310 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f April 12, 1888. 
sized hives, but are in full strength, capable of carrying in from 
5 to 10 lbs. per day whenever the Gooseberries are in flower, which 
time cannot be far distant if the average of years is taken. It is 
quite common for bees at a distance of from three to four miles 
from here to increase in weight 40 to 50 lbs. in a week’s time, from 
the Gooseberries alone. ' 
Should the weather be favourable during April when the 
Oooseberries are in bloom, these forward stocks will carry in as much 
honey as will tide them over the greater part of the season, and be 
in the best condition for storing surplus honey from the White 
Clover. If they miss the Gooseberries, which they often do, then 
feeding heavily will be resorted to, and may turn out the least pro¬ 
fitable half of my stock on that account. My other stocks, composed 
wholly of nuclei last autumn, are advancing steadily, although not 
so rapidly as the stronger stocks, but will not suffer to the same ex¬ 
tent as the latter should the weather be unpropitious during April 
and May. Owing to this fact, and no expense necessary in feed¬ 
ing, they will be forward for the ingathering in June, which will 
make them the most profitable portion of my stocks. 
It is a great mistake to suppose that bees should be manipulated 
or have a different position during the spring months from what 
they had during winter, and yet this is taught daily. The hive 
that is properly prepared in autumn so as to defend the bees from 
the rigours of an larctic winter, and having a young and fertile 
queen, all proving successful, require no other attention or altera¬ 
tion, because the bees •vvdll begin to breed at their own time, and 
oontinue in a more regular and continuous manner with less 
loss of bees than when brood nests are contracted, brood spread, 
seals of honeycomb broken, or stimulative feeding practised.— 
A L.\narksiiire Bee-keeper. 
INTRODUCTION OF FERTILE QUEENS. 
It was with the greatest pleasure and profit I read the truly 
scientific article by T. Bonner Chambers, Esq., F.L.S., page 247. His 
theories at once placed several matters I could hardly previously 
explain in a clear light. He speaks of what I have always 
referred to as “ instinct,” as *“ habit ” or “ custom,” by which he 
leads us to first inquire what is the habit or custom of bees when 
placed in certain circumstances, and thus leads us to arrive at a 
correct theory. 
Two distinct theories are propounded. First, that it is the in¬ 
variable habit or custom of bees when they lose their queen to 
rear a successor from the egg or larvee, and that being so, it is not 
natural, while in possession of such egg or larvae, to receive a strange 
queen. This I very well know, though I never conceived it as a 
theory, nor should I ever have been able to put it in such clear or 
terse language as he does. For years I have tried experiments, intro¬ 
ducing queens by means of cages; and though it has been asserted that 
old bees, or those long queenless, will not accept a strange queen 
under any circumstances, yet when offered under the conditions of 
my law she is invariably accepted. Strange to say, if instead of being 
dropped in amongst the bees she is caged on a comb in the midst of 
them for forty-eight hours, and the bees are old or have long been 
queenless, she will be at once balled when liberated and soon 
killed if not released. My experiments were directed to find out 
why this was so. I soon, however, found (I used the wire-mesh 
pipe-cover cage) that when I caged a Syrian queen amongst the 
old black native bees for six or eight days that one or more queen 
cells would be started, though no queen had been at liberty in the 
hive, nor was there any suspicion or possibility of any being in 
previous to the queen being caged. After they were sealed I 
removed the queen, when to my surprise Syrian queens hatched 
from them, thus proving conclusively that the egg or eggs had 
been dropped by the queen in the cage and carried by the bees to 
a ceU to be developed. Had the queen laid them in the cells 
under the cage the bees could not have reached them. Thus it will 
be seen it was quite possible for them to procure the egg within 
the first forty-eight hours, or even twenty-four ; and to be sure of 
finding it in one of the numerous cells, would require more 
patience than ever Job possessed. These qneen cells have, I 
believe, been seen by others, but have always been treated by 
them as the produce of fertile workers ; hence these were dubbed 
the “ bee-keeper’s pests,” as no hive could be re-queened with them 
in, though as a matter of fact I have never found fertile workers 
to make any difference. It will be seen all these matters are made 
clear by the “ Boimer Chambers ” theory. 
“ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ’’ has several times spoken of his 
safety cage, which fits on the top of the frames. I have an idea 
that its safety depends on the impossibility of any egg dropping 
out of the bottom, and not, as supposed, because the queen is safe 
from angry bees. If our friend, “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper,’’ 
will make his cage bottom of double wire cloth, pretty coarse so 
that eggs can drop through, and set it over a frame space, I venture 
to assert its safety will disappear. You see in his plan, as stated on 
pages 204-5, the bees have no means of rearing a successor, and not 
having been able to get an egg during the time the queen is caged 
they are exactly in the condition required by my law for safe 
introduction. 
Mr. Bonner Chambers’ second theory is, that when a queen 
leaves a comb before she has deposited an egg in each empty cell, 
the bees either think she is faulty or lost, and so begin constructing 
queen cells. Whether he is correct in this or not the future will 
decide, but in justice I must say this, that many times I have found 
queen cells that I could not account for, and I have grown so used 
to seeing them that I never conclude the queen is lost by their 
presence. Only as recently as Saturday, March 24th last, I found 
a seahid queen cell in a very strong stock ; the reigning queen was 
laying, and seemed all right. As this cell excited my interest very 
much I carefully examined it and, from what I could make out, the 
queen previous to the last cold spell had deposited some eggs in the 
comb, and from some cause had left that comb for another one, as 
the sealed brood was very irregular. Then the cold coming the 
bees had contracted themselves from the comb ends, and being no 
passage through the combs, which have 1 square foot of surface, 
they might have been practically divided and so thought themselves 
queenless ; or they might have started the cell solely because the 
eggs were in broken order. The ceU in question had only just been 
sealed, as the queen had not changed from a larva to a nymph. I 
shall do my utmost to investigate this most important matter ; 
from it we may learn why queens are so often superseded, and till 
it is firmly settled bee-keepers had better handle their brood combs 
as little as possible, as disturbing the queen will probably result in 
her being replaced by a daughter. I am sure all bee-keepers are 
under a deep obligation to Mr. Bonner Chambers for such an able 
article.—A Hallamsiiire Bee-keeper. 
TEADE CATALOGUES EECEIVED. 
Webb & Brand, Saffron Walden .—Catalogue of Tlollyhoclia. 
Thomas Painter, Smallwood, Stoke-on-Trent .—Catalogue of Daldian. 
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 reqnest that no one will write privately 
to any of our corregpondents, 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 qnestions 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. 
Books (Al TF.).—Perhaps the Rev. T. C. Br^haut’s work on modern 
pruning, published by Messrs. Longmjins, might be useful to you. It 
can be obtained, if in print, through a bookseller. 
Strawberry Plants (AT. P. IF.).—Possibly the plants may fruit in 
the autumn if they have proper cultural treatment, and the variety is 
Viscomtesse Hericart de Thury or Garibaldi. 
Wood Asbes and Bones (<7. J. &).—The bones are some 
months dissolving in wood ashes, the time depending on the size of the 
bones and the moisture of the ashes. The smaller the bones are broken 
the sooner they are softened, and the ashes must be constantly moist. 
Peacbes Setting- {8. T. C .').—We havS received the sample, which 
is as good as could be desired, but cannot insert your letter this week. 
We have observed that persons who particularly desire their letters to 
appear in the “ next issue ” are the latest in sending them, and thus de¬ 
feat their object. 
