforcing weak hives, &c., and the 

 following curious note : — " Indeed, there is hardly anything that 

 is requisite to be done about bees that I would not take in hand 

 to perform with sufficient time and attention. I could put 

 twenty hives, for instance, into one if necessary ; I can cause 

 my bees to rear as many queens as I please ; I can rob my bees 

 of part of their honey at any time ; I could carry a hundred bee 

 hives to London or Russia ; I could rear five thousand bee hives 

 iu a few years if desired by any gentleman of property ; I could 

 travel through the streets of Edinburgh with three swarms of 

 bees about me unhurt ; I can take a swarm out of any hive at 

 any time ; I can take ten thousand bees from ten different hives 

 and unite them into one hive ; and I can reinforce a weak hive 

 with bees from any number of other hives, and from being the 

 worst make it the best hive in the county ; I can unite the bees 

 of forty hives into thirty, twenty, or ten hives, and next summer 



