318 



JOUENAL OF HOKTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ October 18, 1877. 



checked, and the bees accordingly diminished rather than in- 

 creased in all hives. There was an improvement in May, and 

 things began to assume a more hopeful aspect. June, too, with 

 not a few good dayB succeeded, but all hives were far back for 

 the season. The population in any hive waB not such as it 

 should be in this the great swarming month in Scotland. 

 Swarms issued freely enough in the earlier localities, but the 

 young colonies were comparatively small. In the later districts, 

 however, bad weather prevented in many cases swarming al- 

 together, and there were few after-swarmB anywhere. For a 

 time things went on hopefully yet slowly, but the season was 

 now far advanced, and unless really good weather set in during 

 July there would be little or no flower honey. Alternate good 

 and bad days occurred, but swarms failed to fill their hives even 

 with comb in the usual time, and little or no honey was being 

 collected beyond the temporary wants of the moment. It now 

 became evident that there would be no surplus flower honey. 

 The supers were taken possession of, but little progress was 

 made in working in them. Any little honey that was collected 

 and stored there was afterwards speedily removed and utilised 

 for the more pressing wants of the community. Now came the 

 white clover season, but it miserably failed. This flower, second 

 only to the heath in productiveness of sweets, was from the 

 charaoter of the weather unvisited by the bees, and so, too, may 

 it be said in some measure of the wild mustard and bean, both 

 highly prized by bees : little or nothing was obtained from them. 

 Thus all the principal honey-yielding flowers of summer com- 

 pletely failed from wet, windy, and unseasonable weather. One 

 hope still remained. The heath was yet a resource left, but it 

 would be two weeks late at least. Meantime the hives were 

 being fed to keep them up to the mark. Notwithstanding every 

 effort, however, it was apparent the hives were fast diminishing 

 in population onwards to the middle of AuguBt, when to the 

 moors they were sent as the last resource left. I long hesitated. 

 The weather was still doubtful ; indeed throughout the season 

 a sort of chronic sameness prevailed, so that if a few good days 

 occurred these were succeeded by the recurrence of wet, cold, 

 and sunless weather. No sooner had the hives been pitched 

 down in the moors, therefore, when it became too evident that 

 the movement was a mistake. There was no change in the 

 character of the weather, and, to crown all, the heath blossom 

 itself was defective, and even in the scanty flowers there was 

 little or no nectar Becreted. Thus after a three-weeks visit to 

 the moors the hives were brought back in a worse state than 

 when they were sent. Feeding even had to be resorted to at 

 the moors to ward off starvation, a circumstance unprecedented 

 in my experience. I counted some eight hiveB around my own 

 that had completely succumbed, and during a subsequent visit 

 I witnessed that ill-omened phenomenon, a hunger swarm, issue 

 from some starving hive and settle upon one of my own hives. 

 Considerable massacre was the consequence, as these are not the 

 kind of accessions — a starving population — any hive is disposed 

 to receive with favour. The poor queen was shortly afterwards 

 found cast out dead. 



But failure in honey-gathering is not the only evil of this 

 most disastrous season. Most hives are sadly deficient in bees, 

 and an examination of some will show that much of the combs 

 are filled with unhatched brood, famine-reduced population 

 combined, producing a state of matters very undesirable in any 

 hive — namely, combs filled with sealed dead brood. Nor is this 

 all the bad results of this untoward season. Not a few young 

 queens have failed to become fertile from long-continued in- 

 auspicious weather. No less than five oases of this kind occurred 

 in my own apiary. Such hiveB accordingly found at this season 

 in such a condition are almost worthless, for though supplied 

 with fertile queens they can never sufficiently recover or be- 

 come good keeping stocks, as all the bees are adults, two or 

 three months old, and cannot perhaps see, far less outlive, the 

 winter. 



Such is the sad experiencs I have to record of the present 

 bee season, and I would accordingly advise that all hives be 

 thoroughly examined, and their wants and deficiencies supplied 

 as well in regard to food and population as to the state of the 

 brood combs. — J. Lowe, Edinburgh. 



BEE GOSSIP. 



I have given my hives this autumn nearly 1 cwt. of sugar, or 

 about 170 lbs. of syrup. As I have only fed seven of them it will 

 be Been that the average given to each stock has been about 

 24 lbs. This large quantity, however, makes but a poor show in 

 several of the hives (although they are probably well enough 

 supplied for the winter), because the bees were in general so 

 utterly pauperised that they had nothing whatever to live upoD, 

 hence they had to support themselves and their brood from the 

 provision with which my not unselfish bounty had supplied 

 them. 



For five or six weeks in August and early September the food 

 was taken down with great regularity and in considerable 

 quantities every day, but no hive took down more than 2 lbs. in 



the day. All this time there was more or less of breeding going 

 on in each hive. Latterly, however, hut little food has been 

 taken down, although the weather has been very warm by day 

 with plenty of sunshine. It seems as if the bees had sud- 

 denly tired of it. Is it that September is a rest month with 

 them, or that there being nothing to tempt them out into the 

 fields they have fallen into a semi-torpid state and have not that 

 stimulus to their energy which an actively foraging stock alwayB 

 finds when hcney is to be found abroad? I am, nevertheless, 

 daily expecting to witness a change, as the ivy blossoms are 

 beginning to expand and will soon be full of honey and pollen if 

 the weather permits. Then I expect to find, simultaneously 

 with the waking-up of the bees' activity in the fields, a corre- 

 spondingly renewed activity in emptying my feeding bottles. 



The nights are unusually cold now, even within five miles of 

 the Bristol Channel, and on low ground, and my bees begin to 

 shrink within their combs and cells, so enabling me to see the 

 condition of their stores. All look healthy and comfortable and 

 seem ready for what may come, but soon I shall begin to cover 

 and swathe them in drugget coats and blankets, that they may 

 feel as little as may be the vicissitudes of weather, be it hot or 

 cold. When once bees are wintered they should be kept still 

 and quiet as much as possible. The quieter they are kept in a 

 moderate and equable temperature the more successfully and 

 with a lesser consumption of honey will they pass the Decem- 

 ber quarter. So no more feeding till the month of March. 



All entrances should be narrowed to a size sufficient for four 

 bees to pass in at a time ; if larger, cold winds will enter with the 

 more deadly effect, not to speak of various enemies which are 

 now hunting about for winter quarters as well as for plunder. 

 Drifting snow, too, must be carefully guarded against ; it pene- 

 trates every crevice, and should be swept away continually as 

 being among the deadliest of pests to our apiaries.— B. & W. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Oxford Poultry Show.— The entries are, of poultry 1013, and of Pigeon s 

 1070. 



Rabbits (F. i.).— Write to Messrs. Baily & Son, Mount Street, Grosveaor 

 Square, and ask them for the information. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Camden Square, London. 



Lat.51° 32-40" N. ; Long. 0° 8' 0" W-!; Altitade, 111 feet. 



Date. 



9 A.M. 



In the Day. 









Hygrome- 



o« 





Shade Tem- 



Radiation 



a 



1877. 



S a ^R 



ter. 



3 9 

 §1 



§5- 



perature. 



Temperature. 



« 



Oct. 





1 







In 



On 







aSa 



Dry. 



Wet. 



Q o 



H 



Max. 



Min. 



sun. 



grass, 

 deg. 







Inches 



deg. 



deg. 





deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



In. 



We. 10 



30.160 



44.0 



42.7 



W. 



49.0 



53 7 



36 5 



60.3 



33.6 



0.159 



Tb. 11 



29.911 



51.0 



45.5 



W. 



49.9 



58.2 



44.0 



9S.0 



42.2 



— 



Fri. 12 



29.930 



50.0 



4S.7 



w. 



49.1 



58.0 



42.4 



98.7 



38.1 



0.1SO 



Sat, 13 



29.849 



57.3 



53 9 



s.w. 



49 8 



62.4 



47.4 



92.1 



41.1 



— 



Sun.14 



29.830 



57.8 



52.2 



s. 



51.1 



67.5 



52.1 



100.4 



47.3 



0.010 



Mo. 15 



29.714 



62 3 



46.1 



w.s.w. 



52.6 



66.2 



52.0 



98 8 



47.1 



O.nlO 



Tu. 16 



80 077 



47.1 



43 3 



s.w. 



50.4 



51.6 

 59.7 



42.5 



88.0 



381 

 41.1 



0.023 



Means 



29.924 



51.2 



47.2 





55.3 



45.3 



90 9 



0.333 



1 REMARKS. 



i 10th.— Rather hazy forenoon, dull hut dry all day ; -wind rising at night, 

 llth. — Rain during the night, followed hy a very tine day ; windy at night. 

 12th.— Very fine all day, but rain at night. 

 13th.— "Wind and rain during the night and in the morniag; a dull diy, witfe 



a slight Bhower about 5 p.m. and very dirk; starlit night. 

 14th.— Beautifully fine all day, and starlight at 9 p.m. ; but before midaighfc the 

 wind rose rapidly, and by 1 a.m. it was terrific, and 60 continued till 

 nearly 9am.; rain fell about 6 a.m. 

 15th, — Wind and rain at 9 a.m., but soon becoming bright and fine, though 

 windy, all the forenoon; afternoon less blight; evening line, but wild 

 very high soon after midnight and duriog the early morning. 

 16th. — Rather a dull day, and much colder. 



The most noticeable feature of the week was the extremely violent wind in 

 the early morning of the 15th; but it was not eo great here as in other parts 

 of the country,— G. J. Si'MONS. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— October 17- 

 A veby dull market the last few days, large quantities of Apples remain- 

 ing on hand, reduced prices failing to effect a clearance. Kent Cobs a good 

 sale, quotations fully maintained. 



s. d. s. d. 



Apples i sieve 1 6toS 6 



Apricots dozen 



Chestnuts bushel 



Currants i tieve 



Black J sieve 



Figs dozen 10 8 



Filberts lb. 4 6 



Cobs lb. 4 6 



Gooseberries ..j bushel 



Grapes, hothouse lb. 1 6 6 



Lemons ^100 6 10 



Melons each 1 



Nectarines .... dozen 4 



Oranges ** 100 JO 



Peaches dozen 3 



Pears, kitchen., dozen 1 



dessert dozen 2 



Pine Apples .... lb. 5 



Plums J sieve 10 



Raspberries .... lb. 



"Walnuts bushel 5 



ditto ^100 



d. s. 

 6to4 



