October 14, 1876. J 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



353 



swarm that worked well for three mouths in summer without 

 breeding, and at the end of that time the hees seemed about as 

 numerous as they did when they were hived. At the end of 

 the season the bees were destroyed, and the combs (all virgin), 

 were taken from the hive. 



One other point in the natural history of bees should be 

 noticed here— viz , the fact that the working bees assist their 

 queens in the distribution and setting of eggs. I have seen 

 instances of it in hundreds if not thousands o( hives. Duriuj^ 

 the present year another apiarian saw the bees in the act of re- 

 moving eggs from one cell to another. The scepticism of many 

 has now been scattered to the winds, and it is to be hoped that 

 we shall hear no more of narrow slits between hives and supers 

 being used to prevent breeding in the latter. If bees wish to 

 breed in supers they will carry eggs into them. It is not narrow 

 slits that keep bees from breeding in supers. 



We now come to notice the season and harvest of 1875, The 

 season has been more favourable in some districts than others, 

 but taking the whole of Great Britain from the Land's End to 

 John o'Groat's the season has been an unfavourable one for 

 honey-gathering; In our own district, call it the Manchester one, 

 we have had prevailing north winds and wet weather. S warming, 

 though earlier than last year, was rather later than is usual, but 

 owing to unfavourable weather swarms had to be fed to keep 

 them alive. Swarms that were not taken to the moors have 

 had to be fed with syrup. Those that went to the moors laid- 

 up great stores of honey during the last fortnight of August. A 

 few of the best swarms rose in weight to 80 and 90 lbs. each. 

 The averase weight of first swarms in modern straw hives would 

 be about 70 lbs. each. Mr. Thorp of Sale took above £6 worth 

 of honey and honeycomb, and sold two hives well filled for £i 

 from his two stock hives — in other words, £10 income from two 

 hives. The bee-keepers at Carluke in Lanarkshire (my native 

 place), have to take second or third place this year. Not a 

 swarm in the parish has reached 90 lbs. At the end of the 

 clover season some of them were 50 to 60 lbs. each, only one 

 70 lbs., but owing to the weather being unfavourable they did 

 not improve on the moors. Hitherto the Carluke men have 

 stood in the forefront with swarms ranging between 100 lbs. and 

 150 lbs. each, the accounts of which were sent annually to me 

 by Mr. Robt. Reid, lately deceased. Mr. Henshilwood who has 

 kindly sent me an acconnt this year, and all the rest of the bee- 

 keepers there, have sprung-up since I left Carluke. 



Last year the apiarians of Aberdeen and Banffshire were in 

 the van of progress and success. This year two reports have 

 been sent to me from that qaarter, one by Mr. George Camp- 

 bell, the other by Mr. James Shearer. Mr. Cambell considers 

 " the present year the most unfavourable for bees, excepting 

 1845 and 1860, that he has experioDcad during a period of 

 thirty-three years' practice amongst them." Last year he had 

 two swarms that weighed 126 lbs. and 128 lbs. respectively. 

 One he sold to a neighbour, but both of the hives were kept for 

 stocks. The one he kept himself consumed 24 lbs. of honey 

 during the winter months. It yielded a monster swarm of 

 9 lbs. on the 7th of June this year, which filled a hive 18 inches 

 wide and 16 inches deep, but weighed only 81 lbs. at the end of 

 the season. The first swarm from his neighbour's hive weighed 

 50 lbs. only. The bees of both are Ligurians. 



Mr. Shearer of Cairnie, Aberdeenshire, has sent me his report, 

 which is more satisfactory and comprehensive. He says, " The 

 British bees have beaten decidedly the Ligurians this season in 

 our quarter." " I believe," he says, " the season has not been 

 very good, and our success must in great measure be attributed to 

 gooii management. My first swarm, G\ lbs. of bees, came off on 

 the 25th of June. The weather thereafter continued so unpro- 

 pitious that, to prevent starvation, I gave tbe swarm 7 lbs. of 

 sugar. On the Ist of September it weighed 105 lbs. Another, 

 which swarmed on the 28ih of June, 5 lbs. of bees, had 5 lbs. of 

 sugar and rose to 84 lbs. I had a stock hive which gathered 

 12 lbs. on the day before it swarmed, and 5 lbs. on the day 

 previous, making 17 lbs. in two days. 'The average weight of my 

 first swarms was 78 lbs. gross. Mr. Alex. Cockburn, Shenwell, 

 had an artificial swarm on the 3rd of July which reached 142 lbs. 

 on September 1st. A second and a third swarm came naturally 

 from the same stock, showing that too many bees were not 

 taken from it to make the first swarm. The skep of this swarm 

 was 20 inches wide and 24 inches deep — one of Pettigrew's 

 largest sizes, but it was not quite filled. The swarm received 

 no assistance by feeding or otherwise, and the bees were tbe 

 common variety. Mr, Robert Gordon, Mains, Gartley, in a 

 note to me says he considers this has been a bad bee season. In 

 some quarters his statement as to his last year's hive being 

 164 lbs. was not credited ; he had his hives weighed as carefully 

 as before, and in the presence of visitors. Natural swarming 

 commenced on the 3rd of July (sixteen days later than last year), 

 and ended on the 15th of July. His hives attained their greatest 

 weights between the 17th and 24th of August. The weights 

 include hives, ekes, and floorboards, which last year averaged 

 12 lbs.; this year, owing to greater size of hives, they average 

 17 lbs. The heaviest stock hive weighs 91 Iba., the lightest 



65 lbs., average 76 lbs. 6 ozs. The heaviest swarm 144 lbs., 

 lightest 38 lbs. 12 ozs., average 71 lbs. 2 ozs. The heaviest turn- 

 out 99 lbs., the hghtest 64 lbs,, average 83 lbs. 6 ozs. Two of 

 the turnouts gave swarms, the others were nadired. The 1441_b. 

 hive was composed of (filled by) two swarms which united in 

 the act of swarming. The unfavourable season will account 

 for the deficiency of weights as compared with last year." Such 

 is Mr. Shearer's report of bee-keeping this year in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Huntley, Aberdeenshire. 



Mr. George Fox of Kingsbridge, Devon, informs me by letter 

 that his " Good honest black bees gave him a super this year 

 which weighs 80 lbs. nett., and that Mr. Prout, ticket collector 

 at Kingsbridge Road station on the South Devon Railway, has 

 taken a super 80 lbs. from a common straw hive." I have long 

 considered Mr. Fox the most successful bee-keeper in the south 

 of England, and a most honourable gentleman. I regret ex- 

 ceedingly that his super was disqualified (owing to its weight), 

 at the late Crystal Palace Sbow. Mr. Fox naturally feels 

 aggrieved, and informs me that " the super was honestly worked 

 to the backbone," and hopes "the decision of the Judges is 

 not final." He has received many expressions of sympathy, 

 which tend to allay the irritation experienced in this matter. 

 — A. Pettigbew. 



BEE HOUSES.— No. 2. 



MiGKATiKG in 1853 to Tasmania I began bee-keeping anew. 

 There my bees were kept in boxes on single stands in the open 

 air, nor had I occasion to try bee houtes during the four 

 summers I spent in that beautiful island. The year 1858 found 

 me once more settled in England. All that summer and autumn 

 I was house-building, nor did I fail to make provision for a 

 window apiary in a small room at the end of a projecting line 

 of offices looking into the garden, which serves the purpose of 

 a carpenter's workplace. Here I have a bencli and tools of all 

 sorts, with a convenient loft overhead for stowing away innumer- 

 able things. The one window in it is large enough to accommo- 

 date six colonies worked on the storifjing principle in two 

 rows. Each colony has a communication with the open air 

 by a tunnel through the woodwork. The panes of glass in this 

 window are darkened at pleasure, so that I can a'lmit light into 

 my tool house when I like, or shut it out whenever I have 

 occasion to liberate bees from super or hive. In this case the 

 door is open ajar, and the light attracts them thither, and my 

 den is soon free of them. Besides this, which is called par 

 excellence "the bee house," there is room for four more colo- 

 nies on a couple of shelves in a fowl house, situated some SOyards 

 distant. These are managed precisely in the same way, except 

 only that as the house is "weather-boarded," the communica- 

 tions with the outer air are cut in the woodwork. 



Requiring more room under shelter for my bees, I erected a 

 shed three or four years ago in another pirt of my garden large 

 enough to hold eight colonies. This is open to the air on every 

 side, consisting only of uprights of oak and sleepers (under 

 ground), with a roof aflixed to a wall-plate, as in my old Hereford- 

 shire bee house. There are two shelves on which the hives 

 rest, four in each row. As it is situated in the most sheltered 

 part of my garden it generally escapes rain, but, it being quite 

 open, the lower hives in particular often catch the drifting rain 

 from the most exposed quarter. 



On the whole, my experience lea^ls me to give preference 

 among all sheds and houses to what I have called my " window 

 apiaries." These are really as faultless as any receptacles 

 for housing bees can be, for here no enemies can attack them, 

 and they are absolutely safe from damp and hurricane; and 

 here are they most easily to be managed. No disturbance of 

 one hive afiects its neighbour so as to annoy the operator, 

 and here feeding can be carried on to any extent without ex- 

 citement in the apiary, and with the greatest comfort to the 

 operator. 



In my little book on " Profitable Bee-keeping," published by 

 the S. P, C. K,, and to be had at all its depots, there is a woodcut 

 of a simple shed for cottagers, to which I give the preference of 

 all my other sheds and houses. It may be made of any length, 

 and is very convenient, and gives good shelter, from it8_ being 

 low on the ground and well admitting of one row of hives. — 

 B. & W. 



ODB LETTEE BOX. 



Hambueghs for Exhibition (B. M.).—\i yonr birds are well grown, and 

 have fione on -without a chet-lt, you may show them, the more bo that you 

 prob(ib)y have yet a month before you. You must cbooBe them all with 

 lauitleen deaf-ears. The hens should he bright coloured, and the pencilling 

 should have a metallic lustre. Their hackles should he clear, and their tails 

 as much pencilled as possible. Cocks and pullets must have good combs, 

 quite firm on the bead, full of points, with pike turning upwards behind. 

 The cock's tail should be black, but each feather edged with gold. Choosa 

 birds of rich colour, as the washed-oat hue has an air of poverty and does 

 not recommend itself. 



PoDLTEY WITH SciLY Leos (H. W.).— Tho scaly leg'? you speak of are 

 known as the poultry elephantiasis. It is quite a modtrn complaint and a 

 great nuisance. At first it attacked only Cochins, but now ^Creve-Ceeur 



