454 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jane 5, 1884. 
themum cordifulium variegatum, all with suitable edgings, are worthy 
of a trial. Subtropical plants are suitable either for massing or for 
mix’ng with any of the above-mentioned kinds, but as most of them are 
eas ly injured by cold they should be the last to be planted. Rather, 
however, than they should become stunted and root-bound a small shift 
or a rich top-dressiDg should be given. 
THE SEASON—SWARMING AND SUPERING. 
So far this year the bees have had a hard struggle to exist. The 
year opened favourably on them with less mortality than ever I 
experienced. Large patches of brood were in every hive during 
January, and breeding was unremittingly carried on throughout the 
cold winds of that month. Many young bees were flying in February. 
Flowers and sunshine came with March, and good hives collected 
much pollen from the Crocuses, Willows, Tussilago, &c. Many 
hives were then advancing rapidly, and were well forward, promising 
early swarms. April we welcomed, but it brought thunder, snow, 
and frost of unusual severity—bleak cold weather, with scarcely a 
ray of sunshine to gladden us. This lasted until 23rd May. Flowers 
had almost disappeared ; those not destroyed looked sickly, and dead 
bees strewed every path. Hives that looked like swarming seven 
weeks ago have made no progress, while many that by th : s time with 
mild weather would have been strong are so reduced in bees that 
they will be unable to do more than keep themselves alive. Our 
locality is, however, not a sheltered one ; there is a paucity of trees 
in the district, arising through proprietors of small estates cutting 
down every tree that can be turned into cash, and the ground they 
occupied made available for cultivation. 
In more sheltered places the bees had a better opportunity of 
making progress, not from the mere shelter alone, but from getting 
the advantage of the flowers sheltered and preserved by the trees, 
which also many of them yield large quantities of honey and pollen. 
While our bees in an unsheltered district have been much checked 
and retarded, those in sheltered situations have advanced, and swarm¬ 
ing commenced at Crossford near Carluke in the beginning of May, 
but the weather since then and until the 23rd of May, when a favour¬ 
able change took place, was very untoward. With fine weather now 
the bees from their contiguity to plenty of fruit and Sycamore 
blossoms will make rapid progress, and if the apiarian is careful to 
sustain the breeding in rainy weather these early swarms, with the 
further advantage of the Charlock, Clover, or Heather harvests may 
rise to a great weight; indeed, I have known such swarms, including 
the old stock and the second swarm, to iise at the end of the season 
to 600 lbs. It is under such favourable conditions that early swarm¬ 
ing takes place, which makes the swarming system so profitable. 
In later districts, such as where I reside and where swarming is 
much later, it is impossible to have swarming hives crowded with 
bees in time to attain such results, hence the reason we have to 
carry out the non-swarming system to the extent we do ; in fact, 
though we get early swarms, they, from the paucity of flowers, the 
trouble and expense of feeding, with loss of bee life resulting there¬ 
from, would be greater than any profit that could be made. 
Under the swarming system the greater portion of the honey must 
be dripped, while under the non-swarming system the surplus is 
obtained from supers in its purest form, but under either system in 
wooden or straw hives the most proper and profitable course to pursue 
for honey in any form is to extend the hive vertically. The circle is 
the natural form in which bees cluster and carry on the internal economy 
of the hive. Whenever that form is departed from to the oblong 
the bees are handicapped, working at a disadvantage, with less profit 
to the owner. I have seen a number of instances where bees stored 
honey 3 feet from their hive, and “ R. S." had a bellglass finished 
in a like manner, but though bees do this in a warm season it is no 
argument in its favour. We avoid inducing bees to work by feeding 
at any time when they should be kept quiet, but when the weather 
is favourable for honey-gathering we never allow them to relax 
work, and we assist them as much as possible. In a proper hive, 
of which the Stewarlon may be taken as a type, the bees are enabled 
to keep up the degree of heat necessary for the secretion of wax 
and comb-building, even though the temperature becomes low at 
night or at any time. With plenty of newly built comb the bees 
are ready for the collection of honey when it is secreted in the 
flowers, hence the quantity stored in such hives is greater than in 
those of an oblong shape, when, ou the temperature becoming low 
in such hives, bees cease to secrete wax and build comb, retreating 
at night from their labour, then in the morning resume comb-build¬ 
ing, while those on the Stewarton principle are rapidly filling their 
night-made comb with honey. The greatest harvests of honey 
recorded are from those wrought on the vertical principle for 
example, S. Bevan Fox with his telescope supers, and “ A Renfrew¬ 
shire Bee-keeper" with 200 lbs. at one lift of pure super comb from 
one hive, and many others equally successful, including myself, with 
the same kind of hives. While, however, I give my approval of 
this system, I by no means wish to discourage other systems, because 
many hives can be cleared from objectionable points they may 
possess. _ . 
With a few remarks on supering I will close this article. It is a 
fact that bees naturally incline to ascend to supers rather than work 
laterally. They also store more honey in proportion in large supers 
than in small ones. There, again, the Stewarton comes to the front; 
no matter how many supers there be they act as one, while all are 
divisib'e to a comb. Sections are preferred by many, but I think they 
have had their day. I find the bees do not take to them so readily as 
supers from the obstructionable bottom of the section, then in most 
cases a cover of sections over a hive are in three. In my own case I 
work sections (no matter how many) in one compartment, beginning 
with few and increasing the number as required. It is accomplished 
as follows :—I place frames, minus the top bar, in a case the same 
size as the hive, -which is supplied with a dividing board. These 
frame ends have a ledge to keep the sections in position, and the 
bottom rail of the frame has staples or tin clips bent to form a ledge 
for the same purpose. The sections are of only If inch broad, and 
require no raggle to admit bees from one to another ; the one-eighth 
ledge on a frame answers this purpose. The above plan is not only 
better to secure a greater amount of honey, but is much easier 
manipulated and inspected than when placed in crates ; but sections 
are not generally in favou r , neither with bee-keepers nor honey 
merchants, so far as I have experienced. Upw r ards of a hundred 
bee-keepers that I spoke to on the subject last year, and who had 
tried them, were against them, but whether sections or supers are 
used the bees should be admitted to them from the outside combs 
only. If the crown of the hive is not fitted with sides of some sort 
thin adapting boards should be used, so that the centre of the hive 
over the brood be closed to prevent discoloration of combs, or queen 
ascending, or brood being chilled when cold weather comes. Supers 
should have ample coverings to prevent the escape of heat. When 
bees are filling supers they should never be disturbed, unless when 
actually necessary to do so, and when it is warm and the sun shining, 
for then bees are less inclined to sting than when it is cold. W hen- 
one super is filled with comb another should be added above. This 
keeps the bees better employed at comb-building, and relieves the 
overcrowded first super.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
CYPRIANS, SYRIANS, AND FOUL BROOD. 
“ J. P. S.” (pages 392-3) says, “Cyprians cannot be handled with 
smoke any better than Syrians.” Quite so ; neither must they even smell 
it or be jarred. If these precautions are taken and opened when the sun 
shines they will be found second only to Syrians in tameness, to which, 
bees they are nearly allied. Those who condemn the Syrians and 
Cyprians for their savageness have used smoke to them or else they have 
not had the pure races. Mr. Doolittle in the American Bee Journal , 
quoted by a correspondent a short time ago, page 132, says, “ As Mr. 
Carroll wrote me that I should have less difficulty in handling the Cyprians 
if I used no smoke, I placed the smoker well filled and lighted on the top 
of the next hive, and proceeded to carefully raise the quilt,” and then, of 
course, he found them quite savage. I give this quotation to show that 
people should follow the directions given by those who know. Mr. Benton 
in Cyprus had 500 colonies placed round his house, on the verandah, or 
anywhere where they could stand. One hive in particular was so placed 
that it had to be passed within 2 feet from the entrance scores of times 
each day by every visitor or inmate; and though Mr. Benton was working 
amongst them from early morning to late at night with no protection 
whatever save a hat, shirt, pants, and slippers, no one was ever stung., 
and he very rarely. We have Mr. Blow’s authority for saying that he 
saw Mr. Benton open hive after hive without veil or gloves, and none 
ventured to sting. 
My opinion is like “ J. P. S.” regarding foul brood—viz., that it wil-l 
attack hives in a certain condition more readily than others, just as a 
dead sheep will breed maggots more readily than a live one, though they 
will not breed spontaneously iu either; but I must disagree with him 
when he says they are liable to it when in a dysenteric condition. Neither 
do I believe these new races of bees are more liable to it than others. It 
is not everyone who can discern this disease, as I have myself seen an 
expert and one who has had the disease in his own apiary mistaken. 
These eastern bees rear an immense amount of brood and pack it in 
a solid mass, and, what is more, they require a greater degree of heat 
than blacks to develope it, the critical time being the transition stage 
from the larva to the pupa state ; therefore the slightest chill by opening 
them on a cold day will cause the brood to die, which looks like and is 
taken by most people for foul brood. A damp cold hive will also cause 
it; hence these bees must always be crowded together. On no account 
must brood be spread or divided with empty combs or frames. Hives 
should be dry, warm, double-walled, with dry porous quilts on the top ; 
and they should never be opened except on a w'arm day when the sun 
