THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



245 



kegs and barrols, and iti evory iustaiice they 

 were leaking on arrival, while we very r.eldoin 

 have a cape of leaking with cans. Is this 

 merely accidental, or are the cans really bet- 

 ter ? We certainly Kavt- good grounds for 

 thinki-ig so. And if we rut- aside this mat- 

 ter of leakage, are not the cans a much more 

 convenient package for the retailer to draw 

 from than a keg or barrel, especiidly if he 

 uses the screw-top hom-y-gate? For storage 

 the cans take less room: and thongh they 

 camiot be rolled around like kegs and bar- 

 rels, yet on the whole they are convenient to 

 handle. We are much inclined to think that 

 the commission men or thoir customers pre- 

 fer the barrels, for the same reason that 

 some of ns stick to old thiiigs and notions 

 that we are used to, sim[)iy because we are 

 used to them and dislike to try new things; 

 and yet if they liave had the same ex[)erienee 

 we have with leakage, it would seem as if 

 they would welcome sometiiing better. 

 Leaky kegs and barrels can usually be reme- 

 died for the time being by driving on the 

 hoops; while if a can springs a leak a tinner 

 has to be (tailed in, oi' the can emptied to 

 stop the leak. Mayi)ethis is the explanation 

 of it. We greatly prefer to contend with an 

 occasional leaking can than to be continu- 

 ally tinkering with leaky barrels and kegs." 



Honse Apiaries ; How to Make Them a 



Success. 



"The last Bee Keepeks' Review is an ex- 

 cellent number. It discus^es the subject of 

 house apiaries. In oar judgment, the best 

 article on the subject is from the {len of 

 .lames Heddon, and it covers every point. 

 Among other good things, he says, " Never 

 let any one advocate the use of any hives, 

 frames, cases, or brood cliambers that arc 

 fixed within the building." You are quite 

 correct, Mr. Heddon; and you might have 

 added that they [irevent tlie bees from es- 

 caping into the room, for all outside hives 

 are supposed to be bee-tight. One great 

 reason why the house apiary was abandoned 

 was because the hives or compartments for 

 holding the frames are fixed to the sides of 

 the building, and it is not easy to make 

 these so they are bee-tight. Again he adds: 

 "The annoyance from robbers is the cue 

 great cause of irritability among the bees of 

 an apiary ; and I want to tell you that, if 

 you have a colony that is so confounded 

 mean that \,on exi)ect to l)e stung even when 

 using the smoker, put them into the house 

 apiary and the bees will behave jierfectly." 

 I have noticed this very thing myself: and, 

 in fact, it is a very rare thing indeed for 

 bees to sting inside of a building. To sud- 

 deidy fmd themselves indoors takes all the 

 fight out of them. In winding uj), Mr. Hed- 

 don concludes: "On the whole, I think the 

 house ai)iai'y, when rightly made and man- 

 aged, is, in many localities, a thing of com- 

 fort and profit. It is an easy thing to pack 

 colonies in for winter: and after being 

 packed, 1 can see what splendid advantages 

 can be gained from stove heat during ex- 

 tremely cold weather. — (Hcanings." 



Punic Bees. 



Th^^ so-called Funic bees have been so ex- 

 travagently i)raised by th<ise interested iu 

 their sale that t think it no more than fair 

 that the other side of the story be told. 



Some one who signs his name as Inquirer 

 writes to the editor of the Hrifish Bee Jtmr- 

 nal asking for information iu regard to the 

 Punic bees. Below will be found the imjuiry 

 and the reply : 



" In your contemporary, the Journal of 

 Ilorticulhirt', there has been frequent refer- 

 ence to ' Punic bees ' by a ' Lanarkshire Bee 

 Keei)er,' and in this week's number of that 

 journal there is a long statement by 'A ilal- 

 lamshire Bee Kce[)er,' giving the opinions oi 

 certain gentlemen who appear to have had 

 some experience of these bees. As none of 

 the names of those mentioned are known to 

 me, would you kindly say if they are known 

 in the l)ee world as men of ex[)ericiice, and 

 as pioneers in their own counties V It is, I 

 fear, too much the case for beginners in i>ee 

 keei)ing to catch at anything new whether in 

 appliances or bees, and endeavor to invent 

 something, or to give their opinion as if they 

 had a long and varied experience. Readers 

 of a technical paper, particularly those who 

 are novices, naturally look to its editor, who 

 is supposed to be 'well posted,' as the 

 Americans put it, to be their guide, and not 

 allow them to be misled by admitting arti- 

 cles or statements of a questionable kind 

 without giving some word of caution. 



It often happens that after some glowing 

 account of a new hive, a feeder, or a iirw 

 kind of her, i)ufTed up by some person having 

 such to sell, or by some friend whom he gets 

 to write for him, and in some cases not even 

 a bee keeper, that those anxious to have the 

 right thing part with their money, and in the 

 end find that what they already ])ossessed 

 was far preferable. In this way, what was 

 taken up with an idea of making a i)roiit, 

 turns out to be a dead loss. If this is fol- 

 lowed by one or two bad seasons, novices 

 get disgusted with bee keeping and give it 

 up — tell their friends and those they meet 

 that it is a delusion and a snare. 



To return to Punic bees. ' Hallamshire 

 Bee Keeper ' (by the way who is he, and what 

 is Ids real name?) says, ' I first received 

 these bees safely in 18<S(;.' How is it, Messrs. 

 Editors, if these bees have been introduced 

 so long, and (as rejiorted in thesame arti(^l(^) 

 ' construct hundreds of queen-cells,' that 

 some of your able correspondents have not 

 met with them, or given us some account of 

 them? The introduction of a single (pieen 

 in THSCi that would raise hundreds of queen 

 cells would, I should have thought, in skill- 

 ful hands, have stocked the whole country by 

 this time. But what does he sayV ' I am 

 afraid that I ct)uld not count on more than 

 100 ipieens in one season.' 'I am charging 

 .'")/. r>s. for them in this country for what I 

 have to '^ijare, and 1 must say that 1 consider 

 them cheap at the price.' One can hardly 

 think that any one could be found so rich 

 as to pay this amount for the queen of a 



