May 5, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



335 



B. & "W.'s APIARY. 



(Continued from page 270.) 



To keep your apiarian readers " posted-up " in my proceed- 

 ings I will now recount the events of the last three weeks in 

 order. The operations recorded at page 269 took place March 21 

 — a venturesome time to compel bees to begin artificial-queen- 

 raaring. The plan sketched out there was pretty closely adhered 

 to — that is to say, on the 30th I " made a swarm of D by 

 driving it into a box well stored with comb and food." 2ndly, 

 "D, when cleared of its adult population, was placed in the 

 room of A, after shifting into D the Italian queen and population 

 of A." 3rdly, "A with its Italian brood was put in place of E, 

 setting F over it after catching and destroying its drone-breed- 

 ing queen." Thus far on the 30th and 31st. I found a large 

 number of drones in E, hatched and unhatched, which have 

 survived, and are now (April 13th), flying iu and out in full 

 vigour. Some of them are well marked, but the greater number 

 differ in no respect from common English drones. 



On Saturday, the 4th of April, I took off top E, and expelled 

 the bees, compelling them to return home to the lower box, 

 and a good deal of drone-brood was sacrificed. The bees were 

 very savage, as, indeed, they have been throughout all my opera- 

 tions this spring; nor was there any difference between the 

 temper of the Italian and English bees. The most surprising 

 thing, however, was that the bees of E had made several royal 

 cells amongst the drone-brood, and at least one of them was 

 occupied by a grub floating in royal jelly ! Had the bee dragged 

 up an egg or young Italian worker-grub from the hive below, 

 or was this a case of mistaken instinct ? Anyhow I thought it 

 fortunate that I had taken off this box in time, as there must 

 still have been Italian brood in the hive below of an age suitable 

 for rearing a queen. But this set me thinking that, perhaps, B 

 was in the same predicament : accordingly the same day, exactly 

 a fortnight after the queen of this stock had been destroyed and 

 brood given to them, I examined B, and found the Italian 

 brood-comb with most of its bees hatched, but no royal cell in 

 it. There was one, however, sealed up among the drone cells ! 

 Great curiosity did I feel to examine it, but prudence prevailed, 

 and I restored it to the hive, making all snug again as before, 

 in the hope that they might have carried a worker-grub thither, 

 and that in due time a queen would issue from the cell. On the 

 10th of April, however, I discovered the bees in B in a state of 

 violent agitation, as they always are when then' loss of a queen 

 has been perceived. If they had not been so savage I should 

 have taken out their royal cell again to inspect it ; but the life 

 of every bee is precious at this season of the year, and the hive 

 was thinly peopled. Assuming, therefore, that no queen was 

 hatched and that the bees had lost hope, I proceeded to the 

 fourth and fifth operation (see page 270), and drove E, queen 

 and all, into an empty box full of comb, and placed E with its 

 brood over B. In a very short time the lower hive was deserted, 

 and peace reigned among the agitated bees. 



The long and short of all these changes is that I am still 

 uncertain whether I have succeeded in gaining even one addi- 

 tional Italian queen. The queen of B, should the bees rear one 

 after all, will be almost pure English, but she may be impreg- 

 nated by a pure Italian drone. Such are some of the difficulties 

 which attend the establishment of the Italian race of bees in 

 this country. 



All the hives, however, appear to be doing well. They now 

 stand as follows : — 



Pure Italian queen 

 (now strong). 



Hybrid Italian queen 

 (strong). 



G. 

 Vacant. 



B. 



Bees in process of rearing 



a queen out of English 



brood (strengthened). 



E. 



English queen 



(strong). 



C. 



Vacant. 



F. 



— B. & W. 



English queen (straw 

 hive; strong). 



Bees rearing a queen 



out of Italian brood 



(strengthened). 



I. 



English queen (straw 

 hive; weakish). 



the bottle or other top plan ; besides it seems more natural, the 

 food being supplied as near as possible to where it is to be 

 stored. 



As this seems to be an open question, it would be interesting 

 were some of your many experienced contributors to express 

 their opinions. Would " An Ayrshire Bee-keeper " say if 

 it is by this mode, or how he administers his autumn or main 

 supply? — An Inquirer. 



A DESEETED HIVE. 



I am obliged to " An Ayrshire Bee-keeper " by the notice 

 he has taken of the communication to your Journal by one so 

 completely a novice in bee-keeping as 1 am. Allow me to ask 

 how the narrow tins he recommends can be used below ? How 

 are they to be introduced into the hives ? They cannot be 

 admitted through the ordinary opening in the floor-board, and I 

 presume the hive has not to be lifted each time, as thereby the 

 bees would be much disturbed ; moreover, the comb comes too 

 near the floor-board to allow even a razor-strop to be introduced 

 unleSB a groove to receive the feeding-trough were made in it. 

 Were this plan adopted, when it was not in use the trough 

 might be reversed, and so the floor-board might be refitted to 

 its ordinary level. 



But alas ! these schemes are to me visionary, for my hive that 

 on March 4th appeared to be doing well was deserted by its 

 occupants about a fortnight afterwards. My neighbour told 

 me that he noticed the bees weak and scarcely able to return to 

 their hive at midday. On examining the hive I found it empty 

 of living bees and with very few dead. I looked most carefully 

 for the queen, but could not find her. There were bee-bread, a 

 few young bees in the comb, some just issuing from their cells, 

 but no honey nor stored sugar. I could not at all account for 

 the desertion, unless the opening at the top where the feeding- 

 trough was placed had made the hive too cold and draughty for 

 hatching the young, and so they went to look for a more genial 

 home. My hives were in a compact wooden bee-house, so that 

 they are not much exposed to any alteration of weather, and are 

 quite protected from sun, wind, or rain. When I begin again I 

 must hope for better fortune. — B. J. S. 



[Yours may be a case of desertion similar to one we have 

 just witnessed in our own neighbourhood. Although ample 

 food was presented to them in a trough on the top of their 

 hive, the bees refused to ascend into it, and deserted their 

 habitation and young brood in all stages to seek their fortune 

 elsewhere. We believe the same food would have been accepted 

 without scruple if offered by means of an inverted bottle, and 

 that in all probability the result would have been very different.] 



FEEDING BEES. 

 Does "An Ayrshire Bee-keeper" not find his mode of 

 spring-feeding described at page 2S6 impede the ventilation by 

 partly stopping-up the entrance, and bees descending from off 

 the brood to feed during cold frosty nights get as well as it 

 chilled, and consequently perish ? These evils do not apply in 



EEPLY TO ME. FAIEBEOTHEE'S INQUIRIES. 



With regard to the query of Mr. Edward Eairbrother, page 

 236, "What is the best method of insuring a succession of 

 fertile queens ? " it is certainly not easy to answer, for one that 

 may be prolific now may be the reverse next year, from circum- 

 stances not easily explained. The best method I know, is to 

 have a thorough knowledge of all the stocks in autumn, and 

 to keep those only that have already proved themselves prolific, 

 and young queens and combs, although I have had a queen 

 seven years old, breeding well in all these seasons, which did as 

 well the last year as the first. Another remarkable circum- 

 stance was, that I never saw it breed more drones in a season 

 than about fifty, but I do not think that any advantage. 



" Are there any facts determining the flight of bees in search 

 of honey ? " I have never been able to come to a definite decision 

 on that point, for I never was in a district where bees were further 

 from each other than six miles. 1 have seen them working often 

 midway between the two places. In 1858 I had a hive that made 

 20 lbs. of heather-honey, from at least three miles distance, in 

 ten days. Of course, this was scarcely the half of the weight 

 that those made which were placed in the immediate vicinity of 

 the heather. I have proved that bees when within one mile of 

 an abundance of the flowers that they work on, will make in a 

 good day exactly the same weight of honey as there is weight 

 of bees in the hive. 



[We think there must be some mistake with regard to a queen 

 bee living and continuing fertile during seven years. Also, with 

 respect to bees returning from six miles distance. We once had 

 two apiaries about two and a quarter miles apart, and although 



