July 81, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
stutter underneath to close when at the Heather, because, although I 
ventilate beneath freely now, the nights are colder in August and 
September, and the bees require all the heat to encourage comb-building. 
For square hives a light frame covered with perforated zinc five holes to 
the inch will ventilate well, provided a piece of perforated zinc has been 
fixed on the top of the supers. If the combs are not too deep, or springs 
of cart not too stiff, strong hives with as much empty space as is crowded 
with bees will travel comparatively safe, causing neither loss nor 
disappointment ; and if the weather be favourable will rise to great 
weight and make capital stocks for next season. 
I provide my Stewarton hives with ventilating floor', making an 
octagon rim 1^ inch deep. The one side I cover with perforated zinc, the 
other I cover with w'ood ; the centre piece, about 10 inches broad, slides 
out and in. If the hive is placed upon a sparred cart the air passes 
freely up through. If the bottom is solid something to raise it a little 
may be placed beneath. The alighting board is moveable, and the floor 
I fix to the body box with two back flap hinges. 
Stewarton Hives. —“ Novice ” requires exact measurements for 
Stewarton hives. His best plan would be to purchase a hive from 
Messrs. Neighbour, who supply all that is necessary. The Stewarton 
hive is octagon, 6, 7, and 9 inches deep; the former has bars only, the 
two latter four or five frames in the centre ; but I will confine my 
remarks to the former only. The size of all hives are regulated by the 
number of combs they contain, and as each comb measures 1|^ inch to 
nine bars, will measure 13^ inches ; but an additional width is required 
at the outsides, or the combs are not extended by the bees, so I allow a 
quarter of an inch more at each side. The hive inside measure will then 
be about 14 inches. The supers are the same in size, but 4 inches deep, 
and have seven bars only, each comb for supers being 2 inches broad. 
The bars of both supers and body boxes are three-eighths less than that to 
admit the slide, which is feathered to run in a groove of the bar, which 
should also have an eighth groove for comb foundation in the centre. 
The sides of the hive are of the best yellow pine (_of which all hives 
■should be made) five-eighths thick. These are cut from one another, marked 
by a template to insure accuracy, and are then drawn in for depth of 
■dovetail, which, if not correctly and accurately done, will not tier one 
with another : this is where care is required. A hole is made at the back 
and front to receive a pane of glass, and a mouthpiece or three in each 
box. 1 prefer one mouthpiece only when I have recourse to under 
ventilation ; these pores and mouthpieces are fitted with sliding shutters, 
and the three body boxes, supers, and floor have either screws for cording 
together or are united by brass-back flap hinges. “Novice” will find 
in the reply to “ F. W. S.” how to make ventilating floors. Stewarton 
hives may either be covered with a straw hackle, shed, or the more 
ornamental octagon or square cover. The cheapest octagon covers are 
made by having two inner hoops to which the lining is screwed. A zinc 
cover is surmounted by an acorn, and the whole is placed upon a single 
pedestal. 
“ Novice ” also wishes to know the best way to find a queen. Keep 
a sharp look-out amongst the cluster of bees, turning the hive so as to 
cause the bees to spread and change their place, and the movements of 
the bees will indicate where the queen is ; but second swarms have often 
many queens. "When searching for queens in frame hives, if the queen 
is quiet she is easily found, but very often when frames are disturbed the 
queen leaves them and goes on to the side of the hive, and not seldom 
leaves the hive altogether—a cause of queens being lost, and the hive 
spoiled through manipulation. When I find it difficult to secure a queen 
I divide the bees until the number is so small that she is easily detected. 
—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
HIVING- BEES. 
About two years since a swarm of bees took up their quarters inside 
the weather tiles of an old house, getting in through a chink where the 
mortar had dropped out. We wish to get them out, so as to be able to 
put them into a frame hive. Please say how we should proceed about it’ 
It is possible they could be got at inside the house in an old room by 
moving the skiiting-board, as a few sometimes get through a crack there, 
and they can be plainly heard close through the board. When would be 
the best time to get them out—I mean time of day and month 1 Should 
they be driven by rapping near them or by smoke ?—J. H. 
[As the bees appear to be able to be reached from the room it is far 
better to attack them from that place. It is always awkward to get at 
bees from the outside on ladders. We have removed bees from places 
■similar to that described by “ J. H.,” and should proceed thus :—Have 
the bar-frame hive at hand and some raffia grass, which we find capital 
stuff for tying-in combs. Have also a receptacle for the honey, some 
carbolic acid solution (a wineglassful of acid to a pint of water), plenty 
of old rotten wood or rag for the smoker. Now is as good as any other 
time for the operation, and we should choose the evening as the best 
time of the day, because we should then secure all the bees. Preparation 
should be made early by removing the skirting-board where the bees are 
heard, and perhaps it will be found necessary to cut away some lath and 
plaster, for we expect that the bees are located between two rafters, 
having attached their combs to them. If the bees are suddenly exposed 
hang up a sack, so as to keep them quiet until evening, then freely use 
amoke to cause them to gorge. If holes are seen above or around the 
nest anoint them well with the carbolic solution, otherwise the bees may 
try to make their escape by these passages to another part of the wall 
and give endless trouble ; but if they are coolly attacked they will most 
likely cluster closely. The combs should now be detached with as little 
shaking as possible. The bar-frame hive standing near should have a 
few frames with foundation with the quilt drawn over them, and the 
V)ees are to be shaken in at the back of these frames. The combs with 
brood should be tied into frames and given to the bees. When moving 
the combs from the nest, if it is possible some vessel should be placed 
under to catch any falling bees, or the queen might fall and crawl away. 
All heavy honeycombs we should cut out and place in the pan prepared 
for that purpose. Should complications arise and all the bees not be 
secured, every care must be taken to hunt well for the queen. As each 
comb is taken out she should be searched for. If she is secured and 
nearly all the bees, the others will most likely fin-l her, if the hive be 
placed at hand, next day, after which of course the hole between the 
weather tiles should be stopped. We should feed the newly made colony 
until they had huilt combs and s’-cured the old ones. In a day or two 
the combs should be examined and the raffia grass taken out.—P. H. P.] 
HONEY GATHERING-UNITING BEES. 
I HAVE four hives of bees, three of which have this year given very 
good results ; from one I have had nearly 60 lbs. of honey, whilst from 
the fourth I have only had 15 Ibu The reason I believe is that the 
queen is old. I have had no swarm from this hive for three years, as I 
did all that was necessary to prevent swarming. Last year I had 
30 lbs. of honey in sections from it (which as an amateur I thought 
wonderful), leaving at the same time sufficient for winter and spring. 
This I know from the fact that up to June 1st there still remained in 
the hive comb filled with honey which had not been unsealed all the 
winter. In a week or two’s time I shall be able to obtain from my 
neighbours almost any quantity of “driven bees,” and I want to know 
the best way of uniting the “ driven bees ” to the old stock, so as to 
ensure the getting rid of the old queen and the introduction of a young 
one. If you can give me any information on this point I shall be greatly 
obliged.— John Bulbeck. 
[It is quite possible that the queen in your fourth hive is a young 
one, and not old, and not collecting so much honey as the others is 
perhaps due to time lost between the deposition of the old queen and 
fertilisation of young one. It is unlikely in such a season as this has 
been that the bees would retain an old and effete queen. To effect the 
introduction of a young queen the old one must first be deposed if the 
two swarms are about equal strength ; after sprinkling both with thin 
scented syrup they may be shaken together. The secret of successful 
joining lies in having both lots of bees filled to repletion. What we 
never knew to fail is to drive both swarms into empty hives, then shake 
all together ; the quicker it is done the better. More caution is required 
with bees in frame hives, but if you succeed in getting the bees in stock 
hive to gorge themselves, the driven bees may be either placed beneath 
and allowed to run up, or shaken on to a board or sheet, then place the 
frame hive over the bees, the floor-board being drawn of course ] 
CALEDONIAN APIARIAN SOCIETY. 
The eleventh Show of the above Society was held at Edinburgh in con¬ 
junction with the Highland Agricultural Society on the 22nd, 23 d, 24th, and 
25th of July, under the able management of Major R. J. Bennett, to ■whom 
the bee-keepers are indebted through his indefatigable labours and efforts 
in accomplishing to bring together the various exhibits that formed the finest 
exhibition of apiarian appliances and produce that has ever been witnessed 
in Britain ; but altlsough Mr. Bennett’s efforts have been crowned with 
success it is not wholly due to himself, nor is it known that it was through 
his amiable lady working, often till past midnight, that the work was 
overcome, and the Society successfully launched in 1874. Members of the 
Society should bear this in mind ; and while we congratulate both Mr. and 
Mrs. Bennett on its success, I think both are entitled to more than a mere 
passing word of praise. 
The bee-keepers of England were represented by Mr. Alfred Neighbour , 
these of Ireland by Dr. Knight, Hon. Secretary to the Irish Bee-keepers’ 
Association ; and Scotland by Mr. Cameron from Inverness in the north ; 
and almost every bee-keeper of note in the south and west. 
In addition to the large tent for manipulating there -was a large tent 
G1 feet by 21, completely crammed to overcrowding, not holding much over 
the half of the exhibits, which had to be put outside. I was somewhat pleased 
to witness different articles awarded first prizes that I invented and 
exhibited seven years ago, but was then ignored. The exhibitors in appli- 
ancps were Messrs. McNally, Glenluce ; Steele of Dundee ; Young of Perth ; 
Leslie Tait of Aberdeen ; and Wm. Thomson, Blantyre. 
The Exhibition was entirely free from the interested competitors and 
judges which characterised the early shows. Nothing hut harmony pre¬ 
vailed, and so busy were they kept in explaining their exhibits and making 
sales to the great crowds of interested and inquiring people that no con¬ 
ference was possible. It might be thought invidious did I single out 
any'one as having appliances superior to another. There was not one that 
had not something superior to his neighbour well worth copying. The taste 
displayed in the losing hives was even superior to the first-prize ones The 
latter, however, had all the improvements and facilities for storing honey 
either above or in the body of the hive—non-absorbing roofs well ventilated, 
the floors the same, while the external surface was entirely free from pro¬ 
jecting angles, so that it is impossible for rain or wet to gain an entrance. 
For the best hive on the storifying principle there was much competi¬ 
tion, but the first and second prizes lay between a pretty Stewarton and 
outside case, and a pretty tiering hive belonging to Mr. Steele of Ne-wqiort, 
which had the first prize. I consider it would be an improvement in that 
hive if Mr. Steele would remove the plinths of cross straps, which impede 
manipulation when combs get fastened to the tops of the boxes, and are 
sure to draw damp; better, I think, were they placed in an outer case 
