August 29, 1872. ] 



JOUENAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



183 



of one stock to some other weak one during the winter and 

 spring, destroying all old queens, and keeping those only which 

 "have proved themselves good breeders. He will drive and join, 

 perhaps, a hundred hives every season, and rarely, if ever, has 

 a fight among them ; when it does occur he attributes it to his 

 own carelessness. He uses partly the old common straw skep, 

 14i inches wide, and a wooden eight-sided one, 14i inches wide 

 and 8 inches deep. The latter he finds the bees do well in, and 

 they last longer than the straw. The tops or supers are eight- 

 sided boxes, 15 inches wide and 2 J or 3 inches deep. He studies 

 to keep the large box for breeding purposes, and the supers for 

 abstracting the honey, in which he is very successful, allowing 

 just as much to remain in the lower box as will bring the bees 

 through the winter. Any defects he makes up by feeding, which 

 enables him- to obtain swarms weighing 6 and 7 lbs. 



My own apiary at the present time consists of only fifteen 

 stocks, which have been sent to the heather on the 1st of 

 August. The heaviest, in a straw hive, weighed 53 lbs. nett. 

 after taking a super 12 lbs. weight from her ; the others will 

 average about 46 lbs. nett., some of them in ten-bar Woodbury 

 frame hives. We find that size the most suitable for the gene- 

 rality of seasons in this locality. 



For the last five or six years my apiary has suffered much from 

 foul brood I have tried all plans to get rid of it, extracting 

 every bar whenever it made its appearance, but without success. 

 Last year I put every swarm as it came off into clean new straw 

 hives, and as soon as the brood was hatched in the old ones 

 drove them out into new straw skeps ; and though I have ex- 

 amined them all carefully this year, I only found one which had 

 a few cells with the foul brood in it. I drove the bees at once 

 from it into a new skep, being careful at the same time to allow 

 no old combs to be lying about. All the wooden " Woodbury " 

 hives and bars I plunged into boiling water, and painted them 

 when dry with a saturated solution of chloride of lime (which I 

 made myself, as that purchased is often very weak), put on with 

 a brush, and about as thick as cream. 



Some of those skeps I have used this year, and I will report 

 at some future time whether the disease occurs again in them or 

 not. • v 



In this locality we are still unable to say what is the cause of 

 foul brood ; but we are' fully convinced that it is not chilled 

 brood. It has occurred, and is even now in great numbers of 

 apiaries in this neighbourhood, but many know nothing about 

 it, or the reason that their bees do not succeed. — Alex. Shearer, 

 Tester Gardens, Haddington. 



INTRODUCING LIGURIAN QUEENS- 

 FEEDING, &c. 



In reference to the introduction of Ligurian queens, I wish to 

 know whether black bees, when deprived of their own queen, 

 entertain any greater objection to receiving queens of this 

 variety than those of their own colour ? Also, I wish to know, 

 when introducing queens by the medium of cages, how to ascer- 

 tain the proper time to liberate them from their temporary 

 prisons. Do any movements of the bees indicate this ? 



The Rev. Mr. Wood, in his manual on bees, makes the follow- 

 ing statement : — " H twenty-four hours have passed since the 

 loss of the ordinary queen, a stranger queen is gladly accepted 

 the instant she presents herself." (Page 56.) Surely if this is a 

 fact, it applies to Ligurian queens, and the cage system of in- 

 troducing them, must be humbug. The Rev. Mr. Wood must 

 liave had some foundation for this statement. 



Is there any danger in feeding a hive by letting a continous 

 drop fall into or through it by a hole in the top at this time of 

 the year ? The bees appear to suck it up as fast as it falls 

 down.— H. F. R. 



[We do not believe that bees of either variety of Apis melli- 

 fica manifest any peculiar objection to receiving queens of 

 another variety from their own. We confess, however, that we 

 have had more experience in the introduction of Ligurian 

 queens to black stocks, than in the introduction of black queens 

 either to Ligurian bees or to those of their own colour. 



We know of no method of ascertaining the exact time that it 

 would be desirable to liberate the prisoners, and to deliver them 

 over to the tender mercies of their intended subjects. We have 

 varied our practice in this respect from an imprisonment of 

 twenty-four hours to more than forty-eight hours, and cannot 

 say that we found any difference in the results. The shorter 

 time, therefore, we think preferable, as longer confinement than 

 is actually necessary cannot be desirable. We should not, if 

 the bees manifested much disquiet and excitement, choose 

 that time for liberation, but should prefer waiting a few hours 

 more. 



We cannot say that Mr. Wood is wrong in his assertion, as 

 we have no doubt that bees will frequently accept a stranger 

 queen if set at liberty among them, or placed at once on the 

 surface of their eombs. We prefer, however, for valuable 

 Ligurians, taking the precautionary measure of introducing 



them in cages, whereby their presence is gradually made known 

 to all the inmates of the hive, and they become saturated, as it 

 were, with the prevailing odour of the interior. 



We object to feeding in the way you propose, as being likely 

 to induce robbery from bees of other hives, and the possibility, 

 if the food be not taken up by the bees as fast as it is dropped 

 on them or the central combs, of its causing the interior of the 

 domicile to become anything but clean and comfortable. There 

 is no difficulty in adapting some modifications of the method 

 of feeding by the inverted bottle.] 



NEW ADAPTERS. 



Instead of adapting-boards, I have this year used sheets of 

 perforated zinc, the holes of which are five-twenty-fourths of an 

 inch in diameter, through which it is impossible for a queen to 

 pass. I have this year taken off most beautiful supers filled 

 with the purest honeycomb. For a super I have also used a 

 full-sized Woodbury frame hive, with the notches cut so as to 

 contain nine frames only. Next year I shall have the notches 

 cut so as to contain eight only, which I think will prove quite 

 sufficient, and thus compel the bees to build wider combs. The 

 only inconvenience I find in using so large a super is that the 

 bees do not so readily ascend as in a smaller one ; but this may 

 be easily remedied if a centrifugal machine.be used, and the 

 super put on containing empty combs, or if the zinc adapter be 

 kept out for a few days until the bees have commenced working. 

 It is a good plan in ordering Woodbury hives to have them 

 made with ten notches on two corresponding sides, and eight on 

 the other two, so that it may be used either as a stock hive or 

 super. If any of the readers of the Journal would like to try 

 the perforated zinc, and find any difficulty in getting it of the 

 proper size, I shall be most happy to send them a small piece 

 for pattern on receipt of a stamped directed envelope addressed 

 to — Obed Poole, Uphill, Weston-super-Mare. 



[Thanks for your offer. Supers should never be altogether 

 cleared of last year's comb, then the bees will more readily take 

 to them another year. We should fear the zinc adapters in 

 most years, as offering a considerable difficulty to the bees in 

 passing up and down. We shall be glad of your experience 

 with them another year. — Eds.] 



BEES IN A COLLATERAL HIVE. 



I have a stock of English bees in the centre box of a collateral 

 hive, which stock threw off a strong swarm in June. I hived it 

 in one of the side boxes of the above hive. The old stock has 

 gradually become weaker, and the bees appear to be much less 

 numerous. If I open the communication between the boxes, 

 would the stock and the swarm form a union, and would it be 

 advisable to do so now ? The swarm is in a small box, which 

 is full of honey, but the centre box is larger and not nearly so 

 well stocked with honey, though there is plenty of comb some 

 two or three years old. — Walter E . Smith. 



[We should fear a grand fight between the hives if you open a 

 communication between them. We do not advise it. Probably 

 the centre box has swarmed overmuch, but the hive may recover 

 itself before winter. If you see "no pollen carried in during 

 October, yon may conclude that all is up with it ; if otherwise, 

 feed it up to a sufficient weight.] 



ROBBER BEES. 



We received the following telegram early on Saturday after- 

 noon : — " Civil war raging in bee house ; three large stocks 

 destroyed; looks like spreading to eight others in house and 

 four outside. Please advise at once." To this we replied, 

 " Separate the hives at night as far away as you can." This 

 seemed to us the best reply wo could give in the absence of our 

 special advisers in apiarian matters. To one of these we at 

 once referred the matter. His answer is as follows ; we give it 

 in extenso, as the subject is interesting, and similar difficulties 

 may occur again. 



" I should perhaps have recommended in the first instance a 

 continuous shower of fine spray from the rose of a garden 

 syringe, brought to play on all the hives engaged in strife. The 

 rest, too, would not come in amiss for their share of the arti- 

 ficial rain. A year ago I found this of great use in quieting some 

 robber bees. As soon as tolerable tranquillity was restored (and 

 in any case after a time), I should have opened a thorough venti- 

 lation at top or bottom, or both, by covering the top holes with per- 

 forated zinc or empty boxes, and raising the hive about the eighth 

 of an inch from the bottom board by the insertion of thin pieces 

 of wood or slate. Then every entrance should have been abso- 

 lutely closed for the rest of the day. I would then have opened 

 all at night, and watched the issue carefully next day, repeating 

 the same treatment till I had beaten the bees. Cool or rainy 

 weather comes very appositely to one's aid under such circuni- 



