216 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 6, 1883. 
into growth being supplying water and protection from frost. Care 
should be taken that the cuttings do not start into growth after they 
become rooted, or results anything but satisfactory will follow. This 
system, if properly carried out, will be found a very successful one, and 
decidedly preferable to retaining old plants in pots for flowering, unless 
larger specimens are required. 
3f 
II 
HE BEE-KEEPER . 1 
G) ^ 
HIVE-CONSTRUCTION, HONEY-PRODUCING, AND 
PRACTICAL MANAGEMENT OF BEES.—No. 2. 
It would be greatly to the advantage of bee-keeping as a pursuit 
if a little information was given occasionally as to the difficulties 
which beset beginners, and with this view we propose to pay parti¬ 
cular attention to this portion of our subject; because, though we 
occasionally find an apiarian “ to the manner born,” who begins to 
keep bees and succeeds in almost alt he does by instinct as it were, 
these are the exception, not the rule, and the great majority are those 
who are induced to begin bee-keeping in consequence of something 
they may have seen at shows or read of in bee books, and who think 
it is only necessary to stock a hive, set it up in the garden, and ap¬ 
propriate the honey each season as it is accumulated. We need 
hardly say that the experience of a season or two will undeceive 
them. They will find that if apiculture is to be made a success some 
trouble must be taken to insure it, and that their new hobby must be 
carefully followed up and attended to if it is to yield them pleasure 
and profit. Now there can be no doubt that the first point to which 
special attention should be given is the hive itself, because if it has 
faults and errors in construction no satisfactory result can possibly 
be hoped for. Much may be said as to what a hive should be, and 
what sum should be expended upon it ; but we think it will make 
our position clear at the outset by saying we cannot accept the idea 
so prominently put forward by most of the bee associations through¬ 
out the country—that the main object of such associations is to teach 
the agricultural labourer how to make money by his bees. If it 
were so all notion of the frame hive might be given up, and the 
straw skep (of course with a flat top) accepted as the best hive for 
all practical purposes. We have had a somewhat extensive experi¬ 
ence of the matter, and find, so far as it goes, that the bar-frame 
hive is altogether beyond the agricultural labourer ; he cannot grasp 
it. A very intelligent man of this class who had kept bees for 
thirty years remarked to the writer, after having had the advantages 
of the frame hive explained to him, “ I see all the benefits you get, 
but it would take a seven-years 'prenticeship to larn that trade,” 
and he stuck to his straw skeps as long as he lived. So much for 
the agricultural labourer. 
When we come to the cottagers we include many intelligent men 
of the artisan class whose occupations enable them to dwell in rural 
districts. These men can understand a frame hive, and often make 
their own ; but they are generafly keen thrifty fellows, with a strong 
predilection for winning piizes at show's, and of that particular 
temperament which makes them delight in any amount of labour 
when incurred on account of their favourite hobby. It is to be 
regretted that these do not form a more numerous class, for they 
are most useful in their way. Few county associations that we 
know can boast of more than a dozen such bee-keepers, so that, after 
all, the chief reliance in sustaining and carrying on the work of bee 
associations must, as we have said before, be placed in a class 
distinct from either of the above, and it is to these we propose to 
address our remarks on the matter. We believe the soundest method 
of spreading abroad a knowledge of apiculture among the labouring 
classes will be to establish successful bee keeping among those who 
will give it a fair trial with reasonable hopes of success, and 
encourage these to take a personal interest in showing their humbler 
neighbours a more excellent way of managing their bees on modern 
principles. It may be different in the southern counties, but here 
in the north such has been the experience gained during a long and 
rather active acquaintance with the subject. 
B efore endeavouring to point out what we consider a really good 
hive should be, it may be well to notice a few of the defects in 
hive-construction which will be found to give most trouble in honey- 
producing and general management. In the first place, fixed or 
immoveable floorboards are a great nuisance, because there will 
always be a certain amount of refuse, such as cappings of comb, &c., 
which is blown into the corners of the hive in the course of venti¬ 
lating, where it accumulates and receives the condensed moisture 
always found running down the sides of a populous and flourishing 
hive in spring. 
2. Frames without Distance Guides. —This is, we know, a moot 
point with some of our high authorities ; but it does not, in our 
opinion, need one moment’s argument as to which is best for general 
use. If we were to say that 10 per cent, of the bee-keepers in this 
country could guage distances for frames with the finger we should 
be going beyond the mark, and why hives should be made to cause 
trouble and annoyance to ninety out of every hundred is a mystery. 
We shall have more to say on the point when considering the con¬ 
struction of a hive. 
3. Play for Frames. —It is curious to note the nicety with which 
the frames of most hives are made to fit — not the thirty-second 
part of an inch to allow for the numerous contingencies that are 
constantly cropping up where frames are supposed to be inter¬ 
changeable—where, for instance, you cannot insert a queen cage 
without removing and leaving out the dummy, or the slightest 
irregularity prevents the insertion of a comb in any position other 
than that in which it was built by the bees. The moveable sides 
introduced a few years ago were excellent in remedying this defect, 
but somehow they have not come into general use. 
4. Space under the Bottom Bars. —We had occasion to inspect 
some hives in an apiary where efficiency was aimed at, and expense 
had not been spared to insure it. The hives had only been in use 
a few months, and so no ill effects were visible, but there was a 
space of 1^ inch under the bottom bar. The consequences of this 
will not be apparent till next year, when comb will be built on the 
under side of the bottom bars, probably across the frames in some 
instances. Sometimes the other extreme is reached, and less than 
three-sixteenths of an inch allowed under the bottom bar. We 
have always found these to make convenient homes of the larvte of 
the wax moth. 
5. The “ Dip ” between the Hive Sides and Tops of the Frames .— - 
This is a fault found in some hives which are excellent in all other 
respects, but it is nevertheless a most glaring one. It is not difficult 
to see how it has arisen. It works well on a show bench, and has 
the seeming advantage of keeping the quilt from blowing off while 
manipulating, and of making the carpet covering fit nice and snug. 
Here, however, the advantages end, and when it comes to supering 
the “ dip ” becomes an intolerable nuisance. The zinc adapter must 
be dropped in, crushing bees of course. The crate of sections, on 
being let down into the “ trap ” (for it is little eke) repeats the 
crushing, and when the unfortunate amateur has to remove his 
sections, &c., in the autumn his difficulties reach a climax. The 
crate is securely fastened down with propolis ; he cannot insert a 
lever under the corners to prise it up, and he has to remove it as 
best he can, but not without great trouble to himself and annoyance 
to his bees. 
6. Close-ended Frames. —It is not without some diffidence that we 
find ourselves at variance with one of the ablest bee-masters in this 
country (whose opinion is entitled to the greatest weight) on the 
question of close-ended frames. We have had no experience of them 
in our apiary, and only form an opinion from what we have seen 
of them in the hands of others. In one case, where the owner 
of a Giotto hive enlisted our services, the effects of the close-ended 
frames were simply dreadful, and the “setting things to rights” 
formed one of the few occasions when we were almost beaten by 
the bees ; as it was we retained a lively recollection of an hour’s 
work with close-ended frames, and a strong stock of hybrid bees, for 
some time afterwards. Of course these frames may be well enough 
in the hands of an expert, but for ordinary use we think they will 
never find favour, and 60 we are compelled to include them in the 
category of “faults ” so far as our opinion goes. 
7. Section Crates. —The use of sections for storing surplus honey 
in has become so general that a fault in the construction of either 
section or crate is soon felt, because, to say the least, they are rather 
shaky things to handle when full of bees and honey. The original 
crates as Bent out by the leading hive-makers kept the rows of 
sections half an inch apart, and as they were wedged together at each 
end it gave great facilities for handling ; but unfortunately the thin¬ 
ness of the material from which the sections were made allowed of 
the escape of heat to such an extent as to cause the bees to desert 
them on a cold night, besides the sudden chill given to the brood nest, 
if a crate of sections was set on without careful wrapping to retain 
the heat. This fault led to the introduction of another form of crate, 
in which the sections fitted close together in a box with high sides. 
This effectually prevented the escape of heat, but unfortunately it was. 
“ out of the frying pan into the fire ” as the homely phrase goes, and 
the sections are almost unmanageable in the latter. The maker’s 
catalogue described how a full section could be removed and replaced 
by an empty one in an instant; but we saw an apiarian make the 
attempt who could not remove a section at all until the crate was 
taken off bodily. 
We could name many other defects in hives which have come 
under our notice, such as the disarrangement of the frames and 
general misfit caused by the removal of the dividers or dummies to 
