40 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND vOTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Jalj 14, 1887. 
but thoroughly ripened. Maintain about them slightly drier conditions. 
It is a mistake to hurry them in this stage, for they are apt to start 
again into growth, which would have but little chance of maturing 
before winter. Soft, unripened growths are almost certain to damp off 
during the resting period. A lower and drier atmosphere will prevent a 
second growth and give the pseudo-bulbs every chance of ripening 
thoroughly, which is the secret of their flowering well from every joint 
All still growing should be encouraged as much as possible, to prevent 
the too-frequent practice of trying to ripen them when they should be 
enjoying a period of complete rest. More Dendrobiums after they have 
been imported a few years dwindle and die because they are not 
thoroughly ripened and rested than from any other cause. By the 
achievement of these ends there is every prospect of the plants increasing 
annually in strength and vigour. 
Thunias .—The majority will have flowered unless they have been 
started late or retarded. Every endeavour should now be made to ripen 
well their new pseudo-bulbs. Well ripened growths are certain to pass 
the winter safely and grow and flower well the following season, while 
those drawn up soft and weakly and retained in a close, moist, shaded 
atmosphere will fail to flower another year if they do not rot during the 
winter. The early plants will have every opportunity in a light posi¬ 
tion to ripen, while the later ones must be well cared for to enable them 
to do so. 
Odontofllossvma .—Of late it has been difficult to keep the tempera¬ 
ture in this department sufficiently low for the well-being of these 
plants ; that is, where the structures are exposed either on one side or 
the other to the sun. A good quantity of air should be left on all night 
and increased early in the morning. The blinds should be drawn down 
at the same time, by these means only can the temperature be kept 
moderately low. The greatest difficulty in most structures when freely 
-ventilated during hot dry weather is to maintain about the plants the 
requisite amount of moisture. Every care must be exercised in this 
matter, or the plants will suffer worse from dry atmospheric conditions 
than from the temperature rising high. If plenty of moisture has been 
supplied the moss will have grown luxuriantly, and may now be 
clipped round with a pair of shears. That removed may be utilised for 
top-dressing those upon which the moss has failed to grow well. 
Cattleyas that were not mossed when potted in spring can be done now. 
or any other Orchids in any of the departments that require doing. Any 
that have been previously mossed should have the dead and decaying 
moss removed before that in a living state is placed on the surface of 
the pots. 
w. 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
l 
APIARIAN NOTES AND HINTS TO INQUIRERS. 
ALBINO BEES. 
A correspondent and reader of this Journal asks 
my opinion of albino bees. I have no experience what¬ 
ever of these bees ; but from descriptions and what bees 
I had sent me about the same time from Italy that the 
American discovered the albino bee, mine answering the 
description of the American ones, I am of the opinion 
that the albino is a cross with a variety of the eastern 
races of bees. 
When any of the coloured bees are once crossed and 
then bred back to the original they are commonly lighter 
in colour. That, and the reputed good working qualities 
which they appear to possess, tally with my own experi¬ 
ence that they have either Cyprian or Syrian blood in 
them. 
INFORMATION FOR BEGINNERS. 
The same and other correspondents, novices in bee¬ 
keeping, ask many queries which are difficult to answer 
privately, and as some of them are interesting, I thought 
it better to give the information wanted through the pages 
of the Journal. I will therefore as introductory give 
NOTES FROM MY OWN APIARY. 
The heat since the 14th June has been excessive— 
rather too much so for abundant honey gathering, 
although on the morning of the 21st June the thermometer 
stood at 30° Fahrenheit, after which we have had a night 
temperature of from 40° to 50° and a day temperature 
of from 75° to 87° in the shade, taxing all resources to 
prevent swarming and supply the bees with sufficient 
super room, as by the 27th June every super was occupied, 
and I was not in a fit state.to make others, and unwilling 
to buy. Owing to this some of my best hives swarmed, 
and what a trouble this warm se.nson with so many stray 
swarms and stranger bees flying about. Many queens were 
killed by these bees, while other swarms, owing to the 
queens being encased, abandoned their hives after being 
placed in them. I have only lost one queen by this, but 
my near neighbour out of a dozen swarms has only one 
spai-ed, and every hee-keeper about here has experienced 
loss and annoyance. A Carniolian swarm occupied me 
for six hours before it settled, and after I had it secured 
the queen left three or four times; she was encased, and I 
suppose terror caused her to fly for safety. Before I had 
her secured the first time she flew about from twig to twig 
after the fashion of a bird in the bright sunshine, and 
travelled a long distance from the apiary. During her 
flight my neighbour had two or three swarms : the queens 
were all killed, the bpes flying about and attempting an 
entrance to other hives. When I had fears of queen-en¬ 
casement I closed the entrance for a little, and slipped 
in a carbolicised paper where the queen was likely to be. 
This puts the bees into confusion, and they become ex¬ 
cited. When long enough in this state, and before suffo¬ 
cation commences, I open the ventilator, then when calmed 
down open the doorway. 
AMOUNT OF HONEY GATHERED. 
Your Notts correspondent was anxious to know the 
amount of honey gathered by foreign bees. July is com¬ 
monly our honey-gathering month. I am recording the 
doings in June only. Honey-gathering began on tli314th, 
but owing to the excessive heat the honey was neither so 
plentiful as it would have been had it been cooler, nor 
if we were situated in a more salubrious and lower lying 
pasture. My best stock of crossed Cyprians rose from 
134 lbs. on the 18th June to 200 lbs. or more on the 30th. 
As our steelyard weighs that only I am not exaggerating 
the weight. A friend to whom I gave one has a stock 
much heavier. 
Carniolians are also making great weight and doing 
well, especially so the nuclei with so few bees during 
winter that I made mention of before. One of these gave 
the first swarm, and one that occupied one Stewarton box 
only the last day of May is now occupying three body 
boxes and three supers sealed ready for the fourth and 
fifth, while I observe much honey in the bottom box. I 
have hitherto been of the opinion that three body boxes 
were nearly the right number, but judging from others 
occupying at least space equal to four I am of opinion that 
to prevent swarming and keep the bees at work they will 
require 5000 cubic inches of body space. This may seem 
too large, but when we take into account the prolificness 
of foreign bees, together with their honey-gathering quali¬ 
ties, as well as the room they require for breathing space, 
it will not in my opinion be a bit too large. Nine-tenths 
of the hives in use ai’e not only too small, but they are in 
many cases not half large enough. We all know how 
slow bee-keepers were to advance from the old-fashioned 
bell- shaped straw hive of about 1500 cubic inches internal 
capacity, and the same stubborness still exists amongst 
many bee-keepers regarding foreign bees and the size of 
hive they require in a good season, and adopting what 
would benefit both themselves and their bees. So prolific 
are some of these foreign bees that two swarms of Syrian 
first crosses that went together weighed 18 lbs. I do not 
remember seeing so large a number of bees in one swarm, 
and, judging from the weight of it since it was hived, it 
is rising in weight as rapidly as the crossed Cyprians are 
