October id, 1S91. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
375 
Cyclamen .—Place into o-inch pots seedlings that were raised in 
February and are not needed in flower before the spring. Arrange these 
close to the glass, where the temperature at night will range about 45° 
to 50°. Transplant seedlings into pans, and grow them on a shelf close 
to the glass in a temperature of 60°. Give plants that are flowering 
clear soot water ; if kept in a structure about 55°, and air is admitted 
freely during the day, they will flower freely and damping will not take 
place. Be careful these plants do not become dry at their roots. 
Calceolarias .—Pot these as they need more root room. The earliest 
plants should be placed into their largest size. Grow them for 
some time in cold frames. The moist conditions of these structures suit 
them well. A dry atmosphere is ruinous to these plants, they quickly 
•become a prey to aphides. 
Libonias .—Remove these from the greenhouse and cold frames into 
a temperature of 50°. If kept too cool they lose their foliage, and the 
beauty of the plants is destroyed. If the plants have been well grown 
and fully exposed to the sun they will be full of bloom, and will quickly 
develop their small but showy flowers if given gentle warmth. 
v. 
HE B 
DE-KEEPER^ 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Straw Hive. 
This was the first thing the modern school attacked as being 
totally unfit for bee-keeping, and yet was the only one used to 
demonstrate humane bee-keeping at all bee shows, while never one 
single manipulation was made to show the superiority of the frame 
hive to prove how the promised pounds for pence were to be realised. 
It was freely stated that honey from modern systems would bring 
to the cottager 2s. per lb. instead of less than half that sum. This 
sounded well in the ears of novices, while it suited the interests of 
dealers, but strange to say that price never was realised, but it has 
been oftener sold at less than the lowest figure mentioned, and 
simply reversed the argument. For, with all the advantages the 
frame hive possesses over the straw hive, it is not on record that 
the frame hive has been more profitable than the straw hive, but the 
opposite. In the first place the appliances required under the frame 
hive system cost pounds for shillings under the straw system, while 
the honey from the latter is often superior to that of the former, 
which in too many cases contain 30 per cent, of water. Many of 
the keenest competitions in strained or dripped honey has had the 
prizes awarded to that from straw hives. This argument is more 
truthful than maybe appreciated by some. The injudicious use of 
the extractor has had much to do with putting on the market an 
inferior quality of honey, and the too lavish use of foundation in 
supers has rendered much of the comb unpalatable. Taking all 
into consideration the economist will seek in vain for the advantages 
in that direction, of the greater profit said to be found in keeping 
frame hives. 
Being in possession of the necessary plant for keeping bees on 
the most approved style, I would not alter my method, nor would 
I even advise anyone to adopt straw hives before frame hives, 
neither would I advise anyone to discard straw hives in favour of 
frame hives when the bee-keeper is satisfied with those he 
possesses, but rather try and show the best method by which straw 
hives can be kept and managed properly, and to do this no better 
plan exists than the one that has been carried out from time 
immemorial. 
Many cottagers made their own'istraw hives as they now do 
wooden frame hives, and thereby saved a considerable sum. They 
appear to have had from a very remote date the value of young 
queens in stock hives. Few bee-keepers of the ancient school 
would have entertained the ilea of having bees more than a year 
old, and fewer the notion that queens could be kept profitably up 
till four or more years. In my early days I never knew any that 
would have entertained such “ modern ” notions. Starting with a 
certain number of hives with their floorboard, costing about 3s. a 
piece, a very moderate sum compared with frame hives nowadays, 
not speaking of the extras, and taking particular care of empty 
new made combs for the subsequent year for hives, and as guides 
to supers, which foundation has supplanted. Every stock hive was 
expected to swarm twice, sometimes the prime swarm was all that 
issued, and at other times occasionally three swarms issued, so that 
the average were commonly maintained at one swarm and one 
cost. 
Old Combs. 
These were not tolerated, so that from the stock hive raised 
from a young queen the previous year, at tbe end of twenty-one 
days after the first swarm was driven, the sealed light coloured 
combs were taken, the seals first taken off, as modern extractors 
do, and further sliced to the midrib, the contents all falling into 
a basket suspended on two chairs. The honey as it dripped from 
the basket fell into a tapered muslin bag, and from it into 
earthenware jars, considered then as the only utensil honey would 
keep in. The blackened combs, and those containing pollen and 
unsealed honey, were either pressed and the contents given to 
the bees, or made into mead or beer. Sometimes the driven bees 
were joined to the first swarm after the old queen had been 
deposed, or to the second, and at other times was allowed to 
begin in an empty hive afresh, and all three were like the rest, 
taken to the Heather, when on their return the best combed hive 
was selected, evenly straight, and at right angles to the entrance, 
for bee-keepers then in Scotland knew what they were about. 
Unless when there was an order for bees the three were joined 
into one, and supers and sealed honey taken for sale, and the 
nice pieces of comb kept for as already stated. When joining the 
swarms together peasemeal was liberally dusted upon the lots, 
then by a vigorous riddling motion the whole were thrown 
together, and the union was complete as it was satisfactory. 
Preparing! for Winter. 
The number of bees was a guarantee against the influence of a 
low temperature ; but in addition to the comfort derived in that 
way, it was desirable the hive be kept thoroughly dry, so after 
covering the hive and the crown with “ shoes,” the refuse from 
lint, a straw hackle covered all and over the floor while it was 
lowered a little at the landing, so that no moisture could penetrate 
the hive. In fairly good seasons I have known close upon 300 lbs. 
of honey taken from one spring stock hive, and yet that is the hive 
so much condemned. The wax was considered to be enough for 
compensation for working and moving the bees to and from the 
fruit blossom in spring, the Clover in summer, and the Heather in 
autumn. 
Bees to be Kept Dry During Winter. 
It will be observed the ancients spared no pains to secure 
absolute dryness in their hives, but whether this arose from a 
knowledge of the way damp acted upon the bees or simply from 
observations that bees suffered when the hive was damp I am not 
aware, but the evidence before us is conclusive enough that they 
dreaded the damp in those days even more than the modern bee¬ 
keepers do, because we find the former doing all in their power to 
resist it, while many modern bee-keepers do the reverse, actually 
encouraging damp within their hives, although they sometimes cry 
out against it. 
The double-cased hive and the waterproof material close upon 
the frames, as well as the bee-way left between the waterproof and 
the combs, have all a tendency to create damp within the hives, 
with the result that there is always a percentage of deaths from the 
above causes, while in the ancient management of straw hives it 
was rare for a hive to be lost during winter. 
I am opposed to the belief that bees hybernate during winter 
in the proper sense of the word. Still I am of the opinion that in 
a comparative sense they do, or rather to a degree only do they 
become dormant, and the greater the degree of this dormancy the 
better is the health of the bee maintained, and the lower tem¬ 
perature it will stand. Although the hum of the bee is ne\er 
silenced, still the damper the interior of the hive is the louder is 
the hum, and vice versa. Doubtless a hive of bees during winter 
