300 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 27,1888. 
the original one. I have introduced many queens to these bees 
and found every lot of the same nature. 
When these bees are pure they are grand workers and have 
otherwise all the good qualities desirable in bees, and if we overlook 
their friskiness at swarming time are otherwise faultless. And 
when their mild temper (although not stingless) is taken into 
■consideration they are unsurpassed, and no other variety can be 
compared with them. 
A DAY'S OUTING. 
One day lately a letter came from a friend asking me to visit 
'him and others, and advise the best plan to prepare different hives 
for winter. Their plan was to drive and join two together. After 
making an examination I found every hive well filled, and there 
was no necessity whatever for further strengthening any one of 
them. The honey that could be taken was but little, for already 
an octagon super tolerably well filled had been taken from each 
hive, for which I was informed 2s. Gd. per pound would be readily 
obtained. Their mode of marketing being after the fashion I have 
frequently spoken on—viz., they hand it over to a grocer, and he 
sells it at the price named by the owner, a small per-centage being 
allowed for the trouble. After I had satisfied myself as to the 
actual condition of all the hives, and seeing no necessity for more 
bees, nor that any good could arise from joining two together, I 
explained the whole matter, and advised feeding those hives re- 
•quiring it, and probably when the spring came round there would 
be a demand for bees, as many had died during this summer. An 
outlay of from 3s. to 4s. was all that was necessary to make them 
worth six or seven times more by May next. Now came the im¬ 
portant reply to what I said from a bee-keeper of the first year. 
*“ I agree with what you say, but the number of hives I can keep is 
limited, then if there was no demand in the spring there would 
likely be as little demand in the autumn. It appears to me that 
the ‘ brimstone pit ’ is the best way to dispose of surplus bees after 
•all that has been said against it.” In that statement I concurred, 
but added that there ways and methods of getting over the diffi¬ 
culty and avoiding the pit, although no writer on bees had as 
yet shown the way to rescue the innocents. Successful bee-keeping 
to many of them consisted in manipulation and increase of stocks, 
which if performed in a humane and intelligent manner would 
Tesult in the country being overflown with bees, but this has never- 
been the case, and the number of slaughtered bees from other 
causes has been greater of late than the brimstone pit ever caused. 
■Just as the Stewarton system of bee-keeping has given supers of 
honey this year when others failed, as I have frequently shown it 
could do, although condemned by most of our modern bee-mem 
•until lately when they could not do so conscientiously any longer, 
•so will I endeavour now to show how bees can be kept with the 
•greatest amount of profit without having many surplus bees, and 
none to subject to brimstone. Before doing so, however, I may 
•state that in addition to the octagon supers stated above I hear of 
many others, and in one case in the East of Scotland 50 lbs. sur¬ 
plus has been taken from each Stewarton hive. 
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF BEE3. 
Take any given number, say six stocks ; the bee-keeper having 
mo desire to increase nor to have “ condemned bees.” Allowing 
these six stocks to swarm there would be twelve in all; but the six 
swarms are combined into three, leaving still three in excess. To 
still further reduce these drive all the adult bees from one half, 
then combine these three hives with the other three. This reduces 
to the proper number—six, which, if three of the six swarms 
queens have been spared, may be joined to the old stock it issued 
•from after the queen cells have all been destroyed. Six extra 
strong hives will now be the result, and three of them prodigious 
ones ; but none of these having young queens it will be as well to 
-divide one of the old stocks into six or seven nuclei. After these 
■‘have been duly fertilised and breeding for some time overhaul the 
first named, depose their queens, and join nuclei in the usual 
manner, but not before removing excess of drone comb and what 
sealed honey one3 that can be spared to make room for combs of 
the nuclei. The total number is now reduced to six again, and 
every one is in the very best condition for stocks the coming year, 
or for the approaching Heather harvest ; and if the Clover harvest 
has been one of sunshine the yield will be something great, as will 
also be the six stocks, as they have the brood of two queens ; so 
that in addition to having the bees of one queen only, which in 
itself would be a populous hive, there is the nucleus extra, and its 
young queen should gather double the quantity of honey than any 
hive not similiarly treated. Should an increase of stock be desired 
there is no better plan than that of dividing into nuclei after the 
issue of the first swarm, and if my instructions previously given 
are followed there will be but few condemned or surplus bees, and 
no brimstone pit, with the largest yield of honey that possibly can 
be secured. 
A young queen at the head of each stock about the 20th of 
July, swarming is not so liable to take place, but to avoid that it 
may be necessary to add an extra division underneath the usual 
body boxes. I have had similarly treated hives gather 20 lbs. 
honey daily during the glut. By pursuing the above plan we get 
the greatest number of bees at the right time, and there is an end 
to all bother after the surplus honey has been secured, and by using 
the carbolicised paper, the removing of the supers is but the work 
of a few minutes, without the risk of starting robbing, or getting 
supers spoiled by the bees breaking the seals of the honeycomb, as 
is usually the case when the supers are removed during a dearth 
of honey. The Americans seem not to understand this easy mode 
of removing supers, as they are only discussing the subject which 
is the best way to remove, not knowing the easy method of— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
THE COMBINATION OR LONG-IDEA HIVE. 
Several have been inquiring about this hive lately, and as I have 
had over thirty of them nearly always in use for seven years, I should 
be ab'e to discuss their merits and defects. Tbe principle of the hive 
dates long back, bat it was first brought prominently before modern 
bee-keepers by Captain Adair in the United States ; bee-keepers there 
lost their heads over it, and began calling it the “ Long-Idea ” hive. 
This was some time before it was “ originated ” here. The best feature 
about this hive is it can be made from almost any bind of packing box 
that happens to be large enough ; and under the name of the Excelsior 
hive some years ago I gave directions in another journal that enabled 
anyone who could drive a nail or cut a piece of wood to make them. 
This feature is the only advantage it has over other good types. Com¬ 
paring it with the Cowan types, it has the advantage of contraction to 
any comb, or the expansion longitudinally to any number, limited, of 
course, to the length of the hive. It is solely on account of this 
peculiarity, erroneously supposed to be an advantage, that this type of 
hive has become so popular, particularly amongst those who think 
continuous manipulation the proper way to manage a stock of bees. 
“ Lanarkshire Bee-keeper” describes it as the best non-swarming hive, 
as nearly all the bees have died in them this summer. Allow me to 
remark that it was not the hive which caused the bees to die, it was 
this manipulation. Being so handy for the purpose, its owner is for 
ever pulling the combs about, spreading the brood, and chilling it. 
When he has done the bees have to rechink the dummy to stop the 
draughts, and get up the heat internally; this means a waste of stores 
and energy, when in a season like the past they were bound to starve, 
while other stocks, kept as compact as possible without being disturbed, 
prospered. 
One great drawback to the system is the brood is spread out flat in¬ 
stead of being square or round on the base, and rising upwards in a 
natural manner as in the Stewarton system. Many think this an 
advantage, and if there was any truth in the teaching “ that shallow 
hives were best for comb honey,” this hive should give a splendid 
return if headed with an extra prolific queen, but as a matter of fact 
storified hives with deep broad nests have always outstripped it in this 
respect. 
When it was introduced it was claimed as a fact fully established, 
that bees would invariably store their honey in the farthest point from 
the entrance, hence they would always store their honey in the back 
combs, which could be taken out, extracted, and returned without 
touching or moving the others. My seven years’ experience proves to 
me that bees invariably place their ripe honey above the brood, and 
that I was just as likely to find the front combs filled with honey as 
the back ones. This, it will be seen, involved much labour. During a 
good honey flow I have always found the combs sealed above, and the 
brood gradually crowded down to the bottom, even with plenty of room 
behind, so that very rarely indeed did I get combs to extract free from 
brood. Up to this time I had always looked upon the storifying system 
