January 3, 1884. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
19 
which both were wounded. One was killed in the encounter, the 
other died next morning. 
We see that queen bees come into the world amid great 
dangers. More are hatched than are required, and in the 
nature of things two will not live together and indeed are not 
permitted to live together. A swarm or a stock of bees 
refuse to have two queens in a hive. The working bees often 
prevent queen battles by killing spare and unwelcome queens 
themselves. They do this work by a wonderful and cruel 
process. When the bees find a strange or unwelcome queen 
bee amongst them they seize and enclose her by clustering 
closely around her—so closely that they a pear to be crushing 
her to death. In these little clusters of about thirty bees the 
queen is quite hidden from sight. These clusters are termed 
regicidal knots,” and certaiuly they are formed by little 
savage regicides, every one being bent on destroying the queens. 
But they do not use their stings in this work; if they did the 
queens would be killed in a few seconds, whereas they seem to 
torture the queens for hours, it may be for a whole day, by 
encasing them in these hard regicidal knots. I have saved the 
lives of many queens by tearing them from the grasp of their 
.savage tormentors. 
If young queens safely pass through the perils of their 
infant days, and are happily placed at the head of a swarm or 
colony, they have then to expose themselves by taking necessary 
excursions to the fields. When queens are about five or six days 
old they leave their hives to meet the drones; and these excur¬ 
sions are not unattended with danger of loss of life, for many 
never return, how they are lost no one can tell. Those that 
meet drones and safely return never leave their hives again but 
on occasions of swarming. — A. Pettigrew, Bowdon. 
THE COMING BEE. 
The remarks on this bee by Mr. Stewart read very “American” to 
me, and I am glad that our good friend Mr. Pettigrew has issued his note 
■of warning. We are most of us disposed by nature to discard what is old 
and trust to the new ; in this respect we are still like the Athenians of 
old. But to what have the efforts of the Bee-Keepers’ Association been 
directed but the encouragement of bee-keeping among the cottager class ? 
Now with all our lectures, and leaflets, and advice, it will yet be years 
before there will be any general conversion of the cottager to the bar- 
frame hive. I think this may be reckoned an ascertained fact. There 
is far more hope of inducing them to try sectional supers on flat-topped 
■straw skeps, such, for instance, as the Butt.ermere skep. Neither do I 
think that artificial swarming will be generally adopted yet awhile by 
the cottager. Now, then, supposing the excessive cultivation of wing 
power in the queen, would it be an advantage ? Several years ago, when 
living in another county, a cottager’s bees in my neighbourhood were 
always noted for swarmiDg “right away.” They went long distances 
and were often lost. At the end of last season I had mixed two hives of 
condemned bees with a favourite stock. These bees worked through a 
glass passage into a spare room. Friends in my house, interested in my 
manoeuvres, watched them frequently the following day. On my return 
home I learnt that three queens had been seen taken along the passage 
•dead ! This news was decidedly unsatisfactory. Several examinations 
detected neither queen nor eggs. The season was getting on. What 
should I do ? I bought for a trifle a weak stock from a cottager, drove it 
with difficulty, there were not more than a large double handful of bees. 
Fearing that the weather was too cold for opening the entire hive and 
spraying with scented syrup, I placed in rear of the stock a queen- 
excluder bar with double zinc, so as to lessen the size of holes, put a bar 
of boney behind this, threw in my driven bees, and then added the 
•dummy and closed the hive. In this state 1 left them ten days or a 
fortnight ; then one evening I removed the queen-excluder bar, and the 
following morning a good handful of dead bees were in the passage. My 
plan had been, I considered, partially successful, and I hoped that many 
Bees with the queen were accepted. 
In the spring her majesty was discovered, and a most valuable bee she 
proved for breeding purposes. This hive was decidedly my most populous 
and my best working hive. From it I obtained over 50 lbs. of sectional 
and super honey, the former from the rear. One day when the bars in 
the super were nearly all sealed there was a manifest diminution in the 
number of inhabitants—the super wa3, in fact, nearly bee-less. I was 
-convinced a swarm had escaped. I gained no tidings of it, but maoy 
weeks after a neighbouring bee-keeper told me he had seen a large 
swarm go “ right away ” over the town. Was it mine ? About ten days 
later ditto repeated. On each occasion nothing was seen of the swarm, 
although the window where they work is being continually passed by 
members of my household. On inquiry at my friend, the cottager, I 
.find his swarms have a knack of getting away 1 
Here, then, in two cases, either by selection or survival of fittest, 
«eertain queens appear to have acquired a greater power of flight, but 
where is "the advantage ? To me it appears, on the contrary, a dead loss. 
If our ordinary bees in summer can fly easily at the rate of a mile in a 
minute (and this I apprehend they do), surely this is sufficient wing 
power, and scarcely needs increasing. What we require are healthy 
queens, but provided their early flights are sufficient for impregnation— 
and then the slim and genteel appearance of the virgin queen renders 
flight more easy—what further flight is requisite ? Nay, supposing 
artificial swarming to be regularly practised, the queen would never fly 
again after impregnation. Why, then, strive to increase her powers of 
flight? and supposing the attempt made as Mr. Stewart suggests by 
trotting out his queens, a proceeding, as Mr. Pettigrew shows, most 
likely to end in her loss, would half a dozen flights materially improve 
her powers ? I trow not, and if the “ coming bee ” is to be noted for 
extra flying powers in the queen I should vote for the old, believing that 
if a queen’s power of flight were greatly increased, instead of being the 
“coming bee, ’ the would be more frequently the “ going, going, gone 1 ” 
No, it is not all bees that are so well educated as the old woman’s, 
who told an inquirer that her John always managed the swarms. 
“ Aye,” was the reply; “ what do you do when John is out of the way ?” 
“Oh! well,” she retorted, “ her bees never did swarm when John was 
out of the way ! ” But even if this education of the bee is complete 
will John be always able to fly after the swarm ? If not, I almost think 
our cottagers will be content with present powers; and this much is 
certain, that if they will bestow a little more care and attention on their 
stocks, and, though still sticking to their straw skeps, try some of the 
sectional appliances, and not slaughter in the autumn, the present brown 
bee or some of the hybrids tolerably common now will help, in favour¬ 
able seasons, to pay them rent and provide some fire for the winter.— 
Y. B. A. Z. 
[Erratum. —A printer’s error occurred on page 519 of our last issue 
on the eighth line below the diagram. For “if food is ” read “if brood 
is,” and the matter will be understood.] 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
W. Piercy, 89, West Road, Forest Hill, London, S.E.— List of Summer- 
floivering Chrysanthemums. 
Hooper & Co., Covent Garden, London.— List of Novelties for 1884. 
Frederick Roemer, Quedlenburg, Germany.— Catalogue of Flower, Vege¬ 
table, and Agricultural Seeds. 
B. S. Williams, Upper Holloway, London, N.— Catalogue of Flower and 
Vegetable Seeds. 
Dickson & Robinson, 12, Old Millgate, Manchester .—Catalogue of Vegetable 
and Floiver Seeds. 
George Bunyard & Co., Maidstone.— Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower 
Seeds. 
Dickson, Brown & Tait, 43 & 45, Corporation Street, Manchester.— 
Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower Seeds. 
Robert Veitch & Sons, 54, High Street, Exeter.— Catalogue of Vegetable 
and Flower Seeds. 
Sutton & Sons, Reading.— Amateurs' Guide in Horticulture, 1884[Illustrated) 
and Pocket Garden Calendar. 
Chas. Sharpe & Co., Sleaford.— Catalogue of Flower and Vegetable Seeds 
( Illustrated ). 
Wm. Leighton, 89, Union Street, Glasgow.— Catalogue of Vegetable and 
Flower Seeds. 
Francis and Arthur Dickson & Son, 10G, Eastgate Street, Chester.— 
Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower Seeds. 
Ralph Crossling, Penarth Nurseries, South Wales.— Catalogue of Vegetable 
and Flower Seeds. 
*** All correspondence should be directed either to “The Editor’' 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
Books (G. B.). —Nesbit’s “ Practical] Land Surveying” and “Practical 
Mensuration,” both published by Longmans, Green Co., are reliable works 
upon these subjects. Colenso’s “Elements of Algebra,” published by the 
above firm, and Gill’s “ School of Art Geometry,” are both useful elementary 
works. The last can be obtained through any bookseller. 
Gardeners’ Year-Book (Young Gardener ).—This work is in the press 
and will be published in a few days. 
