June 4, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
471 
that none were short of food. Neglect of that would render 
the hives abortive for the season. Nor must peameal be 
neglected either ; both syrup and meal are necessary to carry 
<>n breeding, and now is the time to keep that up. My own 
bees during the past two weeks have carried in a large 
quantity of peameal, quite unprecedented at this season of 
the year, having failed entirely to get the advantage of flowers 
owing to the weather. I have not as yet required to feed, 
m on ^ one or two instances would it have been necessary 
it the weather had not improved. Even with the untoward 
season and heavy loss of bees through cold, all my stocks 
are in a state fit to be supered. So far as I can remember, 
it is forty-six years since we had such a protracted and cold 
spring; but by close attention to our bees that they do not 
suffer from wa,nt they may yet be able to carry in sufficient 
honey for their own use till next year and a surplus to their 
master which may repay him many fold for his attention to 
them. 
In the year 1876 I exhibited at the Caledonian Apiarian 
bociety, held at the Kibble Palace Botanic Gardens, 
Glasgow, 700 lbs. of honey in supers, the produce of six 
hives, the Heather harvest not being included. In all these 
supers there was not a single brood cell, and only once 
dunng my life did I ever find brood in a super. It cannot, 
therefore, but be ceded that a system so successful with one 
should be so with others, if they but follow the advice given 
in this Journal. The excluder zinc is not only unnecessary 
but is a hindrance to bees in their labours, while the open 
centre space is injurious to the brood. When or where the 
first super was obtained I do not know, but it is a foregone 
conclusion that the art of supering was perfected and 
thoroughly carried out in Scotland before it was even 
attempted in any other part of the world. Doubtless the 
ancients with their bell-topped straw hives would observe, 
on breaking up a hive, the natural instinct of the bees to 
store overhead the honey intended for winter use, would 
su fifi es t the conical but flattened-at-the-top straw hive, sur¬ 
mounted with the again bell-shaped “ straw cap.” It is 
quite reasonable to suppose that this little improvement led 
observant bee-keepers to invent the horizontal, sectional, or 
otewarton hive proved years ago to be the best for supering. 
Cleaning floorboards should still be attended to; and great 
wu 6 mU8 - k- 9 exe rcised in this, that all the debris be buried. 
When this is not done the bees are attracted to it and is 
liable to cause fighting. Even worse than that may occur ; 
if foul brood is present in any of the hives the disease is 
certain to be spread, as the bees work upon the debris, carry¬ 
ing it into their hives as they do pollen. The same danger 
arises when the debris is thrown out by the bees themselves. 
Ihe sanitary or perforated zinc floor is a great preventive 
against the spread of disease if proper caution be used. The 
debris and parasites fall on to the false bottom, so that the 
bees cannot expose it outside, and the bee-keeper can, by 
burying it and the parasites together, prevent the further 
spread of either them or disease.—A Lanarkshire Bee- 
keeper. 
P.S.— -Erratum.— In the first line of the last paragraph 
of my article, page 406, the fifth word, “ not,” should have 
been “ most injurious.” 
BEES. 
ROBBING—LOSS OF QUEEN—BEE-KEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION—EARLY SWARM. 
_ Robbing is entirely due to want—a colony short of provisions—and 
this may arise through extracting the honey in summer, especially if the 
weather for replenishingthe abstracted stores is unfavourable or the honey 
harvest so far over as to be represented by insignificant gleanings. This 
was the case last season, and is it not always so 1 Extracting is the 
great incentive to robbing. Now, if honey is extracted, surely the 
necessity arises for feeding shoi Id unfavourable weather follow. Then 
strong stocks late in summer, but with indifferent stores, seek to replenish 
them, and fasten on any weak stocks which, from overswarming or late 
ewarming, have ample stores, but are numerically weak. This, again, is 
a clear case of want—neglect in feeding. Strong stocks in spring send out 
scouts scrutinising other stocks, everywhere seeking a weak point or an 
unguarded entrance. Sood, if the prospect of attack be favourable, a return 
is made with others, and it is soon seen whether the assault will be made 
in earnest or not. If the besiegers gain an entrance it is likely a con¬ 
siderable amount of fighting will be done even before the besieged are 
allowed to remain masters of the situation, but if the besiegers make and 
keep a breach, it generally ends in the besieged succumbing. Now, 
had the strong stock been fed it would not have robbed but remained 
content. Energy expended in robbing would have been utilised in breed¬ 
ing. I make no question, so far as my experience goes, that robbing is a 
consequence of healthy populous communities of bees running short or 
being likely to run short of provisions. Hence the first and most import¬ 
ant duty imposed upon the keeper of bees is feeding. If strong colonies 
in nature destroy the weaker, then, we are bound to allow, the strong 
would become even stronger, and the race surviving the fittest, but this 
is foreign to feeding, as a poor stock allowed to recuperate will become 
everything desired ; indeed, I look upon feeding as the most important 
factor in bee-keeping, and a certain preventive of a populous but hungry 
community robbing its neighbours. Feeding weak stocks will only 
encourage strong unfed stocks to rob them, as is the case when only the 
weak ones are fed and the strong neglected, although the needs of the 
latter may be as pressing as those of the former. 
Loss of queen arises from a variety of causes, but I only wish to allude 
to one which arose last year through my eagerness to increase my stock. 
I lost six stocks—four old ones and two early swarms of the current 
(1884) year. I attributed the loss of the two last to robbing, but the 
other four or old stocks were due to the loss of queens or over-swarming, 
the hives, by the latter process, being much depopulated, and no breeding 
going on until a late period. They were numerically weak, though with 
plenteous stores, which only make them more attractive and an easier 
prey to robbers ; but I feel certain that more than one of the queens 
belonging to those hives were lost on the bridal trip, as the bees suddenly 
became restless, ran about the entrance for some days, until at last they 
became listless. I believe they were lost from no other cause than having 
the hives too close together, for as I made s warms I put the swarm in 
the place of the stock, and had them as close together as they would stand. 
I concluded that the queen in returning entered another instead of its 
own domicile. Anyway, I shall give them more room in future. 
Last year I had a prospectus of a bee-keepers’ association. Among 
other things enumerated was that of the association’s desire to encourage 
bee-keeping amongst cottagers. This struck me as a most laudable object, 
a means of making country life more profitable and enjoyable, and 
likely to keep the labourers in the field instead of driving them to the 
workshop. I found no cottager here kept bees, and though I only kept 
another’s bees, I asked and obtained permission to give cottagers with a 
garden a hive of bees, and start them bee-keeping. This, I thought, 
correspoBded with the ideas of the association exactly ; but it was decided 
to make the offer upon one condition, which was, that the possessor of the 
bees wou’d not allow those that made a trade of bees to bring other hives 
into the village. Whilst thus considering, the very class it was proposed 
to exclude had forestalled us, and planted hives to the number of twenty- 
six within 600 yards of our own apiary, and in two of the cottagers’ 
gardens. It was evidently too late, but as nothing comes of good resolu¬ 
tions unless they are put into practice I was still permitted to make the 
offer, which was declined, and a counter one made by the trader—viz., to 
take over the charge of our bees, as we complained of his robbing ours, 
he undertaking to insure ours against robbing, saying, “ Suppose you only 
keep bees for a supply of honey to the house.” Thus, we must keep our 
bees on a war footing, and submit to providing a large forage ground 
from which we cannot derive more than a third of the advantage. 
In this parish we were the only bee-keepers ; within a mile 
there was another apiarian, and between us we had a dozen stocks. Sud¬ 
denly twenty-six are placed in our midst—German and half-bred, also 
Ligurians and Carniolians, with the result that one loses half a dozen, 
and the other has an indifferent season. The consequence is, bee-keeping 
is extending among cottagers with the difference that the profit does not 
remain with them. The trader gives 6d. or Is. for the standage of each 
occupied hive, and as the bees are only in two gardens the value of the 
bees to the villagers is practically nil. I need not say any subscription of 
mine will never go to encourage bee-keeping on such lines. I do not, of 
course, attach any blame to the trader or to the association in the endeav¬ 
our to secure to the country its wealth of resource, but I think no society 
will increase its members which allows avowed objects to be used for trade 
purposes contrary to the spirit of the subscribers. 
I had a swarm on May 3rd. It came off without notice about 1 p.h., 
settling on a Fir-pole fixed in the ground, and to which a Rose, Honey¬ 
suckle, and Clematis are trained. The bees had to be brushed off, and 
though a majority of them were got into a galvanised bucket the queen 
was not secured at the first attempt; but I saw her afterwards on the 
ground, and whilst about to seize her majesty I lost the opportunity 
through pointing her out to an on-looker anxious to see a queen. The 
queen flew direct to the Fir pole, and soon was lost amid her subjects. I 
get her in at the second attempt, and had them in position within the 
hour. I gave them a bar of comb with honey, and they took a pint and 
a half of syrup on Sunday evening. With feeding I had no doubt of their 
doing well, especially as :hey have plenty of comb ready, and on Tuesday, 
May 5th, bees entered heavily laden with pollen. Since I put in the 
combs of honey Carniolian robbers have appeared, but it clearly is no use 
this time, and the rascals dare not alight. 
I felt rather anxious, as I had not seen any drones prior to the issue of 
the swarm, but on Tuesday (May 5th) I saw them abroad, very strong 
and active on the wing, so that I now feel at ease for the season.— 
G. Abbey. 
