224 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 13, 1864, 



WORKING SUPERS ON COMMON HIYES. 



EOBMING STOCKS FBOM CONDEMNED BEES. 



I AM a young beginner, and am now in possession of two 

 common straw Mves ; they are weighty, and seem to have 

 plenty of honey. I want none of it this season, but I should 

 like them in a hive on which I could use a super next year, 

 and I beg to ask if they can be shifted into a hive of that 

 kind this autumn, or at what time next spring ? bearing in 

 mind that I wish to increase my stock, and to work them 

 without destroying a bee. 



My neighbour has four stocks very heavy. He is going to 

 destroy the bees in two of them to take their produce. If he 

 gives me the bees would they survive the winter if driven 

 into an empty hive, and I fed them well, the expense of 

 which I should not mind?— W. H. P. 



[Transferring bees and combs to new hives is far too dim- 

 cult a job to be undertaken by a novice. Tou had better 

 get a couple of pieces of deal three-quarters of an inch thick 

 and 13 inches square, with a central aperture 3 inches in 

 diameter, and clamped at each end to prevent warping. One 

 of these should be fixed as a platform on the top of each 

 hive by means of mortar in the spring, and an aperture cut 

 with a sharp penknife in the crown of the hive corresponding 

 with the hole in the wood. On this platform a super may 

 be readily worked. 



Three or four stocks of condemned bees driven into one 

 hive will fabricate and store combs if liberally fed in the 

 autumn, and may very probably form a good stock next 

 spring.] 



COMB-PRUNING. 



Since I have been a reader of your Journal the subject of 

 comb-pruning has not been much alluded to. In "Bee- 

 keeping for the Many," Payne says hives are to last from 

 fifteen to twenty years, and in another place that he has 

 had one last much longer; but whether he simply means 

 the hive or the colony I am not quite sure, for in giving 

 directions he says that only the outer combs are to be cut 

 out. Taylor, also, in his directions states that combs that 

 are filled with stale pollen or honey, or are mouldy, mil- 

 dewed, &c, are to be removed. 



My own idea of comb-pruning was, that by the occasional 

 removal of combs as they became thickened by breeding, 

 &c., a stock was to be kept in a state of perpetual youth 

 and prosperity; but on thinking the matter over I am at a 

 loss to know what is the really proper method to obtain 

 such a desirable result, for I find it to be the rule that in 

 four or five years a hive becomes worn out, and dies. I 

 have often thought about it, but to-day it was again forcibly 

 brought to my notice by seeing a hive which had swarmed 

 and cast this year, dead, robbed, and empty of all but comb. 

 Removal of the outer combs merely will never keep the 

 hive perpetually new, for these are the combs that are most 

 used by the bees for storing honey, and so are the last to 

 be spoiled by breeding; and to remove a central comb in 

 spring would be, most probably, to take away brood and 

 what little honey had been left for the winter's store. Even 

 to take such a comb out (supposing it to be a bar-hive), 

 would be to chill the brood, at that time so precious. I 

 have thought, how would it be to move, or transpose the 

 combs before removal ? for instance, to put the outer comb 

 in the centre of the hive, and the central one in its place 

 for a time before removal. But here again would be the 

 danger of chilling any brood during the transposition. 

 ■Would " A Devonshibe Bee-keepeb," and also any other 

 of your bee-keeping readers, tell us their experience in this 

 matter ? It is this spoiling of combs which is fatal to 

 Nutt's, and all similar methods of keeping bees. 



I commenced bee-keeping in the summer of 1860, by 

 buying one common cottage-hive, or rather a swarm hived 

 into an old cottage-hive. I bought it of an old bee-keeper 

 who lives near me. They have kept bees for at least two 

 generations, if not more ; and yet he brought me my swarm 

 on the second day after swarming, and consequently the 

 hive was much weakened by the loss of many bees, and I 

 have only had one swarm from it, and that was last year. 

 This year it did not swarm, as I suppose from the state of 

 the combs. The first year I did not pay much attention to 



my bees, although I was very fond of them ; but since then, 

 having had many losses of bought hives from the very bad 

 years we have had, I have paid much attention to them, and 

 have experimented a good deal with them in the shape of 

 driving, chloroforming, uniting, fumigating, feeding, &c. In 

 1861 I had a Nutt's hive stocked for me by a friend with a 

 good swarm in June. In 1862 it swarmed in spite of a bell- 

 glass with a decoy comb, which it would not take to. That 

 year was so bad, that its swarm, which came on the 23rd of 

 June, was of no value, and died, or was chloroformed, and I 

 had some trouble to keep the stock alive : however, it did 

 live (which is more than I can say for four other stocks) ; 

 but in 1863 it only filled the pavilion, and made a very 

 slight piece of comb in one of the side boxes (no bell-glass). 

 This year it nearly filled one of the end boxes ; but when I 

 wanted to remove it the queen obstinately refused to go 

 into the pavilion, and after making several attempts to get 

 the side box away, at last took the pavilion, and have left 

 the queen and her subjects in the end box. I have drained 

 12 lbs. of honey from the pavilion. The comb was chiefly 

 black ; some of the honey also in it was candied, evidently 

 last year's. There was no brood. 



I shall be greatly obliged if you will bring the subject of 

 comb-pruning before your readers, and have it thoroughly 

 investigated. If experiments are required to test its value, 

 I shall be glad to make one to try any that are likely to 

 answer, and to send you the result. I have two of Taylor's 

 bar-hives stocked, one with a swarm, last year, and another 

 with my first swarm, this year. It has not been nearly so 

 good a honey season with us this year as it was last. — 

 C. P. G., Kirton-in-Lindsey. 



P.S. — A full-grown drone, with beautiful pink eyes, was 

 turned out of one of my this-year's swarms. Is this 

 common ? 



BEES ROBBING— AUTUMNAL UNIONS. 



Can you, or any of your correspondents, inform me how to 

 prevent bees robbing ? as I observe my strongest hive, one 

 that has never swarmed, is commencing to attack the other 

 hives. They not only go to one, but try it on two or three. 

 They seem to love plenty of honey, and I have also fed them 

 with the bottle at night ; but if anything this appears to 

 make them more vigorous and lively. I have also narrowed 

 the entrances to all the hives, so that they do not get in ; but 

 the other bees lose their lives and also the robbers in the 

 defence. 



Would you also say if there has been any plan hit upon 

 for autumn joining without fighting? About three weeks 

 since, after taking the queen away, I joined a swarm, giving 

 part to two or three hives, without any fighting at night, 

 but the other day I think they killed every one added to 

 them. — A. B. 



[If it be only one hive which offends in this manner, we 

 should sentence it to transportation for a few weeks to a 

 distance of not less than a mile and a half. When brought 

 back at say the latter end of October, you will probably 

 find the work of reformation complete. 



We believe the mode of effecting autumnal unions, de- 

 scribed by Mr. Woodbury in page 523 of our fifth volume 

 (new series), may generally be relied on to prevent fighting 

 when the stocks to be united are of the same species.] 



TRANSPORTING BEES. 



I have several times had occasion to send hives to a 

 distance, either by carriers or by rail, and very often I 

 have found that the honey ran out of the comb, and wasted 

 4 or 5 lbs. In packing I place the bottom of the hive on 

 a circular piece of board and sew pieces of bag round it. 

 Would you inform me, of some method of packing which 

 would prevent the waste above mentioned ? — G. C. 



[The best mode of packing bees in common hives for trans- 

 portation either by carrier or by rail, is to invert the hive in 

 a box of suitable size (a tea-chest answers the purpose very 

 well), confining the bees by a piece of cheese cloth securely 

 tied over the hive, which should be kept steady by hay or 

 other suitable material packed tightly round it, and a strip of 

 wood 2 or 3 inches wide fixed across and nailed to the sides 



