466 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ December 13, 1877. 



manifold and multiform points and aspects which cannot be 

 compressed in the limited space allowed for our answers and 

 letters. "B. & W." says that I have frequently admitted that I 

 do not understand the management of bar- frame hives. Sarely 

 he has misunderstood some statement of mine, and, therefore, 

 unwittingly misrepresented my meaning. Por fifteen years I 

 have believed that there is nothing of importance connected 

 with bar-framerB which I do not understand. 



One point or statement in "B. & W.'s " letter I will now 

 notice rather prominently, for it is of great importance to bee- 

 beepers generally. He says, "Where, as in my own case, the 

 paBturage is scanty and unproductive, such large hives as Mr. 

 Pettigrew's are worse than useless. I have abundantly proved 

 it to be true." In my opinion this statement is made in a 

 reckless manner, and is about as misleading as any statement 

 that ever fell from the pen of a teacher, for hundreds of en- 

 lightened apiarians in all parts have found that wherever honey 

 can be obtained, largo strong hives gather it faster than strong 

 small hives. 



Clever and experienced men in the bar-frame school are 

 moving in the right direction by adopting larger sizes of hives. 

 Their intelligence and experience will lead them onwards and 

 upwards. If a large good hive were sent down to the worst 

 district of Somersetshire, and there placed beside one of 

 "B. &W.'s" Bmaller hives, not one of these enlightened men 

 wonld believe that the large hive there "would be worse than 

 useless." Fifty reapers can cut and gather together a poor crop 

 of oats much sooner than twenty-five reapers can, and likewise 

 p, hive containing 50,000 bees can gather honey in any district 

 faster than a hive containing only 30,000. I repeat what I Baid 

 before, that wherever large hives are introduced and fairly 

 managed small hives go into disrepute. iTany other advocates 

 of small hives at one time have outlived their ancient notions 

 and prejudices, and now keep hives of larger dimensions. Pro- 

 bably " B. & W." will do the same some day. At any rate it is 

 rather late in the day to convince bee-keepers that large hives 

 are worse than useless anywhere. In the bee world there is 

 ample Ecope for all teachers, for every sohool of thought and 

 practice. "B. & W." has lessons to give, and I have some to 

 give. Sarely we can give those lessons without squabbling. — 

 A. Pettigeew. 



ENLARGEMENTS OF HIVES— TAKE OP 

 HONEY. 

 I have to tender my thanks to Mr. Pettigrew for kindly 

 answering my questions. His doing so was doubly interesting to 

 me, as I have invented a system of bee-keeping rather similar 

 to his, the main difference between them being, I work mine 

 with frame hives of my own invention. As I am not well versed 

 in the technicalities of bee language, I would feel obliged if Mr. 

 Pettigrew would explain in detail what he means by eking and 

 nadiring. I am also very anxious to know the size of his honey 

 hives, and how many pounds of honey he would expect to get 

 from a strong hive and its swarms in a good season. — A Kil- 

 kenny Bee-keepee. 



[In my answers to this gentleman's first letter the size of 

 hives was stated. Some are 16, some 18, and some 20 inches 

 wide, and not less than 12 incheB deep. Some are deeper than 

 12 inches. The sizes I prefer are 16 and 18 inches wide and 14 

 deep. The earliest and beBt swarms are hived in the larger 

 sizes, and the later Bwarms in the smaller. In fine seasons for 

 honey the bees require more room, which is provided and given 

 to them in supers, ekeB, and nadirs. A nadir is simply an 

 empty hive with a hole in its crown placed beneath a fall one. 

 The door of the fall one is closed, and the bees soon commence 

 filling the nadir with combs and brood ; meanwhile almost all 

 the store honey goes to the top hive, filling the brood cells as 

 fast as they are emptied. By the end of good seasons the nadirs 

 have honey enough stored in them to keep the bees through the 

 winter. In this way both a stock and a honey hive are ob- 

 tained. If your Kilkenny correspondent will put one of his 

 own frame hives beneath a fall one next spring, say about the 

 beginning of May, he will see for himself what nadiring is; and 

 if he put another empty frame hive on the top of both about the 

 beginning of June, he will learn that a hive may be both nadired 

 and supered in a season on the non-swarming system of manage- 

 ment. Thus the nadir becomes the stock hive, while the middle 

 hive is taken for honey and the top one for honeycomb. 



Eking is the simplest and most natural because least com- 

 plicated of all modes of enlarging hives. By eking we enlarge 

 or elongate hives, making them 4 or 6 inches deeper at a time. 

 Biddle rims made the same width of the hives and placed be- 

 neath them is eking. Eking in Cheshire is generally called 

 "raising," which is a very descriptive term. 



In good seasons good first swarms rise in weight to 120, 130, 

 and 150 lbs. each. Old stocks to 80 lbs. and 90 lbs. each. Second 

 swarms to 60 lbs. and 70 lbs. each. The average weight of a 

 hive, board, and bees, ib about 20 lbs., and in estimating the quan- 



tity or weight of honey in hives we not only deduct the weigh t 

 of hives, board, and bees, but allow about 30 percent, for refuse 

 of the combs. A hive weighing 120 lbs. gross will thus yield 

 70 lbs. of pure honey, and the 30 lbs. of refuse will yield about 

 3 lbs. of wax. From 30 lbs. to 40 lbs. of honey from either stock 

 or second swarm we consider a fair average take of honey in 

 good seasons, and about 2 lbs. of wax. 



Instead of eking our first swarms in June and July we gene- 

 rally super them, and in this way get about 40 lbs. of honey and 

 a super of 30 lbs. of comb in a honey season from a first swarm. 

 Tour correspondent will now see how difficult it is to keep an 

 apiary full of large hives, for in good seasons they become too 

 heavy for stocks — hence they are put down for honey and run into 

 cash. All our hives containing 30 lbs. of honey in autumn are 

 run into cash, and the bees are housed in smaller hives, and fed 

 into stocks at an expense per stock of 5s. each. The average 

 annual profits of an apiary well managed is about £2 per hive. — 

 A. Pettigbew.] 



OUR LETTEE BOX. 



Canaries High-coloured (E. IP.).— Cayenne pepper mixed with their 

 food heightens the colour of the feathers. 



Pig Management. — An Old Subscriber would be much obliged by full 

 directions how best to breed the pig, what 6ort to keep, and how to fatten. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Camden Square, London. 



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



Date. 



9 A.M. 



In the Day. 







. a 



Hygrome- 



a . 



~ a-* 



Shade Tem- 



Radiation 



.9 







ter. 



•1 



So 1 " 



perature. 



Temperature. 



P4 



Dec. 



1 







In 



On 









Dry. | Wet. 



3o 



H 



Max. 



Min. 



sun. 



grass. 







Inches. 



deg. deg. 





deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



In. 



We. 5 



•29 970 



42.0 



41.1 



N. 



43.2 



44.3 



40.2 



47.9 



38 6 



; 0.222 



Th. 6 



29.511 



45.2 



44.6 



S. 



43.2 



54.2 



40 8 



60-5 



33.2 



0.02S 



Fri. 7 



29 932 



40.3 



89.0 



w. 



43.9 



48.1 



39.2 



54.8 



33.2 



0-110 



Sat, 8 



30.178 



37.1 



86.0 



w. 



42.9 



46 S 



35.2 



63.6 



30 3 







Son. 9 



30.222 



45.4 



43.0 



s. 



42.4 



48 8 



36 7 



61.8 



S1.2 







Mo. 10 



29.970 



35.7 



S5.4 



s.w. 



42 



40.7 



31.9 



41.6 



26.1 



— 



Tn. 11 



30.074 



S4.4 



S4.S 



w. 



40.9 



40.8 



29.6 



42.7 



23.7 



0.100 



Means 



29.980 



40.0 



39.1 





42 6 



46.2 



36.2 



53.6 



30.9 



0.460 



EEMARKS. 

 5th. — Damp day, Bky a little clearer at times, "bat rain at night. 

 6th. — Dark wet morning, finer after 11 a.m., with sunshine; clear Btarlighfe 



night. 

 7th. — Fine freBh morning, but dull and rainy after 3 P.M. 

 8th. — Fine dry day, with several hours' sunshine. 

 9th. — Fine and bright throughout. 

 10th.— Foggy in morning, dry plessant day, but no sunshine; clear night* 

 11th. — Very foggy early, and slightly thick during the day. 

 Drier, finer, and slightly cooler than previous weeks. — G. J. Symons. 



COYENT GARDEN MARKET.— December 12. 

 Our market is now verj bare of Pears. The supply of foreign trait having 

 considerably fallen off we are now feeling the effects of the light crop of home 

 produce. Late-keeping Apples, such as Blenheims, Wellingtons, and Kings, 

 though light, are only making average prices, but late sorts bid fair to fetch 

 their valne owing to the indifferent supply of American frait this year. Late 

 Grapes — such as Alicante, Lady Downe's, and Gros Caiman — are in good 

 supply, but Black Hambnrghs are nearly off our market. 



FRUIT. 







s. 



d. 



B. 



1. 







R. 



d. 



fl. 



9. 





$ sieve 



2 



6 to 5 



II 





each 



U 



OtoO 









dozen 











U 



II 



Nectarines .... 



dozen 



U 

















bushel 10 







20 



II 





=1*100 



8 







10 









4 sieve 







1) 



II 



II 





dozen 











II 







Black 



i sieve 



II 



n 



II 







Pears, kitchen.. 



dozen 



1 







3 









dozen 

 lb. 





 





 6 





 





 8 



Pine Apples 



dozen 

 lb. 



2 

 1 





 6 



li 

 6 



II 



Filberts 









lb. 

 i bushel 



u 







6 









 



9 



n 



Raspberries .... 



1 sieve 

 lb. 





 





 



U 

 



l> 



Gooseberries .. 







Grapes, hothouse lb. 



1 



(i 



« 



u 





bushel 



5 







8 









q* ioo 













¥•100 



II 



II 



II 



1) 







VE 



4E1 



'AELES. 



















d. 



H. 



d. 







R. 



d. 



e. 



a 





dozen 



a 



0to4 



n 



Mushrooms .... 



pottle 



1 



6 



2 







Beans.Kidney forcedVlOO 



l 







1 



6 



Mustard & Cress 



punnet 







2 







4 





dozen 



l 



li 



K 



li 





bushel 



2 



8 



3 



IS 





bundle 







9 



1 



6 





quart 







i 











Brussels Sprout 



i * sieve 



2 



6 











Parsley.... doz 



bunches 



2 



(1 







II 





dozen 



1 



1) 





II 





dozen 







































II 



II 



II 



¥■100 



1 



6 





li 





bushel 



3 



6 



6 









dozen 



y 



II 



4 



II 





bushel 



b 







•i 









bundle 



1 



6 



2 







Radishes., doz. 



bunches 



1 







1 



6 



Coleworts doz. 



bunches 



2 







4 



n 





bundle 







ts 



1 







Cucumbers .... 



each 



1 







1 



6 





bundle 







9 



1 



U 





dozen 



1 



(1 



« 



n 



Scorzonera .... 



bundle 



1 







1) 



U 





bunch 

 lb. 





 



3 







n 







n 





basket 

 lb. 







U 

 8 



2 

 



i; 





6 





bunch 

 dozen 







1 



2 

 I) 





 2 





 





bushel 

 bunch 



2 

 



6 

 8 



4 

 









■1 





bunch 







a 



u 



1 



Veg. Marrows., 



each 











U 



u 



