JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 31, 1883. ] 
457 
Mixtures are fashionable, and, where well arranged, are very 
pretty. Blue Lobelias, alternated with either Pyrethrum, Koniga 
variegata, Golden Thyme, Dactylis glomerata, and Festuca glarra 
forms a good edging, or the centre of a small bed edged with 
Alternanthera amoena or magnifica. Blue Violas, mixed or al¬ 
ternated in diagonal lines with bronze, golden, or silver variegated 
Pelargoniums, surrounded with a broad flatly-pegged band of 
Iresines and edged with Lobelias, are very effective. The same 
may be said of a mixture of Verbena venosa and Pelargonium 
Bijou or Veronica Andersonii variegata. A mixture of Iresine 
Lindeni and Gazauia splendens, edged with blue Lobelias, 
scarlet or purple Verbenas, with Pelargonium Manglesii, edged 
with Pyrethrum ; Iresines with yellow Calceolarias, edged with 
Flower of Spring or Mrs. Mappin Pelargoniums; Zea japonica 
variegata, mixed with Salvia patens or Verbena venosa, sur¬ 
rounded with Iresine Herbstii or Amaranthus melancholicus ruber, 
and edged with Bobert Fish or some other golden or silver 
variegated Pelargonium, are all showy arrangements which may 
be imitated or improved upon according to the material available. 
DRIVING BEES FOR ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 
Artificial swarming can be practised either with straw skeps 
or bar-frame hives. With the former it is necessary to drive out 
the swarm into an empty step. The way to do this has been so 
often explained, and can now be seen at bee shows in all parts of 
the kingdom. But many may have bees for the first time this 
season, and for their sakes we will tell, in as few words as possible, 
how to drive a swarm from a skep. We must suppose the owner 
of the bees first ascertains that his bees are ready to spare a swarm. 
He will require for the purpose two empty skeps, a smoker or roll of 
smouldering rag, a little thin syrup, and three skewers or two pieces 
of stout wire bent as shown in fig. 100, which are preferable, and 
always handy for driving condemned bees in autumn. The best 
time to drive a swarm is in the middle of a hot still day, when a 
great part of the bees are away in the fields. Most of the young 
bees will then be secured in the swarm, and the brood hatching 
out daily will soon take their place, the returning bees taking 
up the duties of the hive meanwhile. A pufE or two of smoke 
should be blown in at the mouth of the hive, and the hive gently 
tapped two or three times to scare the bees. In a few minutes, 
during which, if the skep to be operated on has a dome-shaped 
top, a zinc pail should be placed in a quiet spot some yards from 
the stand, and the wires placed handy for use with an empty skep. 
The other empty skep is to be placed on the stand as soon as the 
stock is removed—to keep the bees amused as they return from 
foraging. Four minutes after scaring the stock with smoke and 
tapping quietly, turn it upside down, and not forgetting to place 
the decoy hive in its position, carry the inverted stock to the pail: 
it will firmly stand on that receptacle. Sprinkle over the bees 
the thin syrup, and allow them a minute or two to gorge—they 
have already begun to do so from the honey-cells. This will allow 
time to fix the empty skep over the full one at about an angle of 
45°, in such a manner as to get as much light as possible on the 
junction of the hives, so as to see the procession well, and, if 
possible, to have a good view of her majesty as she ascends. 
Nearly all the bees may be taken in the swarm, and thus the 
presence of the queen be almost certain. Gently patting the 
lower hive on both sides with the flat hand the bees will soon 
run up, and the whole thing done much easier and quicker than 
one can write how to do it. An artificial swarm from a bar-frame 
hive is a much easier matter. Sufficient bees are shaken off the 
frames, taken out one by one into an empty hive, the queen’s, of 
course, being secured. A comb of brood and eggs should be 
placed with the swarm, and full sheets of foundation given, and 
the swarm will soon be as powerful as the stock.—P. H. P. 
BRITISH BEE-KEEPERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The exhibition of bees, hives, honey, &c., arranged by the 
Committee of the above Association to be held at Bridgewater 
during the continuance of the Bath and West of England 
Agricultural Show, was opened on Monday. Although not an 
extensive exhibition, the show of appliances is pronounced to 
be one of the best ever held out of London. Prizes were awarded 
as follows :—For the best observatory hive, first and second 
prizes, Mr. T. B. Blow, Welwyn, Herts. These hives were of 
the best manufacture. Mr. Blow was also awarded first prize 
for an admirable and extensive collection of appliances. Messrs. 
Richards & Honey of Exeter, and Mr. S. J. Baldwin taking second 
and third prizes respectively. Mr. S. J. Baldwin was awarded 
first prizes for well-made hives in the classes at 15s. and 10s. 6 d. 
each. Messrs. Richards & Honey, Mr. C. T. Overton, Three Bridges, 
Sussex, and Mr. A. Blake, Dallinghoo, Suffolk, are also prizewinners. 
The show of honey is small, owing to there being but a small 
quantity of this year’s on hand. 
PLEASURES AND PROFITS OF BEE-KEEPING. 
Five and fifty years of pretty extensive experience among bees 
has deepened the interest and pleasure I take in their management. 
Unlike some poets, philosophers, and naturalists, I have kept bees 
for profit, and in doing so I have derived intense pleasure and 
enjoyment; and age and infirmity do not lessen the interest I have 
so long taken in the habits and management of bees. They have 
afforded both pleasure and profit to our family for nearly eighty 
years. It therefore becomes me to speak well of bees. In their 
history we have found problems difficult to solve, and in their 
habits very much to command admiration. There is something 
interesting to thoughtful minds in the fact that every hive of bees 
is a numerous, separate, and independent family, thoroughly loyal 
to the interests of them own community, and hold no fellowship 
with the bees of other hives; also that the industrial instincts of 
bees everywhere prompt them to seek and find them own food in 
summer, and store up enough, and often more than enough, for 
their own keep in winter. Bees work night and day, and if set in 
a strange place, or on a foreign shore, they go to work with all 
possible speed. In every bee-hive at certain seasons there is a 
queen, or female; males, or drones; and working bees. In this 
wonderful community, perhaps the most wonderful things are 
done in the preparations made for swarming; for the creation, 
birth, and enthronement of queens; the creation of drone life at 
the proper time, and its destruction when drones are useless and 
hurtful to the community. The lives of working bees, which are 
both masters and slaves of the community, present features of 
interest to men of intelligence. Amid the toils and activity of 
summer life, and the rest of autumn and winter, who has ever 
found working bees asleep ? Who can affirm that they ever sleep 
at all ? The wonders of a bee-liive has never been fully told, and 
we expect that future researches will discover many more pleasing 
features in the history of bees. All we wish to say here on this 
subject is, that bees have been a perennial and increasing source 
of pleasure to us and many of our friends and acquaintances, and 
doubtless will be to future generations. 
We say the same thing as to profit. W r e are quite satisfied with 
our bees and with the kind of our bees. Properly managed they 
never fail in fair weather; and if I were to spend money in seeking 
better bees and hives than I have, I should fail to find them—the 
money would be misspent. The folly of spending money on costly 
hives and new bees becomes more and more evident every year. 
If ladies and gentlemen vant to have a profitable return from their 
bees let me kindly suggest a diminution of expenditure on hives 
ard a search after better bees. Our bees never degenerate. In 
gccd-sized straw hives filled with common bees we have known 
many swains rise in weight to 140 lbs. and 150 lbs. each first 
