May g, 1884, 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
373 
through a wise rule of Nature kept our little friends in the warm 
shelter of the hive when to venture forth would mean certain death 
to them. We have now, however, reached a season of great activity 
among bees, and usually the enthusiasm and energy visible about 
every healthy stock is communicated to their owner, and displays 
itself in the increased interest taken in the bee corner of the garden. 
Business men are generally from home during the warmer hours of 
the day when bee work is most brisk, so that the first, what bee¬ 
keepers term “ Glorious bee day,” is enjoyed often during a Sunday 
stroll in the garden on a warm April day when pollen abounds nearly 
everywhere, or at least everywhere in the country wherever a Dande¬ 
lion has room to grow. And does it not seem as if a contest was 
being carried on between our best stocks to see which could gather 
most in a given time. The bees appear to work for dear life, tumbling 
over each other in their desperate anxiety to get rid of one load and 
start off for another. No apiarian worthy of the name can have 
escaped the contagion of a scene like this, however careless he may 
have been about his bees, and no matter how small the interest taken 
in them while winter lasted, there is no avoiding the rousing-up which 
an hour among a dozen hives gives at such a time. 
Unfortunately there is a tendency on the part of the inexperienced 
bee-keeper to allow this waking-up to run away with his discretion, 
and he wants to be as busy as his bees. Now there is nothing more 
commendable than the desire to be actively at work, pushing every¬ 
thing judiciously forward at the proper time in every possible way. 
But we must caution our readers against allowing interference with 
bees at this time to take a wrong direction which may have a very 
contrary effect to that intended. For instance, when a stock is seen 
for the first time working very vigorously, an almost irresistible im¬ 
pulse urges its owner to open the hive and examine the brood combs, 
not because there is any necessity for such examination other than a 
desire to know what progress is being made. We need hardly say 
how unwise it is to disturb bees in spring oftener than is absolutely 
necessary. There is in the modern system of management quite dis¬ 
turbance enough when giving additional combs or uncapping food, 
&c., so that anything like opening up stocks to satisfy curiosity, pre¬ 
cisely as if a gardener dug up his seeds regularly with the very laud¬ 
able view of seeing how they are getting on. We are induced to 
make these observations because the beautiful weather in the early 
part of April would lead many to begin taking liberties by way of 
manipulating hives and examining their contents at times when they 
would have been best left alone. Had the favourable weather con¬ 
tinued it would have given an opportunity of considerably hastening 
brood nests in all hives of sufficient strength, but as it did not last 
more than a week such operations have been delayed. A change 
occurred when the perennial east wind began to blow, as it nearly 
always does at the wrong time for invalids and bee-keepers, and 
nearly the whole of the latter part of April has been rather un¬ 
favourable to bee prospects. Work could only proceed fitfully and at 
uncertain intervals. Where all has been put into close and cosy a 
condition as possible, entrances carefully watched, and feeding slowly 
and regularly kept up, much progress has been made inside our 
hives, so that we find most of our stocks in very fair condition indeed 
considering all things. 
The mortality of the past winter has been much below the average, 
for except in cases of absolute starvation very few stocks so far as 
we can learn have perished. There has been an immense show of 
bloom on fruit trees of all kinds, and whenever the leaden clouds 
which have so persistently excluded the sun’s rays for a great portion 
of the month allowed the warmth to be felt, it has been very cheering 
to bee-keepers to note how plentifully both honey and pollen could be 
gathered. Judging from a careful examination of our own stocks, 
and taking things altogether, we think the prospects of bee culture 
are very promising for a really good season.—W. B. C., Higher 
Bebington. 
BEES AND FLOWERS. 
A VALUABLE paper upon “ The Methodic Habits of Insects when 
Visiting Flowers,” recently published in the “ Entomologist," contains 
sundry comments on and explanations of some tabulated results of 
observations, which had been previously published by the Linnsean 
Society. From this paper we glean a few facts which are of general 
interest to bee-keepers. It is the positive conclusion of the author, 
Mr. It. M. Christy, that although it is admitted that insocts of various 
orders play an active part in the fertilisation of flowers (that is, by 
conveying pollen from place to place, as also by their movements 
within flowers, aiding the transference of pollen from the anthers to the 
stigma), fully half this work is done by bees. The hive bee proves 
itself the most valuable of all, from the methodic habit upon which 
it almost invariably works, the only exception being that an individual 
will now and then be rather erratic in early spring. As yet, however, 
it has not been ascertained whether the Ligurian bee or the lately 
imported Cyprian bee imitate the old tenant of our hives in this 
particular. 
Giving further explanation, Mr. Christy remarks that the method of 
the hive bee is shown by its strictly confining itself, while in its circuits 
amongst flowers, to the species it has first selected, rejecting or passing 
by other species that in form and colour may have a near resemblance. 
In a very large number of instances he believes that a bee seeks out 
but one species when taking its daily flight, although possibly each day 
might have a variation, but he rather thinks that for a longer time than 
that bees limit themselves to two or three favourites, and follow these 
up till they go out of flower perhaps. But, on the other hand, the 
majority belonging to a hive do not act in concert; still, amongst bees 
generally, is noticeable a preference for flowers that are blue. Colour 
is not their guide on the whole, it would appear, and it is suggested 
that a fine sense of smell guides them in their choice or rejection. 
Mr. Darwin in one of his valuable books indicated this reason for the 
method shown by insects when visiting flowers. He says : “ They are 
thus enabled to work quicker, they have learnt how to stand in the best 
position on the flower, and how far, and in what direction to insert the 
proboscis or trunk. They act on the same principle as an artificer does 
who has to make half a dozen engines, and who saves time by making 
consecutively each wheel and part for all of them.” There are excep¬ 
tions, it seems, to the systematic mode of working, caused by some bees 
being unable to distinguish closely allied species, and the humble bee 
takes rank as being more stupid than the hive bee. Such genera as 
Ranunculus, Trifolium, and Primula prove a puzzle to some, hence the 
production of hybrids through bee agency. 
Bees have, so it is stated, a good sight for short distances, but a 
poor sight for long distances. When upon a flower a bee will stretch 
out its proboscis to obtain the honey from another that is near enough 
to be reached, or even fly a few inches from flower to flower upon a 
plant. On starting again it mostly flies in an irregular, apparently 
purposeless manner, and will often pass without notice flowers of the 
kind it is in search of ; also a bee will unintentionally visit the same 
flower twice, or even thrice.—J. R. S. C. 
SYRIAN BEES v. BLACKS. 
Briefly, in reply to “ Hallamshire,” the quotations referred to are 
taken from Mr. Doolittle’s last article on the subject, being a reiterated 
statement, and a reply to Mr. Burton, which has not been answered. As 
to the charge of untruthfulness, to myself it is of little consequence, as I 
write under initials, but to Mr. Doolittle the charge would be more 
serious, even if less transparently gratuitous. One point will suffice to 
assay its value. It will be remembered that “ Hallamshire,” to carry 
conviction that Syrians were superior to blacks, stated that £20 of profit 
had been obtained in one year from one stock of Syrians, “ while blacks 
did not gather enough honey to winter on.” To this I remarked that the 
£20 quoted could not be the one I knew of, as that was made in the 
year 1881, when all stocks did well (I had in remembrance Mr. Abbott’s 
instance as mentioned in the British Bee Journal). It now appears 
from “ Hallamshire’s ” letter that this was the identical instance in the 
year 1881. Mr. Abbott says, page 64 of British Bee Journal, 1881, 
“ Small nuclei with only a handful of bees in them to hatch out queens, 
have filled and been extracted repeatedly, and swarms and casts too 
small to send out ( i.e ., to sell) have produced treble their value in honey.” 
“ Hallamshire ” says black stocks “ did not gather enough to winter on.” 
Comment is needless.—K. B. K. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Thos. S. Ware, Tottenham .—Catalogue of Dahlias. 
Cranston’s Nursery and Seed Company, King’s Acre, near Hereford.— 
Catalogue oj Boses and Herbaceous Plants. 
J. Cheal & Sons, Crawley, Sussex .—Catalogue of Spring Flowers; also 
Catalogue of Florists’ Flowers. 
Stephen Brown, Weston-super-Mare .—Catalogue of Bedding Plants. 
Hennequin, Denis et Cie., Angers (Main et Loire ).—Catalogue of Flower 
and Vegetable 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 
