.Tune 25, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
537 
lations, there is seldom any difficulty, and is, as your correspondent puts 
it, “ A worse than the brimstone pit system.” 
When the temperature rises to 50° bees generally become strong on the 
wing, and if flowers are abundant in spring, robbing, unless through 
gross mismanagement, seldom takes place. This rule, however, does not 
hold good during summer nor autumn ; flowers may be abundant but 
honey absent. In such cases, then, bees are ever on the outlook for 
plunder, the same thing occurring when there is a paucity of flowers in 
spring. When this is the case wpak and queenless hives are sought and 
plundered; in turn carelessly fed ones are assailed, a general commotion 
and fighting take place, bees search everywhere and enter places where 
they cannot escape. It is their nature to gather honey from Nature’s 
source, but when this fails they hunt after substances to their ruin. From 
the opening of the year until May bees are intent on raising their brood, 
and will suffer death rather than give up the charge, but singular to say, 
after that date, if famine continue, they ruthlessly destr .y the young 
which were destined to be the future life of the hive. 
The following question is one of scores that have been put about 
bees being robbed and of queens being killed, and points directly to the 
cause, and is but one of many similar instances. “ On the 25th of March, 
the day being fine, I gave my bees a ‘ picnic.’ They were out in great 
numbers and soon emptied the bottles. The bees clustered much at the 
mouth, and I examined some of them and saw much brood and the 
queens. Two days after I saw some dead bees lying about, and the 
I5th of April I examined them again, and although there were many bees 
and the queens still all right, there was no brood. What could be the 
cause ? I had no difficulty in answering as to the cause as follows. You 
in the first place acted most injudiciously in inciting your bees to rob by 
“ picnicing” them, then while that was going on you still further aggra¬ 
vated the case by examining hives at such a critical time. No doubt 
the robber bees entered the hives when you were examining them and 
killed the queens. The queens you saw and state to be all right are not 
the queens you saw on the 25th, but are young ones raised in the stead of 
old ones killed by robbers through your own mismanagement. For the 
benefit of those who did not read the British Bee Journal , and who may 
not be aware what a “ picnic ” is, I will now explain. “ A bottle is filled 
with syrup, and is inverted and suspended to the bough of a tree, from 
where the bees sip the syrup,” and will, wherever it is performed, cause 
the destruction of many bees. The originator of this wonderful idea 
discovered in his apiary encasements which, in his opinion, were due to be 
the bees trying to make the queen lay ! but to my mind were 
caused by stranger bees hugging and stinging the queen to death, along 
with her own subjects trying to defend her, which had beeD brought 
about by the injudicious mode of feeding and manipulating. 
It is somewhat unusual to see so valuable a letter from a novice such 
as Mr. G. Abbey describes himself. He traced the cause of disaster so 
effectually, that it surprised me the more to see so many learned asso¬ 
ciations and experts passing over and failing to teach the necessary caution 
required in manipulation and feeding which leads to such disasters. I do 
not know all the qualifications experts are expected to have, but that im¬ 
portant one I know is seldom touched, nor yet, so far as I have witnessed, 
demonstrated at shows. 
Your correspondent speaks of the courage of the different varieties of 
bees. So far as I have observed the Ligurians effect an entrance more 
easily to the black bees’ hive than the latter do to the Ligurian hive, and 
when an assault is made by the Ligurians they soon give it up if met with 
strong opposition. It is not so with the blacks. They do not storm in 
such great numbers, but they keep up a continual warfare on the 
sentinels of the attacked hive until they arc either worn out or killed, 
the storming party always relieving each other until their end is attained. 
One of the memorable bad seasons that occurred about twenty-five 
years ago I took thirty good hives to the moors. The weather, though not 
fine, was fairly good, and the bees being anxious to work started at once, and 
continued working during the season, making on an average about 25 lbs. 
each—very poor considering the strength of the colonies and the field of 
Heather. Within one week after I placed my thirty hives the number 
had increased to nearly 400. A number of these hives had collapsed 
during the journey, and the combs were carelessly thrown down amongst 
the hives, which attracted the others, and a general fight ensued, the 
result being not one hive except my own made a single pound. Through 
the fight none of them seemed to have the courage to leave their hive. 
It was simply a case of defence, for none was really robbed out. My 
own hives having been first there had found the honey-yielding places and 
continued working on them till the end, never having joined in the melee. 
Had the other hives not been thrown into such a state of excitement by 
the imprudent action they would have gathered a share. I can never 
forget the exclamation the old man made when I visited them at the end 
of the three weeks after I set them down. After inquiring for his and 
their welfare, he said, “ Man, I canna unnerstaun it, there is not a bee out 
of the four hrnner hives has dune a hauns turn, but your ain.” 
Some years later about forty hives stood in several apiaries there. 
In September a stock of driven bees stood near them. The owner com¬ 
menced feeding during a fine day. The uproar soon began, and the 
fighting was so great that out of the forty hives, which were all good, 
only fifteen were left sufficiently strong to stand the winter. I have 
known similar results by inadvertently opening a hive or spilling but a 
few drops of sugar or honey at a time when honey was not to be had, but 
warm enough to encourage bees to fly and fight. Bee-keepers sometimes 
put their empty or partly empty combs into sheds that the bees have 
access to, and sometimes feed the bees with such combs after the fashion 
of the picnic. In such cases I have known a whole apiary destroyed, and 
in one case there could not be less than 100 hives that were rendered 
almost useless. Hives are sometimes rendered liable to attack by inter¬ 
fering with them at a wrong time and in such a manner that they are 
rendered helpless by the manipulations taught by the modern school, 
such as smoking the bees, which is sometimes done too well, and when 
they have gorged themselves and become sick the plunderers get their 
own way. In a case similar to your correspondent’s I remember two 
hives of driven bees —i e., six stocks—put into two standing after being 
driven two days without meat, the result being in this case six heavy 
hives were totally cleaned out and another dozen destroyed. I could give 
a hundred such cases were it necessary, but it is not, only to support Mr. 
G. Abbey’s statement and to impress bee-keepers with the necessity of 
using caution in their manipulations. 
Where only a few hives exist there is no difficulty in preventing 
robbing, but where there are many hives and apiaries in close proximity 
there is great difficulty if any of the bee-keepers are unmindful of their 
own or neighbours’ interest aDd act carelessly in any way as stated above. 
Those bee-keepers who can keep their bees from attacking or being 
attacked will be successful. When hives are attacked the entrance 
should be contracted to the least possible width consistent with the 
number of bees in the hive, and if a flat tube of 3 or 4 inches in length, 
and tapered, say, from 4 inches inside to one outside, and this slipped into 
the mouth of the hive flush with the outside, it sometimes has a good 
effect in stopping an invasion. The stranger bees finding themselves in a 
tunnel are afraid to proceed, and the sentinels remain at their post close to 
the entrance. When the tunnel projects some distance outside, the 
sentinels are put off their guard, and the robbers are allowed to pass ; 
gaining courage, they venture into the tunnel and gain access to the honey 
without much opposition. If the position of the entrance is altered by a 
projecting tunnel the incoming bees are puzzled and cannot find their way 
to their hive. This letter does not touch upon all the points necessary in 
so important a subject, but it may induce many to exercise their judgment 
in preventing disaster. 
SUPERING. 
Although some keep bees for no other purpose than watching their 
labours and studying their natural history, still the majority of bee¬ 
keepers are wishful for well-filled supers. But some bee-keepers imagine 
there are difficulties in obtaining these or getting the bees to enter supers. 
I have in my previous articles given full instructions how to proceed and 
what to avoid towards being successful, but there is one thing not men- 
tined, which in cold seasons needs to be carried out. It is a part of the 
Stewarton system, which is giving the bees an eke, then when the honey 
glut comes it is taken from them and a super is put on ; but ekes I con¬ 
sider objectionable, because the bees extend their combs into it, and it 
then cannot be separated without waste. I therefore recommend an 
extra breeding box, or even a honey box, provided this last one is not 
more than a day or two on, as otherwise the combs would be discoloured 
and eggs might be laid in the new made comb. If a body box is put 
underneath, it can, on removal, be utilised by giving it to a swarm or an 
increasing stock a little later. When these nadirs are removed, which 
have in the interim prevented swarming or the raising of royal cells, the 
increase of bees during that time on their removal forces the bees into the 
super. Then, to carry out this to perfection, in a few days after the super 
has been commenced in, a comb, but otherwise empty breeding box, 
should be again put under ; this brings down the queen and affords cell 
space for honey if coming in plentifully. These comb boxes the bee¬ 
keeper should study to have by him from the previous year. Where 
this is neglected comb foundation should be fixed of nearly full size. 
Frame hives may be treated in a similar manner by removing a frame, 
when the bees will, through overcrowding, enter the super ; after a day 
or two the frame should be returned. Experienced bee-keepers seldom 
fail to get bees to take to supers when the right time comes and the 
hives are in order, but bees will not enter supers unless they are forward 
enough, and bee-keepers should not force them into them until they are 
ready. 
Comb-foundation has of late years been used of gTeat thickness in 
stock hives, and bee-keepers have been advised to its use as the only safe 
method. This is a mistake ; such thick sheets are expensive, and in reality 
do not prevemt breakdowns, the chief cause being, so far as I have 
observed, the crowding of the bees into too little space, over-heating the 
hive, the wax softens and collapses. In my stock hives I use foundation 
with nearly 9 square feet to the pound, the same as I use in supers. I do 
not crowd my bees, and I never have collapsed combs. The only pre¬ 
caution I use is that the wax is genuine. 
One of my oldest feeders, which has never been explained, will be 
found useful in every apiary, and to every hive. It places the sugar 
inside the hive and close to the bees. A stick or two of barley'sugar can 
be placed in it, and though it diliquesces does not drip on combs or bees, 
and the combs and bees are never exposed when feeding, and does not 
occupy extra space in the hive, being an ordinary frame, bavins the top 
bar about half an inch thicker than usual ; the upper side of the bar is 
morticed, forming a trough nearly the whole length of the frame, 
and a quarter of an inch deep, only thus securing bees against 
drowning. About three-eighths above the trough is cut away to give the 
bees access to syrup unlesss about 2 inches in the middle—this part is 
boxed in to prevent bees escaping when feeding. An ordinary frame will 
require to be glazed or covered with thin wood. Those with lateral slides 
have a hole through it admitting the fountain, which may be either of tin 
and glass or a bottle, both fitted with a tube and ball acting as a valve, 
which completes the best and safest of all feeders for either a strong or a 
weak hive.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
