August 1, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
99 
e 
and even the profit of the feeder. Pigs were kept over winter 
with little if any increase in weight. he feeders did not seem 
to discover that this food given to store animals was even worse 
than lost, for the animals took on an unthrifty habit, contracted 
their powers of digestion, and required in spring nearly a month 
of good feeding to recover from this penurious winter feeding. A 
thrifty animal with good management progresses without check 
from its first to its last day. When a little attention was given 
to the matter it became evident that the profit of growing meat 
was to be found in pushing the young animal as rapidly as 
possible, that it cost the least to produce a pound growth in the 
earliest period of life, and this cost in food grew proportionately 
greater as the animal increased in age and size. This, then, is the 
great fact underlying all successful feeding of young animals. 
“MY BEES.” 
To and from Manchester cheap trips during Whit week are the 
order of the day. Many of the bee-loving community visit Man- 
chester at that time, and some of them run out to Sale to see the 
old bee-keeper there. Some two years ago an old man from 
Nottingham came, who was then told that we considered him too 
old ever to become an active bee-keeper. Some time ago a letter 
came from this old gentleman, wherein he assured me that his 
bees had made life a new thing to him, and the world more in- 
teresting by half. We have had visits from many bee-men of 
Nottinghamshire, all much interested in the pursuit of apiculture. 
How beautifully strangers converse about their bees! To thou- 
sands of apiarians the two simple words, “my bees” mean a great 
deal. What a perennial source of enjoyment “my bees” are! 
What hours of unmixed pleasure have 1 spent amongst them ! 
What hours of real rest and recreation they have given to me, 
and hours, too, of uplifting reflection and admiration! There is 
an indescribable charm to thousands in the songs of the lark and 
the linnet ; and in the floral world what chaste enjoyment is felt 
in the preserice of the sweet, sweet rose and white lily! But 
pray who can tell the story of the pleasure derived from my 
humming and wonderful bees? There they are in my garden 
always humming by day and night. Where else shall we find a 
community equal to that of a bee hive, which presents so mani- 
fold and various features of interest ? The community is 1 grand 
republic with a monarchical frontispiece. Its government is 
perfect, its laws never need amendment or alteration. Not a 
sound of discontent or murmur of disagreement is heard in that 
community. There is no fault-finding amongst “my bees,” for 
there is nothing to find fault with. ‘here is not one lazy or un- 
skilled worker in the hive, no scamped-2p work. Hours of labour 
are not counted, and rewards for labour are not needed. “My 
bees” come into the world qualified mechanics and architects 
with instincts for labour. Labour is their delight, and the hotter 
the weather the faster they fly and work! With what assiduity 
do they toil from morn till night, and from sunset till sunrise ! 
What an amount of work is done by bees during the “night 
shifts” of summer! While other creatures are sleeping my bees 
are working in building combs, feeding their brood, and over- 
hauling the honey which they gathered during the day. 
I rise early to go into my garden to find that my bees are first 
on the move. They have been out early to get water for house- 
hold purposes, and returning to the hives with a whizzing sound. 
They need a great deal of water, which is often gathered before 
the dew evaporates. And as soon as honey is in the flowers “my 
bees” will have it. Off they go with a cheerful hum to collect 
the sweets of the fields and forests which lie around them. They 
soon return with their honey bladders well filled and their pollen 
baskets heaped up. They come back laden like donkeys with 
panniers. Wonderful creatures! they are at their work all day 
long. After a chat and a cup of tea with my queen bee I visit 
my bees again in the garden. What a roar of prosperity and 
gladness do I hear around me! What numbers of bees do I see 
and hear at the doors of their homes, fanning and ventilating 
with all their might and main to make life and work possible and 
tolerable inside! What evidence is thus given of a community of 
interest ! I weigh three hives, one has gained 5 lbs. during the 
day, another has gained 3 lbs., and the small hive has gained 1 Ib. 
only. ‘The differences of results are owing to the capacities and 
effective forces of the hives. All have done well, and I am satis- 
tied with “ my bees.” 
T look into my swarm hives and guess from the space filled that 
not less than 1200 cells have been built and completed in each of 
my strong swarms during twenty-four hours. Several of my 
stock hives have young queens just arrived at perfection, and are 
“piping” in downright earnest. Second swarms will come to- 
morrow or the day after if I do not cut out the royal cells with 
their royal inmates. I will let them swarm this year, as I intend 
+o multiply my stocks, It is no small pleasure to a lover of 
Nature to see swarms gushing from their hives, taking wing 
joyous and jubilant, and making the air ring again with their 
cheers. In swarming they obey an instinct and impulse of their 
nature, and leaye the comforts of home and the place of their 
birth never to return, They are somewhat like “ Abraham, when 
he was called to go out into a place which he should afterwards 
receive for an inheritance, obeyed ; and he went out not knowing 
whither he went.” How many interesting features are presented 
to the eye of thought by a swarm of bees ! 
In studying the history of bees it is impossible to individualise 
or to notice one bee as separate from the rest. The community 
must be studied as a whole. The queen bee is the only one that 
can be noticed separately, and she is a most interesting creature. 
She is reared in a royal cell and receives queen-like attentions 
before birth and afterwards. . She with trumpet tongue proclaims 
from her cradle cell her right to the throne and her intention to 
occupy it at once. She thus heralds her birth and reign. She 
now comes forth a beautiful, stately, and queenly bee—queenly 
in her appearance and behaviour. The special attention she 
received in her cell-cradle made her what she is—very different in 
form of body from the working community, and perfect in her 
reproductive organs. She is queen of the hive and will become 
the mother of many succeeding generations. She is born amongst, 
her own sisters and brothers, but soon these will all die and her 
own progeny will take their places and be her subjects and at- 
tendants. She will live four years, and her progeny will live but 
nine months at most. She will, therefore, outlive many generations 
of her own offspring. A fertilised queen lays about two thousand 
eggs per day in the height of the season, but often there is not 
room enough in the hive for all the eggs she produces. If we 
estimate a hive of bees at forty thousand in number, and calcu- 
late that three generations of these appear and pass away every 
year, we shall be able to make an approximate guess as to the 
fertility of a queen bee. 
A queen bee is motherly and dutiful. What a life of toil and 
travail a queen bee leads, of constant journeying up and down 
the hive depositing eggs in empty cells. While queen of the hive 
she is servant of all, doing the hardest and most important work. 
In the production and deposition of eighty eggs per hour—two 
thousand per day—there is involved a great amount of toil, of 
wear and tear by night and by day. No truant hours are ever 
sought by a queen bee in the height of the season; no excursions 
for pleasure are ever allowed her, and no holidays for rest and 
recreation fall to her lot. No thoughtful man can follow the 
fortunes and career of a queen bee without interest, or fail to 
admire her conduct and character. She seeks no honour, but 
obtains it everywhere ; she lives and labours among subjects that 
adore her. It some accident or the hand of death remove her 
from them at a time when no successor can be reared their habi- 
tation becomes one of mourning, and loud is their cry of lamen- 
tation. But in the absence of accidents and disasters queens die 
and the approach of the times of their dotage and deaths may be 
at hand. The bees know this and wisely prepare for what is 
evident and inevitable. Royal cells are built and prepared, and 
young queens are reared in them to take the places of the old 
ones. 
There is but little space left for remarks on the profits of bee- 
keeping, which heighten its pleasures. We all know that apicul- 
turists have seasons of reaping and harvests of honey, when their 
good wives are pleased to see the shelves of their pantries and 
larders well loaded with supers and dishes of pure honeycomb. 
And we all know, too, that it is a pleasure to see heaps of honey- 
comb which has been gathered by our own bees, and it is 2 
pleasure to eat them, or sell them, or give them away to friends 
and neighbours. Bee-keeping, then, is an enjoyable self-rewarding 
recreation. The remark of the old gentleman at Nottingham 
about his bees making life new and more interesting to him is 
not to be questioned.—A, PETTIGREW. 
BAR-AND-FRAME HIVES. 
I HAVE had during a visit to Dunoon the opportunity of 
seeing the bar-and-frame hives in use, Ligurian and hybrid bees 
working, and the slinger in full operation. The slinger is a 
valuable invention, and I saw it extract flower honey quickly 
and thoroughly. 
Bar-and-frame hives are very interesting and instructive, but 
require a great amount of attention, and I feel sure that the large 
straw hives are more suitable, and far more profitable, for the 
working man. After a day of hard work the peasant does not 
care to be examining his frames of honey and brood and the 
many other little jobs necessary where frame hives are in use 
and I think many will agree with me that frequently smoking 
his bees to see that combs are all straight and not fixed-in with 
propolis, extricating the honey from two or three frames, re- 
placing them, putting in queen cells or ripe queens or fertile ones 
Ligurian or black-ligurianising and such like, is only work for an 
enthusiast who has nothing else to do. 
As to the Ligurian bees they are certainly brighter-looking 
insects, but from what I have seen I would not have them. The 
little wretches were so savage that I hardly dare approach them 
one hive in particular; and whether hybrids or pure they were 
certainly not fit to be near where children are. 
My friend informed me that his Italians went out in weather 
when the blacks dare not look outside. That may be so, but can 
