September 24, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
283 
means •within itself. The supers can also be filled alike on 
any part of its crown. 
Then the American idea of reversing the frames for the 
purpose of filling supers is a part of the Stewarton system, 
and can be performed to more advantage and with con¬ 
siderable less trouble than with frame hives. To feed back 
for the purpose of emptying combs is sometimes a necessity ; 
but to lose time, not speaking of the labour in reversing 
frames, is certainly far from being economical bee-keeping, 
and bee-keepers should be thankful to your excellent corre¬ 
spondent “Felix” for bringing the question of labour and 
■expense so prominently forward. 
When Stewarton hives are properly managed the surplus 
honey is mostly stored in supers of matchless purity. If it 
ia necessary to reverse frames after being filled with honey, 
to be emptied by the bees and carried aloft, it proves the 
system defective and unnatural as well as wasteful both in 
bee-life and in honey. There is nothing that exercises bees 
more than feeding, and consequently hastens decay. We are 
told that it takes 20 lbs. of honey to make 1 lbs. of wax. A 
writer in a contemporary says 9 lbs., neither of which is 
correct. From comb containing about 50 lbs. of honey, 1 lb. 
of wax can be obtained; now the half of that is elaborated 
on the seals, from which half a pound is got, which means a 
loss of 10 lbs. of honey from every 50 lbs. extracted by the bees 
from reversed combs, and the waste of bee-life in performing 
this unnecessary labour is proportionately large. Surely, 
then, the hive that can be managed without such waste must 
be the better one. 
It seems strange to me that so few bee-keepers and 
advocates of the frame hive are in possession of the Wood¬ 
bury compound frame hive, the best frame with its 
improvements of any yet made. I suppose the cause of its 
falling into disuse must be unfair criticism. Some time 
since a very spirited discussion was commenced on the 
merits and demerits of the Stewarton versus frame hives; 
but a hive-maker, who edited the paper, interposed an 
opinion in favour of the frame hive at an early stage of the 
discussion, thus prejudicing the minds of bee-keepers. 
The advocate of the frame hive, among other unfair remarks, 
said that a Stewarton super with the screws withdrawn from 
the bars, when inverted the combs fell in a mess to the 
floor—the very thing that would occur according to the laws 
of gravitation in the ideal pet hive or super he advocated. 
There is no hive so well adapted for bee keeping in all 
places, climate, season, or weather as the Stewarton hive. 
But bee-keepers should dismiss from their minds the idea 
that it is the hive alone that is the cause of much honey 
being gathered, but become impressed with the fact that it is 
the adaptability of the hive to circumstances, and the facility 
with which it can be managed by the bee-keeper. 
I have, without any aid but what Nature provided, made 
a bee hive, and I could do the same again, and from that 
rustic hive I could take the greatest quantity of honey and 
of the finest quality, fit to be placed on the best table in the 
world. I have been prompted to write the foregoing through 
“ Felix ” asking if I could suggest anything which would 
be to his advantage in the management of a Stewarton hive. 
The only thing I can add to what he appears to know is, 
that one trial with either bees or hives is insufficient to test 
thoroughly unless everything is equal, and this is often not 
the case with the queen. When a trial is to be made, 
attempt to have these of one age and breed, and all else cor¬ 
responding ; make accurate notes, and let us know the 
results, comparing them one with another, and may we 
through accurate observation make a united effort to bring 
bee-keeping to a more economical and consistent system.— 
A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING. 
“A Cambridgeshire Bee-keeper,” page 194, wants to 
know “ by what magic he will insure skeps swarming, and the 
swarms giving a maiden swarm after giving a crop of surplus 
honey before the stock in the frame hive is ready to swarm.” I 
gave all the “ magic ” required in the article he takes exception 
to. Mix plenty of stores in beginning of September to last till 
next June, a dry straw skep, and I would have an entrance large 
enough for a rat to run through, and let the bees strictly alone 
till swarming—in fact, hiving the swarms should be all the atten¬ 
tion necessary from one year to another besides feeling if heavy 
enough to winter. 
I carefully avoided giving dates for the hives to swarm, as 
seasons and districts are so variable; but here this year in an 
apiary of skeps I packed up last September and never meddled 
with afterwards, the first swarm in the district came off on May 
28th, during Cherry blcom, before Apples were in leaf. All 
first swarms had come off by June 2nd, and this in the face of 
the fact that no honey was gathered here till May 26th, and only 
three or four days previous in which pollen was gathered; yet 
with plenty of stores brood had been reared, and what bees were 
in the hives had remained at home and not worn themselves old 
by working abroad, so that when the weather became settled the 
hives were overcrowded and were obliged to swarm. Double 
stocks in frame hives strictly let alcne were a month later, while 
stimulative-fed and brood-spread ones began swarming during 
the best weather in the Clover harvest, making their owners feel 
quite doubtful of getting much honey. 
A few years ago I thought very much like “A Cambridgeshire 
Bee-keeper,” and used to say if I had a skep stock and a few 
minutes to spare I would transfer it to a frame hive; but with age 
comes wisdom, and now with over forty frame hives I say, Stocks 
in skeps and swarms in frames, the sooner the swarms come the 
better. 
I do not care if one man may get 200 lbs. of honey from a 
frame hive by means of capital, expense, and attention. If 1 can 
get 40 lbs. with one-tenth the capital, one-twentieth the expense, 
and one-hundredth the trouble, I shall be able to show the greatest 
nett profit. Much of the nonsense taught by the B.B K.A. 
will have to be got rid of by others as well as your correspondent, 
and bee-keeping looked upon as getting honey with the least 
capital and expense and trouble, instead of as a feat to get the 
largest amount of honey from one hive regardless of cost and 
trouble. How much do you profit a cottager if, say, you teach 
him how to get 100 lbs. of honey at an expenditure of 100 hours 
time in the various items necessary if his time is worth 6d per 
hour, and then tell him he must be content with 3d. to 6d. per lb. 
for it? And yet the B.B.K.A. when asked to fix a value 
on the time spent in the Bligh competition to show the cottagers 
that they could make more per hour for their time spent on bees 
than growing Cabbages, the climax was reached by declaring 
they put no value on a bee-keeper's time, treating it as playtime, 
and asking if we ought to want paying for amusing ourselves. 
I think it is on these lines they consider we ought to be satisfied 
with 3d. per lb. for our honey. 
A successful competitor in the last Bligh competition wrote 
me at its close that he was going back to black bees and skeps, 
if not the sulphur pit. Of course, I thought at the time he 
was either joking or a little “ off,” but I now see from observation 
and experience that for the capital, skill, and time employed 
the old cottage skep system with the sulphur pit will yield a 
much greater profit than the modern frame system, in one 
cottage I visited on August 13th I found four skep stocks had 
increased into seventeen, and though covered with Rhubarb 
leaves were quite dry, and all but three heavy enough to winter, 
most being upwards of 30 lbs. weight. The weather, bear in 
mind, has been very bad since the beginning of July, the Heather 
harvest also being a complete failure. 1 seriously question if 
the same amount of honey and wax could have been got from four 
bar-frame stocks. In another apiary twenty miles off three stocks 
had increased to ten, and only two were too light for wintering. 
These last were within two miles of the Heather, and had the 
yield from this source been only moderate each hive would have 
averaged 60 lbs. weight, as they were crowded with bees. These 
are only fair examples of what a cottage skep apiary will do 
when hives with young queens and heavy enough to last till June 
are selected for stocks. In conclusion, I repeat the point to aim 
at in bee-keeping is not getting the largest amount of honey per 
hive, but rather obtaining it with the least capital, labour, and 
expense, and I believe this can only be by means of skep stocks 
and very cheap frame hives to put the swarms in.— A Hallam- 
shire Bee-keeper. 
DRIVEN BEES IN A FRAME HIVE. 
I bought a bar-frame hive of bees three weeks ago; would you give 
me your advice as to what quantity of food the bees will want through 
