98 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 2, 1864, 



is going to judge, if I have entered my birds I shall never 

 send them, as I consider that he does not know Pigeons 

 sufficiently to be a judge. — H. Yabdley. 



[This is only one of many strange details we have heard 

 about the Pigeons at the Newcastle Show.] 



TRANSFERRING BEES— BEST ASPECT FOR 

 AN APIARY. 



I have purchased two hives of bees, swarms of the first 

 week in May, very strong, and of great weight, say 40 to 

 50 lbs. each. I have not brought them home yet, but intend 

 doing so the first opportunity of getting them in at night. 

 They are now in common straw hives. I wish to know if 

 they can be shifted into a bar-frame hive, or straw bar-hive, 

 without injury to them ; but if too late, when can I do so ? 

 Can they be deprived of any of their honey if they remain 

 where they are ? 



Also, my garden runs east to west, somewhat sheltered all 

 round with palings, and currant and other trees. Shall I 

 fix them to face the north ? I should state that my house 

 stands at the east end of the garden, so that they would be 

 much sheltered from the east wind. — W. A. P., Oxford. 



[Transferring new and heavy combs into frame-hives is 

 far too d i fficult an operation for a beginner. If you can 

 get some practice this autumn with condemned stocks, so 

 as to master the art of driving bees, you may be able to 

 manage the transfer in the spring. Full directions for per- 

 forming the operation were given in No. 75 of our new series. 

 Do not attempt to remove your hives until the weather is 

 much colder than at present. 



"We prefer a south aspect — say from south-east to south- 

 west — sheltered at the back, and from the prevailing winds, 

 and free from all obstruction in front.] 



REMOVING BEES TO THE MOORS. 



As the time has now arrived for taking the bees to the 

 heather, I would remind your numerous bee-keeping readers 

 of the very great advantage to themselves and the bees 

 which is derived from their removal to the moors. I find 

 that the hives which I keep at home always lose weight 

 after July, whilst those taken to the moors have at least six 

 weeks honey-harvest. 



I will now give your readers a few directions for removing 

 the bees. The first thing to be attended to is to give them 

 plenty of room, as, if the weather is favourable, they collect 

 from the heath a very great store of honey; therefore, the 

 day before I remove them, I place another hive on the top of 

 the stock, and if they are in a bar-frame-hive (and no bee- 

 master should use any other description, as in one season 

 the bees will repay all expenses in the extra quantity, quality, 

 and money value of the honey) I take all the honey out, ex- 

 cept about 5 lbs., which insures their preservation in case, 

 as last year, it should rain nearly every day they are at the 

 moors. The brood of course must not be cut out of the 

 bar- frames. Over the place where the two hives join I tie a 

 piece of calico securely with two strings round each hive, so 

 that the hives cannot separate, or any bees escape during 

 their removal. I then raise the hive about an inch upon 

 pieces of wood, and early next morning every bee has gone 

 off the floor-board. I then spread a piece of open net or 

 leno upon a board, lift the hives upon the net, and tie it 

 securely with two strings round the hive ; and when this has 

 been done, having previously seen which way the combs are 

 built, I turn the hives gently over with the end of the combs 

 at the bottom. With swarms very great care must be used 

 in this part of the operation, as the new combs, being as 

 brittle as glass, will bend and break down with their own 

 weight, and that of the bees upon them, unless they are 

 turned over with the edge of the combs at the bottom. When 

 turned bottom upwards the combs all rest upon their own 

 foundation, and the heat always ascends and so escapes 

 through the net, and the inside of the hive is kept cool. The 

 honey, I find, will not run out of those cells that are not 

 sealed over so as to do the bees any injury. 



With old hives the same amount of care is not necessary, . 



as the bees varnish their combs with a sort of glue ; and 

 when they have had brood in them each pupa leaves its 

 silken cocoon in the cell, which so strengthens the combs 

 that in time they become nearly as tough as leather, and 

 you can knock them about as you like, provided you give 

 them plenty of air. The stock, after the above precautions 

 have been taken, may be placed in a wicker basket, or tied 

 in a cloth. Swarms ride the best suspended. The same 

 amount of care in turning them over when you get them to- 

 the moors, and in bringing them back must be taken. 



These grateful little creatures will repay with usurious 

 interest the expenses of removing them from thirty to 

 fifty miles to such luxuriant pastures, where many tons of 

 honey are annually lost to the nation for want of col- 

 lectors. — Wm. Cask, Clayton Bridge Apiary, Newton Heatk, 

 near Manchester. 



TIMES OF SWARMING. 



" Philiscus " asks whether a swarm has ever been known 

 to emigrate without a royal cell being sealed, or in process 

 of being sealed. Allow me in reply to express my con- 

 viction that swarms generally emigrate before any of the 

 royal cells are sealed. 



If you remove the reigning queen from a stock in order to 

 rear an artificial one, you will find that a royal cell is well 

 formed on the third day after removal, that it is sealed on 

 the sixth, and that a young queen emerges on the fourteenth. 

 Hence, allowing two days for confinement of the young 

 queens when formed with a view to natural swarming, this 

 will give for interval between the time a royal cell is sealed 

 and the period of the young queens' emergence, a space of 

 ten, or say eleven days. 



Now what are the facts in regard to natural swarming ? 

 Take the history of a hive for the following years : — 



In 1853 the interval between its first and second was 12 days. 



In 1S54 „ „ 13 „ 



In 1855 ,, ,, 15 „ 



In 1S56 ,, „ 18 „ 



In lSi7 „ „ 13 ., 



In 185S „ „ 11 „ 



In 1859 „ „ 13 „ 



In 1860 „ „ 35 „ 



The average interval between first and second casts, 

 according to my experience, is twelve days. Between first 

 and last casts I have frequently witnessed an interval of 

 nineteen days ; and in 1861 I had a hive which threw its 

 first and second casts on June loth and 27th, and its third 

 and fourth casts on July 2nd and 5th, thus making an 

 interval between the first and second casts of twenty days, 

 the longest interval I have ever known. Only on two occa- 

 sions, once this year, and once in 1S54, have I had second 

 casts in less than ten days after the departure of the first 

 swarm. If, therefore, it happens in other localities as in 

 mine, that a second swarm does not depart until ten or four- 

 teen days after the first left, and if young queens are ready 

 to emerge, and do emerge in artificial cases on the eighth 

 day after the royal cells are sealed, it follows that swarms in 

 some instances may perhaps have left before the royal eggs 

 were hatched. — R. S. 



EXISTENCE OF A QUEEN DOUBTFUL. 

 I shall be obliged by " A Devo^shiee Bee-keepek " 

 answering me the following : — I drove a swarm of bees out 

 of an old straw hive about a fortnight ago, they had not 

 swarmed before doing so. I cut the comb out to examine 

 whether the queen had been left behind, but did not find 

 her, and supposed all was right. I left the comb in the old 

 hive for the bees of the apiary to clear out. The following 

 morning I went to remove the comb and old hive, and was 

 much annoyed to find a queen alive, but in a weak state. I 

 had no time to stop and take pains to introduce her to the 

 hive, but placed her inside, when she was ejected imme- 

 diately. The bees are working well, and I notice that they 

 vibrate their wings opposite to the entrance. Is not this a 

 sign that there is a queen inside ? I am in hopes that the 

 queen I found was a young one, that came out of the cell 

 after I had driven them, but I had not time carefully to ex- 

 amine the comb, being called from home. I have a weak cast- 



