84 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 24, 1895. 
desirable which tends to economy^ and having healthy and profit¬ 
able hives. I especially advise those who have hives smaller 
than Nature demands to try larger ones, and see if the change is 
not a good one. If any difficulty arises an appeal to these columns 
will get them right, or advice will be given that will tend to clear 
the way to pursue their hobby with pleasure and profit.— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
NOTES ON BEES. 
A reader of the Journal writes, “ What am I to do with one 
of my hives ? It is a strong stock, and the queen will be three 
years old next June. I did not have more than 6 lbs. of honey 
from it last summer. It has eleven frames, and I am not certain 
if I ought to reduce the number, as I think the bees will go on 
storing in the frames instead of in the supers." 
The colony should be headed by a young fertile queen, as only 
in exceptional cases is the queen of much use when in her fourth 
year. In my apiary I have several queens the same age as the 
above, but as they have been very prolific I delayed requeening 
those stocks until next summer. In the case of old queens they 
often do not make much headway early in the year, consequently 
it is late in the summer before the hive is full of bees, and, as 
stated above, very little honey will be stored. Queens of this age, 
too, will often die during a severe winter. If the stock is well 
provided with stores leave the whole of the frames in the hive 
until May, and if the weather has been favourable they will by 
this time be crowded with bees. 
The proper time to rear queens is at their natural swarming 
season, and this should be done and the young queen laying before 
the old one is destroyed. It will take upwards of three weeks from 
the laying of the eggs till the queen is hatched and laying ; and if 
during that time the old queen can oe kept laying, at a very low 
estimate it will result in at least 20,000 young bees {a young fertile 
queen will at that time of the year lay at least 3000 eggs daily). 
These, if an increase of stocks is not required, will make an extra 
strong colony, which will reap the full benefit of the honey flow 
from the white Clover, if in a Clover district, or later in the season 
from the Heather. 
On the morning of a fine day, when the bees are well on the 
wing, take two or three frames of well advanced brood, with all 
the adhering bees and the queen from the original hive, and place 
them in a new hive, adding two or three frames of fully drawn out 
combs or full sheets of foundation, closing with a division board, 
placing the hive on the original stand. The parent hive to be 
moved a few yards away, all the bees that are on the wing will 
return to their original stand, also many of the old bees from the 
parent stock, which will enable the new made colony to make 
progress. The frames in the parent stock should be closed up with 
the division board. Queen cells will at once be started. 
If only one queen is required, these may all be cut out but 
one, delaying the operation until the tenth day. The best cell can 
then be selected. It is always advisable to rear an extra queen or 
two in case of loss. The queen will hatch out in about sixteen 
days, and, if the weather be favourable, should be fertilised 
and laying in six or eight days. In the meantime the brood will 
have been rapidly hatching out. All the empty cells in the new 
stock will soon be filled with brood, a frame of which should be 
taken out every few days and given to the queenless stock, and 
an empty frame should be put in its place. This will keep the 
nurse bees fully employed. 
The hives should be moved a yard nearer each other every day 
until they are close together. As soon as the young queen is 
laying kill the old one, and put all the bees and frames of brood 
into one hive. If there is any danger of fighting sprinkle them 
with a little flour or thin syrup ; but at that time of the year when 
honey is coming in freely the operation may take place without the 
loss of a single bee, and will result in an extra strong colony, and, 
being headed by a young fertile queen, will at once store a surplus 
in the supers.— An English Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIYED. 
Cunningham & Wylie, West Nile Street, Glasgow.—Neeti List, 
Fisher, Son, & Sibray, Handsworth Nurseries, near Sheffield.— 
List. 
H. J. Jones, Ryecroft Nursery, Hither Green, Lewisham.— 
anthemum Guide. 
Louis Paiilet, Valffie de Chatenay, near Paris.— Sjjecial Trade List. 
G. Phippen, Reading.— Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower Seeds, 
A. Robinson, Brentwood.— Catalogue of Garden Seeds. 
Anthony Roozen & Son, Overveen, near Haarlem, Holland.— Spring 
Catalogue. 
Robert Sydenham, Tenby Street, Catalogue of Vege¬ 
table and Flower Seeds, 
Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., 4, Quaie de la Megisserie, Paris.— General 
Spring Seed Catalogue. 
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 correspondents, as doing so subjects them to 
unjustifiable trouble and expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions 
relating to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should 
never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended 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. 
Barked Fruit Trees (AT. J, F."). —We do not know what more 
can be done in addition to making smooth the torn edges of the bark 
and plastering, except carefully planting two seedling Crab or Apple 
stocks close to each tree, inarching these to the trees by slicing from 
the ground upwards to a length of 6 inches of the stem above the 
gnarled parts. In this way young fruit trees have been restored which 
would otherwise have been destroyed in consequence of the stems being 
deeply eaten all round by rabbits. The sliced portions of the stems 
must be absolutely clean for their union to be effected. When secured 
they must be clayed in the usual manner adopted in grafting, and 
no fissures allowed in the pigment to admit the air. Thin coverings 
which quickly become dry are of little use. 
Chlmonantbus fragrrans In Pots (t7. H. C."). —To flower the 
Chimonanthus successfully in a pot, it requires a very large one, good 
loam, with a little peat, plenty of water in summer, and a warm sunny 
place in the autumn, and the water to be reduced then to harden the 
wood. It requires much the same culture as a spurred Currant tree 
would do, only that the young stubby shoots are what must be looked 
after and prepared for winter. If the shoots produced are of the size 
of from a crowquill to a goosequill they will be quite strong enough, 
and if these side shoots grow longer than from 8 to 10 inches nip out 
the points. If the shoots are too thick to obtain light enough thin 
them out. Give all the heat possible out of doors in autumn, and as 
much dryness as the plants will stand, to ripen the shoots. As the 
soil becomes damp and the weather is mild the bads will expand. 
Cockcbafer Grub (D. M. iZ.).—The larva you send is not the 
caterpillar of the Goat Moth, which lives and feeds in the internal parts 
of trees ; but the grub of the cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris), that 
feeds on the roots of various shrubs and trees for about three years, 
when it becomes pupa, from which it emerges in the spring in perfect 
form—the familiar May bug or cockchafer. The larva is very destruc¬ 
tive of tender roots and partial to vegetable matter, such as that of the 
decayed parts of manure and the roots of grasses, and the perfect 
insects feed on a great variety of trees, sometimes wholly (ienuding 
Hawthorn, Hazel, Elm, and Willow of foliage. It also attacks Oaks, 
and a great variety of other trees and shrubs. The grubs are stupefied, 
if not destroyed, % a dressing of nitrate of soda, If lb. being used per 
rod, it being best applied after the ground has been dug level, so that 
the nitrate gets washed into the soil evenly. It is best applied m the 
late winter or early spring, alike for acting on the grubs and benefiting 
the land as manure. Soot, at the rate of 1 peck per rod, is also 
distasteful to the grubs and benefits the plants. 
Cordon Pears under Class (A. B.). —Pear trees succeed admir¬ 
ably as cordons in cool houses, but the fruit does not acquire so high a 
flavour, nor is so juicy, melting, or buttery as that perfected in the open 
air. Both early, midseason, or autumn and late Pears are eligible for 
this mode of culture, the fruit attaining large size under good manage¬ 
ment and feeding, and it generally carries plenty of colour, being very 
beautiful in appearance. The trees should be on the Quince, or if 
requisite double grafted. The following are excellent varieties :— 
Summer (July-September)—Beacon, Jargonelle, Souvenir du Congr^s, 
Williahas’ Bon Chietien, Triomphe de Vienne, Madame Treyve, and 
Fondante d’Automne. Autumn (October and November)—Louise 
Bonne of Jersey, Durondeau, Marie Louise, Madame Andr^ Leroy, 
Pitmaston Duchess, Beurrd Superfin, Emile d’Heyst, Doyenne du 
Comice, and Comte de Lamy, Winter (December onwards)—Beurr6 
Diel, Beurr4 Baltet P^re, Mar^chal de Cour, Beurr^ d’Anjou, Winter 
Nelis, Knight’s Monarch, Beurr6 de Jonghe, Duchesse de Bordeaux, 
Nouvelle Fulvie, Josephine de Malines, Marie Benoist, Benrr6 Ranee, 
Easter Beurrd, Bergamot Esperen, and Doyenne d’Alengon. Cherries 
thrive excellently under glass as cordons. Some of the best for a 
succession of fruit are Belle d’Orleans, Baumann’s May, Purple Guigne, 
Early Rivers, Governor Wood, May Duke, Belle de Choisy, Waterloo, 
Elton, Bigarreau de Mezel, Black Eagle, Black Tartarian, Emperor 
Francis, and Florence. Both the Pears and Cherries may be grown in 
pots, the Pears being placed in the house when the buds commence 
swelling in the spring and kept under glass till the fruit is set and the 
