Dtceoi' e.- 2, 1883. ] 
507 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDER ER. 
same quantity of smoke made use of, the relation of cause and effect 
will soon be made sufficiently clear to take away any reasonable 
doubts as to whether it is the smoke which terrifies the bees into sub¬ 
mission, or whether the smoke, by terrifying the bees and causing 
them to gorge, makes them not only lees able, because they cannot 
move so freely, but also lees ready—although at all times perfectly 
capable—to use their sting to resent the unwelcome intrusion of the 
manipulator. We mhy now pass on, after having considered the 
means of subduing a stock, to consider the method of applying these 
means to effect the purpose for which they are required ; and I may 
say at once that whenever the word “smoke ” occurs “carbolic acid” 
may be substituted by those who prefer to U6e the latter in their 
manipulations rather than the former. 
Most bee-keepers have at one time or another experienced some 
little difficulty in handling their bees. Some possibly even now are 
not fully competent to manipulate a hive, and to these perhaps the 
few hints here given may be acceptable, so that on a future attempt 
being made a more successful result will follow their operations. A 
very common fault is to give so much smoke as almost to suffocate 
the bees. Now this is really far from humane, and it is not only most 
injurious to the bees themselves, but naturally lessens the labour done 
in the next few days, and as a result the profit Sufficient smoke 
must be used to cause the bees to fill themselves, but no more. Every 
puff of smoke injected after the bees are busily engaged in gorging 
is not only useless but actually injurious. During every manipula¬ 
tion the smoker must be kept lighted, and if necessary, and the 
manipulation is a lengthy one, a little more smoke must occasionally 
be used to keep the bees in a due state of subjection. How much 
smoke is required can only be learnt by experience, but too little had 
better be used rather than too much. Some stocks are much more 
difficult to subdue than others apparently the same in every respect, 
so that no hard-and-fast rule can possibly be laid down. The only 
sure guide is to listen, and when the song of content is heard the end 
has been achieved, and the bee-keeper may proceed to perform any 
operation that it may be necessary for him to effect. It is not un¬ 
common to hear of volumes of smoke being injected into a hive, and 
the bees still rushing out in fury against the operator. This rarely 
happens in a stock with honey or syrup in store, but in any case it 
may be caused by ignorance, for in many instances much less smoke 
would have been sufficient to completely subdue the stock had tim 9 
been allowed to elapse before any attempt to manipulate was made. 
Let the bees gorge, then manipulate. 
In taking out and replacing frames much depends upon the 
accuracy of the measurements of the hive. The regularity of the 
combs, and the frames being of exactly the right size—all hives 
should have at least one division board—one at each end is better 
still—for by this convenience operations are much facilitated, because 
the division board being first removed a space is left, and the frame 
next to such space may be very easily moved ; sufficient room being 
given, ana there being no danger of crushing bees or breaking any 
comb, which sometimes ensues when frames are packed and no space 
is allowed for a lateral movement. Each frame may be carefully 
lifted out and examined, and if the combs are not very heavy and 
not newly built, the bees may be dislodged by a quick movement, and 
so shaken into the hive ; they may also in all cases be brushed from 
the combs with a feather or wing, but care must be taken to brush 
from the top of the comb to the bottom, otherwise the bees will be 
much enraged and attack the operator. If the queen is to be removed 
or fo be discovered, very little smoke must be used, and each comb be 
eearched in turn, when she may generally be found ; if she is not on 
the combs the corners of the hive are often the place to which she 
flies for refuge. The less the bees are disturbed in opening the 
hive the better the chanee of finding the queen without difficulty'. If 
frame hives are badly made there will be much propolisation and 
consequent difficulty in handling frames ; but if measurements are 
accurate all manipulations may be performed with ease, and it must 
always be remembered that if any operation is performed with com¬ 
fort ^ to the bees, it will also be attended with comfort to the 
manipulator. 
'the bees of to-day are not so good-tempered as those of days 
gone by ; the change has possibly been wrought by the intermingling 
of our home bees with foreign races, or by the constant and often 
ill-judged manipulations to which they are subjected in the more 
advanced apiaries of this country. Be the reason what it may, the 
fact remains that, as a rule, bees in the old skeps left to their 
own devices are generally quiet and not inclined to sting, while those 
in apiaries managed on a more modern principle are inclined to 
think that their home is in danger of attack even if the owner ap¬ 
proach the hive. In some cases this is due to intermixture of blood, 
in others to rough handling; but when bees do sting it is either 
because their hives are actually in danger of being invaded, or because 
they imagine a danger which does not really exist. By whichever of 
these causes they are actuated, the result remains the same. The only 
remedy seems to be to change the queens, or by quiet gentle handling 
to give confidence to the bees that man’s efforts are for their benefit 
as well as his own, the two objects being in truth so inextricably 
bound up together that it is impossible to separate the one from the 
other.—F elix. 
FEEDING BEES—FOREIGN v. ENGLISH RACES OF BEES 
Seeing “ Lanarkshire Bee-keeper’s ” account of his bees having 
eaten nearly 40 lbs. of honey since August gave me some concern about 
my own, but on looking into them I find that they all have stores sufficient 
to last until April, unless several Italian stocks run short, and of these I 
am doubtful, although all had as nearly the same quantity of ford in 
August as it was possible to give without weighing, like“L. B. K’s” 
stocks, about 40 lbs. each. This strengthens the doubt I have entertained 
for some time as to the wisdom of supplanting our bees of Britain by 
foreigners. A little foreign blood does good I believe, but is there not a 
point, to go past which we may be damaging instead of improving 1 We 
want bees that will gather plenty of honey and still keep their strength 
of numbers up ; and is it not possible by breeding from our best queens 
only as they stand to get such a strain of bees ? I have been doing this 
for some years, and find that the strain of English bees I have been 
testing are far superior to any foreigners I can hear of. My stocks of 
this strain have this year yielded close on £100 each, while all the 
foreigners in my neighbourhood want all they have gathered to winter ou 
and in some cases help in addition.— Notts Bee-keeper. 
NOTES. 
Up till the 26th November the weather has been open and fine. The 
bees carried pollen up till that date, when the winter’s fog commenced. 
Some hives have inc eased in number of bees greatly during the month. 
The calm sunny weather, permitting the bees to fly and the young ones to 
clear themselves of all incumbrances as late as the 25th, will counteract 
other evils which, had the weather been untoward, were sure to have fol¬ 
lowed so much late breeding. The temperature of the month has not 
only been mild but remarkable for the equality of the day and night 
temperature. For some nights and days together there were only 4° dif¬ 
ference in the day and night temperature. 
Our snail and slug traps (little heaps of rubbish placed in convenient 
places) have been frequently inspected, and many of these pests have 
been killed if not actually exterminated in places near borders containing 
favourite flowers, so that by these bimple but effective contrivances we 
not only get rid of many pests, but save our flowers as well.—A Lanark¬ 
shire Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
N. Davis, Lilford Road Nurseries, Camberwell .—Catalogue of Choice 
New and Old Chrysanthemums , 18*6-1 (Illustrated). 
Caldwell & Sons, Knutsford, Cheshire .—Trade List of Nursery Stock, 
1886-7. 
Alexander E. Campbell, Cove Gardens, Gourock, N.B. — Descriptive 
Catalogue of Choice Hybrid Gladioli for 1886-7. 
Cranston's Nursery and Seed Company, King’s Acre, Hereford .—Short 
List of Hoses. 
Richard Dean, Ranelagh Road, Ealing .—Special L : st of Seeds. Potatoes, 
cf-c. 
Crompton & Fawkes, Anchor Works, Chelmsford .—Catalogue of Plans 
of Horticultural Buildings. 
C ' <E ® 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. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
Books (Aspiro ).—A small work on “British Ferns and Mosses,” is 
published by Ward it Lock, price Is. A fuller treatise is Stark’s “British 
Mo j ses,'’ published by Routlelge, price 5s., or Hobkirk’a “Synopsis of 
British Mosses ” (R^eve), price 7s. 6d. 
