440 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 11,1888. 
bees. The temperature has been uniform throughout, seldom 
lower than 45° at night. One day it reached 65°, and the 
two last days of the month were brilliant, with a temperature 
of 60° and 58° consecutively. Sweet Peas have grown from 
1 to 2 feet, and bloomed freely. Ferns have thrown up many 
fresh fronds; herbaceous plants are fresher and blooming 
better than they did during the summer months. Wall¬ 
flowers have grown more than at any other time during the 
season, while Poppies and Marigolds have flowered profusely, 
keeping the garden gay and the bees at work. Colchicums 
have lasted one month only, while last year they lasted two 
months. Thus our undug plot has given us flowers for nine 
months of the year and promises still longer. A seedling 
Briar, which has beautifully coloured and fine formed petals, 
is now covered with heps, appearing no way injured by the 
tendrils of a perennial Pea that covered it, and bloomed for 
many weeks during summer, while beneath it and adjoining 
trees, there were from February till May Snowdrops in 
variety, and Crocuses, Daffodils, Narcissus, Aconites, 
Hyacinths in variety, the Grape Hyacinths in variety, and 
other bulbs, together with different members of the Crowfoot 
tribe, &c., which in their turn bloomed and kept gay the 
greater part of the year what without them would have been 
almost a barren spot. 
Not only has October given us Roses and other flowers 
that July and August denied us, but there has been scarcely 
a day during the whole month that the Syrian bees have not 
collected much pollen. They are, without doubt, the most 
assiduous and interesting bees I know. As foretellers of the 
weather they eclipse the barometer, and as collectors of honey 
the propensity is so great that it is almost a fault, if the bee¬ 
keeper is careless enough to allow them a taste from any hive 
in the apiary. So quick are they in discovering exposed 
sweets and conveying the intelligence to the inmates of its 
whereabouts that it surprises many. Recently I put out a little 
peameal and along with it a small piece of honeycomb, for 
the purpose of ascertaining the state of several hives that 
were too strong to be meddled with at this season. I lifted 
one bee on the comb and put it in my revolving peameal 
holder, watching its return at the entrance to the hive. It had 
not gone in more than six seconds when a number flew out in 
search of the honey, and in not more than a minute hundreds 
were upon the wing. How they convey the news is a mystery 
to me. 
When I commenced raising my second batch of queens 
during the beginning of August, and when dividing into 
nuclei, their thieving propensity was shown very strongly, and 
had I not stopped it by closing them in alternately, and 
setting robbers upon the strongest ones by spilling a little 
syrup, the fight must have ended similarly to that of the 
Kilkenny cats, so persistently did some of them continue to 
rob from each other. The amusing part of it was that when 
shut out of their own hive they return quite contentedly with 
their ill got gains to where it was taken from, and imme¬ 
diately set out in quest of more from other hives where they 
could force an entrance. After a while they were looked upon 
by each other as strangers, and acted in defence of their 
citadels. Nothing superfluous is allowed inside the Syrian or 
Cyprian bees’ hive. It is because of these excellent qualities 
that I recommend them. 
Their spiteful nature when invading their hive I have 
overcome by showering sweets upon them and a little tact in 
manipulation, and I am in hopes that their tenderness during 
winter will disappear after a few generations, and with a 
little more care in the preparation of their hives, so that after 
a little they will be no worse than other bees, but better, as 
they never molest people unless when disturbed, so that 
people who are annoyed by the bees attacking them when 
walking in the garden are free from this molestation by 
keeping the wicked and spiteful Syrians. 
After all my care to preserve and perpetuate the pure 
race of these bees, I had abandoned all hopes of doing so 
afte: October had set in, when the drones were becoming 
inactive, and were being rapidly killed, in hives, too, both well 
provisioned and having unfertilised queens ; and I was sur¬ 
prised to find further on several that had been fertilised so late 
as the 4th and 14th of October respectively. Previous to the 
first date I observed that the queens flew early in the day, 
while the drones did not care about flying until about 8 p.m., 
while in the other hives they had killed theirs. From this hive, 
already well stored, I removed all the filled combs, and confining 
the bees upon almost empty ones, fed a little, which had the 
desired effect of causing the bachelor drones to make them¬ 
selves more conspicuous in the sunshine than they had 
previously done, resulting in the mating of queens during 
October. Nor is this all. Many hives swarmed this 
year at the Heather during the end of August and early part 
of September, and but for these late preserved drones many 
hives would have been useless. The preservation of drones 
till late in the season is wise. 
Bees seem not only to have forethought but, to a certain 
extent, foreknowledge. I have shown where with large 
stores they carry on successfully the internal economy of 
the hive, whereas with a paucity of these a system of waste 
of eggs and queen power goes on daily ; while fit and start 
and dribblet-feeding causes the bees to depose their queen at a 
most inconvenient and improper time, which to remedy can 
only be accomplished by preserving drones until the very 
latest. To effect this there must neither be short supplies of 
food nor stinted feeding. The killing of the drones is not 
always an indication that the queen has been fertilised. 
In every instance with these late bred queens the bees, 
up till the queens were about seven weeks old, carried much 
pollen, after which they abandoned it, thus again differing in 
this respect from other varieties. The queens were fertilised 
between the eighth and ninth week of their existence from 
creeping out the cell, and the youngest drones were ten weeks 
old. Seeing that fertilisation has taken place, it is possible 
I may be wrong that aged drones become incapable at so 
early a date, if at all. If health will permit, I will next 
season take more pains in securing early fertilisation by 
removing the young queens and drones to a distance. At 
last I have been fortunate, but during the months of July 
and August one disaster followed another, until but one pure 
queen remained.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
THE COTTAGER’S STRAW SEEP—HOW TO GET 
SECTION HONEY FROM. 
Modern bee-keeping has undoubtedly placed the cottager 
with his skep and straw supers at a disadvantage. Comb honey in 
his “ caps ” will not sell when sections are in competition with 
them, nor does their “run” honey compare favourably with the 
modern bee-keeper’s extracted. This being so, it behoves him to 
look about and see how he can adapt his ancient hives to altered 
circumstances. He must accustom himself to the use of such modern 
appliances as will place his honey on a level with tha* of his neigh¬ 
bours. To do this it is not necessary to abandon his straw skep, as 
I have been told certain unscrupulous hive-makers keep telling the 
ignorant cottagers. To assist any of your readers who are not yet 
acquainted with the modern sections and how to use them the 
present notes are written. 
The change need not be a very difficult nor very expensive one. 
The little boxes here figured (fig. G3) are so simple in construction 
that anyone willing to try can make them in their leisure hours. 
Timber is cheap enough, and I think the best plan is to go to the 
nearest joiner’s shop and get suitable well-seasoned boards. A box to 
hold ten 1 lb. sections has to be 11 inches by 10 inside measure¬ 
ment. For sides and bottom fittings f-inch board is strong enough ; 
and for ends, tops, and bottoms, &c., 4-inch will do. Get the 
boards 11 inches wide. To make one complete box it takes 
25 inches of the former (§ by 11 inches), and of the latter 3 feet. 
First cut the boards for the body of the box to the measurements 
given in the accompanying sketch :—Sides, 12 inches by 4^ ; ends, 
10 inches by 44 ; next cut out four pieces, a, a, a, 13 inches by 1J. 
The fourth piece is required to fill up the spaces 6, 5, &c., when 
fitted on to the box. Off the same piece of wood cut three pieces 
4 inch wide, and fit them on to the other three as shown at c, c, c, 
using wire nails long enough to go through and livet. These are 
