October 26, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



375 



entries close on the 7th of November, and we hope all will enter 

 well.— "W. 



A RETROSPECT. 



To-night I look back over half a centary and find myself a 

 romping "wee callan " (a little boy), jumping amongst my 

 father's hives of bees, and courageously turning them up to 

 «ee how their combs were being filled and when they would 

 be ready for swarming. I was at an early age drawn into 

 the mysterieB of bee-keeping. Two generations of intelligent 

 r-nd successful bee-masters in his diBtrict have well-nigh passed 

 *way since my juvenile days. I owe much to the past and 

 those who were before me, for I had a pretty wide and com- 

 prehensive experience amongst bees before I was fifteen years 

 <j{ age. In making thia statement there is no boasting; the cir- 

 cumstances and surroundings of my early days were favourable. 

 Though it is more than forty years since I left the home of my 

 youth, I have had something to do more or less with bees during 

 these years. I have seen bee-keeping in Middlesex, Hertford- 

 shire, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire, often 

 iu its most ancient phase, and sometimes in its most modern 

 one. For more than twenty years after I came to England I 

 could see no signs of advancement and success. The books 

 f hat fell from the press had comparatively little weight or in- 

 tlnence ; but now I am pleased to know that things have taken 

 u turn, that bee-keeping is moving, in many places advancing ; 

 and I earnestly hope and confidently expect that it will speedily 

 become an uplifting power in many homes of the rural and 

 working community. After this preamble I will review the 

 •saason of 1876 from an apiarian point of view. 



In Cheshire the season was very unfavourable until the 

 middle of June. It could hardly be more unfavourable both for 

 honey-gathering and breeding. Many hives all over the county 

 •and elsewhere died from their want of bees. From all I could 

 hear I opine that more than half of the hives in England 

 perished before brood was hatched in them. The autumn of 

 1S75 did not encourage the beeB to hatch brood late, hence the 

 "pan of their life was reached this Bpring before young bees 

 were reared to take their places. Some may have died from 

 want of food, for the weather was so unfavourable in March, 

 April, and May that beeB had not a chance in this neighbourhood 

 of gathering honey. For about the first time in my life I was 

 discouraged and thoroughly tired of feeding my bees. I gave it 

 up for a time, very much to their iDJury and my loss. About 

 the middle of June the weather became more favourable for 

 honey-gathering, and the bees began to prosper. They collected 

 honey rapidly, filled their hives with bees, and readily swarmed, 

 though a month later than their usual time of swarming. Stock 

 Lives generally were heavy at the time of swarming, and the 

 earliest swarms did pretty well for a while. The laBt half of 

 July and first half of August were unfavourable for bees in this 

 part of the country. The bees that were taken to the moors 

 had a few fine days from about the 12th to the 20th of August, 

 but then the heather was not sufficiently in blossom and did not 

 yield much honey. The best swarms in this neighbourhood 

 rose to 70 and 80 lbs. each, one or two to 90 lbs., but the great 

 bulk of swarms never approached that weight, and almost all 

 second swarms and turn-outs were failures. The honey weather 

 did not last a month altogether iu this locality. Those who 

 managed their bees on the non-swarming syBtem have been 

 most successful here, probably elsewhere as well, for in late and 

 Bhort seasons swarms are placed at a disadvantage, and have an 

 uphill battle to fight. This year the weather became unpro- 

 pitious before the hives were filled with combs. 



From the East Riding of Yorkshire and other parts of England 

 I hear that good harvests of honey have been obtained. In the 

 south of England some excellent supers of honeycomb were 

 filled. The products exhibited at the Bee-keepers' Association 

 fete, held this year at the Alexandra Palace, were highly satis- 

 factory. At the Dundee Show some exhibitors appeared in good 

 form. Their productions would tend to give a healthy impulse 

 to bee-keeping in that part of Scotland. The " Renfrewshire 

 Bee-keeper " has favoured the readers of this Journal with a 

 statement of his astonishing success with a Stewarton hive thia 

 year. Mr. J. E. Brisooe of Albrighton has been equally success- 

 ful with a Stewarton hive and Italian bees, as may be seen in 

 last week's Journal. My correspondent at Carluke, Mr. G. 

 Henshilwood, writes that " the Bpring here was cold and back- 

 ward for bees. Indeed, they lost all the fruit blossoms in spring, 

 and that made them late in swarming ; but towards the end of 

 June and during the month of July we had some very warm 

 days now and again, when the bees gathered honey very fast. 

 An old stock that stood in my own garden was never above 

 17 lbs. weight till the end of June, when I took a swarm from it. 

 Two weeks after this it weighed 56 lbs. Some of the first swarms 

 at the end of the clover season weighed from 50 to 90 lbs. each. 

 One at Crossford, belonging to Mr. Cadzow, rose to 105 lbs., but I 

 was told that two swarms united in swarming and were hived 

 together. On the moors the weather broke before the heather 

 was well in blossom. The average gain per hive on the moors 



would be from 20 to 30 lbs. Many hives came home from the 

 moors above 100 lbs. each. One at CrosBford was 150 lbs. You 

 see the season has not been a bad one upon the whole ; indeed, 

 I may say that the bees had a better touch on the clover this 

 year than they ever had before since I came to Carluke, twenty 

 years ago. Our hives were all too heavy for keeping, so we took 

 the honey from them, united the swarms in pairs, and fed them 

 into stocks." 



From the neighbourhood of New Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, my 

 friend Mr. George Campbell writea " that the apring was most 

 unfavourable until the 22nd of June, when the summer weather 

 set in and remained favourable for our favourites till the 20th 

 of August, when they were entirely shut up for the season. My 

 first swarm was obtained on the 29th of June, which, being 

 sold previously, was sent off by rail the same night. My next 

 swarm came off on the 2nd of July, and weighed 7J lbs. (bees 

 alone), from the stock that yielded a swarm of 9 lbs. on the 9th 

 of June last year. The swarm this year rose to 103 lbs. on the 

 21st of August, having filled a hive 20 inches by 16 inches. A 

 cast from the same hive eleven days later rose to 57 lbs. This 

 is my best result from one hive this year. I had three Btocka 

 over 100 lbs. each, the heaviest being 111 lbs.; but they were 

 late in swarming. As young princesses were given to them 

 twenty-four hours after Bwarming they gave no caBts. Five of 

 my stocks I did not intend to swarm were working in Bupers, 

 but, as if by mutual consent, they all swarmed on the 17th of July, 

 and three of the swarms alighted as one and were hived in a 

 20-inch-by-16 skep. The bees alone weighed 16i lbs. and filled 

 the hive. A 6-inch wooden eke was given to this hive, and was 

 filled with combs in fourteen days. I then put on a half-filled 

 super, which they filled in three dayB, putting 3 lbs. a-day into 

 it. I put another half-filled super on the top of the first, as it 

 was not all sealed though quite full, but inBtead of finishing it 

 the bees took down all the honey in it. The five Btocks all gave 

 casts, but as the season oame abruptly to an end they did no 

 good. Their combs will answer for starts to swarms next year. 

 Throughout this district first swarms range from 36 to 80 lbs. 

 onlyj owing to the lateness of awarming. Second swarms are 

 generally worthless. I have heard of only one swarm beside 

 my own that reaohed 100 lb8., so I conclude this aeaBon has not 

 been equal to 1874." My friend Mr. Shearer is gathering up the 

 results of the Huntley district of Aberdeenshire. — A. Pettigrew. 



BAR versus STRAW HIVES. 



I should be sorry if the supers exhibited by me at the Alex- 

 andra Palace, containing 131} lbs. of honey, the product of one 

 hive, were looked upon by the advocates of Btraw akeps as a 

 proof of "what can be done with them when compared with 

 bar-frame hives ;" or that the splendid supers from Mr. Cowan's 

 bar-frame hive should be compared with mine as the prodnots 

 of "wood versus straw." Let me at once say that in my opinion 

 — an opinion by no means hastily formed — the advantages gained 

 by the use of bar-frame hives are so great that straw skeps can- 

 not be compared with them. I am as rapidly as possible trans- 

 ferring all my bees to the former hives ; and those bar-frame 

 hiveB which I had in use this summer gave me in proportion a 

 greater weight of honey with half the trouble and annoyance 

 than did closed Btraw hives. From swarms of the current year, 

 placed in hives with alternate sheets of empty comb and guides 

 of wax, in which five large combs had therefore to be built 

 before aupers had a chance of being entered, in three instances 

 I took off two of Lee's supers and a box of sections, the total 

 weight from each hive being over 60 lbs. Into a bar-frame hive 

 which I made with double glass walls I put a heavy swarm 

 May 30th. Each of the ten framea had a plain guide sheet of 

 wax an inch deep. In thirty days from the date of swarming 

 tbiB hive was filled from end to end with combs, all full of 

 brood or sealed and unsealed honey. On the 1st of July I placed 

 a box of sections with guides over this Btock, and July 15th a 

 bell-glass by its side. At the olose of the honey season I took 

 off the bell-glass and sections well filled and sealed, total weight 

 42 lbs., leaving the stock hive with 50 lbs. With Abbott's "Little 

 Wonder" I extracted from it olose upon 20 lbs. of the purest 

 liquid honey, and returned the combs, excepting some corner 

 pieces which broke away. This hive and all my other frame 

 hives are at this date filled with young bees, the surest promise 

 of a good harvest next spring, weather permitting. 



My large Pettigrew skepa furnished me with powerful swarms, 

 with which my bar-frame hivea which I made during last winter 

 were stocked. Two or three of these large straw hives reached 

 the weight of from 70 to 90 lbs. But what an undertaking it 

 was to get out the best honey ! Most of it waB stored at the 

 top of the hives. Perhaps about 15 lbs. of good comb could be 

 cut from the sides of each hive, but to get at the bulk of the 

 honey the whole of the brood comb had to be cut out. What 

 a waste would have been here if I had not had empty frames 

 at hand into which I patched the dark pieces, and thus from 

 two or three skeps took a quantity of run honey and stocked a 

 bar-frame hive, into which the bees were thrown. Now, had 



