April 4, 1S65. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBE JLND COTTAGE GAEDBNEK, 



277 



has been used for respiration, and is consequently impure 

 and damp, rises to the surface, and finds easy egress. Since 

 I have adopted this method I have never lost a hive, nor I 

 may say a single bee, through mUdew, which I think is 

 something to boast of. Another advantage is, that the bees 

 have not so far to carry their honey, as they invariably place 

 it at the top of the combs, and it is more easy to descend 

 than to ascend with a load. Again, when a swarm is placed 

 in an empty hive many thousands are employed in forming 

 chains for the workers to ascend and construct the combs ; 

 and. although my plan does not entirely do away with the 

 chains, I have always observed that a much greater number 

 of bees were spared for collecting than when they have a 

 bottom entrance, and I have consequently been able to put 

 on my supers two or three days earlier. 



I have never in my life seen or read of this plan, but I 

 have read about inverting the old beU-shaped hives contain- 

 ing stocks to allow of supers being put on, and it was this 

 that first suggested the idea to me ; but I have a great 

 objection to this plan, as it gives the bees a great deal more 

 trouble to clean the hives, and it does away with the means 

 of helping them, as the combs are then fast to the bottom 

 instead of the top, and in course of time become clogged up 

 with that dust and dirt which is always found on the bottom 

 board, and which it is very necessary should be removed. — 

 C. WiLLiAsrs, Kingsland, Slireicsbm-y. 



[Tou appear to have originated and successfully carried 

 out an idea which occurred to us, and was entertained with 

 much enthusiasm some four or five-and-twenty years ago. 

 In our own case, however, it never went farther than a 

 sketch upon paper, and was ultimately abandoned without 

 being reduced to practice, on account of the difficulty n-hich 

 we believed the bees would find in removing their dead and 

 cleaning out their hive through an entrance at the top, as 



The foregoing operation may best be illustrated by a case 

 from my own apiary. In the spring of 18G3, acting on the 

 best advice your excellent contributor "A Devoxshibe 

 Bee-keeper " could then oflfer me, I in vain attempted to 

 strengthen the foul-breeding stock sent me by exchanging 

 frames with my strong black colonies, thereby can-ying con- 

 tagion into my whole apiary, save one " beat-out " of the 

 preceding fall in a Stewarton-hive, which fortiinately escaped 

 contamination, being considered too weak at the time to aid 

 in the work. Finding this hive subsequently my only hope, 

 I very carefully nursed it, so that by the beginning of June it 

 was quite full. I then drove an artificial swarm, and having 

 placed it in one of the many pure-combed frame-hives I 

 had prepared for Ligurian propagation, sent it to a distance. 



In one of the diseased black colonies was a very fertile 

 favourite queen, which I was very loth to destroy; her 

 formerly numerous progeny had by this time dwindled to 

 the zero point, I therefore destroyed them, and by way of 

 experiment set her over the " beat-out," and the following 

 day introduced her to her new subjects, who, I was gratified 

 to find, welcomed her most cordially, and I saw her no more 

 till, about three weeks thereafter, she most unexpectedly 

 proudly emerged at the head of a very fine natural swarm, 

 which, also was hived in a combed-box. Shortly after the 

 ai'tificial swarm sent forth a good vii'gin, which was similarly 

 disposed of ; and the "beat-out" at the usual time gave a 

 second, or strictly a third, swarm, hived in the same manner. 

 By the 1st of August, when a second Ligurian stock 

 arrived from Devonshire, it was a positive relief^ so full were 

 they, to make from each of the two strongest of my stocks 

 artificial swarms, to be Ligurianised. By a little manage- 

 ment my poor little, exclusively-sugar-fed, " beat-out," was 

 thus multiplied into seven first-rate colonies, amply formed 

 to stand over the winter had all gone well ; but most un- 



well as the excessive tendency to breed in supers which we ' fortunately, as the readers of The Jotjuu-ai, of Hokticxtl- 

 imagined would be developed under such circumstances. ' tttre have been already apprised, the second Ligurian colony 

 We should be glad of a sketch and working description of I brought with it again the desolating plague, so that the 

 your hive.] j 



UNITING BEES. 



I HAVE two stocks of bees standing side by side which 

 I should be glad to unite, if such a course is practicable 

 at this season, the one in a common the other in a flat- 

 topped straw hive. Tliis latter is a weak stock. Might 

 I place the common hive over it, having previously closed 

 the apertures in its top with perforated zinc, and after 

 leaving the two hives in this position for about twelve hours 

 remove the zinc and allow the bees to unite ? — H. T. 



[We believe the safest mode of uniting your two stocks 

 would be by inverting the weak one in a pail, and standing 

 the other upon it. Then blow a little smoke into the interior, 

 secure the bees by winding a long cloth round the junction 

 of the two hives, and rap the lower hive until its inhabitants 

 ascend into and unite with the bees of the upper one.] 



VEET WEAK HIVES ES" SPEEN-G. 



YotJK much-esteemed coi-respondent ilr. S. Bevan Fox in 

 his very interesting report, " ily Apiary in 186i," most 

 clearly establishes the advantages of joining weak hives in 

 spring. With his remarks I most heartily concur. StUi 

 hives are sometimes to be met with so very weak at this 

 season (possibly casts or virgins of the preceding year), and 

 the surviving working population so very scant, as to make 

 a scarcely percepHble addition to the colony into which they 

 are merged, while their valuable young queen is conse- 

 quently sacrificed by such a procedure. 



In extreme cases of this nature a still better plan may be 

 successfully adopted. Administer what small quantity of 

 food is necessary to preserve the little band in life till the 

 advent of the swarming season, drive them as soon as a 

 swarm comes off, and capture their queen, then introduce 

 her to the stock whence the emigrants proceeded. The 

 effect win be that breeding will thus go on uninterruptedly, 

 and two prime swarms to all intents and purposes, if I may 

 use the expression, be looked for from one stock the same 

 season. The first swarm, if not otherwise destined, might 

 with effect occupy the works of the driven weak hive. 



spring of 1864 found me beginning the world once again 

 with a single sugar-fed " beat-out," the gift of a friend. — 

 A Eesteewshiee Bee-keepee. 



SWAHMING vBBSTis STOEIETING. 



IfoTiciNG a discussion in your valuable Journal under the 

 above heading, I now make a first attempt at describing my 

 bee experience, in the hope that it may prove interesting 

 enough to obtain a place in your columns. A few yeai-s ago 

 I took a great fancy to possess a hive of bees, more for the 

 pleasure I anticipated in studying those interesting insects 

 than for any benefit likely to result from their possession. 

 I was then entirely ignorant of all that pertained to bees 

 and bee-keeping, and my locality being considered unsuitable 

 for the pursuit, my friends endeavoured to dissuade me 

 from the attempt. I may mention that I reside in the 

 western suburb of Greenock, in the vicinity of several of its 

 celebrated sugar refineries, happdy styled by you some time 

 ago, '"' slaughter-houses for bees." From the scant pasturage 

 of a town neighbourhood I was afraid they might be tempted 

 thither, or possibly across the Firth of Clyde to the opposite 

 heathery hillsof Argyllshire, in too many casesnever to return. 

 Xothiig daimted, however, I procured a prime swarm, and 

 set them up in my garden, which unfortunately slopes to 

 the north. I became deeply interested in my industrious 

 little favourites, and watched with much pleasure during 

 my leisure hours their many movements, from the advent of 

 the first load of poUen in the spring to the expulsion of the 

 last lazy drone in autumn. Although I reaped no honey 

 harvest I most carefully fed my bees, as their necessities 

 seemed to require, and by-and-by purchased a weighty straw 

 skep as an addition to my stock. However, the summer 

 of 1S63 found me where I started— with only one stock, 

 although I never destroyed any of them, and only on one 

 occasion obtained a little honey. The chief cause of niy 

 want of success I ascribed to my stocks being weakened in 

 population from swarming, their reduced numbers being 

 barely adequate to gather what would sustain them. But 

 what came of the swarms ? you may naturally ask. These 

 generally came off in my absence during business hours ; 

 and invariably, even though hived, made off to people the 



