September is, 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
253 
for insects, especially mealy bug and scale, fumigating repeatedly to 
exterminate thrips. 
Caladiums, Gesneras, and Gloxinias, as their leaves begin to dis¬ 
colour and evince symptoms of the growth stopping, should have 
the water gradually withheld, allowing them to flag slightly before 
giving any, and then only enough to slightly freshen them, keeping 
them in a light position and in a stove temperature. Placing them 
in a lower temperature, so as to stop their growth and starve them 
to rest, prevents the proper ripening of the tubers, which will be so 
weakened as to result in an enfeebled growth the following season. 
When the leaves have died the plants should be stood in the pots, 
where they will receive a little moisture, and have as regards the 
Caladiums a temperature of about G0°, but the Gesneras and Gloxinias 
will winter safely in a temperature of 45° to 50°. 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
EXAMINATION OF HIVES. 
September is. perhaps, the best time for a thorough examina¬ 
tion of stock hives of all kinds. In this month their strength 
and condition can be well seen and understood, diseased hives 
condemned and removed from the apiary, and weak hives united. 
Having set aside fifty-six hives for sale and stock, I am now 
engaged in a careful and painstaking examination of them, our 
watchword being “ excellence.” Whatever is found objectionable 
is noted and condemned. If a single cell of foul brood is detected 
the hive is condemned and removed from the apiary. If hives 
be found weak in bees two are united, making one good hive; 
and if the combs of stocks are too old and black the bees are 
driven from them, and placed either in hives with young sweet 
combs, or into empty hives and fed into stocks. As this is im¬ 
portant work nothing should be left to chance. Good hives are 
invaluable, and autumn is the time to make them strong. Several 
hives have been condemned owing to their combs being old. 
Last year, being an unfavourable one in Cheshire for honey, 
several hives were allowed to stay in the apiary a year beyond 
the usual time. This year they have been condemned, their 
honey taken, and in a few days their combs will be melted. 
We think that, generally speaking, combs that have been in 
use for two years should be condemned and melted. Early 
swarms generally fill their hives with combs, and their combs 
with brood, in the first season. These make capital stock 
hives. Next season their combs are so often filled with brood 
that they become tough and discoloured, and thousands of the 
cells in the central combs are cloyed up and made useless by 
pollen. The accumulation of a superabundance of pollen is 
common in old hives, and is a very great hindrance to prosperity. 
Every square inch of brood comb yields, or should yield, fifty 
young bees per hatch— i.e., every three weeks during the breeding 
season, but in pollen-boimd combs the yield is not half so great. 
Combs made useless for breeding purposes by pollen stored up 
are nearly useless for storing honey. Besides, all this pollen in 
honeycombs is a great nuisance in the time of harvest, rendering 
it difficult to obtain pure honey. Often old combs are found so 
full of pollen that they appear like a piece of gingerbread. The 
retention of old combs in hive3, and the practice of removing 
them from one hive to another, cannot be too strongly condemned. 
Among young combs bees thrive faster—that is to say, they breed 
faster, swarm earlier, gather more honey, which is more easily 
taken in a clean state from the combs than it can be taken from 
tough pollen-bound combs. 
There is the question, too, of foul brood, which, though it is 
an incurable disease, need not frighten any bee-keeper. It has 
often been said that foul brood is an awful and destructive disease, 
and frequently have we repeated the same statement. If allowed 
to run its course ruin and destruction will result, for the disease 
itself admits of no cure. But in apiaries of young combs this 
disease is seldom known, and if it exists at all it cannot do much 
harm and never becomes a plague. The renewal of combs every 
second year at most in every hive, is the best possible way of 
preventing foul brood from injuring the apiary. In examining 
hives at this time the eye of the bee-master should run over the 
sides of the combs to see if any of their cells are covered with 
lids—that is to say, sealed up. If cells are seen covered with 
lids there is reason to fear that foul brood exists. By using a 
pointed stick or knitting needle the cells can be broken and their 
contents exposed to view. Foul brood thus exposed is more 
like the gravy of meat or good beef tea than anything else. If a 
particle of foul brood be detected, both judge and executioner 
should do their work without delay—that is to say, the bees 
should be driven from the hives as 30on as possible and put into 
other hives. 
The work of uniting swarms is now a very simple affair. 
Formerly we used to take great prfecautions to prevent fighting 
and the destruction of life. Bees know each other and strangers 
by smell, and non-intrusionists naturally. In a healthy normal 
condition they fight and kill all strangers that enter their homes, 
often killing whole swarms as they have been cast into their hives. 
Nutmeg grated, minted syrup, and other strong-smelling sub¬ 
stances have been used in uniting swarms in order to prevent 
bees smelling which are strangers, and thousands of unions 
have been effected without the loss of lives. This year we are 
doing the work differently and doing it well. By using brown 
paper or calico rags dipped in a weak solution of gunpowder or 
saltpetre and dried, the bees are subdued and mastered at the 
moment of union. The fumes or smoke from such paper or rag 
blown into the hive to receive the bees so disturbs and distresses 
the bees that they can think of nothing but their own safety. 
They run hither and thither to save themselves. While doing so 
we turn the hive upside down, and cast a swarm or half a swarm 
amongst the bees and comb, speedily replace it on its board, 
give them a sniff more of saltpetre, and shut all in the hive for a 
few minutes. All our unions this autumn have been successful, 
and all have been done as above described. 
If combs are too old they can be removed and the hives have 
fresh combs built in their stead. If the combs are diseased the 
bees can be put into new or other hives and fed into stocks, and 
thus saved from ruin ; and if hives are weak two can be united and 
thus made strong. If short of food, sugar syrup is easily admin¬ 
istered. Whatever is needed to make hives strong for the winter 
should be done now. Whatever is worth doing should be done 
well.— A. Pettigrew, Bowdon, Cheshire. 
THE ' LINCOLNSHIRE BEE-KEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION 
SHOW. 
The Lincolnshire Bee-keepers’ Association is one of twelve county 
societies formed for the promotion of bee-keeping. The Society is in 
a very flourishing condition, numbering some 2G0 members, and is 
affiliated to the British Bee-keepers’ Association. It held its sixth 
annual Exhibition of bees, honey, hives, &c., together with very in¬ 
teresting bee manipulations, at Louth, on Thursday last, at The Cedars, 
the residence of Joseph Bennett, Esq., J.P. The exhibits were nume¬ 
rous, exceeding in number those of the British Bee-keepers’ Associa¬ 
tion held recently at South Kensington, and were arranged in three 
commodious tents. Bees were not very largely exhibited. The class 
for Ligurians contained four entries, and the first prize was secured 
by Dr. Carline of Lincoln. In the class for British bees there were six 
entries, the first prize being awarded to Mr. H. Maples of Spalding. 
For any other than the preceding two varieties there were only two 
entries, Mr. T. Sells of Uffington securing the first position. 
There were eleven classes for honey. The entries numbered alto¬ 
gether some 130, one class alone—that for the best glass of extracted 
or run honey of not less than 5 tbs. weight—mustering thirty-five 
entries. The first prize in this class was won by Mr. H. O. Smith of 
Louth. Quality was to be the chief point of excellence. Mr. W. 
Forman of Louth won the silver cup of the Association for the 
largest quantity of honey taken without destroying the bees. In 
these classes also the British Bee-keepers’ Association offered a silver 
medal, a bronze medal, and a certificate, which were won by Dr. 
Bussell of Lincoln, the Bev. W. Y. Turner, Vicar of Bardney, and 
Mr. G. Bywater of Louth respectively. In hives and appliances there 
was an extensive and interesting exhibition, some very capital speci¬ 
mens of hives on many different principles, honey extractors, &c., 
being shown to the public. There was also a very interesting class 
for the best and largest collection of honey-and-pollen-producing 
plants to be shown either dried or otherwise. Here Mr. Godfrey of 
Grantham, the indefatigable and enthusiastic Honorary Secretary of 
the Society, carried off the laurels. Perhaps the most interesting 
part of the whole Exhibition was the bee-driving competition. This 
took place in a tent constructed for the purpose. The centre of this 
tent, where the hives of bees and the manipulators were, was open 
to the air, and the outside of the tent being closed in by the canvas 
sides and the inside protected by fine network from the intrusion of 
the bees, and it was very interesting to the public to see how 
thoroughly at home the various manipulators were with the bees. 
On the evening preceding the Show a conversazione was held in 
the Town Hall, Louth, the Bector, Canon Wilde, presiding. Speeches 
were made or papers read on subjects interesting to apiarians by the 
following gentlemen—J. G. Desborough, Esq., Stamford ; T. W. 
Cowan, Esq., Horsham, Chairman of the British Bee-keepers’ Asso¬ 
ciation; W. Carr, Esq.; the Bev. J. L. Sisson of Edingthorpe, Nor¬ 
folk ; and the Bev. D. W. Pennell of Swansea. 
