JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 311 
the crown set in a stable bucket to hold it steady. An empty skep 
can now be placed on the top at an angle of 45°. A pin to make the 
junction secure will be needed, and a prop to hold the upper line or 
skep at the proper angle, so that the bees can be seen as they run up 
into the upper skep. A gentle drumming with the hands on the 
sides of the lower skep will cause the bees all to leave the lower and 
run to the upper skep. But as all are not required, about three- 
quarters will be enough if the queen is up. The new swarm can now 
be placed on the old stand, and the old skep placed on a new one 
close by, making both skeps to have the same appearance. 
In bar frames all that has to be done is to take four or five frames 
out, with the queen on one of them, with all the bees, and place them 
in a new hive, putting the new hive on the old one’s stand close by, 
replacing the five full bars of bees, brood, &c., with new bars contain¬ 
ing comb-foundation guides. 
The bees left in the old hive will at once commence to make a 
queen for themselves, and in a few days will have perhaps a dozen 
queen cells in course of hatching. Bees ought to have plenty of room 
or space for all purposes, for when a glut of honey comes, if there is 
much brood in the hive, they have nowhere to put it, or if they have 
the hive filled with honey in July the queen has nowhere to brood in 
the autumn, so that in fact there is a deficiency in both bees and 
honey in the autumn. If swarms are not wanted “ supers” ought to 
be placed on the hive as early as May for the bees to store honey in, 
so that they could have the body box for breeding purposes, and that 
by July the numbers will surprise the small skepist, and the honey 
that fifteen or twenty thousand bees will gather in five or six weeks 
will repay us for all our extra trouble. 
In depriving bees that are in straw skeps of their honey, it is cruel 
and wasteful to commit them to the sulphur pit. It can be done 
with the greatest of ease in the way I have described above, to 
proceed in artificial swarming. The bees will all run into the empty 
skep, in which they can be kept and fed into stocks for about 5s. 
each, or can be given to another weak stock, if such we have in the 
garden. To unite them : It can be done in the evening, by placing 
the hive to receive the bees on a plain surface, and propped up about 
1^ inch. G-ive both lots of bees a good puff of smoke or some strong- 
scented things, so as to cause all to have the same smell, to prevent 
a fatal collision and the loss of much life ; but if the scenting be 
attended to it can be done with scarcely a bee being killed. The 
scenting being done, take the driven bees and throw them down in 
a mass before the other hive, and they will at once run in. This 
uniting is an excellent plan, inasmuch as the bees are enabled to do 
with less food than if they were in separate hives. The quantity 
generates heat, and, therefore, less food is needed. 
I have many other points to notice, and may again write about my 
profitable pets.—C omber. 
COTTAGERS' COMPETITION IN 1883. 
The British Bee-Keepers’ Association with a laudable desire 
offer £21 in six prizes for a fair and well-arranged competition. 
The conditions appear to be clearly stated and quite satisfactory. 
The conditions do not favour or prejudice any kind of hive or 
system of management. As I sent my Journal containing the 
conditions to a Cheshire cottager, giving him a word of encourage¬ 
ment to enter his name as a competitor, and as he has not yet 
returned the paper, I cannot now review the conditions, but hope 
the Editor will repeat them in the Journal before the 1st of May, 
as entries cannot be made later. The prizes will be awarded in 
September of next year. Owing to the length of time this contest 
will last I fear that some will decline to enter the arena. Sixteen 
months seem a long time to spend in a contest with bee hives. 
If £20 were offered in three or four prizes to cottagers for the 
best results from two hives this present year, placed as near as 
possible under the conditions of the competition of the above 
Association, I fancy many experts in bee-keeping would compete 
and do their best. In such a competition some hives entered may 
be stronger at the commencement of the trial than others, and 
therefore the results might not be so instructive and convincing 
as in the Association’s arrangement, yet the results would be in¬ 
teresting and encouraging, and the affair would be settled and 
known in six months. The British Bee-Keepers’ Association is 
taking a step in the right direction, and will do much to encou¬ 
rage and promote bee-keeping in Great Britain by liberally 
supporting all such competitions.—A. Pettigrew. 
[We comply with our friend’s request. The competition re¬ 
ferred to is for the most profitable apiary managed upon 
economical principles, commencing on May 20th, 1882, and 
closing on August 30th, 1883, and the following are the rules 
and regulations :— 
1, The object of this competition is to show the relative merits of different 
systems of bee-keeping, and to prove that bee-keeping, if conducted on economical 
principles, is highly remunerative to the bee-keeper. 
2, Competitors shall be members of County Associations affiliated with the 
British Bee-Keepers’ Association residing within the recognised boundaries of 
their respective counties, or members of the British Bee-Keepers’ Association 
residing in the county of Middlesex. Each competitor shall be limited to one 
entry, and shall pay an entry fee of 5s. 
3, Prizes of £6, £5, £4, £3, £2, £1, shall be awarded in order of merit to the 
competitors who shall derive the greatest profits from an experimental apiary 
of not more than two hives at the outset, which may be increased to any extent 
by natural or artificial swarming. The total capital to be employed in com¬ 
mencing and maintaining the apiary must not exceed £2, and the competition 
to extend from May 20th, 1882, to August 30th, 1883. 
4, The apiary shall be established in the garden of some cottager to be 
selected by the competitor, and approved by the Secretary of the County Asso¬ 
ciation, or in the case of the county of Middlesex by the Secretary of the British 
Bee-Keepers’ Association. 
5, The competitors shall keep a diary (a duplicate of which shall be kept at 
the cottage), in which all transactions connected with the apiary shall be re¬ 
corded, and each item of expenditure and receipt entered. Such diary to 
become the property of the British Bee-Keepers’ Association at the close of the 
competition. 
G, Each hive shall be weighed, and the weight minus the roof and covering 
shall be recorded in the diary. The hives shall be stocked with bees without 
combs, the bees to be valued at 4s. per lb. Comb foundation may be used, at auy 
period of the competition at 2i. 6d. per lb. for thick, and 3s. per lb. for thin. No 
bees, brood, or natural comb to be imported into the apiary after commencing. 
Queens may be introduced into the hives at any period of the competition, and 
shall be valued as follows—In the month of May, 8s. each ; June, 6s. each; 
July, 4s. each ; any other month, 3s. each. All expenses incurred after the 
commencement of the competition must be defrayed from the original capital 
of £2. Vouchers must be produced for all purchases made throughout the com¬ 
petition, including hives, bees, and any appliances used at the commencement. 
7, Each competitor may make his own hives and supers, but vouchers for the 
cost of the materials must be produced and the workmanship valued by the 
Secretary of the County Association or an expert appointed by him. 
8, Every amount expended in the apiary for food or any other incidental 
matter of whatever nature shall be charged against the apiary, and everything 
legitimately sold shall be set down in its favour. Vouchers must be produced for 
all swarms and honey sold during the competition according to the printed forms 
supplied to each competitor for this purpose. 
9, The Secretary of the County Association may visit the competing apiary 
at any reasonable time, or may appoint an expert to do so. The record of such 
visits, together with any remarks which it may be advisable to make, to be 
entered in the diary, which shall always be accessible for the purpose. 
10, The competitor shall certify that during its continuance he has fulfilled 
all the conditions imposed by these rules, and that all his entries in the diary 
are true. The Secretary or his expert shall certify as to the quantity and value 
of the honey produced by each competitor. 
11, Any attempt at fraud will be punished by disqualification. 
12, All entries must be made on the proper printed forms and forwarded to 
the Assistant Secretary, Mr. J. Huckle, King’s Langley, Watford, Herts, on or 
before May 1st, 1882, accompanied with the requisite fee, or the entry will not 
be made.— Herbert R. Peel, Hon. Sec., Thornton Hall, Stony Stratford, Buds.) 
TRADE CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 
Thomas Painter, Smallwood, Stoke-on-Trent .—Catalogue of Dahlias. 
*** 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. 
Broad Beans (F. IV).— So much depends ou the weather—whether the 
season proves hot and dry, or cold and wet—that it is impossible to name a 
time for insuring produce at a particular date. You can only succeed in your 
object by sowing at intervals from the last week in April to the first week in 
June, choosing an open position and strong soil. 
Rose Cuttings ( Vicar ).—Two distinct modes of inserting Bose cuttings 
were described in the Journal last year. 1, inserting them closely together in 
boxes in the summer ; 2, inserting them 6 inches apart in rows a foot asunder 
in the open air in the autumn. According to the first method the cuttings 
ought to have been potted months ago ; according , to the second they may re¬ 
main where inserted until next November, they will then be fine plants, and 
can be planted where they are required to flower. 
Destroying Ants ( O. It., Wiltshire ).—You will find some methods for 
extirpating ants in reply to a correspondent on page 290 of our last issue. If 
there are no roots of plants in the soil where the ants are so troublesome a 
rather strong mixture of paraffin and soapsuds would doubtless destroy many 
and drive the remainder away. The precise method of extermination, however, 
must depend on circumstances, and these, in your case, you do not name. 
Striking Rhododendrons (C. M. M.). —The soft young shoots to which 
you allude will not emit roots under any mode of treatment with which we are 
acquainted, but if you wait until the growths are a little firm at the base and 
insert them in sandy soil, cover with a bellglass, and place the pots on a warm 
bed in a moderately heated frame or propagating house, you may perhaps succeed 
in your object, but everything depends on your skill as a propagator. 
Shading Pits and Frames (A. M. do not advise you to adopt 
any method of shading of a permanent character for pits in which \ mes, and 
