May 12, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
385 
they securing thus room for their combs and many points to which 
to fix them, so that the wind would not disturb their arrangements. 
On one occasion here we found a cast that had started building 
between a fence and an old and dense Black Currant bush, while 
many have no doubt seen combs built under floorboards or 
between skeps and the backs of the sheds containing them ; but 
in these cases the breeding chamber was under the hive roof, 
while the combs built outside would only be used for store until 
room could be found within, when every scrap would be removed 
into secure quarters. Bees occasionally display very singular 
power in adapting themselves to new circumstances, and it is 
impossible to say how far these bees might have covered them¬ 
selves above had they been left undisturbed. Some few years 
ago, when I used from five to seven slots of wood as a cover in 
the position now taken by the quilt, one of these slots was by 
accident omitted. Two or three days after the bees had nearly 
completed a roof for themselves, made by adding wax and pro¬ 
polis at the edges of the exposed frames. These additions stretch¬ 
ing towards each other had actually in places met. In transfer¬ 
ring it is not uncommon to find doors narrowed and windows 
covered by partitions or curtains of propolis, and an extension of 
this instinct might have done a good deal towards saving these 
bees in the Privet bush from rain, if not indeed from frost and 
snow.— Frank B. Cheshire. 
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS IN THE APIARY. 
MAY. 
The labours of the attentive bee-keeper are this month beginning 
to show results. Colonies of four or five frames at the end of March 
should now have from eight to ten Woodbury frames of brood or 
their equivalent, and be crowding their hives from end to end. We 
must now determine whether we will endeavour to prevent swarming 
and accept surplus in its place, or whether swarm and super shall be 
our ideal. If the latter, we select our best colony, the bees of which 
present the characteristics we most value, and remove its queen in 
some manner that does not seriously thin the population of the stock 
in order that it may produce us a number of highly nourished young 
queens. The methods of doing this admit of numberless variations— 
e.g., we may take the queen and insert her in some queenless stock ; 
or we may make a swarm of the queen and the whole of the colony, 
and place the hive, combs, and brood upon the stand of one of our 
strongest stocks to be repeopled by its flying bees ; or ive may, with¬ 
out displacing the queen at all, give combs of her eggs to queenless 
stocks. 
If the bees always produced their queens from eggs laid just before 
the removal of the mother sixteen days would elapse before the 
young queen would gnaw out, but frequently this happens on the 
twelfth day, when the first queen hatching would destroy the rest. 
We must therefore (if we would secure the immense advantage of 
giving ripe queen cells) on the tenth or eleventh day after one of 
the operations indicated swarm other colonies artificially, and insert 
the ripe queen cells now at command in the swarmed hives. The 
queen will quickly be out, and in nine days more should commence 
laying. We in this manner reduce the time the bees would naturally 
be without a queen by at least a week—a gain probably of ten thou¬ 
sand bees. We according to this plan made an artificial swarm on 
Saturday, and on Tuesday week we should make other swarms to 
give places for the queen cells then to be ready for insertion. In 
making the first swarm it is wise not only to reduce the entrance, but 
to reduce the amount of brood by distributing any combs of larvse 
which seem to give more work than the residue can accomplish. 
This may not always be necessary. 
Where skeps are found with frame hives secure queen cells in one 
of the latter by any plan, and when these are getting near hatching 
drive swarms from the skeps, set them on the old stands, and insert 
the queen cells either in the feed hole, or fix them up between the 
combs by simply pushing the combs a little from each other to make 
way for them, when they will be sufficiently grasped to be retained in 
position. The bees will fix them, but after hatching they had better 
be removed. Cut the queen cells out with fully a square inch of 
comb attached, and be very careful not to pinch them. Do not be 
over-anxious about early swarming ; excessive haste here hinders 
more than any other mistake bee-keepers commonly make. 
Feed the swarms regularly, even in good weather. If they have 
foundation you may feed quickly if you like, as no undue amount of 
drone comb can be built. If no foundation is used feed slowly, and 
at night only. In using foundation with swarms fix with wax at the 
top, as well as using Cheshire’s foundation fixers. 
Supers or sections, if swarming is to be avoided, may be put on 
whenever bees fill the hive and honey is coming in freely. When 
this is done all sealed store combs had better be removed, which 
either gives space for placing sections in a frame to be hung in the 
hive body, or admits of decreasing the hive space by a tight-fitting 
dummy, and so by giving the bees less room below, the more surely 
driving them into the super. Cover the super warmly. Nothing 
pays better than well-made super or section covers, of which the 
teapot cozy is the type. An irregular rag of carpet, even if sufficiently 
aesthetic for the tea table, would not keep the pot warm. In unfavour¬ 
able weather feed with constancy and care, and then swarms will do 
as well as if we were in Madeira. 
Nuclei can now be started with advantage. The best form for 
these seems to be a couple of ordinary frames of brood—some of it 
hatching and covered with bees—placed in a hive, duly contracted of 
course. In taking these frames from the stock be very careful that 
the queen is left behind. The nuclei may be made the day before 
the queen cells are ready for excision. At the close of the day on 
which they are made take a peep at them, and should they seem 
bare of bees shake the bees from a frame taken from the hive which 
provided the nucleus on to a board placed at their door. Most of the 
bees will run in, and all but the oldest will remain. After the queen, 
hatched from the given cell, has mated and has commenced oviposit¬ 
ing you will either build up the nucleus into a stock or remove the 
queen. By attentively supplying eggs and grubs whenever the little 
colony is able to undertake the care of them it may be made to supply 
several queens in succession, and yet be constantly growing in strength 
so as to pass into the winter as a fine stock. 
So much for fine-weather work, which should also include all the 
preparation which foresight can suggest in the way of sections, 
supers, and additional hive accommodation; but success, if success 
means profit, largely may depend upon painstaking feeding in bad 
May weather, of which w r e generally have a share. Just when cold 
drizzle or sleet makes outdoor work unwelcome the bees must be fed. 
Neglect after a bad day w'hen gathering has been suspended causes 
the devouring of thousands of eggs, and this means thousands less 
of gatherers when the later glut comes. As money makes money so 
sugar makes honey. Let us keep up artificially if we cannot get 
naturally an uninterrupted course of grub-raising, and even a short 
honey glut will not leave us without results. One of the very best 
accounts a man had ever to give of a swarm relates to one of mine 
that passed through a May more cold and wet than any that I re¬ 
member ; but I loved my bees, and they were not ungrateful.— 
F. Cheshire, Avenue House, Acton, W. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Cranston’s Nursery and Seed Company, King’s Acre, near Hereford. 
—Catalogue of New Roses. 
Ewing & Company, Eaton near Norwich. —List of New Roses. 
Francis and Arthur Dickson & Sons, The Upton Nurseries, Chester. 
—Catalogue of Bedding Plants and New Roses. 
_s£a_ f 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
1 hmHOHiffll/il//} 
*** 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 Poultry and Bee subjects, and 
should never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended 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. 
Camellia Unhealthy (0. G. R .).—Your plant is much infested with either 
scale or mealy bug, or both. It is impossible for any plant to thrive with the 
foliage in sucli a dirty state. There is only one mode of cleansing such leaves 
as those you have sent, and that is by sponging them carefully with warm 
soapy water. This you appear to have done, but the sponging has not been 
sufficiently thorough or sufficiently frequent. After you have once cleansed the 
foliage you may do much to keep it clean by adopting the mode recommended to 
another correspondent for the prevention of mildew and insects on Roses. Your 
plants have been much neglected, and as you have had them two years we 
presume you have not had time to give them the attention they have needed. 
Mildew on Roses (A. A.).—Your Roses appear to be attacked with the 
orange fungus, which has also spread to the Ferns. It is not easy to extirpate. 
Syringing with a solution made by dissolving 2 ozs. of soft soap in a gallon of 
water and dusting the affected parts when wet with flowers of sulphur will, if 
persisted in, probably prove beneficial. The house must be well ventilated. 
Mr. Bardney, who grows Tea Roses extensively, keeps their foliage and also that 
of fruit trees under glass perfectly free from mildew and insects by the plan 
that was described as follows in our columns last year :—“About 2 lbs. of soft 
soap are placed in a saucepan with a little water, and boiled for about twenty 
minutes. This is mixed with five or six gallons of water and kept in a largo 
flower pot. Half a pint of the solution is placed in a large waterpot full of 
water used for syringing. Neither insects nor mildew appear able to exist on 
the foliage, while nothing can exceed the admirable condition of the trees and 
Roses. It is important that it be used regularly—that is, whenever the syringe 
is employed.” 
Exhibiting Pansies (L. J. K .).—We are not aware that the boxes can be 
had “ ready made.” It is not usual for seedsmen or florists to keep them in 
stock. Any intelligent carpenter can make them, and a brazier can supply the 
