■Jauuary 17, 1831. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
53 
three wooden sighting T pieces. The latter may be made with flat strips 
of deal, and ours are 3 feet in length and the cross pieces 15 inches. The 
tops of all the pegs will be level when the upper surface of the T pieces, 
if these are rested on them, are found to be in a line. It will then be a 
simple matter to either take away the soil or to add more where necessary, 
s > as to bring all to the level of the pegs. It cannot well be made too 
firm ; in fact, it must be rammed heavily or it will sink unequally. If 
the position is naturally wet, it ought to be drained previous to levelling, 
and heavy retentive soil should have a liberal quantity of ashes mixed 
with it, this tending to solidify the ground and better fit it for use during 
showery weather. After the pegs are drawn out a little fine good soil 
may be levelled over the surface, this giving the turf a good start. The 
latter should be laid closely and be heavily beaten down. If turf is 
scarce suitable mixtures of grass seeds may well be sown, but not till 
April, or much of it will be lost. We repeat that, to avoid subsequent 
unpleasantness or vexation, the greatest care must be taken to make a 
new ground quite solid, and great depths of fresh soil should be rammed 
according as the layers are added. 
Hotbed for Propagating .—The seeds of several kinds of plants, 
notably tuberous-rooted Begonias, Lobelias, Grevillea robusta, Solanums 
and Cannas, Centaureas, Chamaepeuce, and Acacia lophantha, are best 
sown early, and they germinate the most readily when the pans and pots 
are plunged in a brisk and moist bottom heat. Tanners’ bark is perhaps 
the most free of insect pests, but this heating material is not generally 
obtainable, and is only suitable for filling pits in forcing houses. Leaves 
give a good heat for a time, but are frequently full of troublesome white 
slugs, while stable manure alone is apt to heat too violently. If leaves 
and stable manure are mixed together in a large heap and turned in the 
course of about ten days, then allowed to ferment for yet another week, 
much of the rankness will have evaporated, and the slugs and their eggs 
probably destroyed. When with these materials a hotbed for a frame is 
made it ought to face the south, and be fully 4 feet high at the back and 
3 feet high in front, and be beaten firm with the back of the fork. Six 
inches depth of cocoa-nut fibre refuse disposed over the surface of the 
bed, whether in a frame or forcing pit, is admirable for plunging in, and 
slugs do not travel over it freely. 
HOW I STARTED MY LIGURIAN STOCK. 
At the commencement of the past season I had made up my 
mind to try to place a Ligurian queen at the head of one of my hives, 
f had a vivid recollection of previous experiments when assisted by 
a far abler manipulator than myself. Then it was only on the third 
attempt that her Italian majesty was received, and it could not be 
said that afterwards the result was a success ; on the contrary, as 
regarded Ligurians it ended in failure. Was this attempt to be any 
more successful ? I selected a strong hive for the experiment, ordered 
my Ligurian, and caught and caged the English representative of 
royalty. In catching the latter she fell on the ground. I picked her 
up carefully ; and used as 1 am to handling insects gently, I cannot 
believe that she was in any way injured. The queen cage was placed 
between two of the bars, and I awaited anxiously the arrival of Italian 
royalty. At the end of twenty-four hours I lifted the cage, and was 
astonished to see that the queen did not crawl up the cage Waiting 
patiently for a few minutes without any signs of life, I pulled out the 
cage and found her majesty dead at the bottom. This was a blow 
to my hopes. I reasoned that if the bees would not care for their 
own queen when caged they would not be likely to notice in a proper 
spirit a stranger however grand her pedigree might be. In a day or 
two her majesty arrived, but on opening the box there were few signs 
of life—most of the workers dead, the rest dying ; not one equal to 
flying, and the queen only moving slightly. I carried her to the fire, 
warmed her, tried to give her some honey, but after an anxious half- 
hour death put an end to my hopes. What was now to be done ? 
The ordering another queen and the obtaining her took time, and 
meanwhile my stock to which I intended to introduce her Italian 
majesty had not been idle. Many queen cells were being built and 
completed, and seeing the bees weie busily occupied with them, I 
decided to leave them to themselves and try another idea, which I 
hoped would insure me my Ligurian in safety. 
Fortunately for my experiment the weather was hot. Taking 
then a large standard hive into a greenhouse I closed up the outlet, 
put in two or three bars of comb, and then obtained from one of my 
stocks a bar crammed with sealed brood. In order to further keep up 
the heat of the hive I kept a lamp under the floor board, a plate of 
tin preventing the heat being too great. Having then carefully put 
•on the quilt over the bars, I placed the box containing the queen in 
the back part of the hive, opening it, but covering quilt and body of 
the hive with some netting, through which I could see what was 
going on. When thus at liberty her Italian majesty did not appear 
at all impressed with the responsibilities of her position, but flitted 
about the hive, running over the combs, but rapidly leaving them, 
and as very few workers were sent with her I began to fear my 
experiment would by no means turn out a success. The portion of 
the hive she appeared most to enjoy was the portion on either side 
where there is a groove so that the finger and thumb can get down 
under the shoulder of the bar. Every time I peeped at her there she 
was with two or three attendants, and though blown at and made to 
quit her quarters she returned again. When not thus watching her 
the whole of the body of the hive was covered over by a thick horse 
rug. As the afternoon wore on without her appearing to take any 
greater notice of the combs my hopes went down to zero. Not so, 
however, the hive ; thanks to the lamp being kept up under the floor 
board it was a comfortable warmth, and when as dusk advanced I 
took a last peep I was delighted to miss her majesty. On gently 
moving the quilt I saw a small bunch of bees on the brood comb, and 
covering all up and fastening in the dummy, I trimmed my lamp and 
hoped. 
The hive was kept in the greenhouse for a couple of days, the 
entrance closed, and the warmth kept up night and day. Two days 
later I placed the hive outside and opened the entrance ; they soon 
began to work ; a fair lot of young black bees had hatched. A few 
days later I opened the hive, the queen was well and lively, laying 
abundantly ; but many of the sealed brood had failed to hatch out, 
doubtless chilled. This comb, after brushing off the bees, I removed 
altogether for the melting pot; in its place I inserted another bar 
with sealed brood, these all hatched out, and as the Ligurians hatched 
the hive became fairly strong. This queen has proved a good breeder 
and the bees themselves most tractable. Later in the autumn the 
occupants of a condemned hive were added to them, and I trust next 
year they may increase rapidly and increase largely my stock of 
Ligurians. Thus far, then, my rather novel plan of starting a stock 
has been successful.—Y. B. A. Z. 
SWARMING versus NON-SWARMING. 
The above has occupied my attention for a number of years, and as 
yet my opinions are not at all settled on the point. Some writers tell 
us that if gives them little or no trouble to prevent swarming, and 
consequently obtain large harvests of honey. Others equally as eminent 
in bee-keeping have told us in their writings that they have experienced 
considerable difficulty in keeping bees on the non-swarming system. 
Mr. William Raitt has discussed the subject in these pages very ably, 
and has said that, taking all things into consideration, he believes in a 
moderate increase of stocks, which would mean about one swarm off 
each stock. For my part I think this reasonable and practicable, and 
would be a really good plan where a very long season could be had, to 
finish up with the Heather; but here (Co. Down) we have a very short 
season, as the glut is only from about the middle of June till the middle 
of July. I say “ glut,” as the bees get honey here from the time the 
Crocuses appear until frost sets in, but not in sufficient quantities to 
enable them to store much, it being all consumed in raising brood. 
Swarms here are generally late, especially in bar-frame hives that 
have been supered as soon as the colony became crowded in the brood 
chamber; but even in hives that have not been supered it is generally 
well on in June before they would swarm. With the Clover so near I 
consider it a misfortune to have to make two swarms of my strong one, 
and to prevent it 1 put on a tray of sections, and all goes on well for a 
few days ; but when the sections are nearly built out and well crammed 
with bees, off goes the swarm and not a bee is left in the sections. I 
decide to put them back, so the tray is removed and each frame, all the 
queen cells are cut away, the frames are re-arranged, and the tray of 
sections placed on the top. The swarm is then returned to its old home, 
but in a few days the bees depart again ; and since the last time they 
swarmed they were very idle, comparatively speaking, for I find they 
never work so well after they swarm and put back again—they “ sulk,” 
as it were. 
My objections to the swarming system in the north of Ireland, and, 
indeed, in very many parts of the United Kingdom where the honey 
glut is of short duration, are that swarms can only be obtained late or on 
the eve of the glut, and when obtained are not able in so short a time to 
fill the body box and enter supers in time to fill them. A mistake one 
of my queens made last season suggested a thought to me I will give to 
your readers for full discussion, and I believe this would be a good time 
of the year to have this discussed, as we could all start with our minds 
made up what we were going to do with our hives this summer. I, for 
one, shall be most thankful for the opinions of others on this most im¬ 
portant point in the management of bees. The above-mentioned queen 
entered the wrong box when attempting to return to her own hive after 
swarming, and was killed. I gave to her stock hive a virgin queen I 
had in reserve and all the swarm back again. This, of course, put an 
end to swarming in this hive. Now, it struck me that if we could not 
prevent swarming, and our bees would swarm in spite of us, to secure 
the swarm, catch the queen and keep her from the bees, cut out all the 
queen cells but one, and then return the swarm. Having lost the old 
queen, and having the full stock of bees with a virgin queen, they would 
work with at least their usual vigour, and swarming would very likely 
be stopped. What do others say ?— Comber, Co. Doivn, 
EX 
fife 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
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