August 27, 1S91. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
189 
•cover the surface with cocoa-nut fibre refuse until they begin to grow. 
When once they have fairly started into growth place them on a shelf 
close to the glass, where they will enjoy abundance of air. It hurried 
in their early stages they seldom do well. Freesias are most useful 
for cutting, and may be potted in batches at intervals of a month 
according to the demand. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
At the Moors. 
As the Heather this year is in excellent condition I ventured to 
take some of my hives to it on the 11 r .h, but there, as at home, 
the weather has been for more than a month very unpropitious. 
They have had only one dry day since the middle of July, and 
that was on August 10th, and was one of three only since June 
that queens could be fertilised. The result is that many of my 
hives have eggs only instead of what is desirable—the hives full 
of brood in all stages—:o that even with fine weather, and the 
superior bloom that is on the Heather and other flowers, the yield 
of honey will not be so great as it might have been. 
Although the rainfall has not been excessive, it has been so 
constant, with its attendant strong winds, that the bees cannot 
venture out. Had the air been calm, the yield of Clover honey 
would have been very great, and unless it calms the Heather will 
come and go as it did without the bees securing any good from 
it; but with ten days calm fine weather, and it is much needed, 
the bees would do much good. 
Notwithstanding the long unsettled weather, many places are 
experiencing a scarcity of water. The pastures are, however, 
everywhere much improved. While writing, the sky has a more 
promising appearance, and it is to be hoped we shall have finer 
weather than we have had since February. I am anxious it 
should improve, to be able to put to the test several things, 
particularly the 
Punic Bees. 
They are showing great anxiety to get to work, and contrary 
to report, making strong attempts to enter other hives ; it may 
be an exception as it is an exceptional year. At home there 
were several days on which the Carniolians appeared to work, and 
carry much from the Limes and aphides secretion, while the 
Syrian and Punic races remained idle. But I could not determine 
whether this seeming iileness was a defect or a property. It 
sometimes happens that be?s appear to be working assiduously 
-and with spirit, when they are but easing themselves and are 
making no weight. Every hive 13 we : ghed, and this is the test 
by which I shall decide, at the end of the honey gathering, which 
are the best honey gatherers. One variety is much more easily 
managed than many. 
Uses of Excluder Zinc. 
Although I never experienced any advantage with perforated 
zinc in supering, it is useful to me in other respects. Mr. William 
Hogg, Castle Douglas, uses it as mice excluders as some of your 
readers know, as well as my own plan of driving the bees down¬ 
wards into an empty hive through it, leaving the queen on its 
•upper surface. Then when I wish to preserve a few young queens 
for some days, if the queen cells have not been raised in tumblers, 
I cut them out with a piece of comb adhering, and fit them into 
them. I then place the tumblers upon the top of the hive with 
squares of zinc beneath the tumblers and cover all ; the bees 
ascend, and the queens creep out, but cannot get beyond the 
tumbler each is confined in. The bees feed and defend them till 
wanted, and no swarming takes place. 
Another use I find for it is to prevent the issue or loss of a 
swarm when not at hand, or unable to attend to it or them. One 
day lately seven swarms were issuing at the same time. I 
immediately closed the entrances of all but one, and lowered 
the ventilator. The bees of their respective hives returned and 
clustered beneath the zinc floor, and in a little time, when the 
doorway was opened the bees returned to the entrance. This is a 
great advantage, for when stranger bees mix, or several queens, 
many are killed. When excluder zinc is used for closing the door¬ 
way the bees may leave, but the queens, if large, cannot ; and 
when there is but one queen fighting does not take place so 
readily amongst bees of different swarms. 
There is an American device introduced into this country called 
the swarm, or self-hivers. I do not approve of it. Drones are pre¬ 
vented leaving the hive, and are thereby rendered useless. More¬ 
over, it is never certain whether the queen is an old or a young 
one ; if the latter, she may be prevented mating by the continued 
use of the biver, while an old queen forced out of the hive, as it 
were, might take refuge in the hiver ; but a young one is too 
jealous to allow her rival to remain at peace without a battle royal, 
or to leave with her due share of her subjects. The way queens 
pipe I described years ago, but not why. It is natural for young 
queens to pipe for the purpose of knowing whether any rival 
is in the hive, and the piping is performed often when there 
is but one queen. 
Variety in Drones. 
For many years past there has been much fruitless discussion 
on the variety of colour in drones of certain variety of bees, but 
as in many things concerning bees those who took pa-t in them 
lacked the knovledge of what they talked about, their arguments 
being on a false basis. 1 have long preserved the purity of two 
differently imported strains of Carniolians. Neither of these 
strains show the slightest yellow mirking beyond the rudimentary 
dark orange tint upon the hairs on the first segment of the 
abdomen. This instead of being a fault is, I consider, the dis¬ 
tinguishing mark of the pure race. The other does not show 
the slightest yellow in the skin or hair, and is less mild tempered 
than the first named. Its drones are of a light fawn colour on 
the under side of the thorax, a little darker on the upper side, 
and are generally of a more uniform colour (although some 
specimens differ a little) than the drones of the other variety 
present. 
Taking the progeny of a dozen queens, there is a distinct differ¬ 
ence in every one of them. Some of them have the appearance of 
yellow Ligurian and Cyprian drones, some have a sombre brown 
celour of various shades, while others are in part and in whole as 
black as ebony. This variition of colour is not confined to one 
race but is common to all. Even the latest imported Punics 
show it. The Egyptian race wis of the most uniform colour of 
any I ever saw. 
It would be interesting to kuov what is the cause of so much 
variation of colour in drones bred from a preserved pure race. I 
know “A Hallamshire Bee-keeper” has a theory, but without men¬ 
tioning it, I may say that I have witnessed a queen depositing eggs 
for drones, and when they crept out of the cell they possessed 
the variations as mentioned above. 
I have been prompted to write the foregoing through a query 
from a correspondent as to the markings of Carniolians crossed with 
the native brown or black bee. He e’icited an answer to a similar 
query through a contemporary to the efftet that, owing to the 
similarity of the two varieties, it was difficult to distinguish the 
pure from the crossed Carni olian. The answer is absurd, and I 
should not be surprised to learn that the answerer never saw a pure 
black bee, as, before he kept bees, the country was overrun with 
the Ligurian bee. As those who are able to throw light on the 
above mysteries are few, if this should meet the eye of Dr. G. 
Walker, may I be permitted to ask that gentleman to give his 
opinion for the gratificat : on of many besides—A Lanarkshire 
Bee-keeper ? 
