August 20,1888. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
169 
along with a super, was removed, and the brokendown comb 
sent to an invalid who desired a piece of honeycomb.. There 
was, in my opinion, another cause for the comb falling. It 
was made from a sheet of thicker foundation than I care 
about using, as I consider thick sheets make the comb more 
brittle than thin ones do. When the bees work up the sur¬ 
plus wax the comb is more brittle than when extended from 
thin ones, or when made wholly by the bees. My supers, 
with the one exception, are first-class, and mostly of worker 
comb, which is decidedly prettier and more marketable than 
drone comb. Some tell us that drone comb is “ store 
comb,” but if that was the case why do the bees not adhere 
to the rule ? My bees have never attempted to lie out this 
warm and fine weather. 
Young queens, roomy and well-ventilated hives, together 
with the supers being kept well covered, and avoiding all 
unnecessary manipulation, are the direct causes of my success. 
For ease and neatness in putting on and taking off the supers 
the Stewartons are excellent. In them all crowding on the 
top of frames when removing supers and stinging is avoided. 
1 draw slide after elide of super, slip in the carbolicised paper 
as each is removed, then push in slides in one beneath, and 
no bees annoy you. The lateral slides have not this advan¬ 
tage ; but then the bees do not crowd the top of hives fitted 
with them, and a little acid clears all down. 
The best frame hive is undoubtedly the deep compound 
frame hive ; with its reversible ventilating and feeding floor 
and frame feeder, movable porch and improved hiving box, 
it is the most perfect hive made. With such a hive, measur¬ 
ing only 17 inches across and light, they are admirably 
adapted for moving about, while it possesses that grand fea¬ 
ture of the Stewarton—having depth in body, and a depth of 
honey between the brood nest and super is the great secret 
of having pure comb. With such hives there is need for 
nothing to prevent the queen ascending nor bees crowding 
the tops of frames, nor any fear of blackened combs, as is the 
case with shallow frames where the brood is close to the 
supers. My little apiary giving so much satisfaction is not 
only cheering to me, but will, I hope, be encouraging to others. 
There are many bees near me, and if your bee-keeping 
readers reverse the foregoing picture they will have an idea 
what they are like. Good management has this year given 
abundance of honey, but where the management has been 
different with the variable season the result is the same. 
FOREIGN VARIETIES OF BEES. 
The introduction of foreign varieties of bees and their 
crosses has necessitated changes in their management. Their 
tempers, too, are greatly changed from the aboriginal black 
bee, so much with some varieties and crosses that bee-keeping 
to many is an annoyance instead of a pleasure. Had the 
Bee keepers’ Association turned their attention toward the 
introduction of mild-tempered bees it would have been more 
to their credit than fixing standard appliances with a great 
amount of compulsion on bee-keepers to adopt them, imper¬ 
fect though they be. In consequence of many imported 
Ligurian bees showing both temper and markings of the 
Cyprian bees, together with an impaired constitution conse¬ 
quent on raising queens from weak hives, they fail to give 
the satisfaction they did when first imported. The Carniolian 
bees are not only good honey gatherers and good breeders, 
but are very mild tempered and hardy, requiring neither 
smoke, carbolic acid nor veil when manipulating. Their 
only fault is the long time they fly when swarming, and their 
strong inclination to return to the place they alighted on if 
at all roughly handled. Second or after swarms, by having 
a great many queens, are troublesome, clustering sometimes 
in a dozen plaees, and will send off a swarm from two or 
three combs with full scope of hive. The Cyprians and 
Syrians are liable to do the same, but are no exception to 
the old race, and but prove that giving room while young 
queens have been neglected will not prevent swarming. 
Owing to the erratic movements of Carniolians I find it 
not only an advantage but a necessity to employ a hiving 
box in all cases. I think the mild-tempered Carniolians will 
not enter other hives and kill their queens, but other races 
do. Therefore the hiving box used with them is desirable, 
as when a swarm of bees is shaken on to the front or top of the 
hive many take wing, entering other hives, killing the queens 
there, notwithstanding the confidence the operator may have 
that all is right. It is a good feature in the Carniolian bee 
raising so many queens and then separating them into small 
swarms, as it gives the apiarian a great advantage in having 
plenty of young queens on hand. The Carniolian bees are 
great flyers, and go long distances for forage, so that advan¬ 
tage overcomes the fault of flying long when swarming. One 
hive of bees that swarmed this year flew for nearly three 
hours before they clustered, and after they did so we had a 
great difficulty, owing to the bees being tired, to gather them 
in, consequently many were left behind. While on their way 
back to the old site a neighbour’s hive swarmed, and quick 
as thought they flew towards the swarm, but not more 
than a dozen would join the swarm, so we cut the twig con¬ 
taining the cluster, joining them with sister swarm, and 
they were much easier to manipulate then. 
THE SYRIAN BEES. 
These bees I have already given an account of up till 
swarming time, the only fault noticeable, like the Cyprians, 
being their tenderness during winter. Their high bugle-like 
buzz when on the wing made them very charming. During 
the low temperature I had no difficulty with them, but a 
change of the weather brought a change over them. They 
swarmed, and while doing so lost their queen and became 
vicious, entering other hives. Thinking the queen might 
still be in the hive I divided it into five, but failed to find 
her. Many bee-keepers can but have a faint idea of the 
number of bees in a swarm of these bees, making it a great 
difficulty to find a queen. The ones occupying the old site, 
and which had the most bees and the one likely to have the 
queen, I excised all royal cells, as they were building worker 
and no drone comb. I expected to find her all right next 
day, but judge of my surprise that the newly made worker 
comb contained upwards of a hundred empty queen cells, a 
proof that the queen was not there, and a still better proof 
that bees do not shift eggs from one cell to another, and 
bees had never a better opportunity than in this case. The 
other four were examined with the same result—building 
worker comb, a case without parallel in our native bees. 
During these manipulations, which were all performed in a 
cautious manner, the bees stung my hands dreadfully, entered 
my pockets and shoes, stinging me in the feet through my 
stockings. They also went over the hedge, and stung one 
who had been stung well every year for sixty years, thus 
negativing by ocular demonstration the inoculation theory. 
Thanks for a German mask sent me by Mr. A. Neighbour 
my face was not stung, but my hands were, and swelled very 
much—quite a new thing for me; besides, there was much 
pain. If the operator could keep perfectly steady and calm 
he would escape many stings, but the slightest shake of the 
hand irritates them to the attack. Had they confined their 
stinging to those in or about the apiary I would have been 
more hopeful and less sorry; but they attacked people on the 
public road a long way from their hive, and entered dwelling 
houses and stung people there. Simultaneous with this 
stinging and the thermometer standing at from 70° to 84° in 
the shade, and the height of the honey season, they attacked 
my strongest Carniolian hive, carrying unmolested its honey 
away as fast as the latter carried it in, impressing me with 
the truth of the one in America that gathered 1000 lbs. last 
season. 
The stinging and robbing had to be stopped, and I acted 
as judge and jury, sentencing them to be imprisoned without 
either bread or water for five days, being the expiry of my 
present engagements. Their incarceration during so high a 
temperature would have proved fatal, but good ventilation 
kept them comfortable, but evidently not quiet. Every one 
of them set to work and proved themselves as good prison- 
