August 26, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
191 
are not syringed or watered over the foliage. The same remarks apply 
to Gesneras teat are still in small pots. These plants thrive best when 
their pots are standing upon a moist base, such as that afforded by 
gravel, ashes, or cocoa-nut fibre refuse. 
w. 
HE" BEE-KEEPER.% 
PREPARATIONS FOR WINTER. 
The time has again arrived when those who desire to 
enlist themselves in the grand army of bee-keepers may do 
so most profitably and safely. The means of obtaining a 
good stock of bees at a small cost have before been pointed 
out, but many questions are continually asked upon this 
point, and therefore no further apology will be needed for 
again discussing a question of such great and far-reaching 
importance. Some have in the proper season obtained 
swarms, and these will in many cases prove good a.nd profit¬ 
able stocks in the coming year; but great attention must be 
paid to them, and pains be taken to ascertain the probable 
amount of food contained in the hive, to ascertain the 
presence of a queen and the strength of the stock, and if any 
defect in these three requisites is found, means must at once 
be taken to rectify the mischief. 
It is well known that at this time of the year—the months 
of August and September—many bee-keepers who fail to 
advance with the times, and prefer their old-fashioned inhu¬ 
manity to the (so called) new-fangled sentimentalism, “put 
down ” their stocks. In some cases this is done on account 
of an obstinate determination not to change old ways and 
old customs ; in others simply because, knowing no better 
means of obtaining the honey than by destroying the bees, 
they are obliged by the supposed exigencies of their position 
to resort to the method practised by them and their forefathers 
for countless generations. Others, again, have seen bees 
driven, but fear to do the work for themselves ; but whatever 
the cause may be, the effect is that in most neighbourhoods 
bees may still be obtained by those who will “ drive ” them 
—or, let me add, in deference to a method to which there 
seems no objection, “bump” them. There are some men 
who after once seeing bees driven at a show or in private will 
not fear to take a hive for themselves and perform the 
operation with success; while others who have also wit¬ 
nessed the same manipulation are no more able to perform 
it without assistance than they are competent to find a queen 
at the first attempt. The “ sting ” is, I believe, at the bottUn 
of a great deal of this inaptitude, although it is recognised 
that there is a natural inaptitude in one man and a corre¬ 
sponding aptitude in his neighbour for some particular trade, 
profession, or industry. A man who is much affected by 
stings is naturally timid, while a man who can hardly expe¬ 
rience any pain on being stung a score of times hardly 
appreciates the feeling of him who “ swells ” at each inser¬ 
tion of the poison. Only a week ago a child in an apiary not 
far from this locality was with his father amongst the bees 
and got severely stung without a sign of pain, and at last, 
to add insult to injury, one bee alighted on the end of his nose, 
when the little lad—only five years old—in brushing it off 
pushed it up his nostril, when the irritated bee immediately 
used its sting, but without any apparent effect except a very 
momentary pain. That lad will surely be a bee keeper; the 
sting has no fear for him, and he goes when his father is away 
from home and stirs the bees up with a stick for amusement! 
But there is no necessity for any man who suffers from stings 
to be stung more than very occasionally. He must meet the 
insects clad in proper armour, and avoid by every means in 
his power irritating a single bee. Either the brave or the 
timid man is able then to drive a Btock of bees, the one 
without any assistance beyond a puff of smoke, the other by 
the aid of veil, gloves, and smoker, carbolic acid being used 
when this quieter is preferred. 
All that a man who in September wants to begin bee¬ 
keeping has to do is to drive as many stocks as together will 
give 12 lbs. weight of bees; put them all in a large hive 
together, without troubling to find or choose the queen ; feed 
them with 30 lbs. of best lump sugar made into syrup by the 
addition of an equal weight of water, and boil for a minute; 
cover them up warmly, and the stock is ready to pass the 
winter, to give early swarms or supers, if the weather is 
favourable and no untoward accident befals the stock. The 
cost of such a stock, not reckoning the hive—where the bees 
are had for the trouble of driving them—does not exceed 
10s. 6d., and its value in spring will be at least treble the 
outlay of the preceding autumn. These are facts, not theo¬ 
ries, proved by long years of experience and given to the 
world as valuable suggestions by the late A. Pettigrew, who 
himself favoured the method here again suggested to those 
who have hitherto not attempted to practise it. 
Those who already possess stocks must, unless the bees 
are taken to the moors, at once begin to prepare for winter; 
each stock must be fed up to a sufficient weight, and if need 
be strengthened by an addition of driven bees, in accordance 
with the instructions given in these columns, and then when 
every attention has been paid to these salient points the lees 
the bees are disturbed until March next the better it will be 
for the stocks. If it is desired to ruin a stock late feeding 
and continued manipulation in the late autumn will soon do 
its deadly work; but if strong, prosperous colonies are 
desired they can be had with as little trouble and not much 
more expense than starveling stocks which, dragging on a 
weary existence through the winter, are a discredit to any 
bee-keeper, and a sign of lamentable slothfulness and neglect. 
Bees must be kept strong, and the fact can never be too often 
impressed upon bee keepers in general and some in particular 
that one strong stock is of more value than three weak ones, 
and with less time expended on it in the way of manipulation 
will give greater results than the three weak ones put together. 
True, in exceptional cases a weak stock does in spring make 
a rapid advance, but this is only by way of exception owing 
to a young and vigorous queen ; but even this rapid progress 
is not in the same ratio as that which a strong stock, headed 
by an equally good queen, would make under the same cir¬ 
cumstances. 
This subject has now occupied so much space that it must 
be left, and other matters discussed which are of great 
importance at this season, and must engage our attention 
now that the necessity for strong colonies, well supplied with 
food and having a fertile queen, has been brought promi¬ 
nently before those bee-keepers who are readers of this 
Journal. There is time now to make a fresh start and to 
remedy prior neglect, and may each one who has not in past 
years gained as much enjoyment and profit from the care of 
his bees as he expected try to lay a sure foundation upon 
which to build up a future harvest; and may each one who 
will this year for the first time possess a stock be enabled to 
have it—by using due care now before it is too late—strong 
and prosperous in spring and ready to reward his energy by 
a splendid harvest of lovely nectar gathered from the various 
flowers and blossoms that so gaily bedeck the land inviting 
the bees to enter, and while imbibing the honey carry the 
pollen grains from plant to plant, and thus ensure a crop of 
seed. The month is creeping on ; no time must now be lost. 
—Felix. 
TAKINQ BEES TO THE HEATHER. 
As has been the custom for generations, and long practised 
by myself, I have had my bees successfully removed to the 
Heather, a distance of fifty miles from home. A few days before 
doing so I dismantled my hives and dressed them in the garb 
they were to retain at the moors. This little precaution saves 
many hives and thousands of bees, fir immediately they are let 
loose they have no difficulty in recognising their own hive. How 
different it is when this precaution is not taki n. The necessity 
for it was well illustrated vith a Carniolian hive, beveral days 
before removing them I stripped them of their outside cases, 
and temporarily covered them with their Heather coverings. 
