December 9, 1880. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 541 
Let me, therefore, summarise what it will be important to attend 
to ere it be too late. 1, As to food. This is obviously of the 
first necessity, to see that every hive has enough and to spare. We 
have had some very warm days this autumn, and even a con¬ 
tinuance of them. Breeding, therefore, has been in unusually 
active operation, and consequently much stored honey has already 
been consumed. Where there is the slightest suspicion of a pos¬ 
sible lack of food it must be supplied forthwith. Choose the 
warmest days which may be given us, and top feed in small 
quantities, when the sun is out and the air calm. Remove the 
feeders and cover up the holes some time before sunset. In extreme 
cases it is a good plan to close the entrances and to bring the 
hives into the house at night, when they may be fed for some 
hours by the fireside in the warm kitchen ; also, barleysugar may 
be given them both at top and bottom where it is not con¬ 
venient to feed in any other way. If syrup is the food supplied 
it should now be somewhat thick and fortified with a little gin or 
other spirit. The sooner this is done the better ; but beware of 
feeding when the temperature is low or the wind high if the bees 
have access to the open air. 
2, Protection is the next important matter to be attended to. 
Already we have had the before-cast shadows of coming events 
in the snows and severe frosts which have visited us this year so 
much earlier than usual. Therefore let all bee-keepers look well 
to their hives, and see that no damp from snow or rain can lurk or 
linger about them. 
3, Hive entrances should be narrowed and guarded carefully 
against intrusion of mice or other vermin. If possible during the 
coldest weather, when snow lies deep or high winds prevail, and 
even in the treacherous weather of advancing spring, it will be 
often advisable to close the entrances altogether. Perforated zinc 
blocks will be found useful for this purpose, such as can easily be 
removed and replaced. Remove them on all soft sunny days, 
replacing them when the evening comes, and by their means 
keeping the bees confined in all uncertain or rough and stormy 
weather. By this means many a valuable life will be saved. 
Bees can be kept thus at home for several days together without 
much, if any, serious inconvenience to themselves. This treat¬ 
ment can be prolonged quite to the middle of April in the case of 
all but the most forward stock. But when once the population 
begins to extend itself so as to cover three parts of the combs it 
will no longer be prudent to confine the bees ; nor should this ever 
be done without seeing to the due ventilation of the stock by the 
application of bits of perforated zinc at the entrance and over 
the hole or holes at the top of the hive. 
4, Pedestals should be examined, and new and strong supports 
given wherever there is the least suspicion of decay, otherwise 
some stormy day the hives will be found overturned and ruined 
by some sudden gust of wind. 
5, Now is the time also for making all preparations for the 
future season. New hives should be made, and old and worn-out 
hives destroyed, especially if there is any suspicion of lurking 
disease, or if the wax moth has got hold of any. 
G, If any hives require to be removed in winter, perhaps the 
best time is just after a long frost. But even then it will not be 
safe to remove them to any position near their old stand. Nor 
should they be liberated after their removal till some morning 
warm and still. If a little syrup (a dessert-spoonful at a time) is 
poured into the hive at the time of their liberation it will cause 
an excitement about the hive entrance, which will attract home 
again any bees which might perhaps otherwise be lost. But I do 
not advise removing hives at any time of the year except to a 
considerable distance unless necessity requires it. It is better to 
wait till swarming time, when special facilities are afforded.—• 
B. & W. 
APIARIAN EXHIBITIONS. 
I should like to see a limit to the number of sections and 
bottles at exhibitions iu their classes, say to a dozen each. What 
chance has a poor cottager at a distance from the show with a 
rich neighbour? The expense of packing, carriage, &c., entirely 
excludes the poor man from competition. 
Straw skeps should be more encouraged. The majority of 
cottagers are not yet sufficiently skilful to manage moveable 
comb hive3 successfully, but where that skill is forthcoming by 
all means use moveable combs, as undoubtedly that is the best 
system. 
^Transferring the combs from skeps to bar-frames should be 
either discontinued or done in a business-like manner. Some 
that were at the St. Albans Show had to be done again after 
coming out of the tent! What the Judges could think of it 
1 know not, but if I had been judge I should certainly have dis¬ 
qualified them. Transferring, in my mind, should be rendered 
complete ready for the bees to finish. —Stinger. 
BEES IN NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 
In 1879 I did not obtain an ounce of honey, but was £3 on the 
wrong side for sugar instead. I had five stocks this spring, one 
of which died. With swarms from the four, and four stocks 
I bought cheap in the summer, I raised the number to twelve. I 
broke ten skeps up, half of them large Tettigrews, took the honey, 
transferred brood and best combs to frame hives, united, and fed 
up for the winter. Out of the ten skeps I took G5 lbs. of honey. 
Paid for sugar £4 Is. Altogether I am about £6 out of pocket this 
season. I started three years ago, and have lost £16. The only 
consolation I have are my nine stocks, which, if next season is like 
the past has been, will cost me a trifle more. I have six frame 
hives with bees in, the others are skeps. I made the frame hives 
myself at a cost of about 2s. Gd. each. I can count thirty hives 
around me which have not 30 lbs. of food amongst them. Last 
winter killed nineteen out of every twenty colonies kept here on 
the old style. The coming winter will finish the rest if they are 
not fed, which many bee-keepers refuse to do, except by a handful 
of sugar on a plate.— North Notts. 
THE DALBEATTIE BAR-FRAME HIVE. 
In answer to Mr. M. H. Matthews in your issue of November 
18th I annex a description of the hive with which I manipulate. 
After a number of years’ improvements with the assistance of 
Mr. R. Wilson, who is a joiner and a bee-keeper, and the sole 
maker of the hive, we have found this to be the most efficient 
combined with cheapness and simplicity of any of the various 
bar-frame hives of our experience. The body of the hive is 
24 inches long by 20 wide, and is double walled up to the level 
of the frames with a dead air space between. The upper part 
of the walls is single and hinged, so as to fall down to the level 
of the frames, which gives easy access to the apiarist when 
manipulating with the hive, and is of great convenience when 
closed for receiving hay or chaff cushions in winter. The hinged 
doors at the ends are constructed to fall dowm without having to 
remove the roof, so that easy inspection of the hive can be made. 
The floor board is moveable, is wedged up in front, and projects 
2j inches along the whole front to form a convenient alighting 
board. A swarming box with dividing boards is made to take 
the place of the floor board when inserting a new swarm. The 
hive has two entrance holes with regulating slides. The holes are 
4 inches long, one for brood chamber and the other for supering. 
The latter is covered with queen-proof zinc, and the whole pro¬ 
tected by an ornamental porch, which gives a neat appearance to 
the hive. The roof is of neat design, 8 inches high at the centre, 
and along with folding side walls allows 12 inches supering room. 
The inside of the hive contains thirteen self-adjusting bar-frames 
144 inches by 9 inches, with top bars 17 inches long, resting on 
zinc edging to prevent the bees from propolising, and so allow the 
operator to slide or remove the frames with the greatest ease. It 
has two moveable glass ends and one zinc queen-excluder, which, 
placed at the centre of the hive, confines the queen to a restricted 
brood chamber. The openings between the top bars are covered 
with notched reversible slips, which are useful in top supering. 
When placing the hive in winter form we restrict the bees to 
a certain number of frames according to the strength of the stock, 
and substitute wooden dummies for glass ends, filling up the 
vacant space with meadow hay, which keeps them at an equal 
temperature and allows thorough ventilation.— John Thomson, 
102, High Street, Dalbeattie. 
P.S.—A frame containing six one-pound sections is sent out 
with every hive, which can be inserted instead of ordinary frames. 
BEES ON THE MOORS. 
Heather is known to be rich pasture for bees at a late season, 
and wherever it is within easy distance of advanced bee-keepers 
seeking profit their bees are taken to it in August. I am sorry I 
cannot tell your Leicester correspondent, “ C. F.” (page 452) how 
far he is from good fields of Heather. We are twenty-five miles 
from good Heather, and our bees are, generally speaking, taken to 
it. “ C. F.’s ” idea of spending his holidays with his bees among 
the Heather is a good one. One of our Sale grocers annually 
spends his holidays at a fashionable watering place. I met him 
on his return home about two months ago, full of satisfaction and 
bright with health, and he said he had £9 more money in his 
pocket than he had when he went. On being asked how he 
managed this, he said he bred a lot of pug dogs and took them 
