January 27, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



appear to 119 so astounding as your own. Your ill-success must, 

 we should think, be attributable to an indifferent honey looality, 

 supplemented probably by some mistakes in management. Where 

 you may have erred we find it impossible to say, but as the main 

 object of bee-keeping is undoubtedly the procuring a return in 

 the shape of honey, wo should recommend you to go back to 

 Srst principles, and, abandoning for the time all attempts at 

 aupering, &c, try the old-fashioned swarming system. From 

 three strong stocks you may reasonably expect from four to six or 

 even more swarms during the summer. A little trouble in 

 weighing will tell you when these are at their heaviest (probably 

 in August), then expel their inhabitants by driving, and apportion 

 them amongst your three old stocks as recommended in pages 45 

 and 46 of " Bee-keeping for the Many." You will thus be able 

 to treat your wife to some beautiful honeycomb, and contemplate 

 with equanimity any trifling outlay for sugar (supposing it to be 

 required) to provision your old stocks during winter. Any 

 empty comb should be carefully preserved, and if inserted in 

 your supers and glasses the following spring, will most probably 

 overcome the reluctance which your bees have hitherto evinc3d 

 to work in them. By thus going back, as it were, to rudimentary 

 bee-keeping, and feeling your way upwards and onwards step 

 by step, we have little doubt of your ultimately overcoming 

 all difficulties, and even rivalling those amongBt our correspon- 

 dents who are able to exhibit their forty or fifty-pound supers of 

 pure honeycomb.] 



BEES IN BUILDINGS. 



I HAVE had but little experience with regard to keeping bees 

 in buildings, but that little rather induces me to form an opinion 

 adverse to the adoption of the plan of sheltering hives. 



In the autumn of 1859, a large globe-hive was brought in 

 from the country, and placed in an unused drawing-room, the 

 bees working out through a Blit under the window-frame about 

 20 feet from the ground. Here the bees remained the winter, 

 no fire ever being lighted. In the spring they commenced 

 breeding and working early, and showed symptoms of increasing 

 population, as soon as any of my other stocks out of doors. But 

 when the cold winds of March and April came, the ground and 

 areas in front of the whole row of houses were daily thickly 

 strewn with dying bees, bo much so that my neighbours com- 

 plained of them as a nuisance. Partly owing to their remon- 

 strances, but chiefly to save the lives of the bees that were left, I 

 removed the hive to the country, where it quickly regained its 

 strength, and in June Bent out a very fine swarm. 



I have tried a hive in a greenhouse, but it never throve satis- 

 factorily. The house was elevated considerably above the 

 ground, and I am inclined to think that this is one cause of 

 failure. At the same time, I have known gentlemen, enthusiasts 

 on the subject of bees, who have built costly struotures of brick 

 for their favourites, but they have not thriven in them. The 

 reason why is by no means apparent, as every care seemed taken 

 to insure success. 



Bees will, however, sometimes thrive in holes in walls, or 

 under roofs and ceilings of their own seeking. Mr. George Fox, 

 of Kingsbridge, last season removed combs and bees of several 

 colonies under these circumstances. In Bome of them he found 

 a considerable quantity of honey, and in one the combs were 

 nearly 3 feet in length and of considerable depth, several of them 

 of this size being in juxtaposition. The bees had occupied these 

 situations for many years. When their habitations are situated 

 under slated roofs, and in other cold situations, I am inclined to 

 believe that the bees usually perish in the winter, and that an 

 early swarm repeoples the deserted combs. There was one such 

 establishment, which, the owner of the mansion assured me, he 

 believed to be so replenished every summer. 



A gentleman in Ireland, a kind friend of mine, once asked me 

 to remove an immense swarm of bees which had taken possession 

 of a square open hole outside his stable wall. He had caused a 

 front of wood to be fastened-up against the open space ; but as 

 the roar of the bees was so plainly heard inside the stable, he was 

 afraid of his horses, and wished the bees to be removed. Having 

 properly protected myself with a bee-dress and thick gloves, I 

 removed the board, which exposed an aperture about 1 foot 

 square, by perhaps 9 inches in width. This was literally filled 

 with bees. They were quickly brushed into an empty hive and 

 tied-up, and I hoped that the queen and the entire swarm were 

 in my possession, the owner having given them to me, if I could 



carry them off. But great was my disappointment when infor- 

 mation came from the stable, that the roar of the bees was to 

 be heard louder than ever. 



The true fact now dawned on my mind. The bees so lately 

 secured did not constitute a swarm which had taken possession 

 of the recess, but those clustering out from a colony which had 

 its quarters in a narrow space between the ceiling and the floor 

 of the loft above. The noise almost exceeded belief, and extended 

 back for many feet, seeming to show that the combs occupied 

 nearly all the space between the joists, running acroBs the floor. 

 Nothing more could then be effected, but it was agreed that 

 on a future day, the flooring should be ripped-up and the con- 

 tents appropriated. The bees confined in the hive were taken 

 home, but, I need hardly say, perished, or deserted from the 

 want of a queen. At that date (1852) I was not bo well 

 versed in the mode of supplying an artificial queen aa at the 

 present time. 



After the foregoing operation, my host informed me he had 

 something else to show, and we ascended to the leads of the flat 

 roof of his house. He asked me to look down one of the 

 ohimnies, and a curious but beautiful spectacle met my view. 

 At about 15 inches from the top of the chimney, which in that 

 part, was about 1 foot square, a swarm of bees had taken posses- 

 sion, building combs diagonally across the open space. The 

 upper edges of the combs were totally unattached to any sub- 

 stance, so that the bees must have commenced building on the 

 perpendicular brickwork of the chimney ; yet were they most 

 singularly regular in form. The bees were very thickly clustered 

 level with the upper edges of the combs. The coveringfrom rain 

 or air was very imperfect, being a piece of slate which but 

 partially closed the aperture, and which was put on after the bees 

 had constructed a large quantity of combs. This stray swarm I 

 was also asked to expel from its stronghold, and an early day 

 was named for the purpose, but before that day arrived my kind 

 friend died suddenly while walking over his grounds, and I never 

 knew what was done re9peoting these two colonies of runaway 

 bees. 



Since writing the above the Journal has come to hand, and 

 the letter of "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper" is before me. 

 His experience in keeping bees under the circumstances, respect- 

 ing which information is required by " A North-Staeeordshibe 

 Bee-keeper," seems to have been much greater than my own, 

 and would warrant your correspondent in adopting a trial of the 

 plan ; nevertheless, I am still inclined to believe that in a majority 

 of cases the results will not be found altogether satisfactory. If 

 kept in a garret at the top of a lofty house the bees suffer greatly 

 from the wind. These rooms are alBO often intensely hot in 

 summer. But the chief objection is one which is admitted by 

 the writer of the letter before me — viz., the great improbability 

 of saving the swarms which may issue. These almost invariably 

 get away. It is very well to say the bees must be worked on the 

 depriving system, but notwithstanding all the care of the owner, 

 swarms will be thrown off occasionally from such hives. This 

 entails no small loss, as these swarms are usually much above 

 the average size. Where bees are kept at these elevated positions, 

 it may be very probable that a northern aspect is best suited to 

 them. The prevailing rough winds are south-east and north- 

 west, often attended with driving rain. Northerly winds are 

 Beldom so boisterous (I am speaking of Devonshire now), and 

 are drier ; but the grand reaBon is that the bees are not so likely 

 to be tempted out in cold windy weather with a bright sun, by 

 which an immense mortality is caused among bees in hives facing 

 south, or points east and west of south. That large quantities 

 of honey are occasionally taken from runaway swarms which 

 have established themselves in holes in walls and under roofs I 

 have already admitted ; but they form the exception, not the 

 rule. In the great majority of instances, where [ have known 

 an assault made in these colonies, the result has been found sadly 

 d isappointing. Frequently the spoils have been calculated before- 

 hand as likely to amount to one or more hundredweights, whereas 

 the actual quantity obtained has been but 2 or 3 lbs., chiefly of 

 black miserable stuff, which has been devoured by the boys and 

 men gathered round to snatch what they could. That this does 

 not altogether affect the question as to the housing of hives in a 

 room must be admitted. I am glad the question has been 

 opened. Doubtless our friend " B. & W." can afford us some of 

 the results of his experience, which, if I mistake not, has not 

 been small, on this matter. 



It is to be hoped that your inquiring correspondent will give 

 the plan a trial this coming season, and let the apiarian readers 



