JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
428 
imported queen in a cage in a frame hive and then placing this 
hive on the stand of the skep, which going to a new station was 
made to yield up all its flying bees to form a swarm, of which the 
Ligurian queen became the head. One plan suggested, however, 
in our correspondent’s letter would not answer. It is giving a 
frame of Ligurian brood in a hive and placing this upon the stand 
the skep is now occupying. Of course the flying bees would con¬ 
stitute a swarm as before, and would raise in due time a queen 
from the Ligurian brood. All seems at first sight as it should be, 
and some books actually recommend this plan for making a swarm, 
but it is utterly bad notwithstanding. 
It is a law with the bee that in the absence of a queen only 
drone comb shall be built, so that in this case the whole of the 
cards made during the first fifteen or sixteen days would en¬ 
cumber the hive with that which could be only used for store or 
for raising an unnecessary horde of consumers. So perfectly uni¬ 
form is this instinct, that should bees build comb during the time 
a queen is caged amongst them awaiting their acceptance, the size 
of the cells formed will determine whether they are friendly dis¬ 
posed or not. If the former, they, regarding themselves as pos¬ 
sessing a queen, build worker cells ; if the latter, in the determi¬ 
nation to raise a queen and reject the one offered them, they 
build drone cells. 
If our correspondent can provide the made swarm with combs, 
or can furnish their frames with foundation the objection vanishes, 
for foundation* settles the size of the cell and prevents even queen¬ 
less stocks from building any but those of worker size. If it be 
especially desired to raise a queen from the Italian rather than the 
English brood, the old plan may be repeated of removing the 
queen from the swarm and placing her in a cage on the stand of 
the skep. She would be accepted as before, while the first-made 
swarm would raise queen cells m sufficient numbers to supply 
several for use elsewhere, but without any egg-laying for twenty- 
five days it would be quite unlikely to yield any surplus. The 
queen may be driven from the skep, but the successors there 
raised would be black, while the other plan at the worst would 
give hybrids.] 
ARTIFICIAL SWARMING BEFORE DRONES APPEAR 
—PREVENTION OF CASTING. 
Please let me know if I can take an artificial swarm if I have 
seen no drones issuing from the hive ; also whether the hive is as 
likely to throw off a second swarm at the end of ten days after 
taking an artificial swarm as if they had swarmed naturally.— 
Brixton. 
[Drones in our hives are not important if other stocks at not 
more than half a mile or so possess them. At this date drones 
abound, and unless your position is one of complete isolation so 
far as bees are concerned we should regard the question of drones 
at home as not worth consideration, except as seeming to show 
that your hives are weak and not ripe for swarming. When bees 
are getting ready for natural colonisation drones are always raised, 
and artificial swarming should conform as far as possible to natural 
conditions. A few years since we raised nineteen Italian queens 
at once ; and though we did not possess a black drone while 
Italians were in strong force with us, every one of our queens 
made a misalliance and produced hybrid workers. The probability 
of casting or sending out a second swarm is the same after arti¬ 
ficial as natural swarming. Its prevention consists in cutting out 
all queen cells save one. This should be finely formed, and may 
be known to be approaching ripeness by the nibbling of the end 
by the workers, by which the wax sealing is removed. In skeps 
it is not possible to perform this operation with any certainty.] 
COMBS BETWEEN FRAME AND HIVE—EVIDENCE 
OF QUEEN—EXTRACTOR AND HEATHER HONEY. 
If you can advise me I should feel very thankful. My bar- 
frame hive is not in very good working order, as the bees have 
built down between the frames and hive box. What is the reason 
of this I One of my skeps, I fear, has no queen, but should like 
to be satisfied on this point. The workers do take in pollen, but 
very sparingly. I turned up the hive a day or two ago ; it appears 
to be full of bees and moderately heavy. Do you think there may 
be a queen cramped for room owing to there being no breeding 
space 1 if so, what should I do ? I bought an Italian queen, which 
did not reach me till too late for insertion. I kept her nearly 
three months, but workers sent with her appeared to be slaughtered 
by a large grub which I found in the small box in which they 
* This does not always apply to flat-bottomed foundation, for they sometimes 
build drone cells upon worker stamped sheet. 
r May 26, 1881. 
came. The queen was the last bee left, when she also disappeared. 
Why is it not possible to extract heath honey from bar-frames by 
means of the extractor ? Is the extractor of use at all times with 
other honey in newly made combs?—A. Cabbon. 
[The frames must be too small. Their sides should reach the 
hive wall within three-eighth inch base. In this space no comb 
will be built. By inverting your skep you can at once see 
whether you have sealed brood, the brown rounded caps of which 
cannot escape attention. Finding this, you would know that 
your hive, even if without a queen now, possessed one less than 
three weeks since. By a little device you may, even with your 
skep, search successfully for eggs and grubs. Take a piece of 
thin looking-glass about half an inch square and fix this at an 
angle of 45° at the end of a stick or wire, leaving the face of the 
looking-glass unobstructed. Now, placing the skep so that the 
light shines down between the combs, draw the latter apart with 
the fingers and insert the looking-glass. It will reflect light into 
the cells and show in itself the condition of them most clearly. 
Eggs and larvae in all stages may in this simple way be clearly 
seen. As your skep is strong we should recommend you to super 
it at once, when, if the queen be crowded-out of the brood nest 
by honey, the bees will soon make room for her by carrying the 
excess aloft. Excess of pollen is sometimes a cause of mischief, 
when transferring to a frame hive would be the better course. 
The supposition that the bees with your imported queen were 
“slaughtered” by the big grub the box contained is incorrect. 
These grubs feed on comb, and possibly at times profit by the 
juices of the bee larvae they meet in their path, but the adult bee 
is not injured by them. 
Heath honey, but heather honey only, appears to contain a 
gelatinous substance allied to, if not actually identical with, the 
pectin of fruits. The consistency of Damson, Plum, and Currant 
jelly is due to substances, members of what are known to chemists 
as the pectose series, amongst which pectin appears. The question 
is one of great complexity, and at present analysts are not able to 
give any very exact particulars in reference to it. This gela¬ 
tinous substance, however, so toughens the honey in which it is pre¬ 
sent that the extractor is usually unable to throw it out. New combs 
are too tender and delicate to admit of the handling and whirling 
which extraction involves. Those which have been hardened by 
the addition of many sets of pupae cases will, however, pass 
through the ordeal with but very trifling injury. This the bees at 
once repair, so that the number of times which a comb may pass 
through the extractor is practically unlimited. — Frank R. 
Cheshire, Avenue House, Acton, IF.] 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
E. S. Miller, Wading River, New York, U.S.A.— Catalogue of North 
American Perennials and Lilies. 
E. G. Henderson & Son, Maida Yale, London, W.— Catalogue of 
Bedding Plants. 
*** 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 nnopened 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. 
Seedling Auricula (F. W. Sanders ).—It is a very good border flower, 
and we have not a doubt it will have a fine effect in beds, especially if it is 
grown in masses. We shall be particularly obliged if you can inform us of its 
parentage, and when the variety first flowered. 
Summer-pinching Plum Trees (A Stranger ).—We do not quite under¬ 
stand the condition of your trees, as in one sentence you state, “ the spurs are a 
foot from the wall,” and in another you say, “ they have been closely pruned in.” 
You, however, will not err by entirely removing the foreright growths and 
others that are badly placed, and stop the remainder at about four leaves, com¬ 
mencing with the strongest shoots. Plums, however, generally produce a num¬ 
ber of short-jointed stubby growths; these are the most fruitful, and many of 
them require little or no stopping. As a rule it is advisable, when the trees have 
covered their allotted space, to remove the most luxuriant growths for these are 
