166 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ -August 20, 1SS1. 
obtain would reduce the price of the whole, so that we should be 
no better oif ; and if a dull time follows with cold nights it is more 
than likely that any unsealed honey would be carried down into 
the body of the hive. In the body of the hive a good deal of 
comb space is now empty, the brood having hatched out, and I 
would strongly recommend that any toney collected after this time 
should be left in the hive to make up the stores for the bees to 
winter upon. 
Extracting from the Brood Combs. 
This is a plan that is most prejudicial to the well-being of a 
colony, and is never thought of by modern bee-keepers. We ought 
to be satisfied with the honey we are able to take from the supers, 
interfering with the frames in the body of the hive as little as 
possible. Extracting the last pound of honey and then feeding with 
syrup is a waste of our time, and an unnecessary wear and tear to 
the bees. It is often the cause of spring dwindling, the old bees 
being worn out before others are hatched to fill their places by the 
additional labour entailed by artificial feeding. My experience 
teaches me that those colonies of bees having sufficient food stored 
in the natural way will winter best and be ready to take advantage 
of the early pollen and any honey flow from fruit blossoms or 
other sources, giving us more than compound interest in good 
honey, for that left them in the fall of the year of an inferior 
kind. 
Super Clearers. 
The want of some ready way of getting bee3 fi’om supers has 
long been felt, and many attempts have been made to invent 
something for the purpose. The first of these inventions was that 
of Mr. Aston in 1873, advertised as a bee and drone trap. There 
is also a description of one on page 56 of “ Bee-keeping for the 
Many.” Mr. Cheshire in 1874 obtained a prize at the Crystal 
Palace for a pin trap. Nothing of real practical value was invented 
until last year, when two or three came before the public, 
and each has its advocates. “ The Cone Super Clearer ” is the 
simplest, is most useful, and facilitates the removal of supers with 
the least possible disturbance to the bees. A cone made of zinc is 
fixed in the gable of the hive at both ends close under the project¬ 
ing roof ; holes are bored the s'ze of the large end of the cone, in 
which they are fixed, the small end projecting, so that when the 
roof cover (which must fit accurately) is in its place the only light 
comes through the cones. We proceed as follows Raise the 
cover, blow a little smoke into and under the super, which take off 
and set on one side for a moment, whilst putting the quilts care¬ 
fully on the frames of the hive, making all secure below. The 
super is then put back on the hive, communication having been cut 
off. The super covers, quilts, being taken off, the roof is closed at 
once, the bees make for the light coming through the cones and 
escape, having no means of communicating with the hive. Another 
form is that of an adapting board, having several small cones fixed 
on it, and having a fillet on the under side gives a space for the 
bees to get over the frames and out of the cones. If this super is 
lifted on to a board it may be taken away and put in a suitable 
place, and left for the bees to get out by degrees. In this way a 
quantity of honey may be taken in a short time.— John M. Hooker. 
PUNIC BEES. 
In the Journal of Horticulture for July 23rd, “ A Lanarkshire 
Bee-keeper,” who has two or three imported queens, says if the 
smallness of these bees is not against them everything else is in 
their favour. He has written to me asking if, in my opinion, their 
smallness is any detriment, and as I have been too busy to reply, 
and there may be many others wishing to know, I think I cannot 
do better than write an article for all the world to read. 
Long before I saw or heard of a Punic bee I was satisfied that 
small bees would gather more honey than large ones, or rather 
they “ should ” do, according to all scientific laws. If honey could 
be collected from filled casks then large bees would have the 
advantage ; but it is not so gathered. A bee has to visit many 
flowers before it fills its sac with honey, and in its expended energy 
of going from flower to flower a certain amount of honey is con¬ 
sumed to supply this expended energy. Now, no matter what it 
is you are dealing with, whether a bee, horse, steam engine, or 
anything else that gives out force— i.e., performs work, the greater 
the work done the greater will be the consumption of fuel, whether 
in the form of coal, grass, corn, or honey, and as a large bee 
would require more force to move it there would consequently 
be less honey in its sac than a small one, although both visited 
as many flowers side by side in a given time—that is, assuming 
that each bee was of equal strength according to its size. But 
there is another natural law to consider—viz., that the ratio of 
strength compared with the bulk increases as the size of the animal 
decreases ; thus : if an elephant were as strong as a flea in com¬ 
parison to its weight it could about jump over the moon. The point 
may also be considered from the following standpoint :—1000 
Punic bees are about equal in weight to 700 Carniolians. Now 
if each bee of the two kinds visited the same number of flowers 
per day, and took the same quantity of honey from each, the 700' 
Carniolians would consume just the same quantity of honey that 
the Punics would, and yet the latter would have the gathering of 
300 bees extra without any deduction for food, because, bear in 
mind, it is not numbers that consume, but “ weight ” when the 
food is expended in energy or work. The above is simply a scien¬ 
tific deduction, assuming that all bees are of equal strength in 
relation to their size. 
But as I have pointed out, we must look for greater relative 
strength as size diminishes ; and to show that Punic bees are very 
much stronger, I will relate the following that came under my 
observation a few days ago. I found a stock of Carniolians with a 
quantity of sealed drone brood, and not wishing it to hatch I 
removed the cappings, decapitating the drones, and gave the comb 
to a small stock of Punic bees to clear out and replace with 
pure Punic drones if they would. Any other bees would have 
simply dragged them out of the hive, because too heavy to fly away 
with ; but these little puny-looking Punic bees actually flew away 
with the Carniolian drones quite as readily as British bees would 
have flown away with a dead Punic worker bee. What was the 
cause of this enormous strength ? Was it because the bee had less 
weight to carry in its own body, or because it was actually stronger ? 
I believe the latter is the true theory. Hence we have a bee with 
less weight to carry in its own body, and with more strength to 
carry it, and herein lies the explanation of the fact that pure Punic 
bees are better than hybrids, as hybrids are all larger, and have 
therefore more weight to carry. 
I have also been asked if they swarm as much as Carniolians ? 
to which I can answer both yes and no. When Punics resolve te 
swarm they make tremendous preparations, constructing hundreds 
of queen cells. The stock may be of enormous strength, and 
working in full blast, with no sign of a swarm. All other bees 
cease work for three days before, and Carniolians six or eight days ; 
then all of a sudden off comes the prime swarm with the old queen, 
which with me has invariably dropped on the floor in front of the 
hive, where she will be seen stroking herself. If the bee-keeper 
is sharp he will catch and cage her, and hang her with the swarm 
when it shows signs of sett’iog, when he can hive it any time ; if on 
an old stand by simply removing the queen. This first swarm is 
never very large, the second swarm being generally as large or 
larger, which may come off the day after the first. They will go¬ 
on swarming day after day, and each swarm will quickly settle 
down to work. Thus it will be seen they are liable to throw off as 
many swarms as Carniolians. But there is this difference between 
them : Carniolians will swarm without leaving a queen cell behind, 
Punics never do this. Carniolians will remain idle for three to 
eight days before swarming, Punics not three minutes. Carniolians 
will swarm in bad weather and leave not a drop of honey behind, 
Punics never do this. If the weather is bad they will not swarm 
at all, and will destroy all queen cells, although they preserve 
them until the young queens begin piping. Sti’ictly speaking they 
are less inclined to swarm in this country of any bee, at the same 
time they may throw five or six swarms in one week. I have also 
described them as “ non-stinging.” One person wrote me to send 
him a queen if I would guarantee them not to sting. I could not 
give this guarantee absolutely, because they can and will sting 
when provoked to it, also if treated roughly when they are getting 
ready to swarm. Wbat I say is this, they are tamer than 
Carniolians ; and practically, that is with ordinary management, 
non-stinging. 
I have received some very flattering reports of what they have 
done as hybrids. All know how “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” 
praises them, how last year the weakest nuclei built up and beat 
his best stocks by 9 lbs., and how they have stored three times as 
much honey in one day of any other bee3. Mr. William Stokes, 
Balnastraid, Carr Bridge, Invernesshire, a well-known Scotch 
bee-keeper, says, if he can get half a dozen more queens like the 
one he bad last year he will consider himself a lucky man, as the 
one has left all his others fifty stocks, a long way in the rear. 
Mr. R. Robinson, Exchange Arcade, Hawick, another well-known. 
