JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 15, 1883 ] 
223 
ON BUYING HIVES. 
Though the seasons of late years have been very unfavourable 
for honey-gathering, the interest taken in bee-keeping has greatly 
increased in England, and every year the ranks of apiarians are 
enlarged by recruits chiefly from the better classes of society. 
Many working men, too, have made an attempt in bee-keeping ; 
but owing to the seasons and circumstances of trade being adverse 
at the time some were discouraged in their endeavour. It is 
known that many of the working classes long to have bees in their 
gardens, and doubtless if we have a honey season or two their desire 
for bees will be intensified, and bee-keepers will be multi plied. 
Then the pleasures and profits of bee-keeping will be widely real¬ 
ised, and bees will be considered a source of healthful enjoyment 
to all apiarians and of support to working people. I know what 
bees have done and can do in ordinary seasons and summers when 
fairly well managed. As it is desirable for beginners to com¬ 
mence bee-keeping with healthy strong hives, they should know 
something of bees or how to choose good hives before they buy 
them, or employ someone who does to purchase for them ; or 
otherwise to go to an honest competent dealer and trust him. 
The advice so often given—viz., not to buy stocks but swarms 
only, I do not follow. The reason given for this advice is that 
bee-keepers sell their worst stocks and keep their best. When I 
buy bees I buy stocks, not swarms. When men apply to me for 
stocks I ask them to select the best of all I have. When swarms 
are asked for I advise the applicants to purchase stocks in prefer¬ 
ence, and thus have the chance of getting both swarms aud honey 
the first season. Ladies and gentlemen at a distance who cannot 
visit my apiary and select hives for themselves generally ask me 
to do it for them. This, of course, is done, though I prefer or like 
buyers to choose for themselves. Thus some of my best stocks are 
sold every year, and sure enough I could have no satisfaction in 
selling inferior stocks. I am not now advertising bees or stocks 
of bees, for at present I have none to sell. My object in writing 
thus is to help beginners. 
About a fortnight ago I went ten miles to see a gentleman’s 
garden in this county—the last four miles I had to walk. On 
passing a cottager’s garden with four hives in it I called to ask 
what price they would be sold at: 21 s. each for either two or 
three of them. I agreed to give that price for two of them, and 
marked two which the cottager thought I would reject. Further 
on I came to a garden containing six hives—four straw and two 
bar-framers. I asked the owner what he wanted for the four 
straw hives. He said, “ You shall have them at any price you 
name.” “ No, you must price your own goods.” He did so, and 
I bought them at once, and brought them home yesterday. Though 
the hives are not first-class, being far inferior to many of my own 
which I have wintered, they are cheap enough, for we shall 
make twelve stocks out of the six during the summer, and have 
them in larger and better hives, and in better condition every way. 
With the hope of helping inexperienced people in selecting 
stocks, a few points of excellence may be here mentioned. 
1, Size and Appearance of Hive. — Handsome hives everybody 
likes, for they ornament gardens and please the eye. Large hives 
are more valuable than small ones, for they hold more bees and 
honey, and yield larger swarms and harvests of honey. 
2, The Combs. —Hives filled with young sweet combs are better, 
all other things being equal, than those full of old combs, and 
better too than those not filled with combs. The combs built in 
spring are often formed of drone cells, and hence hives not filled 
with combs before autumn have, generally speaking, a super¬ 
abundance of idle drones to feed during the following summer. 
But hives not nearly full of young combs are often to be preferred 
to hives full of old combs. The two hives I selected and bought 
for 21s. each are not nearly filled with combs, and the two others 
which I did not buy are full of older combs. 
3, Sees. —Numerical strength in stock hives is a point of great 
importance—greater than any other point in the opinion of ex¬ 
perienced apiarians who keep bees for profit. Those who make 
their hives strong with bees in autumn can smile at the dangers 
and difficulties of winter, and examine their stocks at all times 
with pleasure and confidence. Two gentlemen from the north of 
Lancashire called and asked to see my bees a few days ago. I 
had not examined them or unfastened them from their boards, 
but I lifted three or four of them in their presence, and found two 
of them in pretty good condition with bees between every comb ; 
and one, a sugar-fed stock, wi.h combs to the board in the centre 
of the hive and all the comb3 covered with bees. This extra 
strong hive was created in October, and I may venture to say the 
bees now in full health have lived and enjoyed life all the winter 
without pollen. During the last fortnight or three weeks while 
breeding has been going on my bees have had a small barrel of 
shavings sprinkled with flour placed near them. Hives in April 
and May with their combs covered with bees, as we found this 
stock, are within a month of swarming ; but in the colder atmo¬ 
sphere of February and March brood is not so widely spread, 
being more difficult to keep warm than it is in April and May : 
still we believe the hive in question will be quite ready for swarm- 
ing by the end of April. Early swarms are, generally speaking, 
the most valuable of all hives, and often outrun all hives that do 
not reach the swarming point till the middle of June; and the 
way to get early swarms is to make stocks strong in bees in 
autumn. 
Those who buy hives at a distance from home should ascertain 
and have a warrantry that their combs are well fastened and will 
not break on the journey, and that ventilation will be properly 
attended to. From August till April stocks may be purchased 
and removed with safety. In May and June, when hives are at 
the swarming point, it is rather risky to remove them. Better 
buy swarms then, One point which should be considered in buy¬ 
ing hives is the ages of the queens, youthful ones being the most 
valuable. The readers of the Journal interested in bees and bee- 
culture know that I attach great importance to autumn treatment, 
and believe that when bee-keepers learn by experience the value 
of strong hives they will alter their mode of management, so as to 
be able to make every stock hive marked for future work numeri¬ 
cally strong in autumn. The bees of honey hives given to stock 
hives in September increase their working powers and value very 
much. A bar-frame hive or a Pettigrew hive is at least worth 
1(L\ more with additional bees than without them. Hives weak 
in bees in spring have dangers and difficulties to meet. The bees 
can cover but few eggs, and therefore the patches of brood 
hatched are very small indeed. The fruit-blossom season passes 
betore they are ready for work ; indeed, many hives are lost from 
sheer want of heat or vitality in early spring. 
The value of hives and selling price vary with their strength. 
The price of second-rate stocks ranges between 20s. and 30s. each, 
and first-rate ones both in size and quality range between 30s. and 
40s. each. Hives in February and March with only two seams of 
bees are in danger of dying, and therefore not worth buying. 
Those with three seams of some size will live and may do well. 
Those with four seams of bees and two patches of brood are past 
all danger ; and those which have five and six seams of bees in 
February and beginning of March are in splendid condition, and 
likely to give great satisfaction in seasons of honey-gathering.— 
A. Pettigrew, Bowden. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Native Guano Company, Aylesbury, Bucks.— List of Testimonials. 
James Hunter, Chester.-— Catalogue of Agricultural Seeds for 
1883. 
Charles Turner, Slough.— Catalogue of Florists 1 Flowers for 1883. 
Edward Gillett, Southwick, Mass., IT.S. America. — Catalogue of 
North American Perennial Plants. 
G. Neighbour & Sons, 127, High Holborn.— Catalogue of Improved 
Bee Hives ( Illustrated ). 
James Dickson & Sons, 108, Eastgate Street, Chester.— Catalogue 
of Farm Seeds. 
Samuel Yates, 1G and 18, Old Millgate, Manchester.— Catalogue of 
Flower and Vegetable Seeds. 
George Templeton, Prestwick.— Catalogue of Florists’ Flowers. 
Dickson & Robinson, 12, Old Millgate, Manchester.— Catalogue of 
Farm Seeds. 
William Paul & Son, Paisley.— Catalogue of Florists’ Placers. 
%* All correspondence should be directed either to “The Editor” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
