388 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. r October 27 , issi. 
water. The general stock if infested with thrips should be washed 
with tobacco water. 
Bulbs. —Another batch of Hyacinths, Narcissus, Tulips, tic., should 
be potted for successional flowering and plunged in ashes for a month 
or six weeks, or until they have filled the pots with roots. The earliest 
of these are well rooted, and may be transferred to other quarters 
before they have made much top growth, and this must be kept from 
strong light, gradually inuring them to it by covering each with an 
inverted flower pot. The first batch of ltoman Hyacinths, Paper 
White, and Double Homan Narcissus are coming into bloom. The 
batch potted early in September will be in a condition to succeed the 
first, and should be brought forward in a temperature of about 50°, 
and by keeping a portion in an ordinary greenhouse temperature 
they will come naturally into flower in December. Those for later 
flowering should be kept cool, frost only being excluded. 
ME. PETTIGREW AND THE BEE TENT. 
I trust Mr. Pettigrew’s denunciation of the bee tent on page 
3GG will not be allowed to pass without one or two gentle protests. 
First, the great sacrifice of lives spoken of is not manifest, as 
the bees return to their queen, and the stocks are then returned to 
their owners or sold. Where the weather is hot, and during a 
honey glut, combs will fall where due precaution is not taken in 
the packing. But this is before they arrive at the bee tent. 
The objection that the operations of the bee tent have a frighten¬ 
ing effect on the bystanders is somewhat ludicrous. Here and 
there, doubtless, is a man who objects to the bee tent in the same 
way that one or two peculiar individuals object to have their 
children vaccinated ; but any man endeavouring to prove from 
the latter instance alone that the Vaccination Act is a mistake, 
would be looked oa with some curiosity. It is equally futile to 
demonstrate from one or two isolated opinions that the bee tent 
is deterrent to apiculture, while the hundreds who learn, and 
practise what they learn, prove the exact opposite now daily. 
If I described the Manchester Bee Exhibition as 11 not up to 
much ” because one friend of mine who went said it was “ on the 
one-stringed fiddle pattern,” I should not carry much weight with 
Mr. Pettigrew. Of course that friend might be a lunatic, which 
for argument’s sake I will allow, but that does not alfect the logic 
of the case.—H. V. Edwards, Oaltbvooli. 
CONTRACTING HIVES FOR WINTER. 
In bee-keeping, as in other pursuits, one is apt to follow habits 
that have no merit but their antiquity, and no reason but that 
they are recommended by book-makers. We are therefore all the 
better for a veteran driver like Mr. A. Pettigrew checking the 
rein and calling on us to reconsider our course ; and I trust he 
may follow up the plan by laying his finger on one point after 
another in the practice of bee-keeping, whether of ancient or 
modern usage, and let us have its “reason ” fairly discussed. 
On page 321 Mr. Pettigrew invites discussion as to the health¬ 
fulness or helpfulness of the practice of contracting hives for 
winter. As I have widely recommended the practice, and have 
full faith in it myself, I beg to submit my reasons for so doing. 
In the first place, however, I may state that I have no doubt as 
to the good results your correspondent has always had with stocks 
whose combs did not fill their hives. Mr. Pettigrew is no ordinary 
bee-keeper, and his stocks are no ordinary stocks. His locality and 
climate are likewise more favourable for wintering than those of 
Scotland and other parts of Britain. Stocks well cared for, and 
whose normal populations are doubled by the addition of driven 
bees in autumn, will winter under almost any circumstances, and 
to such the vacancy in the hive may be a positive benefit. I have 
seen some good results in the same line. I once visited the apiary 
of Mr. Kerr of Mintlaw, in the far north of Aberdeenshire. I 
found his row of skeps by the north side of a high wall, all well 
thatched to below their floor-boards, and all doorways closed 
entirely. This was of course in winter. I found it was his 
practice to remove his stocks to this location early in October, 
and return them to the sunny side in March. Thus for five 
months they remained closed, practically in the dark, and un¬ 
visited by a single direct ray from the sun. To my surprise 
Mr. Kerr informed me that on examining them in March he 
usually found very few dead bees and the combs were dry and 
clean. “And that without ventilation?” I dubiously inquired. 
“ Ob, no,” said he; “I put under each stock a small eke of about 
2 inches in depth, and raise it from the floor-board an eighth of 
an inch by wedging in a few small nails.” I was no longer 
doubtful. The position of the hives, their dry dark coverings, 
and the presence of that ventilating eke explained all. The best 
conditions for successful wintering were here attained, if we 
except the closing of the doorway, which seems unnecessary. 
The temperature of the air immediately surrounding the bees 
must have been almost uniform throughout the long steady 
Aberdeenshire winter, and its condition at once dry and pure. 
The case is almost on a par with cellar-wintering, the most 
successful of American methods. Why not advise its general 
adoption ? Because so few bee-keepers have the choice of a 
situation so well sheltered from sunshine, a climate so uniform, 
stocks so uniformly strong, and maybe the thrifty care exhibited 
by this bee-keeper of the far north. What succeeded so well with 
him, and perhaps also with Mr. Pettigrew, would certainly fail in 
most other hands. As soon would I think of calling on ail bee¬ 
keepers to follow the example of Mr. Langstroth, who once 
wintered a stock in good condition by suspending it in the air 
without a floor-board at all, while other stocks carefully protected 
perished. No; we believe in the principle of giving bees a 
chamber proportioned to their number, have had uniform success 
with it even in the case of very weak stocks, and know of no 
objection that can possibly be urged against it. If Mr. Pettigrew' 
knows of any let us have them by all means, and thus get both 
sides of the question. I submit the following reasons for recom¬ 
mending the general contraction of hives in winter. 
1, Because it is the only method of wintering that can be re¬ 
commended for universal adoption, being suited alike to strong 
and w'eak stocks, and to localities and climates varying from 
mild to severe. I should not fear, granted a supply of food, to 
winter a strong swarm in any locality within these shores, even 
without combs at all. Strong stocks can scarcely be chilled to 
death, but weak ones frequently perish from cold. And even if 
not altogether lost, how frequently do we find seams of bees cut 
off from the cluster by the contraction of the latter during severe 
weather and chilled to death. By contracting the hive in pro¬ 
portion to the cluster we bring their food within easy reach, 
ensure against death by freezing, and by conserving the heat we 
winter our stock at a less expense in stores and bee life and energy. 
2, Because combs not fairly covered with bees are frequently 
badly moulded in winter, owing to the condensation of the 
vapours exhaled by the bees. Especially is this the case with 
exposed pollen. By removing these and storing them in a dry 
place w'e preserve them uninjured ; also in the event of an attack 
of so-called dysentery all the combs left in the hive are badly 
soiled, a trouble almost unknown in well-packed hives. 
3, Because of the prospective advantages of a contracted brood 
nest in spring. In a confined space brood-rearing goes on at a 
more rapid rate ; and under the valuable operation of “ spreading 
the brood ” by the restoration of the removed combs, one at a 
time as the bees are able to cover them, we hasten the swarming 
season by several weeks at least. 
I know of no objections whatever to the plan, unless it be by 
way of a caution as to the modus operandi. If the hive be con¬ 
tracted and packed too early in the season, the comfortable heat 
of the hive induces the bees to fly more frequently, and the 
population is often greatly reduced before winter sets in. As 
autumn advances one comb only should be removed at a time, 
as it is found to be free from bees and wholly or nearly cleared 
of honey. At the same time the contracting board should be 
brought, forward, but no packing of chaff or other material should 
be used till frosty weather sets in. 
During the last severe winter in America probably three-fourths 
of the stocks in the Northern States perished. The returns since 
published show that the loss was pretty well distributed, all sorts 
of hives and systems of wintering sharing in the disaster. But 
one remarkable circumstance comes to light, and one which is sorely 
puzzling the wisest heads among the bee-keepers—viz., that not 
merely a few, but a large proportion of stocks wintered in ex¬ 
posed box hives with an open hole in the crown-board covered 
only with an empty box, and also in bar-frame hives from which 
the unfinished supers had never been removed, wintered success¬ 
fully. Doubtless many will claim this fact as an argument against 
contracting and packing hives. But i venture to give another 
explanation. The fulness of ventilation in the hives in question 
kept their bees cool and at home during the autumn months, 
and they entered the winter stronger in bees than other hives. 
The bees were thus their own protection—better than chaff, cork 
dust, or even dead air. That is no reason, however, why we 
