September 20, 1864. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



245 



form two swarms had been recently bred, could scarcely have 

 degenerated so suddenly and completely as to account for 

 the entire destruction of the parent stock. 



The full-grown drone with pink eyes was probably hatched 

 from what may be termed a chance drone egg — no very un- 

 usual occurrence. — A Devonshire Bee-keeper. 



Your correspondent " C. P. G." wishes for the opinions of 

 other apiarians on the excision or removal of old combs. I 

 shall be happy to give him the results of my own experience. 

 I am convinced that hives, provided they are of good and 

 sufficient internal dimensions, will last much longer than is 

 generally supposed. In 1861 I stocked a number of large 

 ten-framed boxes, chiefly by transferring combs and bees 

 from common cottage-hives. One of these was a swarm of 

 1857, and the others ranged from that date down to 1860. 

 The original combs, or, at any rate, the majority of them, 

 are still in use, dispersed about my apiary. 



In 1858 two straw hives, having flat wooden tops, were 

 tenanted with fine swarms. These hives, known as Nos. 4 

 and 9, have been among the most remunerative I have ever 

 had. Supers, ranging in weight from 20 lbs. up to 41 lbs., 

 have been afforded by each of these two hives nearly every 

 summer since 1858. One of the hives has, as far as I know, 

 thrown but one, and the other two swarms, during that 

 period. No. 9, after filling a super in the summer, was 

 broken up last autumn, and was full of sealed honey. 



Thinking that it might be advisable to change the combs 

 of the other hive, No. 4, I placed under the stock early in 

 the spring a Stewarton-box of beautiful new brood-comb, 

 which had been kept carefully wrapped in paper during the 

 winter. There was full communication, all the spaces 

 between the bars being open. About six weeks afterwards 

 I inspected the interior, hoping to find that the principal part 

 of the breeding had been carried below. On separating the 

 hives I could see that not a single cell in the lower division 

 was occupied by brood, while the upper, which contained 

 the old combs, was crammed with brood down to the 

 bottom. They were replaced just as before, and after 

 another interval of six weeks were again examined. This 

 time there was a small quantity of brood in the lower half, 

 but the majority was still contained in the old combs. 

 Being resolved, to wait no longer, I at once drove out the 

 bees from the upper portion, cut out the combs, and placed 

 all the brood in an empty hive on the top of the stock, now 

 reduced to a Stewarton. The brood was in due time hatched 

 out, and these old combs of six years' standing were imme- 

 diately filled with honey. They have since been removed. 

 I have them still, and they appear as if they would have 

 answered every requisite for years to come. It is also 

 worthy of remark, that, during the entire period, one only 

 of these hives ever had brood in any of the supers, which 

 happened in 1860. 



There is another among my hives to which allusion may 

 be made, No. 7, a box adjuster-hive, peopled with a swarm 

 on May 23rd, 1860. In 1861 it threw off two fine swarms, 

 and gave me a large quantity of comb, and 10 lbs. of sealed 

 honey in the super. In the bad year of 1S62 it did little more 

 than throw off a swarm. In 1863 I took off from it a beau- 

 tiful super of 30 lbs. ; and this year, 1864, it has filled one 

 of about 40 lbs. The stock-hive is very populous, and I see 

 no reason why it should not thrive for a time longer. 



"With small-sized common hives there might be more 

 reason to fear the central combs becoming, from age, unfit 

 for breeding purposes, owing to their being comparatively 

 more used, and from the quantity of pollen necessarily 

 stored in them. Had I now such a hive, I should wait for 

 a swarm in the natural course, three weeks after which I 

 should drive out the bees, and break up the stock. If exci- 

 sion of a portion of the combs be resolved upon, it is, as 

 " C. F. G." remarks, of little use cutting out only the side 

 ■combs. The best time to remove one or two of the centre 

 ■combs is late in the autumn, after the brood has been all 

 hatched out. The honey may be returned to the bees, and 

 a little feeding may induce comb-building ; but if not, the 

 space left between the combs seems to be of little or no 

 injury to the bees, as they will hang there in a dense cluster, 

 thus defying the cold. With frame-hives the renewal of 

 •combs becomes a matter of the greatest ease and certainty, 

 which may be carried out at any time. Those who use 



these hives scientifically are constantly, during the working 

 season, compelling- their bees to make new combs. I fre- 

 quently slip in a frame of new and clean worker-comb 

 between old combs. This is generally at once taken posses- 

 sion of by the queen, and filled with eggs. " C. F. G." is in 

 error in supposing brood to be so easily chilled. No one 

 would fix on a very cold day in early spring for the operation. 

 In fact I think early spring to be the very worst time that 

 excision, pruning, or removal and substitution of combs, can 

 be carried out. With bar-hives in spring there would be no 

 objection to transposing the outer and the central combs, 

 provided the outer combs were worker and not drone-celled, 

 and that the central combs did not contain any brood, for 

 that would almost certainly become abortive. But it is a 

 plan not to be recommended, to say the least of it. 



In conclusion, I may state that for some years of my early 

 apiarian career I was troubled with the bugbear of old and 

 worn-out combs. With increased experience the causes of 

 apprehension seem marvellously lessened. In both the cases 

 of the hives I have alluded to, I believe the somewhat declin- 

 ing prosperity of the hives to have been due more to the age 

 of the queens than to the age of the combs. 



This has been with me a better honey season than the 

 last ; but into this I must not now enter, as I intend to 

 relate the results of this year's doings in a separate paper. 

 — S. Bevan Fox, Exeter. 



RUIN OF A NEWLY-PURCHASED STOCK. 



I purchased an old stock -hive about a month since with 

 the assurance that it was a swarm of last year. Can you 

 tell me from the comb I send you if such be the case? 

 Since I have had it I have been surprised to find that the 

 bees have not worked, but have loitered about the alighting- 

 boai-d cleaning each other, although the bees in my other 

 hives are still busy collecting. On the evening of the 7th 

 inst. I took the hive, which is of straw, off the floorboard for 

 the purpose of substituting a clean one. I found the combs 

 black in appearance, but by the little light that there was I 

 failed to discover many bees. Yesterday, on going to look 

 at them, I found that the hive was being robbed by bees 

 from another shed half a dozen yards distant. In the even- 

 ing I again turned up the hive, the few bees within escaping. 

 I found the combs nearly empty. The hive when I pur- 

 chased it weighed with the floorboard about 25 lbs. The 

 weight of the floorboard is about 2i lbs., and of the hive in 

 its present state with nearly empty combs, 12 lbs., so that 

 when I bought it there could have been only about 10 lbs. 

 of bees and food. Probably the queen was dead. Around 

 the edges of the hive, both inside and out where it was 

 sealed to the board, were a great number of white envelopes, 

 each containing a maggot : do these belong to the honey- 

 moth tribe ? Will the combs be of any use to swarms in 

 the spring ? When should clean floorboards be given ? and 

 when and how should stocks be united ? — A Novice. 



[Judging from the appearance of the piece of comb which 

 accompanied your letter, we should say that the age of the 

 stock was correctly stated. Your idea respecting the pro- 

 bable loss of the queen we believe to be right, but the vendor 

 may have known nothing of it, as some of its original in- 

 habitants were probably in possession a month ago. The 

 maggots around the skirts of the hive were doubtless the 

 larva? of some kind of wax moth. We deem the combs 

 rather too old to be given to a swarm. Floorboards should 

 be changed before winter sets in, and in the spring. Mr. 

 Woodbury's articles on driving and uniting bees in Nos. 

 139 and 144 of The Journal of Horticulture will give 

 yon the information you require as to the best mode of 

 uniting stocks.] 



A FRIEND MISTAKEN FOR AN ENEMY. 

 An apiarian friend of mine has informed me of an alarm- 

 ing affliction which befell the apiary of a lady of his ac. 

 quaintance. This lady one day paid a visit to her bees, and 

 was greatly alarmed at seeing one of her hives invaded by a 

 large number of monstrous bees, which were evidently quite 

 masters of the poor honey bees, as they went in and out 

 without hindrance. Not relishing the aspect of affairs, and. 



