Retrospective Criticism. 351 



smallest aperture." Plenty of room, unless 'the temperature of that room 

 be kept at a proper degree, is disagreeable, and detrimental to bees rather than 

 otherwise. " The seahng up of the smallest aperture," when bees have 

 recourse to that expedient, is an indication that the temperature is too low, 

 but manageable ; for, when much too low, the bees will not attempt to stop a 

 single crevice, nor, in fact, occupy " the plenty of room " at all : it is of no 

 use to them, it is positively injurious : the truth is, it is always wrong to 

 ventilate empty boxes, and much mischief is thereby done. In Mr. Nutt's 

 book, entitled Humanity to Honey Bees, it is well said, " Boxes will not work 

 bees, neither will bees work boxes to advantage, unless due attention be paid 

 to them ; that is, both to the boxes and the bees." (4th edition, p. 270.) 

 In the same interesting book, after several directions for returning swarms, 

 the following passage occurs : — " I most strenuously maintain that prevention 

 is better than cure, and that, by proper management of stocks in my boxes, 

 swarming may be prevented; at least, so far prevented, that it may, when by 

 any accident it occurs, be considered as the exception, and not the general 

 rule, as heretofore. Out of fourteen stocks in my apiary, at Moulton Chapel, 

 in 1835, not one swarmed ; and the summer of 1835 was a remarkable one 

 for swarming." (p. 50.) What will Mr. Wighton say to this ? Again : " When 

 adequately relieved, and properly assisted, bees proceed to rid the colony 

 of all embryo queens, which would only become so many supernumeraries in 

 a hive where the' reigning queen is fertile, and the necessity for emigration 

 is superseded. But, unless bees could be made to understand that accom- 

 modation will be extended to them at the proper time, they, guided by 

 their sense of their situation, not by ours, naturally and wisely provide 

 their own means of relieving themselves, and, in so doing, frequently bring 

 forth what afterwards become supernumerary queens, which are invariably 

 destroyed, and cast out of the colony, as soon as the bees are sensible they 

 have no occasion for them." (p. 197.) 



These three quotations contain a complete, and in my opinion a satisfactory, 

 refutation of Mr. Wighton's observations. In the last is the most rational, 

 and I might, perhaps, say the most scientific, explanation of the cause for 

 the production of queens in stocks of bees ; but, when adequately relieved, and 

 properly assisted, bees rid the colony of embryo queens, and, consequently, they 

 do not swarm. It may not always be easy, nay, under certain circumstances, 

 and of the weather particularly, I will admit that it may be very difficult, and 

 even impossible, to extend accommodation to bees at the proper time, and 

 that a casual swarm may be thrown off; but, in those peculiar cases, swarming 

 is not the general rule, but the exception ; and there is a remedy : the queen 

 may be picked out of the swarm, and the other bees returned. 



There are other matters in Mr. Wighton's observations open to animad- 

 version ; but I forbear. Mr. Wighton is no apiarian. By his own showing, 

 " he had some doubt whether the queen-bee was the parent or mother of the 

 young progeny, till he observed the mother-bee laying an egg in several of the 

 cells in June last." Laying an egg in several of t/ie cells ! This bungling 

 confession proves that his apiarian attainments are scanty. His two last 

 words," rank folly" are more applicable to his own crude production, than to 

 the subject to which he has harshly applied them. — T. Clark. Gedney Hill, 

 Holbeach, May 16. 1838. 



[We are much obliged to the Rev. T. Clark for the above communication ; 

 and, having ourselves always thought Mr. Nutt's system of bee management 

 superior to all others, we are glad to have that opinion confirmed. Inde- 

 pendentl}' altogether of saving the lives of the bees, we should give the 

 preference to Nutt's hives, on account of the great facihty with which 

 the honey can be taken ; and because, in consequence of the ventilation 

 in the box in which the honey is produced, it is all what is commonly 

 called "virgin honey." We have kept bees here at Bayswater for 22 years, 

 till, i^from the approach of London, and the spread of houses even farther 

 out than where we reside, there is a want of food for them, and we have 



