July 19, 1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
61 
have used this hive for about forty years, and it has given me the 
greatest satisfaction; until with one, and the only one, exception, 
through an accident, I never lost a bee on my way to the Heather, 
and I have to take them long distances. 
Bee-keeping has not been always managed by persons having 
the necessary experience, and bee-keepers in their novitiate state 
have, in many cases, been sadly misled. A standard hive was pro¬ 
duced and held up as perfection, and no hive was admissible as a 
prizewinner at the big shows unless it was in accordance with the 
minds and ideas of the B.B.K.A. But, now, instead of one¬ 
sized standard frame, two are admissible, and tiering is the order of 
the day. This change the contributors to the “ Old Journal ” ought 
to be proud of, as it is now proven that it was the only one that 
allowed large and tiering hives to be recommended in its pages. 
It has been recently stated that “ George Raynor was the first 
to use carbolic acid as a bee-quieter,” yet the Journal of Horticulture 
in earlier numbers tells a different tale, to the effect that carbolic 
acid, as well as creosote, -was used as a bee-quieter long before we 
heard of that gentleman. A few stray leaves that I came across 
in my bee house lately gave me some information on the point of 
which I speak that will be borne in mind. 
The hive that I use and recommend is the same as I have been 
using for forty years, and what I introduced to Stewarton some 
thirty years ago, and very much the same hive is now being 
adopted by bee-keepers generally. One difference is what is termed 
the break-joint; this was discirded by me when I had my second 
hive, as there should be nothing about the junction of boxes to 
make separation difficult. We cannot prevent the bees building 
their combs down to the top bars of the under boxes even when a 
bottom rail is used in the frame. In this hive I use no bottom rail, 
as there is the lost space the rail occupies, and very often half an 
inch above it, together with that below it. When there is no 
bottom rail there is very little lost space, and if the combs are 
sometimes fastened to the top bar of the under box all the better 
for the bees and bee-master ; and when a severance is wanted a 
wire drawn through between is all that is necessary, a thing 
mpossible where a break-joint is. The thoroughness of the venti¬ 
lation floor makes it ahead of all other hives, and if the bees do 
occasionally fasten their combs to the top bar, of the two evils I 
have chosen the least. 
THE SITE. 
This, as well as the arrangement of the hives in September, 
should be well chosen, and in the most sheltered spot. Standing 
in twos or threes with a wide space between each clump prevents 
the bees mistaking their own hive (Carniolian bees are less liable to 
enter a wrong hive than other known varieties), and admits the 
sometimes necessary change during the swarming and working 
season. 
After my hives are properly arranged and all well found in 
stores to prevent feeding during winter or spring, an inspection is 
made to see that all is wind and water-tight ; they are never 
interfered with nor altered in appearance, a watch only being kept 
in case of accidents, and the snow removed from the front 
immediately after it falls. Owing to the bad season most of my 
hives, except the supered ones, are in the same state as I put them 
in September. 
My first work in the summer is to make preparations for the 
next year, and for the purpose of preventing after swarms and to 
keep stock hives in full strength. This is done by encouraging a 
pure hive to swarm early or to make an artificial one. In about 
ten days after I divide it into nuclei, sometimes twelve are put into 
nucleus boxes with four frames and placed between but in the rear 
of the hives likely to swarm, which in a few days after are over¬ 
hauled and all the royal cells destroyed, and the queen from the 
nucleus is joined, which is, as a rule, fertilised and laying. The 
advantage gained by this manipulation in a good season is doubly 
manifest. Stock hives get stronger with the young queen than it 
could do with the older, and swarming does not take place so 
readily, and drone comb is not built in empty places as it would 
have been with an old queen regnant. As the season advances 
other young queens are raised, and the33 are kept sacred for the 
following year’s work, which far surpasses the aged queens ; still, 
zealously preserved by some with all the orthodox clipping of 
wings, but which is neither commendable nor necessary where 
young queens are kept. The system of keeping young queens only 
in stock and large hives has, like the tiering hive, been from 
time immemorial successfully and systematically carried out in 
Scotland. 
DOUBLE CASED HIVEs, 
For a country where they have to be moved about these are very 
ill adapted, and give no advantage whatever to bees or to bee-keeper. 
The single-cased hives are in every respect the best. Where small 
supers are used, a case about a quarter of an inch larger than the 
hive slips over the supers and protects them from cold or damage 
from jarring. Supers, especially at the Heather, ought to be the 
best protected, and with such hives I often have two and three tiers 
of supers filled, while the body of the hive is not completely filled. 
In fact, this seems to be the wishes of the bee, to have some unfilled 
space at the bottom of their hive, and shows how contrary to the 
bee’s nature it is to crowd the bees into little space, or to fancy 
eking will prevent swarming. The construction of our hive is so- 
simple that preparing them for moving is but child’s play, and 
safety to the bees and people is insured. No bee can escape, and 
from the shallowness of the combs none can collapse, even although 
the road is rough, while from thoroughness of ventilation no bee; 
is injured, and that plague foul brood, brought on by the stifling 
system, is never encouraged or started. Other details will be given 
in future issues.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
BEES AND THE WEATHER. 
It may be some consolation to northern bee-keepers to learn that 
bee-keepers in the “ sunny south ” have no better prospects of a honey 
harvest than they have in the north. From the 20th of May till the 
4th of June we had bright fairly warm days, and the more forward stocks 
were working well in supers, two of my own having well filled forty-two 
1 lb. sections each, but at the latter date had no sealed honey. Since 
then we have had rain on twenty-three days, amounting in all to 
5-35 inches, and a most remarkable absence of sun. It is needless to- 
say that the bees have stored no surplus, but breeding has gone on, and 
swarming could not be prevented, even in the few short blinks of sun¬ 
shine we have had. On the night of the 10th we had a strong cold 
north-west wind with rain, the former continuing all the day ; the sun 
struggled through the drifting clouds occasionally and tempted the bees- 
out, and they have perished by thousands. The thermometer was down 
to 39° that morning, and to 44° on the morning of the 12th. The wind, 
has moderated, the barometer is rising steadily, and we hope for a. 
favourable change. Dutch Clover is more plentiful than I ever remem¬ 
ber having seen it, and it we have sunshine now we may yet have our 
empty supers filled.—A Sussex Amateur. 
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. 
Gardener Leaving: (Reading ').—If the house you live in belongs 
to your employer and you pay no rent, it is regarded as part of your 
wages, and you can only remain in it after your term of servitude 
