September 11, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
251 
Callus that may have been planted out and have made good growth 
may now be taken up and repotted. It is much better to lift them early, 
so that they have time to become established before it is necessary to 
house them. When potting as many roots as possible should be pre¬ 
served, according to the size of pots they are to be placed in. No injury 
to the plants will result if the whole of the soil is shaken from amongst 
the roots as long as a good number of the latter be retained. These 
plants do not require very large pots in which to grow them to perfection. 
In potting, drain the pots by placing one or two large crocks at the base, 
which will be ample. The soil should consist of good loam with one- 
seventh of manure added, and unless the former is of a very heavy nature 
no sand will be needed. Directly potting is completed a good soaking of 
water should be given, and the soil and foliage kept moist until fresh 
root-action commences. The best position for them is on the north side 
of a wall where the sun will not reach them. If lifted at once they will 
be thoroughly established before it is necessary to house them. 
Bamardias that have been planted out should also be lifted and re¬ 
potted. Care must be taken to secure a good ball of soil attached to the 
roots, or the plants will not become established so easily or so quickly in 
their pots as the Dallas. It is a great mistake to defer the work in 
question until the end of thejmonth, for root-action is then less active and 
the plants are nearly double the length of time becoming established in 
their pots. If potted now they will establish themselves as well behind a 
north wall as if placed in a cold frame and kept close and shaded. When 
lifting is left until the end of the month a frame becomes necessary, 
especially in localities where early frosts are the rule. The same compost 
advised for Dallas will suit these plants. 
1 
m BEE-KJ^EPER. 
BEE-KEEPING FOR THE BEGINNER. 
GLIMPSES INSIDE THE HIVE. 
It matters very little in what a man professes to teach, he is often 
beset with queries from novices on matters difficult to explain without 
going into the rudiments of the science, and even after that labour 
he may fail to give a satisfactory explanation. The different opinions 
on bees and bee culture by professed apiculturists increase the queries 
and make them more difficult to explain. For some time past I have 
been flooded with queries, which with the strength and time at mj^ 
disposal I Lave been unable to answer. I hope, therefore, that this 
article will be a sufficient apology, and that they will find in it and 
subsequent ones the desired information. I will explain the most 
humane and profitable management of bees, leaving the scientific nuts 
difficult to crack to persons, of wffiich there are plenty, both able and 
willing to perform the task. When a grain of Mustard seed is de¬ 
posited in the earth there is nothing particularly striking about it, but 
in a short time, under the influence of the sun, it bursts into leaf, 
branch, and flowers. The plants and the flowers are next flourishing, 
providing for the bees sweet nectar and pollen. This is a great change 
from simple seed, but a greater and still more wonderful change will 
be made by the bees. In a few hours the whole virtues of the flowers 
will appear in the beautiful, white, and mathematically built semi¬ 
transparent combs. The bee, a laboratory complete, can voluntarily 
change the honey into wax or store it into the perfect mechanically 
built cells, which will in a few days contain both sealed honey and 
young bees. The heat necessary for their existence will be generated 
in the bees by the same material through a combined chemical and 
mechanical process, perfected through the concentration of the bees, 
thus conserving the heat so necessary in comb-building, rearing the 
young, and the storing and safe keeping of the honej'. 
Leaving these wonderful things to be still further investigated by 
tlie intending bee-keeper, let us now explain what I have just been 
witnessing inside an observatory hive. Among the firt-t things 
observable after they have been transferred to the unicomb hive is to 
gradually concentrate themee’ves, and often, though reluctantly, leave 
their brood when too widely extended. If honey is to be had they 
secrete wax and commence to build combs transverse to the unicomb. 
While this is going on others will be at work collecting pollen and 
honey, while the queen will be busy depositing the eggs in prepared 
cells, fastening each egg to the base of the cell. This is her whole 
duty, but it is a laborious one. She is paid great deference and 
receives court by the workers, but beyond that no other assistance is 
rendered. The queen does not interfere in the internal economy of 
the hive. She has no favourites, and all bees are courtiers alike. 
She lays eggs only where the bees have had the cells previously pre¬ 
pared. This is a lesson that the brood nest should be so large that 
the bees will not require to shorten and thicken the edges of the 
combs in supers, as where that is done the queen will attempt an 
entrance. Move as the queen will, the bees retreat before her. The 
same thing is noticed in bees which are playing the part of hair¬ 
dresser. While one bee is being curded with outspread wings another 
approaches, and when within an inch or so spreads its wings, and 
immediately the dresser leaves its charge and attends to the wants 
and wishes of another, and so on. This same sense or feeling seems 
to extend to the bees in the other work of the hive, for no sooner do 
we see a bee leave the cradle of the young queen than another bee 
from an opposite direction takes its place, and so it is all through the 
different workings. The building of the comb receives the same 
attention, while tke seereters of the wax and the manner in which 
the bees convey the scales either from their own or neighbours' wax 
pockets is indeed surprising, while the transferring and kneading and 
storing of pollen is equally so. 
The combs of tl e hive I have been looking into are nearly empty. 
There is veiy little honey in them, but the day is warm and the bees 
are busy collecting outside and stoiing it in the uppermost combs— 
not, as some tell us, in the lower cells firat—to be again carried up at 
night, but right from the fields to the upper granary at the first. 
Bees know how to economise labour just as well as they know where 
and how to store their honey for preservation and safety. This 
instinct of the bee should be encouraged and not thwarted, and the 
hive made in accordance to its nature and wishes. 
In leaving the observatory hive and taking a peep at another with 
an equal number of bets, but in a Stewarton hive, I find these have 
stored far more honey and consumed less in a certain time than the 
bees in the observatory hive, from which much is to be learned ; for 
though not profitable it is still advisable to have one for the purpose 
of acquiring a perfect knowledge hovv bees should be managed and 
giving an insight into the deeper mysteries in connection with them. 
As it is now mid-harvest at the Heather and the last week of the 
honey season of 1884, and as some of the hives are heavy and strong 
in bees, they will require careful handling at the home-bringing. 
One thing essential is ventilation both above and below, and as all 
are tiered with supers there can be no inverting of the hiv^es. I will 
simply ventilate well and place them on the waggon if the springs 
are stiff. The hives should be corded, firm, and placed so that the 
combs will not receive any jarring on the broad side, but on the ends. 
The proper position to place them, however, can only be learned on 
having a thorough knowledge of the vehicle and the road to be 
traversed. With a very light spring, a smooth road, and steady horse 
the combs placed parallel to the axle will travel comparatively safe, 
but if these properties are wanting it will perhaps be found as safe to 
place them otherwise. When upon the railway it is different. They 
should always be placed so that the combs are at right angles to 
the axle, and if possible with a cushion of hay between each hive. 
Another week I will explain more facts of bees and their doings at 
the Heather ; meanwhile I may give one illustration of what bees 
can do when properly managed. 
On the morning of the 20th ult. I examined a hive with a cover 
of nine 4-lb. supers all empty. At four o’clock the same afternoon 
I found the bees had taken possession, and on the morning of Monday 
the 25th found all the supers filled with comb and honey, six of them 
being sealed. This is perhaps as great a feat as ever was performed 
by an old stock that has swarmed twice during the year, besides 
undergoing the decimation of bees through a week’s campaign at 
Edinburgh Show, where it obtained the first prize as the best hive 
stocked with bees and their queen. This is also the hive I mentioned 
before as being a cross between Cyprians, Ligurians, and Carniolians, 
but it is not the only one that has made an extraordinary weight, 
particulars of which I will give.—A Lanarkshike Bee-keeper. 
QUEENLESS HIVES. 
As this is a subject of such vast importance to the bee-keeper, I 
naturally read the “Lanarkshire Bee-keeper’s ’’ remarks on the topic. It 
has often bothered me ; and as finding the queen to beginners and occa¬ 
sionally to old hands is like “ looking for a needle in a bundle of hay,” 
I was charmed to find “ a sure sign of the want of a queen, &;c., &c.” 
“ Here we have it,” said I to myself, “ this is just what I have always been 
seeking for,” and I prepared myself for the easy and direct road to know¬ 
ledge. I read on anxiously, but my hopes of understanding the “ sure 
sign ” fell as I found that it was “ when bees are observed to crowd and 
loiter at the entrance.” Well, I am thick in the clear, but I have marked 
hives where this appeared to be the performance that was going on. The 
entrance might have been the e-planade of a fashionable watering place, 
and yet when examined, these hives have been found all right and have 
done well. I recollect asking one of our large bee-masters as to his guide 
in this important matter, but although he appeared to allow this peripa¬ 
tetic tendency of the bees at the entrance when queenless, his reply was, 
“ Examine the hive.” The way, he said, he should satisfy himself was to 
take an empty hive, place it propped up on a sheet or large piece of white 
paper, and taking each bar separately shake off or brush off the bees a 
foot from the hive, and patiently watch fi r her majesty, as they run to the 
hive. This entails a great amount of trouble, in all probability a fair 
amount of stings to the novice, and it is possible that the beginner, if he 
essay the trial, may miss the queen. It is curious how easy this is. 
Now in Sir J. Lubbock’s book on “ Ants, Wasps, and Bees,” he speaks 
of marking the two lat er with paint, I think. Would it be injurious, 
