etM.*,■**’. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
195 
swarms come out between eleven and three, and the vast 
majority between half-past twelve and two. The old 
queen which leads the swarm is rather particular about the 
weather, and will not come out unless everythin 0 ' is 
favourable. A very favourite time for a swarm is a close 
sultry day with gleams of sun occasionally, but certain 
days apparently alike have evidently a charm in the eyes 
ol the queens; for to-day, which to all appearances seems 
the very day for a stock to swarm, not one will issue, while 
to-morrow, to all appearances the twin sister of to-day, 
every stock in the district will seem to have caught the 
swarming fever. 
Here it may be said that a “ swarm ” is the surplus 
population led by the old queen; “casts,” which may 
be one, two, three, or more in number, are the after¬ 
swarms led by young queens. 
When a swarm has issued queen cells will be found 
containing either eggs or royal brood, which may, as I 
have remarked, be of various ages, this depending entirely 
upon whether or not the bees have been delayed by bad 
weather from issuing when they determined to colonise. 
When these princesses arrive at maturity, if the bee-keeper 
will listen at night, putting his ear close to the hive, he will 
hear curious sounds within, which various writers describe 
as. resembling various sounds. Mr. Pettigrew wrote on 
this subject: “ One of the princesses has come to maturity, 
and intimates her intention to claim the queendom of the 
hive.. She calls * OIF, off, off,’ which sounds like the 
barking of a dog at a distance. These sounds she repeats 
several times, and being unanswered she leaves her cell 
and becomes the rightful sovereign of the hive. She 
now commences to speak in another tongue altogether, 
uttering sounds more sharp and shrill. She calls ‘ Peep,’ 
peep, peep,’ or rather ‘ Pa-ay, pa-ay, pa-ay,’ eight or 
ten times. The other princesses answer and commence 
to bark ‘ off, off, off, in their cells. This barking provokes 
the reigning queen very much.” This goes on, the chal¬ 
lenge and reply continuing for three days and three 
nights, and sometimes for a longer period; but on the 
fourth day after the piping begins the cast will generally 
issue, and it must not be forgotten that casts headed by 
their young queens will issue almost regardless of weather 
at any time during the day, early or late. When the cast 
has gone forth another princess is allowed to issue from 
her cell, and if again the challenge and reply is heard, 
another cast will issue the next day or next but one. 
Even yet the challenge and reply may again occasionally 
be heard, and if so another cast will issue the following 
day, but one swarm and two casts generally sufficiently 
depopulate the strongest stocks. 
On one or more of the first four or five days after 
hiving a cast the young princess goes forth to meet the 
drone if the weather is favourable. Many queens are 
lost on these love excursions, and therefore attention is 
required to see that the queens become fertile, otherwise 
the casts will be ruined. If an accident does happen to a 
queen another must be at once supplied. The old stock is 
in the same danger, and must therefore also be carefully 
watched. 
Swarms must be hived by holding a skep, bucket, or 
other convenient receptacle beneath them, and shaking or 
brushing the bees into it. Wherever the queen is the 
bees will congregate. If the queen is not secured the 
bees will return to her if they can find where she is, 
or they will return to the stock from which they issued. 
Sometimes casts have several queens, and the bees divide 
and cluster in separate places. Thc-y may be hived 
separately and then all joined together in one hive, no 
precaution being necessary in uniting swarms if the 
operation is performed on the day of issue. 
. "^!} e r e ar . e so man .y other points to be considered that 
it will be wise to defer the consideration of them until 
a future paper, when they may be discussed in detail, 
rather than to skim over them to-day, possibly missing 
some features which need special mention. We have 
treatedof the signs of a swarm, the issue of a swarm, the 
signs of a cast, and the issue of casts, and the hiving of 
the swarms and casts; the fertilisation of the young 
queens, giving queen cells and accordingly lifting stocks, 
remain to be considered.— Felix. 
BEES AT THE MOORS. 
Since the bees were taken to the Heather I have been part of the 
time enjoying myself amongst it at 2000 feet above sea level. The 
bees stand at 1000 above it, and fly over great tracts of the plains 
profuse in Heather to the former altitude, apparently richer in 
fragrance and honey than that lower down. As yet the weather has 
been changeable and not favourable for great honey gathering, 
especially with hives not in order for Heather work, but those that 
were have made considerable weight. The hive that I mentioned 
several weeks ago as having made upwards of 100 lbs. in a fortnight 
has agam done well. Before taking it to the Heather I deprived it 
“. b0 . T s - of honeycomb, and when I weighed it on the 16th August 
it had had only six working days since it was set down, but it weighed 
(bees and combs) 135 lbs., and while I write this on the 25th August 
its total making since the bees were put into an empty hive "two 
months since is nearly 300 lbs. They are first-crossed Syrians. Space 
will not permit me to recount other extraordinary gatherings, which 
1 hope to mention later. The country is the finest for bees I have 
witnessed, the hills for many miles being closely covered with 
Heather, and what adds to its quality is the many varieties of early 
and late flowering sorts. It is surprising that so few bee-keepers 
avail themselves of a district so rich in honey accessible to the bee¬ 
keepers, and as interesting as it is healthful, j 
Although the country presents no charmls to the arboriculturist, 
being for miles without a tree, to the archaeologist there is much 
to interest. Not far from our bees stands the castle where King 
James VI. invited the French and English noblemen to see the 
fruit that grew in his garden, and astonished them greatly when he 
showed them the basins full of sovereigns made from the gold 
gathered in the district, said to be £150,000 worth, a goodly sum in 
those days, and but a trifle I believe to what still lies underneath the 
Heath-clad hills.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
MEAD. 
“W.J. R.” desires a recipe for making mead from any spare honey 
left in the combs. After all the honey has been pressed from the coml> 
that will part lay the refuse in a vessel and cover with water, allowing 
it to steep until the honey is saturated and parts easily from the comb* 
now pass the whole through a fine sieve. If the liquor is not sweet 
enough add more honey. The strength is from 1 lb. to 2 lbs. honey to 
each gallon of water. We use no instrument nor measurement, but 
judge entirely by appearance. It is not unlike cream in consistency 
It is then boiled gently for an hour or so, and carefully skimmed as the- 
impurities rise. We then put in hops according to taste, and again pass 
all through a fine sieve, pour into a cooler, and when milkwarm add 
some yeast according to quantity and season. If the weather is favour¬ 
able no yeast is required. When cool pour into a well-seasoned cask, 
free from all mustiness—a wine or spirit cask is good, fill to the bung, 
and allow to ferment for several days, filling up the cask with some of 
the liquor preserved for that purpose as it goes down from fermentation, 
then bung up closely from six to twelve months. The liquor will be 
quite clear without clarifying if the spigot is high enough and drawn 
off without agitating the contents, but it will be none the worse for 
clarifying ; it may be seasoned to taste before or after these operations, 
and if desired spirits of some sort may be added, though we never add 
any, but sometimes when fermentation has been strong a little loaf 
sugar improves it. If “Honey as Food and Medicine ” be purchased 
from Messrs. G. Neighbour & Sons it will help and give a variety. Some 
people relish our mead, while others do not. For my own using I con¬ 
sider it superior and safer than some sorts of wines.—A. L. B. 
Do Bees Visit only one Kind of Flower in one Journey T 
Is it a fact, as Aristotle (“ Nat. Hist.” ix. 40) seems to say (the- 
Greek is somewhat ambiguous) that bees in collecting honey visit only 
one kind of flower in one journey, and do not go, for instance, from a 
Clover flower to a Scabious without first returning to the hive 1 I have- 
no doubt the statement has been either verified or shown to be wrong 
but I cannot find it mentioned.—C. W. D. 
