504 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 8, 1887. 
■words? Will he kindly point out the numbers and pages which 
he quotes from ? I do not remember using such expressions, nor 
should I do so, because they are contrary to facts. If the words 
were used they would be qualified, and the cause or manner of 
death given. I therefore repudiate the charge until it is shown 
where the quotation was taken from. I have witnessed hives at the 
moors having nearly all? their bees lost, but not by working on the 
Heather, but by some occult influence of Heather or season which 
I cannot explain. 
THE DISTANCE BEES ELY. 
The cogitations of “ A Hallamshire Bee-keeper ” are interesting, 
but I do not agree with him in all he says. I am in possession of a 
cumber of letters bearing upon the discussion of how far bees fly 
to the Heather, but only one of these letters state any experiment. 
The author of this information says, “I have placed bees in the 
midst of the Heather, and at one mile and one and a half mile 
distance from it. Those placed in the midst of it gathered less 
than those beyond it.” The cause of this is not given, but my own 
opinion is widely different from that given by “ A Hallamshire 
Bee-keeper.” It is a fact that flowers do not always present their 
gift of honey at all hours of the day, neither does the same kind 
of flower always withdraw the gift at the same time. Frequently 
we find bees working on a patch of Heather in the morning that is 
deserted by them at noon, or we see them there at noon, and they 
desert it at four o’clock. The time Heather yields most honey is 
the last week of its bloom. So plentiful is the honey at this time 
that when walking only a very few yards the shoes become 
clotted with it, and at this time, although raining (if calm) the bees 
gather great quantities of honey, and although scores of bees were 
■gathering from but a few yards, they would scarcely be seen, never 
having to do more than creep from spray to spray. Thunder 
showers and sudden cold gusts of wind are fatal to bee life on the 
moors, and the farther bees have to fly beyond a half mile or so, 
the more loss of bee life there is. 
The reason bees do not gather so much honey when situated right 
In the midst of the Heather as those situated a mile or so from it, 
is simply because the bees working near their hives may be working 
all day long on Heather the honey of which has either been all 
extracted by the bees early in the day, or the flowers have ceased to 
yield it in quantity sufficient for the bees to store. Finding a spot 
agreeable to their wants in the morning, the supply is greatly 
diminished by midday, although never wholly exhausted, sufficient 
charms being left to allure the bee, but to spend its time, if not in 
Idleness, in vain search. Now when bees are situated at a little 
distance from the Heather they do not confine themselves, working 
upon a spot exhausted, or partially so, but acting upon instinct and 
great power of smell, fly direct to the spots yielding the most honey, 
and I have witnessed bees working upon a different spot several 
limes a day. Although I am perfectly cognisant of the fact that 
bees fly four or five miles to the Heather, to place them that 
distance from it, expecting them to make great weight, would be 
folly. 
BEES EES WALLOWING- HONEY. 
I beg also to dissent from the idea that bees must necessarily 
reswallow their honey before it is honey proper. “ Ripening honey ” 
sounds harsh, and the modern mode of “ ripening honey ” is to me 
absurd. I do not deny the fact that when bees have empty cells 
below, but that they fill them through the day, then by degrees, 
not at night wholly, but at the times most suitable for themselves, 
which may be a wet day or two, if the temperature is high enough, 
gather the honey to the highest cells that are empty. Should the 
temperature be low the bees will never move it until it is to be 
consumed by them. 
There is one thing to be borne in mind—viz., bees never mix 
two sorts of honey, keeping every kind in cells distinct by itself. 
Now I am in the habit of taking my bees to the moors (when the 
season admits) for the purpose of getting supers filled with honey 
from the Thyme. For this purpose I take care that the hives have 
no empty combs beneath, and in a state ready for the bees to build 
in the supers. Two years ago I was fortunate in getting a large 
quantity of this delicious honey, and I am certain not a cell of it 
was stored below, neither was it reswallowed by the bees, but was 
at once stored in the supers, which the bees commenced to on a 
Saturday, and had them sealed in about five days, each cover weigh¬ 
ing about 30 lbs. There was no time to lose in reswa'lowing. The 
great heat raised by the bees on these occasions is not so much to 
expel water, as it is to enable them to secrete wax, serving both 
purposes perhaps. It is the law of gravity that enables the bees to 
separate the water from the honey. Owing to the inclination of 
the cell and the water being lighter than the honey rising towards 
the top, the bees gradually sip it off until the cell is thoroughly 
sealed, and then the bees discharge the superfluous moisture when 
on the wing or through perspiration. It is also a fact that although 
honey is thoroughly freed from superfluous moisture if allowed to 
stand exposed, it draws moisture again from the atmosphere, ren¬ 
dering it deficient in quality and perhaps favourable to start incipient 
foul brood. Hence the reason why I object to extracting unsealed 
honey, then put it through a “ ripening ” process. Honey proper 
cannot be improved by any process known as clarifying or ripening, 
nor by any admixture whatever. 
I could adduce hundreds of cases in support of my statements, 
but I will allow the following to suffice. A hive swarmed at the 
moors this year. The bees were at first put into a hamper, but 
afterwards into a straw skep, but not for a day or two. At the 
time the bees were put into the hive a super was put on. The 
weather was fine and the bees started work in earnest, first in the 
super, making combs and storing honey in it before there was a 
single cell built in the hive. At the end of four days the super was 
sealed, and at the end of four more days another was finished. 
There not being combs in the hive to store honey, why did the 
bees, or why could they, store honey and seal it in the supers as 
stated above, if it was necessary that honey should be reswallowed 
before it is honey proper ? Perhaps someone will answer. If not, 
it must be considered, as it was in Mr. Pettigrew’s case, that the 
theory is untenable. Mr. Pettigrew had nothing but straw hives 
to deduce and base an argument on further than theory ; but all 
the same, his large straw hives were admirably adapted to have 
empty cells beneath, and naturally the bees in a glut store there, 
seal by degrees, but it ends there. 
BEE3 GATHERING HONEY FROM LOW LYING GROUND. 
It is also a mistake to say that bees do not gather honey from 
low lying Heather. Heather, as a rule, growing upon moss does not 
yield much honey unless in warm seasons. Yet the Lohar moss, 
almost on sea level in Dumfriesshire, yields much honey of fine 
quality. Still, I observe that honey gathered at a high altitude 
is often of superior quality than that gathered lower down. The 
quality of honey depends greatly upon the kind of rock or soil 
beneath the surface. Bees when situated near the Heather will 
return from a distance to their hives filled with honey or laden 
with pollen in ten minutes from the time they left, and when 
plentiful in a shorter time. 
I did not require to give any evidence whether bees “ situated 
in the midst of the Heather ” had to fly three or four miles for 
honey, because the Heather was about four miles square, and beyond 
that there was none unless the sea was crossed on one side and many 
miles of land on the other. I shall be glad to hear further evidence 
on these interesting points.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
H & F. Sharpe, Wisbech.— Catalogues of Specialties and Seed Potatoes. 
Wm. Fell & Co.. Hexham.— Cata'ogue of Forest Trees, Ornamental Trees, 
and Shrubs. 
John Laing & Sens, Forest Hill, London — Special 1 ist of Chrysanthe¬ 
mums. 
Thomas Laxton, Bedford.— List of Novelties and Specialties. 
® a ° 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 un¬ 
avoidably. 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 communica¬ 
tions. 
Chrysanthemum Album Plenum ( W. N. M.). —The above is the name 
of the variety of which you have sent blooms, which are very good, and 
you app- ar to have grown the plants well. They must have been misnamed 
before coming under your charge. . 
Cyclamen Flowers Deformed (F. </.)•—The flowers will sometimes come 
deformed like those you sent if the p’ants are unusually vigorous, and they 
