122 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Atignet 5, 1885. 
impossibility of preventing bees swarming when once they have 
made up their minds to raise queens, which I still adhere to. I 
therefore need not say more on that at present, further than do 
not try to prevent it. Bees will not work much while queen-rearing 
is going on, but the swarm will, and two joined will go ahead in 
fine style. Seconds or after-casts, unless required for the increase 
of stocks, should be prevented, but this can only be done by 
excising all royal cells unless one. Syrians and Cyprians are 
very troublesome, by throwing otf many after-oasts, owing to 
the great number of queens raised, while both them and Carnio- 
lians will send out a swarm from but one or two combs placed in 
a full-sized hive. Of how little worth, then, is the theory that 
swarming can be prevented by giving room. 
There are many assertions made that have nothing to substan¬ 
tiate them, and bee-keepers often draw false conclusions from 
the appearances of a casual visit, and then put them in print 
in perfect good faith, but not with accuracy, hence are misleading. 
Huber and other great naturalists devoted much time in taking 
notes and watching the movements of their bees—the only way 
facts can be arrived at and the true workings of the bees set 
down. Many things o'cur amongst bees of which the casual ob¬ 
server has no knowledge. I have been often puzzled at times, but 
confess I have a weakness for knowing the exact nature of 
abnormal appearances and occurrences in my apiary. To solve 
these I have, to my loss, watched my bees for weeks together 
from sunrise to sunset without being many minutes absent, the 
result being that I can now tell from the conduct of the bees 
what is their intention, and what is the cause of any supposed 
or real aberration on their part. 
Saturday, the 17th July, was the first day of the season that 
was favourable for dividing into nuclei. The weather and the 
conduct of the bees that day was all that could be desired. 
Queens were piping and a huge swarm came off a non-swarming 
hive, a dozen of nuclei were formed, and combs of swarmed stock 
overhauled, all its royal cells were excised, and its combs taken 
to strengthen nuclei. While in the act of dividing, a Syrian 
stock sent off a swarm of the usual sort common with these 
prolific queens. It was hived and thrown back quickly to allow 
me to go on with the mare important work of securing what I 
had hope to be pure-breeding Garniolians, but owing to its being 
Saturday must take their chance at home for fertilisation, and 
even should they not mate with pure drones, they will be none 
the worse for honey-gathering next year. The Carniolians have 
only one fault—viz , that of dying a long time when swarming 
before settling or clustering. Neither veil, gloves, nor any quieter 
is necessary whatever when manipulating these bees if anything 
like care and caution is used. They are first-class honey gatherers 
too, leaving nothing else to be desired that we wish bees to 
possess. I observe, too, that they are capital at super work, 
which some of the other varieties lack; but for honey-gathe'ing 
the crossed Cyprians excel all others; were it not that I prefer 
pui’e breeds to crosses, for appearance’ sake, I should not desire 
any other kind of bee 
All my crossed Cyprians are heavy, much heavier than any 
other sort, having finished supers, an 1 a first swarm of these 
four weeks hived with the untoward weather and few honey days 
already described. The bees, combs, and their contents ( minus 
the hive) weigh 80 lbs. As I am on the eve of departing for the 
Highland and Agriculturil Show at Dumfries, will leave over till 
another paper the difficulties 1 encountered with queens from 
other hives entering my nuclei, as well as some vagaries of the 
Syrian bees, also an account of the Caledonian Apiarian Show 
at Dumfries.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
PRESERVING BEES DURING WINTER. 
That success follows well wintered hives where the bees of autumn 
or summer have been preserved until the following summer no sensible 
person will attempt to deny. Where that is not the case, then bee-keeping 
becomes a failure. Ac the present time I have bees which are to my 
certain knowledge fourteen montns old, and I believe they are some 
months older, as I count only from the time I hived them last year. I 
can describe the best system of managing bees without the slightest fear 
of contradiction from any important bee-keeper. This was not always 
the case, although I have never deviated from the c;urse I have pursued 
nearly ail the term of my bee-keeping life. I remember well the advice 
upon this point given by Mr. Petiigrew, and he was right and in ac ;ord- 
anca with my own experience. It may be summed up in the following 
words :— Do not feed be.e< if it can be avoided. When required feed at 
once as quickly as possible, and in quantity sufficient to tide the bees 
over till all danger is past. Feed no later than September, and it is better 
it bo finished in August. Fe- d swarms if the weather is unfavourable, 
an 1 when there is a danger of the bees drawing the brood. Feed at a 
time ani in such a mauner that stranger bee3 are not a'tracted to the fed 
ones. 
Feeding in October, if carried out, the bee would soon become extinct 
in many districts After hives are filled in August with new worker 
combs, well provisioned, the hive of a size to admit both stores and brood 
of a healthy, young, fertile, and prolific queen, there remains little else to 
be done but to protect the bees and hive from damp, both internally and 
externally, for the rest of the winter. From what I have seen written in 
bee periodicals, and what I have witnessed in apiaries, there is no doubt 
that the successful plan of wintering bees is but little understood, especially 
amongst modern bee-keepers. 
Although I can form a fair knowledge how a hive is likely to stand 
well and survive the winter when under my direct supervision, it is not 
quite so easy a task to give instructions for the management of those I 
have never seen. I have just been looking at a hive of bees which have 
been located in a roof for a year. They seem strong, and apparently in 
good heart. Some people will probably come to the conclusion that to 
keep bees under similar circumstances success would be sure to follow, but 
after imitaung them to the letter nothing but disappointment would result. 
I speak advisedly upon this point. The roof of a house is dry, and being 
a long way above ground is, in a great measure, away from the exhalations 
of the earth ; and from the position of bees and combs they are, com¬ 
paratively speaking, free from the moist atmosphere, at least the air does 
not afEect bees in a roof as it does in structures made specially for them ; 
moreover, it is always warmer close to the roof of a house than it is away 
from it. But if we give bees the same treatment in hives as those located 
in roofs disaster is sure to follow. If it was the damp from the respiration 
of bees only that we had to contend with, we should have little difficulty; 
but when the humidity of the air is combined with that of the bees, it 
baffles us in the treatment we should necessarily give for a successful issue. 
I have often witnessed bees come successfully through severe winters that 
had little attention or protection, while those evidently cared for were in 
a poor state. Our changeable and variable climate, no doubt, tends t o 
puzzle us as to the way hives should really be protected. 
I have witnessed hives standing side by side one lot in hives open at 
every joint and the air whistling through the hive, yet that had preserved 
the bees healthy as they were, because others that were well wrapped up 
suffered much, having many dead bees. A more frosty and drier winter 
might, however, have reversed things. The great question at issue is how 
should bees be protected to wi h3tand the vicissitudes of any winter. I 
have often pointed out how I have successfully wintered my own bees ; 
still, there are some important points that I may have overlooked. 
The late Mr. T. W. Woodbury demon9tra'ed one thing fully in his ex¬ 
perience of sending a hive of bees to tbe Antipodes, which on nearing the 
line commenced to breed, and thereby exhausted the stores intended for 
the adult bees only, consequently the hive perished. Heat is the main 
factor which encourages bees to breed, not stimulative feeding, and when 
stores are abundant in the hive, together with the conserved heat com¬ 
bined, bees naturally begin to breed soon after the shortest day, and con¬ 
tinue doing so if all is well until the end of season. Some writers have 
expressed their fears that bees sometimes begin to breed too early. I 
never knew a case where loss was sustained through that cause, but have 
known of much disaster by October and stimulative spring feeding. If 
bees are kept at a low temperature and donreiled in a hive subject to 
change of atmosphere through any defect in make or covering, the adult 
bees becomes languid, and whenever they leave the hive they perish. 
Then, on the other hand, if breeding is going on under similar circum¬ 
stances, hatching is retarded and the young bees are often tender and 
defective in the wings, are therefore useless, or so tender that they fall 
victims to the chilling winds which occur in spring and early summer, 
and so the hive thereby dwindles away either to nothing or to be so late as 
to be utterly profi leso. Bee-keepers should therefore perceive the import¬ 
ance of having their hives covered so as not to be influence! internally by 
any change of temperature a - 1 of such material as will carry off all 
moisture fiom the interior; the hive. Non-porous material on the 
crown and a close-fitting floor form a slaughter-house for the bees. 
The position of the bees in the hive during winter is also of importance. 
A hive having its entrance in tbs centre, if a wide hive, and a severe 
winer, the bees by travelling to one side may be unable to return to 
the other when the side first gone to is cleared of honey, and the bees will 
die. No such disaster will follow bees in deep hives. I always work my 
entrances from the side, and when the bees take up their position close to 
the entrance there is never any danger of their perishing of want, as they 
need only to travel inward for what they require ; besides, when located 
near the doorway the humidity from the air is not so ready to enter, and 
the bees and brood are more comfortable than if they were located at the 
beck, where they are subjected to the cold playing against them from the 
doorway.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper, 
DRIVEN BEES 
STRAW AND FRAME HIVES. 
Would ‘ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper” kindly answer me the following; 
questions ? 
Au old-fashioned bee-keeper has offered, at the end of the season, to 
let me have the bees out of six of his straw hives, as he wishes to take 
the honey and doesn’t want to keep the bees through the winter. I 
thought of driving them into two hives and feeding them. Would you 
recommend straw hives or bar-frame hives ? How would you proceed to 
drive them ? Is it necessary to scent the bees in uniting them ? if so, 
what would you use? How would you do about the queens? Also, 
could you tell me of any solution, not hurtful to tbe Qesh, to put on the 
