March 10,1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
197 
turfy loam, beating it firmly and smooth with, the back of the spade. 
In about six weeks Mushrooms will appear, when careful sprinkling 
with tepid water will be needed to keep the surface moist. Beds 
that are becoming exhausted may be improved by a good soaking of 
liquid manure at a temperature of 100°. 
Si 
Ml 
HE BEE-KEEPER. I 
SEASONABLE HINTS. 
[The following hints were prepared before Mr. Cheshire’s 
calendar for March appeared last week. But I venture to think 
their insertion may still prove seasonable, especially in these 
northern parts where winter still holds unmitigated sway.—W. K.] 
Notwithstanding the almost arctic severity of the winter, 
stocks that have been properly prepared have generally wintered 
well ; that is to say, they have come through thus far with com¬ 
paratively little loss of strength or waste of stores. In inland 
localities where the frost has maintained its hold till now, and 
the snow is still deep, the opportunity for a cleansing flight has 
occurred so seldom that soiled combs are found in a good many 
hives, generally, however, in those only that had not been suffi¬ 
ciently contracted to enable the bees to keep the whole interior 
warm with an ordinary consumption of food. A hurried ex¬ 
amination a fortnight ago showed that nearly all my stocks had 
patches of brood in all stages and many of them young bees—a 
proof that breeding can go on even during a period when the 
external temperature is frequently below zero. 
There is considerable danger in making the necessary overhaul 
of stocks after a long period of confinement. If the first fine day 
be taken for this purpose, as is very generally recommended, the 
very act of opening the hives will cause the bees to sally forth 
with such haste that, failing to mark their locations as they ought 
to do after a long confinement, many will return to the wrong 
hives, and thus endanger the lives of the queens. The large 
number of cases of queen-encasement observed during or after 
such commotions is entirely owing to the presence of strange 
bees in the hives, and not, as Mr. Abbott so ingeniously suggests, 
with a view to exciting the queens to lay eggs. Certainly, 
where any suspicion of short stores exists, the first opportunity 
must be taken of certifying whether or not food is required ; 
but there need be no disturbance caused by so doing. It is only 
necessary, as late in the day as possible, to turn back the quilt 
without any smoke until the cluster is reached. A hurried glance 
at the top of the combs will show by the amount of sealed honey 
visible whether anything further requires to be done. In cases of 
necessity nothing is so good at this season as well-made candy 
cake with or without flour. Having a supply at hand in thin 
slabs, one of these can be quickly pushed under the quilt. 
A more thorough overhaul should be made after the bees have 
had a flight on several successive days. With as little disturbance 
as possible notice must be rapidly taken of the following points 
—viz., the amount of stores still available, the presence or absence 
of a queen or brood, the amount of dead bees or debris on the 
floorboard, the condition of the combs as to dryness or mouldi¬ 
ness, and, in localities where foul broodmaybe suspected, whether 
any trace of it is visible in the combs. If it be possible to remove 
any combs, so as to confine the bees into less space, this may be 
done at the same time ; but if there are many hives to go over, 
other requirements should be merely noted down to be attended 
to when all needful appliances may be ready to hand. 
Such an examination is very interesting, presenting as it does 
in every separate stock a different problem for immediate solution. 
What to do with queenless stocks or with those having queens we 
wish to save and which are yet too weak to risk longer as they are, 
how best to supply the want of honey or pollen, how to deal with 
the first discovery of foul brood, and generally how to assist every 
stock in maintaining or increasing its strength as much as pos¬ 
sible—such are some of the questions that thrust themselves 
all together on one’s attention. The limits of this article forbid 
my giving more than the following hints. 
1, Contract the brood nest by removing all combs which the 
bees cannot cover, and closing in the division boards. 2, Main¬ 
tain the chaff packing until the bees have increased to cover six 
or eight frames. 3, Supply flour candy to keep up breeding until 
natural pollen is being gathered, after which commence syrup 
feeding in small quantities, and give pea flour in the open air. 4, 
Transfer from damp or soiled hives to clean ones, and give clean 
combs where these are available. 5, Clear out dead bees and 
debris from all other hives. 6, Put bees of infected hives on clean 
combs or sheets of foundation after twenty-four hours quarantine, 
and feed with both syrup and flour candy which have been treated 
with salicylic acid. Melt up all infected combs, scald and fumi¬ 
gate hives and frames, and take care that no other bees do any 
robbing while doing so. 7, Join queenless bees to the nearest 
stock by shaking all the bees from both stocks into a common 
box, afterwards running them in as a swarm, and caging the queen 
for twenty-four hours. 8, Pack weak stocks into a common hive 
with only a thin partition between, giving separate entrances. 
When one of the queens is required elsewhere, remove the divider 
and allow the stocks to amalgamate. 
It is to be borne in mind that from this time forward, probably 
till April, the strength of our stocks may be expected to decrease 
steadily, owing to the los3 of old bees exceeding the gain from 
breeding. Consequently everything should be done that tends to 
husband their strength. Entrances should be contracted and 
shaded when snow is on the ground ; as little disturbance as pos¬ 
sible should be made ; heat should be economised by means of warm 
packing and necessary supplies of saccharine food ; pollen sub¬ 
stitutes and water should all be at hand to save the bees from 
the necessity of taking long flights in uncertain weather. Now is 
the time to get hives, supers, and other supplies in readiness for 
the day of need, also to provide seeds of honey plants—of which 
I last season found the yellow Melilot by far the most profitable. 
At the time of sowing, attention should be given to making every¬ 
thing about an apiary as tidy and attractive as possible. I could 
tell of wondrous arrangements in the marine store line that I 
have witnessed in some apiaries, but at present the hint may be 
sufficient. It seems as if foul brood were about to become epi¬ 
demic in some districts. Various correspondents have recently 
informed me of serious outbreaks in Ireland and some parts of 
Scotland. Ic ought to be specially guarded against, and no pains 
spared to stamp it out on its first appearance.— William Kaitt, 
Blairgowrie. 
HOW TO USE THE EXPANDING AND CONTRACTING 
CAPABILITIES OF BAR-FRAMED HIVES TO THE 
UTMOST PROFIT. 
The discovery of the great value of expansible hives is a 
marked feature in the progress of scientific bee management. 
For many years this principle has been gaining in favour with 
all but the fixists. Nay, even they—some of them—have adopted 
the principle in regard to supers, enlarging super-space over a 
hive by a kind of telescopic movement upwards, thus gradually 
elevating the super. The objection to this particular adaptation 
of the principle of hive-expansion lies in this, that it tends to the 
production of unsaleable honey in unwieldly boxes ; but if quan¬ 
tity alone is the profit aimed at, and not money value, this adap¬ 
tation is excellent. We are now, however, dealing with laterally 
expanding bar-framed hives. Last year one of these in my 
garden containing sixteen frames, to which the bees were gra¬ 
dually admitted by removal of the dummies, was found to have 
filled every available space from end to end at the end of June, 
but the central combs were too full of pollen. The brood cells 
were found in quantity in the combs at each end of the hive, but 
comparatively few in the six or seven intervening combs. Not so 
an adjoining hive, which was exactly similar in all respects, the 
queens being both hybrid Italians of the same age, and having 
begun the year with a population little if at all greater the one 
than the other. Both hives, in fact, were still somewhat weak in 
numbers at the beginning of May. In the case of the second 
stock the combs were pretty evenly filled with brood throughout, 
nor was there much pollen. Incidentally I would notice that 
this shows we cannot manage our bees on any plan which shall 
produce an uniform effect. Start two hives side by side as fairly 
even in all respects as can be done, and in the course of the 
season the results of their procedure will widely vary. Hence it 
is I never can believe in any reliable estimate as to the relative 
value of hives coming out of such trials as are proposed from 
time to time. 
I have, however, instanced the case of these hives because the 
excessive quantity of pollen in the one was, I feel assured, a main 
reason why it disappointed me as regards the quantity of honey 
obtained from it, and set me thinking if there was any remedy 
to be found. Would it have been possible to baffle the bees, and 
to make them gather honey instead of storing so much useless 
pollen—useless at least at that particular time, which was the 
very height of the splendid honey harvest of last summer ? What 
if I had removed all these combs, putting them by for use later 
on ; and what if I had contracted the brood nest to, say, the nine 
or ten combs actually filled with brood, while giving them plenty 
