November 19, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
459 
winter than such species as 0. Alexandras, 0. Pescatorei, O. triumphans, 
and others, and should now be removed from the coolest house. We place 
our plants with the Cattleyas for the want of a better place. They will 
do well and pass the winter safely in any structure where a temperature 
of 50° to 55° at night can be maintained. These varieties should he 
watered at their roots as they need it. If kept as dry during the winter 
season as is necessary for many Orchids they will be seriously injured, 
if not entirely ruined. These plants should never suffer, not even during 
the winter, by an insufficient supply of water at their roots. The tempe¬ 
rature of the coolest house should range from 45° to 50° at night, accord¬ 
ing to the weather. The lowest figures given should only be allowed in 
the morning during cold or severe weather. Nothing is gained by starv¬ 
ing these plants during winter, but, on the contrary, the following season 
may be required to recruit them. 
I 
HE) BE)E-KE)EP£R. 
THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
A RETROSPECT. 
It is now a long time since this Journal commenced- 
It is, perhaps, the first journal that devoted a portion of its 
pages to apiculture, and allowed free discussion on all relat¬ 
ing to it, which was continued by many of the most eminent 
writers and practical apiculturists. Weekly its pages had 
something new and interesting, which was eagerly read by 
most of the bee-keepers in the kingdom. To the contributors 
to the pages of this Journal at that time are we indebted for 
the advanced state of apiculture at the present. “ A Scotch 
Bee-keep9r ” thirty years ago, or thereabout, explained the 
Stewarton system of insensible upward ventilation. Mr. A. 
Neighbour, of Messrs. G. Neighbour & Son, spared neither 
time nor expense in obtaining any and every thing that was 
likely to advance apiculture. To that gentleman alone are 
we indebted for the introduction of comb foundation and 
foreign appliances, as well as the different races of bees, and 
in which Mr. T. W. Woodbury joined. He also exerted him¬ 
self to construct a hive for the cottager that would combine 
utility and cheapness, but, after a fair trial, found that to 
possess a really useful and lasting hive, a certain sum must 
be expended if success was to be looked for. He wisely 
abandoned the idea, giving his opinions and experience in¬ 
stead, so that the cottager might benefit thereby. It is rather 
a difficult task to direct others to attain the simplest yet most 
effective and cheapest article. For example, when I recom¬ 
mended angle or T iron for use with the ‘ ‘ best hive in crea¬ 
tion,” it is not what I use, but I recommended it only as an 
example of what it should be, and that no mistake could be 
made. Common hooping is all that is necessary, that placed 
between two rails and fastened with screw nails is more easily 
managed and cheaper. The introduction of comb foundation 
by Mr. A. Neighbour, as well as the foreign varieties of bees, 
also completely revolutionised bee keeping; and there have 
been various other advances and improvements which have 
been duly recorded in these pages. 
USEFUL HINTS. 
Winter is upon us, but has brought mild weather, the 
temperature being as high as 57°, therefore our bees have at 
the last moment had an airing without which it would have 
probably proved fatal to many bees, as breeding was carried 
on briskly during October,wherever there were young queens. 
Where it had ceased the bees had been already confined for 
six weeks. One hive having a year-old Syrian queen had 
ceased labour and breeding during that time, but with the 
milder weather they have started breeding afresh, and are as 
busy collecting water and what pollen they can get as if it 
was May. This is rather early should the winter be severe. 
November-bred bees are not so injurious or risky in a hive as 
October-bred ones ; still it is unadvisable to have bees breed¬ 
ing in November. To stop it, the ventilator beneath should 
be drawn, and perhaps some of the covering, but the present 
being an exceptional season, it may be as well to let them 
alone, only the hint may be taken. 
A very important thing at this season is neither to alter 
the site nor appearance of the hive unless the distance be 
several miles, then bring them back after two months. I 
have a hive now of which I had occasion to shift the entrance 
from one side only to the other about six weeks since; though 
that time has elapsed since, on the bees airing themselves 
during the mild weather, every one of them, on re-entering 
the hive, went to the side they had been accustomed to before 
it was altered. Had the hive been shifted a few yards many 
of the bees would have been lost; for, remember, though the 
temperature is high, the air is damp, and whatever they rest 
upon soon draws the heat from their bodies. If the weather 
keep mild, and the bees on the wing, attend to keeping the 
floors clean and dry. 
Little more than a month will bring us to the time bees 
begin breeding, gradually extending as the season advances, 
and consequently nearer the outer edge of the cluster, but 
seldom to the extreme unless in small hives and during warm 
weather. If the hive is of sufficient size, and well provisioned, 
they require little or no attention until swarming is expected 
or supers are wanted. In fact, bees, where properly managed, 
only require close attention from May till September. How¬ 
ever, the majority of hives in use are so small that it is 
impossible to bring bees to the swarming point without feed¬ 
ing, thus incurring both extra labour and expense, with a 
much less yield of honey. 
The subject of brood-spreading has been so well threshed 
out of late that, but for one or two things, it might be allowed 
to rest. The late Mr. Pettigrew, though he differed from us 
in opinion on some things, was right in his argument to have 
large hives with plenty of bees. These are the two essentials 
towards successful bee-keeping, and the proper way to spread 
brood, and when the British Bee-keepers’ Association took it 
upon themselves to fix a standard hive of about half the size, 
it ought to be run counter to common sense and sensible and 
profitable bee-keeping. I wonder if it ever occurred to the 
advocates of brood-spreading to think about what they were 
teaching. In the first place, advising the spreading of brood 
at a time the hive ought to be full to overflowing. A better 
plan would have been to advise that brood-spreading was 
neither necessary nor possible. Otherwise it points directly 
to previous bad management. How often has the British 
Bee Journal told us of the loss of three thousand eggs daily 
by some neglect or other in not giving sufficient breeding 
space. It is very well if other things had been in keeping, 
but we find what they recommend stultifies their argument. 
Hives half the size they should be will be filled with eggs in 
eight or nine days, and when brood-spreading takes place, 
according to the number of frames already tenanted, as 
recommended, and to insure the three thousand eggs daily 
the whole operation of brood-spreading would have to be per¬ 
formed in about a week, and this with the weakest hive 
recommended. Can anything be more absurd ? 
Feeding does good to bees approaching want, but none 
whatever to well-provisioned hives. The evils of feeding are 
many. In an apiary where feeding is never resorted to rob¬ 
bing seldom occurs; the bees never being enticed out are safe 
from cold, the hive is kept stronger and progresses more 
steadily and quickly than those fed. Feeding weak hives 
draws the bees from the stronger ones to rob. Feeding strong 
hives gives bees an appetite for more, annoying every hive in 
the neighbourhood, losing themselves in great numbers by 
fighting or cold. Then the damp engendered in fed hives is 
so prejudicial to the welfare of bees that it should never be 
resorted to unless when it cannot be avoided. 
Feeding swarms when honey is scarce is a great advan¬ 
tage, and a swarm so attended to will give a large return of 
honey when swarms on an equal footing at first, but neglected, 
will give nothing. The evils of feeding are that some of the 
sugar may get amongst the honey, and the sugar-fed combs 
are more brittle and more liable to decay than combs made 
in the natural way from honey.—A Lanarkshire Bee keeper. 
