482 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 26, 1885. 
sting in the most tender part of the wretch who dares to ap¬ 
proach within five yards of their hive ? If anyone can throw 
out a suggestion it shall have a good trial next spring, for, 
unluckily, winter never effects the slightest change, as some 
people whom I have met with imagine it may do. 
COTTAGE BEE-KEEPERS. 
Is this class of bee-keepers gradually increasing or dying 
out ? For my own part I am quite uncertain whether the 
strides made of late by modern bee-keepers have conduced so 
much to an improvement in cottage bee-keeping. The bar- 
frame and other appliances seem to have so changed the order 
of things appertaining to bee-keeping that, instead of cottagers 
getting the benefit of the change, others have stepped in, and 
to some extent subverted the very class to whom bees ought 
to be a means of getting increased comfort and pleasure. 
Simplicity is dying, sacrificed at the altar of Trade ! Myself 
—by necessity a small bee-keeper only—away from home from 
early morning till late in the evening, I can keep but few 
stocks, and these must be managed upon a simple method 
not requiring too much time and attention. So, too, the 
labourer. A few stocks are all that he can manage, and as 
for spreading brood and all such delicate manipulations, they 
appear to him to be quite out of his sphere. I sympathise 
with the cottager in his efforts to assist himself, and always 
advise him to follow the method requiring least time and at¬ 
tention, provided such system gives a good yield of honey 
without destroying the bees. In doing so he always has my 
best wishes, and any assistance it is in my power to give he 
may claim without hesitation, and I feel sure that others too 
—and more able—will give his position their most careful 
consideration. —Felix. 
GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
FEEDING. 
There is one phase of feeding absolutely necessary if safe winter¬ 
ing is to be expected. The pollen or honey has a tendency to cause 
abdominal distension, and bees from certain moors, and before the 
winter is far advanced, are often swelled to an enormous extent, and 
show signs of distress, not from dysenteric symptoms, but constipa¬ 
tion. That some kinds of Heather have this effect where there is little 
pollen I have long since proved, but the most serious cases are always 
those that have much pollen. To avert any calamity from this cause, 
whenever the bees are brought from the Heather a portion of their 
honey should be removed and sugar given instead, as much as will 
tide the bees over till January, when all danger will be past. 
Although bees having nothing but sugar in store to feed from are 
mostly healthy and free from disease, still there is nothing like the 
produce from Heather for breeding purposes ; while the fact that 
bees are healthy on sugar alone throughout the winter negatives the 
assertion that bees require pollen to restore waste of tissue. 
Dysenteric distension is mainly due to cold through draughts or 
damp. Watery honey, which has fermented and become acid, also 
brings about that disease. Bees have the power of changing a full 
stomach of honey into carbonic acid and water in a very short time 
after it has been swallowed, and if an airing cannot be had death 
ensues. A very slight disturbance during the winter months causes 
bees to fill themselves, resulting as above. I may now ask the 
question, How can a hive be opened and the quilt turned up without 
bringing about these results ? If you wish your bees to be strong and 
healthy never touch them during winter. 
MANIPULATING. 
That the ferocity of bees is greater now than when we had the 
one variety only there can be no doubt, and bee-keepers who were 
adepts in handling the old black bee are cowards with the new 
varieties and their crosses, the Carniolians excepted. The first things 
the bee-keeper should learn are the sounds of the bees. Many a 
person rouses docile bees to fury, and gets severely stung by not 
understanding these sounds, treating well-disposed bees as if they 
were vicious, causing through some rash act quiet bees to become 
spiteful. 
CARBOLIC ACID. 
This is the best of all quieters except honey, and may be used in 
all cases of manipulation, for disinfecting, medicating water, and 
syrup ; but after many years’ experience I have not found it a 
thorough eradicator of disease, but a capital preventive. If bees are 
tardy in swarming and ready for it a little tow saturated with the acid 
and placed at the side of the entrance prevents lying out and brings 
the swarm away. When bees are inclined to hive in an inaccessible 
place a little carbolic acid prevents their entering, and will dislodge 
them if a feather can be inserted in the crevice. Some feathers 
saturated and held beneath the swarm will dislodge and cause them to 
take to a hive held over them. A little acid judiciously used helps to 
prevent robbing and clears supers and hives of bees, and where a 
piece of excluder zinc is used catches the queen, while there is nothing 
better than carbolic acid for preventing a swarm entering an already 
tenanted hive. As carbolic acid prevents incipient disease and does 
not injure the contents of the hive like smoke it is indispensable in 
the apiary. 
CATCHING SWARMS. 
Bees are at all times liable to fly a long distance at swarming 
time, or take to some lofty tree not easily got at, often where cutting 
the bough would spoil the tree. To take a swarm from such places i 
use rods similar to those a sweep employs for sweeping chimneys. 
On the top there is a small pulley, over which a cord runs to lower or 
raise the light box intended to catch the swarm. Mr. Langstroth 
uses a “ bee bob,” which doubtless attracts bees, but if bee-keepers 
would be honest and deliver up to the owner any swarm which 
might come his way there is nothing better than a combed but tenant- 
less hive standing near the apiary and in the densest part of it. Bees 
have a special liking for hollow trees, to which they enter through a 
small crevice (no alighting board). A rough box placed in the shady 
part of the garden, in which another box is placed inside furnished 
with a piece of comb, and the outside of the outer box covered with 
cork, having a slit or opening through which the bees might enter to 
the inner box, makes a capital decoy for stray swarms, which may be 
transferred from this box to their permanent hives. This should be 
such as to have always a uniform degree of temperature, and the 
outside should have no angles or any fillets or binders,. &c , that will 
hold or draw damp. Any hive that does so is a defective hive. 
Dor straw hives I never found anything better than a straw hackle 
plaited to a card, reaching to the turning of the crown, and com¬ 
pletely overlapping the floor from which the alighting board ought to 
be detachable, and separate an eighth of an inch or so from the floor 
proper. The best of all floors are those of perforated zinc. On the 
crown of the hive and above the hackle some dried grass should be 
laid over a cone of some waterproof material, having a ventilator at 
the top, unless provision has been made for this under the eaves of the 
cone. The best form for a hive is the narrow and high one of the 
Stewarton type. Where dividing boards are used provision should be 
made for easy withdrawal. A very good plan is to have it made in 
two pieces, joining in the middle. A tongue and groove effect this, 
which should not be less than 2 inches deep. On the upper edge of 
divider there should be a piece of wood tongued into it, and nailed 
firm to the one half, while the other must be left free. A mortice 01 
two should be cut like a bar of a door, through which nails pass into 
the other half of divider. A wedge in the middle keeps it distended ; 
withdraw the wedge, then a slight push on the end of the dividing 
board will give sufficient slack, and the whole depth to remove with¬ 
out jar or killing bees. 
Bee-keepers cannot be too deeply impressed with the necessity of 
having their hives made so that they are easily moved about. The 
majority of hives made are by far too unwieldy for that purpose, 
while their great size does not give them sufficient internal dimen 
sions for profitable bee-keeping. Dale or Clovtr honey has but a veiy 
limited sale, but there is always a great demand for Heather honey, 
and at a bigger price too ; therefore it is obvious that bee-keepers 
♦will exert themselves more than they have done to obtain a full 
harvest of Heather comb. To obtain this satisfactorily the hive must 
be light and easily moved about ; and I cannot point to a better form 
than the “ best hive in creation.” Other points will be described on 
a future occasion.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
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