408 



JOURNAL OF HORTICJLTUEE AND COTT \.GE GAKDENEll. 



r Any 2S, lSu5 



trame-hive sliould be looked over until tlie queen be dis- 

 covered on oue of the combs. This being- carefully set aside 

 and remaining undisturbed, one of the other combs is 

 selected contiiininji brood in all stages from the egg to the 

 sealed nymph, and this with the adhering bees must be 

 placed in the nucleus box into which the bees from two 

 other couibs of the same hive should be brushed with a 

 feather, and a spare comb having been placed on cither 

 side of the brood-comb the whole must be shut up, and 

 (ventilation having been duly cared for), conveyed to a 

 dark and cool place until after sunset, when it should be 

 put in its place in the apiary, and the bees set at liberty. 



If the object be to Liguriauise an apiary the vacancy in 

 the parent stock should be filled up with a brood-comb from 

 a black colony, and if this can be done, the abstraction of 

 bees will (as stated in reply to my esteemed correspondent 

 " W. L."), scai-cely be missed, and may be repeated almost 

 ad infinitum about every other day ; but every comb of black 

 brood should be marked with the day of the month on which 

 it is inserted, and not employed for breeding Ligurian 

 queens until say twelve days atterwards. If brood-combs 

 are unattainable, or the object be not to multiply Ligurians, 

 the place of the one abstracted should be occupied by an 

 empty worker-comb, which will be rapidly fUled with eggs ; 

 but if no worker-comb be attainable the remaining combs 

 must be brought together and the vacancy left on one side. 



Towards the afternoon of the day following, the newly- 

 formed nucleus should he examined, with the view of ascer- 

 taining whether it possesses sufficient bees to raise a queen 

 and hatch the brood. At least both sides of the brood- 

 comb should be well covered with bees, and if such is not 

 the case, another comb must be lifted out of the parent 

 hive, and the absence of the queen having been insured by 

 first ascertaining her presence on a different comb, the ad- 

 hering bees should be brushed into the nucleus. Most of 

 the adult bees will speedily desert the new for their old 

 habitation, but enough young ones that have never taken 

 wing must perforce remain to constitute an important, and 

 probably a sufficient, addition to the population of the juve- 

 nile colony. Eoyal cells will soon be started, and on the 

 ninth or tenth day aU but two of these may be removed 

 to assist in forming other nuclei, which will thereby gain a 

 great advantage in point of time. They should be cut out 

 with a triangular bit of comb attached (apex downwards), 

 and inserted in a similarly-shaijed hole cut in another brood- 

 comb, whilst the greatest care should be taken to avoid 

 bruising or chilling the royal embryos. 



Fourteen days from the formation of the nucleus is 

 the average time occupied in rearing a queen, whose first 

 business is to destroy such of her royal sisters as are yet 

 in embryo, and fourteen daj's more generally elapse before 

 she begins egg-laying. These periods vary, of course, %vith 

 the state of the weather and other circumstances, and I 

 have even known a queen hatched so late as the twentieth 

 day, but that which I have stated is the time usually occu- 

 pied. If all go weU, the population will by this time have 

 considerably increased by the hatching out of all the brood, 

 and as soon as eggs are laid another ripe brood-comb should 

 be added. In a few days a fresh accession of numbers will 

 take place from this source, when the colony may be shifted 

 into a hive of the ordinary size, when by the j udicious addition 

 of another brood-comb or two and a few empty combs, aided 

 by the breeding powers of the juvenile matron, it may be 

 rapidly built up into a strong stock. 



By repeating this operation as often as the number of 

 hives in the apiary will admit without unduly weakening 

 the stocks themselves, and taking caro at the same time to 

 atilise all superfluous royal cells, a more rapid rate of in- 

 crease may bo attained than by any other method known 

 to— A Devonshike Bee-kkkpek. 



JtESULTS OF .STOEIFYING. 

 YocE esteemed correspondent Sir. Cevan Fox seems to 

 have misunderstood my communication in No. ilOO of your 

 Journal, detailing my apiarian proceedings last summer; as 

 he appears to have the impression that the storified hives 

 yielded an average of 35 lbs. each, and also furnished me 

 with Bwanaa. It will bo seen, on reference to the article 

 referred to, that out of aii stocks kept through the winter 



three were managed upon the storifying system, and three 

 devoted to the formation of swai'ms. Two of the storified 

 hives sent out swarms, which were, however, promptly 

 returned, and royal cells excised to prevent a second issue. 

 These hives therefore were practically prevented from 

 swai'ming. The third hive did not attempt to swarm. 



The three together yielded over 100 lbs. of very pure 

 honey in supers, but the stock hives were left in a very im- 

 poverished condition and required liberal feeding to enable 

 them to stand the winter. 



All the prime swarms from the three hives devoted to 

 swarming did very well, and from two of the stocks second 

 swarms were also artificially raised. The prime swarms in 

 every case sent out maiden swarms, which were retui'ned 

 after the royal cells had been excised. All the prime swarms 

 and the pai'ent hives were very heavj' in the autumn, and 

 required no feeding ; although in the autumn 10 lbs. of fine 

 honey was abstracted from oue of the stocks, and nearly as 

 much from one of the swarms. From another of the swarms 

 I removed more than 10 lbs. of honey in the spring, still 

 leaving the bees an ample supply for their own con- 

 sumption. The swarms and stocks from which they issued 

 (with one exception), proved much more populous in the 

 spring than the stocks which had been storified, — J. E. B., 

 VVolverliampton. 



EARTH CLOSETS. 

 That the public owe a debt of gratitude to the Kev. H. 

 Moule cannot be disputed, and, therefore, it may seem un- 

 gracious to say anything in disparagement of his patented 

 earth closets ; but having had one m use for some time, truth 

 compels me to state, that although well supplied with earth, 

 both fine and di-y, the machinery has often refused to act. 

 On one occasion a small piece of wood had got among the 

 earth. On other occasions no cause was known. It appears 

 to me that if the earth were simply poured out from a jug, 

 and the closet constructed without any machinery whatever, 

 the i-esult would be more satisfactory, and the construction 

 cheaper. My only regret is, that this suggestion may 

 lessen the pecuniary advantages, which may fairly be con- 

 sidered due to Mr. Moule for his valuable discovery. — G. S. 



The Bee as a Physician. — In Marktsteft, Lower Fran- 

 oonia, Bavaria, in the autumn of 18G4, a bee is declared to 

 have become an M.D. ! Its owner, who was deaf, was stung 

 by it in the eye-lid near the temple. Ho applied earth and 

 water to the wound without efl'ect, but at last fell sound 

 asleep. When he awoke the church clock struck. He 

 listened with surprise and counted the stokes. All right! 

 The clock struck,"and the bee-sting had given him back his 

 hearing, which he had lost two years previously from the 

 effects of a severe cold.—{Refjenshurg Gasctta.) 



OUE LETTEE BOX. 



Fowls Difoodeukd (An ^wn/eu/-).— Loss of appetite and dark combs 

 (lie not sufficient purticulare to enable us to recommend a rcmt'dy, for they 

 innv be caused by over-feeding, or organic disease. Give each a table- 

 Bpa'onful of caator oil, iibundance of green food, and no hard corn. They 

 are probably too fat. 



AuDBt.fiB {John Coirhurn).—l( you encloBc to ma a letter, in a stamped 

 envelope, we will direct and forward it to '* A Keuirowshiro Bee-Ueeper." 



Foul Bnooo ( ir. T. Lanarkshi re). -^The pieee of coiiib appears to be 

 Infected with virulent foul brood. If the «tock be populous, the mode ol 

 cure recommended by Mr. Woodbury, in No. 123 of our New Series, mipht 

 be tried. If weak we should kill the been, :ind muke the most we could of 

 the contents of the hive, keeping the whole out of the reach of othor beee. 



Dhonk Killing (A Lady lirc-krcpcr).— The recent unfavourable weather 

 Ik the cause o( the prein:itiirc eximlslou of drone* in one of your hives. 



Placing a Natural Swaum in a Sikwauton-uivk (72.).— A natural 

 swarm muy be hived at once iti the alock-box. The intervenlloo of a 

 cutninon lilvo i« only necenHary in ihe case of a forced swarm, and that 

 inurcly bccaueo it Is more convenient to drive ht-cs from an ordinary hive 

 int-o one of the same form. lalhcr than iniu iin octagonal box. 



EAiir.Y Exi'ULHin.s OF Dko.si.k (A. 6". A., ^((imfvni).-'niii untimely dc- 

 htruction of drones and drone-brood li owing lo unfavourable wcathor» and 

 IndicJtts that nil prcparaliooH for nwarming aru abandoned for the preaent. 

 '1 he lulurn of line wealh^-r may Induce the bees to renew these preparalions, 

 hut the probability i", thut the Issue of a swarm will be much delayed, if 

 not altogether prevented, by the cheek which has been given to the pro- 

 f pMily of the colony. 



Small Dbones (J/. .V., IJrij-ton). —Soma of the hue*' uccoinpauying your 

 ktur are ordluary workers, wlill-t others resemble nm.ill drones bred ia 

 worker cells, but they reached us m too mutilated a condition to admit of a 

 pOl^ltive doclslon. The recent unfavourable weather is tho cause of dronofl- 

 being expelled Irom ihc non-pupered t;traw-hlve. 



