October 26, 1882. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 395 
whether three bleeding boxes are essential to the completeness and 
efficiency of this hive, and whether one or two breeding boxes will 
not answer as well as three. If this question be fairly and fully 
considered I think that three sections of breeding boxes will be 
deemed quite unnecessary. The three supers for use over the breed¬ 
ing space are unobjectionable, for they afford ample space for great 
stores of honeycomb and give completeness to an admirable arrange¬ 
ment for expansion. Not so much can be said in favour of having 
three breeding boxes instead of one or two. In good seasons for 
honey, when supers become well filled, we invariably find that much 
honey is stored in the breeding space below. With three sections, 
as in the case of the wooden Stewarton, the top section can be re¬ 
moved for run honey, and the two bottom ones kept as a stock, and 
doubtless this is often done, though to my mind there is a better 
and more profitable way of management. Even if it were an advan¬ 
tage to winter the bees in the two bottom boxes we have to consider 
the disadvantages of a hive in three parts, which are expensive and 
inconvenient. I think the principle of the Stewarton hive could be 
well and satisfactorily carried into practice on a straw hive pro¬ 
perly made, and sold at a much lower price than the present 
Stewarton. Some advanced bee-keepers of the modern school advise 
beginners to commence bee-keeping with inexpensive straw hives. 
This is good advice. I will go a step farther in the same direction, 
and advise beginners to commence with cheap wooden boxes rather 
than with expensive hives. Some amateurs and moneyed people can 
afford to go the whole round of fashion, but working men cannot. 
Buying costly hives is not the shortest road to success. The suc¬ 
cessful men in bee-keeping are those who can manage bees well in 
any kind of hive, and who also know that complications in bee hives, 
meant for the convenience of bee-masters, are often inconvenient 
to the bees themselves. 
In supering the Stewarton hive there is a difference of opinion 
and practice. Some think that when the first super is nearly or 
partially filled the better way is to put an additional super on the 
top of the first, and when the second one is partly filled a third one 
should be put on the top of all, thus making the bees extend their 
stores upward farther from the breeding boxes. Some able advo¬ 
cates and patrons of this hive maintain that this is the proper way 
of supering the Stewarton. On the other hand, some enlightened 
apiarians think that the better and more natural way is to put at 
the proper time the second super below the first, and the third one 
below the second, and thus prevent the bees travelling through 
finished supers to work in others above them. The traffic of bees 
across virgin combs recently built would destroy to a certain extent 
the beautiful bloom on them when first finished ; but the difference 
of opinion existing as to the better way of adding super to super 
does not detract from the excellence of the Stewarton principle of 
supering. 
"We have now to notice the bar-frame hive, which is much better 
known than the Stewarton. Indeed, it is so well known that any 
attempt on my part to explain its structure and mode of manage¬ 
ment would be unnecessary. It is the fashionable hive at the 
present time, and has the patronage of the bee-keepers’ associations 
of England, and no expense is spared in commending its virtues 
and showing bow it can be manipulated. Though I cannot endorse 
all that is said about its superiority and advantages, I will here 
mention some of its best features. The main feature and principal 
characteristic of the bar-frame hive is this, that its combs or bars 
are equal in size, moveable, and therefore interchangeable, and 
being so they can be removed from one part of the hive to another, 
or removed from the hive altogether, have their contents taken 
from them and restored to the hive again. Honey bars can be taken 
and brood bars left. For other and various purpo-es the moveable- 
comb system has advantages which no honest man will question. 
The frames facilitate the use of comb foundations, and if frame 
hives are made large enough to hold sixteen bars supering may be 
dispensed with, as the outside bars would answer for honeycomb or 
sections ; and by having blind frames for partitions the hive could 
be contracted in winter, as is often done now. Notwithstanding 
all that has been and could be said in favour of the moveable comb 
system, I have never been able to fall in love with it. I get more 
and greater advantages from simpler and cheaper hives that are 
far more easily managed. Besides, frame hives like the present 
Stewarton are made of wood, which is, as has often been said, 
unsuitable material for bee hives. The ingenuity of bee-keepers 
has been taxed to find a method of letting the moisture of bees out 
of wooden hives, but, so far as I know, all have hitherto failed. The 
quilt was tried, and other schemes. Cavity walls are now being 
tried. Some of the American bee-keepers declare that hives cracked 
and op* n from top to bottom winter bees better than uncracked 
hives which have no ventilation whatever. 
So far as I know, those that use and understand the Stewarton 
hive are quite satisfied with it, and this is certainly a proof of its 
excellence. It is not a pretty hive, and its price, 25s, will and 
does prevent its being widely known. But if the Stewarton 
principle can be grafted on the straw hive and sold at a low price its 
usefulness will soon be known, and its fame travel fast and far. We 
have no hesitation in predicting that the Stewarton hive made of 
straw will take the lead in the supering apiaries of England. 
The reader may now be ready to ask why I, who use common 
straw hives, commend the Stewarton principle so highly. This i3 
a reasonable question. Many people keep bees for supering. iPure 
honeycomb is what they want. If supering were my only object 
in bee-keeping I would adopt the Stewarton principle. But I keep 
bees for profit, and can get as much honey from a common straw 
hive as can be obtained from either Stewarton or bar-frame hives, 
and I can sell run honey at about as high a price as honeycomb ; 
and I wish bee-keepers to know and remember that in supering the 
bar-frame and the Pettigrew hive there is a loss of 2 lbs. of honey 
at least in every 7 lbs. gathered—that is, for every 7 lbs. of honey 
collected into a simple hive and there stored, only 5 lbs. are gathered 
into a supered hive. ’These facts go a long way to support the 
principle of simplicity as against that of complexity in hives. All 
complications, divisions, separations in hives are unnatural and 
artificial, and act as hindrances to bees at work, whatever advantage 
they may be to the hive-dealer and bee-master. Another con¬ 
sideration with me is this, that a Stewarton hive made of wood 
costs 25.?., and for this sum I could get seven or eight first rate 
straw hives, which answer well all the purposes I have in keeping 
bees, and, moreover, I can afford to sell excellent stocks of bees at 
a price almo-t as low as the cost of an empty Stewaiton. I am 
quite as satisfied with my straw hives as 1 was forty years ago. 
They are so cheap, serviceable, and easily managed that I have no 
intention or wish to possess other kinds of hives.—A. Pettigkew. 
BRITISH BEE-KEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The last quarterly meeting of the Committee and the representa¬ 
tives of county bee-keepers’ associations for the present year was 
held at 105, Jermyn Street, on the 18th inst. In addition to the ordi¬ 
nary monthly meetings of the Committee quarterly meetings are held, 
at which representatives of the several affiliated county bee-keepers’ 
associations are entitled to be present. There was a good attendance 
at this meeting, including Mr. Thomas W. Cowan (in the chair), Rev. 
E. Bartrum, Hon. and Rev. H. Bligh, Captain C. D. Campbell, Mr. 
J. M. Hooker, Rev. G. Raynor, Rev. E. T. Scott, Mr. D. Stewart, Mr. 
W. O. B. Glennie (Treasurer), Rev. H. R. Peel (Hon. Sec.), and the 
following- county representatives—viz., Rev. N. Andrews, Sussex ; 
Rev. W. E. Burkitt, Wilts ; Messrs. G. Allen and G. Garratt, Kent; 
J. P. Jackson, Lancashire and Cheshire ; and F. H. Lemare, 
Surrey. 
The minutes of the last meeting having been read, confirmed, and 
signed, it was resolved —“ That certificates be prepared in accordance 
with the copy submitted by the Secretary, and forwarded to the 
several candidates who gained first, second, and third-class honours 
in the recent examination held at South Kensington.” The Honorary 
Secretary was requested to communicate with the Bath and West of 
England Agricultural Society, the North of England Agricultural 
Society, and the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and to take 
such steps as he deems advisable for the purpose of arranging exhi¬ 
bitions of bees, hives, honey, &c., at Bridgewater, Liverpool, and 
York in connection with the annual shows of the above societies 
during 1883. 
The Rev. E. Bartrum, Hon. and Rev. H. Bligh, and Mr. D. Stewart 
were appointed as the sub-committee for the management of the honey 
market in London. 
The Rev. E. Bartrum submitted the MSS. of a short chapter on the 
best methods of bee management with “ straw skeps,” and advocated 
the importance of such instruction being given in the next edition of 
“ Modern Bee-Keeping.” Mr. Garratt, Mr. Lemare, Mr. Jackson, and 
others supported Mr. Bartrum’s proposal. It was pointed out that 
information in regard to feeding, supering, «tc., with straw skeps was 
already inserted in the present edition of the work. The Rev. G. 
Raynor and Messrs. T. W. Cowan and J. M. Hooker were unani¬ 
mously appointed as the sub-committee for the final revision of the 
new edition of this handbook. 
The Rev. W. E. Burkitt brought forward several proposals relating 
to the prices and terms upon which hives and other goods should be 
exhibited at the annual show of the British Bee-Keepers’ Association. 
It was resolved that such suggestions be taken into consideration at 
the time the prize lists for 1883 were determined upon. 
At the close of the above meeting Mr. G. D. Haviland read an in¬ 
teresting paper on “The Social Instincts of Bees : Their Origin by 
Natural Selection.” Mr. Haviland treated his subject in a masterly 
manner, and was heartily applauded at its close. There was a large 
attendance of members, including several ladies. The Rev. F. T. 
Scott presided. The Honorary Secretary announced that Sir John 
Lubbock would have taken the chair on this occasion, but a prior 
engagement prevented him from doing so. 
