August 2 , 1888.] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
109 
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HE BEE-KEEPER. 
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QUEEN SUBSTITUTION. 
We often see advice given to the effect that after queens have 
attained a certain age they should be removed and a successor 
given to the stock so deprived of its head. To some extent this is 
good and sound teaching ; but as a correspondent in a contemporary 
points out, it is not after all the age of the queen at which wo 
should look, but her fitness to remain at the head of the stock. 
Some queens are most valuable at an age when others are practi¬ 
cally useless ; others are at an early age only retained at a loss to 
the bee-keeper. True, many bee-keepers do not know sufficient of 
what is going on in the interior of their stocks to judge as to the 
fitness of a queen, and the advice to remove queens which have 
passed their third year is consequently in their case the most likely 
to be of practical value and generally useful, because the per¬ 
centage of queens retaining their full vigour after three years’ work 
in a large hive is, although larger than many have any idea of, still 
relatively small to the number which at that age are worn out. 
The age of every queen in the apiary should be known and a re¬ 
cord kept of all changes. Any bee-keeper can do this, and if from 
his record he finds a queen past her third year—going into her 
fourth—a new one should be substituted, always supposing that 
the bee-keeper has no knowledge of the fitness of the queen apart 
from her age. Young queens, strong stocks, and a large surplus 
follow one another. The young queen enables the bees to rear brood 
in large quantities, and the increasing number of hatching bees 
enables the stock to still further increase in numbers at a rapid rate, 
with the result that when the honey season approaches a vast 
multitude of insects are ready to gather in the honey, while stocks 
headed by old worn-out queens are barely able to gain sustenance 
and to live on at all. 
Added to these facts is the difficulty—often arising in February 
and the succeeding months—by reason of a queen giving out when it 
is almost impossible to give a successor. Even if an old queen does 
manage to tide over until the end of April the danger of the colony 
raising a new queen, and consequently sending forth a swarm, is 
increased tenfold from the fact that single queens are rarely raised, 
but there are generally several; and then when they mature, if the 
stock is strong, the first hatched queen leads out a swarm, or the 
old worn-out queen leads out the swarm, and one of the newly 
matured princesses remains at the head of the stock. In any case 
a great deal of extra and unnecessary trouble is occasioned by the 
neglect of ordinary precautions in the past ; a little labour in due 
time saves much care and anxiety in the future. 
Now comes the question whether it is better to rear queens or 
to purchase them, and it seems tolerably certain that there is no 
better method when such a course is practicable than for two or three 
bee-keepers to club together and raise the queens which they will 
require ; the expense and trouble is thereby divided and less honey 
is sacrificed. Good queens are as essential to profit as a good 
season. There cannot be bees without a queen, nor can there be a 
surplus without good weather in which to collect it. Some bee¬ 
keepers carry on the system of stimulative feedinginthe autumn to 
a dangerous extent. The queen is forced to extend her period of 
labour, and is thus weakened and becomes old before her time. 
Toung bees are undoubtedly necessary to successful wintering, but 
they are sometimes obtained in a haphazard manner, which con¬ 
siderably militates against the success of the stock in the future. 
At the end of the honey season, and especially in a season like 
the present one, breeding should be encouraged, but no food should 
be administered later than the last week in September in any cir¬ 
cumstances other than when it is advisable to risk a lesser evil in 
order to avoid a greater. There is no excuse for the procrastination 
so often seen in putting up and preparing colonies for winter, and 
not an inconsiderable amount of the failure which bee-keepers 
attribute to various causes is in reality the direct effect and the 
certain result of this policy of waiting pursued in the autumn. If 
feeding must be done it is just as easy to do it—in nine cases out of 
ten—at the proper time ; but we cannot altogether forget that when 
the season has come to a close, especially in a year like the present 
one, the bee-keeper's enthusiasm is somewhat damped, and he 
becomes rather listless until the spring. 
We are pleased to see that “A Hallamshire Bee-keeper” is 
going to revolutionise bee-keeping by the children of his fertile 
brain. We hardly see the point of some of his observations, 
although we seem to detect an attempt at irony. Surely a gentle¬ 
man of “ A Hallamshire Bee-keeper’s ” experience must be able 
to protect his inventions if they are new and worth the trouble and 
expense ; and even if it is of no practical value to the bee-beeper 
of the future as to whether he was the gentleman who revolu¬ 
tionised bee-keeping or not, he will at least have the satisfaction of 
knowing that his genius has done something for which bee-keepers 
may have reason to be thankful, and for which every honest bee¬ 
keeper will be pleased to accord to him a meed of praise, even 
though the fact that “ A Hallamshire Bee-keeper ” is the inventor,, 
and not some nobody, does not assist a bee-keeper in increasing 
the surplus which he will hope to obtain even more surely when 
these astounding inventions are thrown into the market. In the 
words of Milton, if we may slightly change them, we may expect 
that the result will be in future spoken of as a time when 
“ Earth trembled as if again in pangs, 
And Nature gave a second groan.” 
—Felix. 
THE CALEDONIAN APIARIAN SOCIETY’S SHOW. 
The above Society, in conjunction with the Highland and Agri¬ 
cultural Society, held its annual Show on Tuesday the 24th, Wednesday 
the 25th, Thursday the 26th, and Friday the 27th July, on Glasgow 
Green. The weather was inauspicious, and the Show lacked the interest it 
formerly had. There was little honey and few competitors. There are 
reasons for the latter, and the unfavourable weather we have had 
answers for the former. 
Very little of the present year’s honey was shown, being mostly of 
last year's production, and had a better appearance than the new,, 
which, according to the rules, was what only should have been shown. 
There was a class for granulated honey, the first prize being awarded 
to a mixed sample, some seemingly fine, but other jars very liquid and 
watery-looking, the second prize being awarded to a superior and 
uniform sample which, according to the schedule and our opinion, 
should have been placed first. The wine made from honey was, to our 
taste, too syrupy, and the beer too flat. 
The comestibles made from honey were meritorious, but we think it is a 
mistake to make things from honey that does not improve the article as 
when made with sugar. If honey is employed in the manufacturing 
of anything it ought to be only when an improvement is apparent. 
Sugar is much cheaper than honey, and it is a want of economy to use 
it where sugar is cheaper and as good. Many things can be improved 
by honey and rendered more palatable than with sugar. 
Observatory hives were well represented, but we think it a mistake to 
encourage others than the Unicomb, the only hive that scientific obser¬ 
vations can be made from. Mr. Wm. McNally of Glenluce showed two- 
hives of a novel description, which were neat and ingeniously made. 
One admitted the bees from comb to comb through openings in the sides 
of the hive covered with leather, which gave the bees access from one 
comb to another and did not kill them. The other hive was made on the 
principle of the “ Lanarkshire ” hive, but an omission in its construction 
to keep the combs together when one was hoisted was a grave defect, as 
when it was up and honey coming in the space would be filled with 
comb, and so render it an impossibility to lower it. With this exception, 
however, which will probably be remedied, the hive was much admired, 
and as the combs and brood were naturally and well covered with bees 
it was deservedly awarded the first prize. 
Only two collections of appliances were shown by Messrs. McNally 
and Young of Perth, the famed makers of extractors and other tin 
appliances. Both collections were good, large and varied, Mr. Wm.. 
McNally gaining first honours. 
There was nothing novel and little to attract visitors inside, the 
greatest attraction being the bee tent, where driving was performed by 
Mr. Johnston of Touch, and lecturing by the Rev. J. B. Roberlson of 
Stranraer went on simultaneously, which new feature added to the 
interest of the performance. But why keep on demonstrating the 
driving of bees—an obsolete thing in bee-keeping? And why preach 
the docility of bees with an awning of netting between the bees and 
visitors 1 If bee shows are to do good we should show how to manipulate 
bees under the modern system and with modern appliances, and without 
screens of any kind. Then will novices place confidence in both 
