February 25, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
161 
head, and turned the hive right side upwards. Imagine all the 
combs had broken from their attachments and fell on the board 
in a heap. There were no cross pieces in the hive, and it was 
only what might have been expected. Without loss of time I got 
a hive, one that the bees had died out of in spring, full of store, 
and set to work to get the bees out of the skep into it. I had 
to take every piece of comb and brush the bees off—no easy 
matter, as the other bees had sniffed the nectar, and would not 
be driven from the spoil. I brushed all in, friend and foe alike, 
keeping a sharp look out for the queen, and found her at last 
in the hive smothered with honey, but able to crawl, and I put 
her in and placed the cover and top on. The dress being only 
thrown over the head the bees got inside, and in the endeavour 
to get out became irritated and stung me in the lip. I had four 
distinct stings that I could make out afterwards, but there was 
no time then for such trifles ; off went the dress, and into a pail 
the comb and bees, for it was black with rogues or the rightful 
owners, I left them in that way, for it occurred to me that to 
take them away might cause the strangers, if there were any on 
the comb, not to get back to the hive, and with smoker I returned 
and soon cleared out the bees and covered the comb. As I 
expected, there were many of the bees with the comb, the rogues 
sped home or fell on the debris, the rightful bees settled on the 
shrubs near, and resting awhile took wing. After awhile I saw 
them gathering in as after hiving at swarming, and then I 
noticed a fierce struggle taking place, bees trying to get into 
the hive, bees rushing out, evidently those put in with the right¬ 
ful ones off the comb, and fighting going on all along the flight 
board. I narrowed the entrance, and then none entered from 
the outside but those having business, and to ease matters 
inside lifted the cover and quilt and let out a cloud of bees ; 
never were prisoners more happy at release. 1 thought of 
nothing but the bees outside now, as they had ceased drawing, 
but as night came on they made for the hive, and most of them 
landed safely, though I have no doubt many were lost. The 
work of ejecting the dead I found going on after dark, and in 
the morning the number in front of the hive was considerable. 
The bees held their own, and kept it. The swarm was a second 
one. 
This brought the total up to twenty, so that by one means 
or other I have just doubled the stocks. I fed all in late summer 
and autumn until they would not take any more down, and then 
covered them for the winter. The wet I found had got into three 
hives, the chaff enclosed in bags filling the cover was saturated 
and the quilts soaked. I found the bees all right, so put fresh 
quilts and dry chaff, and stopped the crack in the cover with 
white and red lead, hoping for the best. Though there are 
second swarms there is plenty of uncapped cells. The bees in 
these hives only occupy about half the bars, but I did not move 
the dummy so as to contract the hive as I was told I ought, and 
as everybody does, only I did so last winter with some, and others 
not, and I found the last did far the best, filling the whole of 
the bars or hive sooner, and swarming sooner by a fortnight. If 
we have sun and warmth I shall feed the bees; if the cells are 
filled with syrup they will sooner fill the supers with honey, and 
I shall use peameal outside under cover if necessary, and await 
the issue. 
I will now allude to how five stocks only were profitable as 
regards swarms, though six swarmed. The stock was a second 
swarm of the year before, and one that had the hive contracted 
in winter. It looked liked swarming for quite a fortnight before 
it issued, and I thought it would never come, but one day the 
bees rose and kept on the wing a considerable time, and instead 
of clustering settled on the shrubs in the locality of the hives, 
being spread over a large area. They were evidently tired by 
their prolonged flight. They did not draw home quickly, and I 
concluded the queen had gone away with at least a portion of 
her subjects, which, however, proved mere conjecture, as upon 
examining the stock hive I found the queen on the ground 
directly in front of the hive, and struggling to escape from the 
few bees that surrounded her. I had a hive in place of the stock 
in no time, and put her majesty inside from the top, and the 
poor creature made frantic efforts at escape from the hive, and 
strove to take wing when on the top of the bars. She appeared 
incapable of flight, and did nothing but run about the bars on 
the foundation comb. The bees came in now rapidly, and I put 
on the quilt and cover, and made them enter by the entrance, 
watching to see that the queen did not escape. After a time 
1 lifted the quilt and found the bees clustered at the top of the 
bars, and so concluded that the queen had been accepted, but to 
my consternation shortly after found there was none of the 
“ knitting ”—I know no better term for it—going on, as is the 
case when bees have been hived after swarming, and at all times 
when there is a queen in the hive. I got in all the bees I could, 
indeed a strong swarm, and then moved the hive to another 
place, and replaced the stock hive in its old position. The bees 
all left the hive and returned to the stock, and what became of the 
queen I could not discover. She was not in the hive dead nor 
near it. 
A general idea prevails that the queen leads in swarm¬ 
ing. I think this entirely erroneous, as I have seen bees 
in search of a domicile long before the swarm has issued. In 
one instance 1 noticed a complete line over 200 yards from 
where bees were located in the roof of a house to another 
building, which they searched all around the eaves, and con¬ 
tinued to do for several days before a swarm issued, which took 
to another building much further off, but in the same direction 
they had been scrutinising previously, and they went to it 
straight as an arrow, i have noticed that in swarming there 
are some bees in advance of the others, and the queen, especi¬ 
ally when the bees rise high, comes out late, the bees being 
very much spread as if in search of, or to prevent her escap¬ 
ing. Wild bees, no doubt, have their destination marked out 
before they set out, or they would not go direct to hollow 
trees or the roof of buildings, though the queen may not be able 
to accomplish the journey in the first instance without settling 
or resting or coming in contact with trees have the journey 
arrested. Even hive bees exhibit this instinctiveness, especially 
those of skeps ; but those of bar frames, being more domesticated, 
show it by not going far before settling, even joining another 
before going in search of a domicile to themselves, necessity in 
this, or in other things, being the mother of invention. In 
dring the queen does not go up until a number of bees have 
left, so that we may conclude she does not take the lead in 
swarming, but is entirely a ruler only by the expressed desire 
of the subjects. 
Though there were Ligurians and Carniolians within half a 
mile, it was not until this year that our stock showed any trace 
of cross-fertilisation. One of the second swarms has many half- 
bred Ligurians mingled with the black, and I presume the 
mother was crossed by a Ligurian drone, and that the progeny 
will be half breds, the stock entirely of this character as the 
blacks die off. —G. Abbey. 
FEEDING BEES—MANAGEMENT OF STOCKS. 
Would “ Felix ” say iE I have done right in giving (Feb. 7th) three of 
my lightest stocks candy ? because those three have come out in greater 
numbers since than any others, and have sought water in some spouts 
attached to my greenhouse 10 or 20 yards away, and very many perished 
therein. Another point I desire enlightenment on is stocks. After 
having thrown the first swarm are they queenless for eight or nine days 1 
If so, I should like to know if I can join a queen to them just after 
swarming ? I have only one stock in a frame hive, and I purpose feeding 
it up from 1st of April to 1st of May, then take an artificial swarm ; 
eight or nine days after that to lift every frame containing a queen cell 
out, putting them into a large hive I have made to hold twenty-four 
frames with an entrance opposite every four frames, as I place the frames 
in putting a frame of foundation on each side of them, then a division 
board, and so on till the hive is full. Is it a wise plan ? If not I should 
be glad to have its defects pointed out. I have eight stocks altogether. 
They seem all right as yet. I hope to get about eight swarms in spring 
from them, but not having much room for them 1 intend advertising 
them for sale soon. I should be glad to learn if, when packing them for 
a journey, they will be able to eat through one or two thicknesses of 
canvas, similar in strength to manure bags, if I use that material to cover 
the mouths of the skeps.—J. T., Yorks. 
[If your stocks were so light as to cause anxiety lest there should not 
be a sufficiency of food to sustain the bees until a more suitable time for 
feeding had arrived, you followed the customary course in giving candy 
instead of syrup, the preference being given to the former because the 
latter excites the bees to greater activity than is good for them at this 
early season. Bees, however, are naturally now all anxiety to commence 
work, breeding already going on extensively in many stocks ; hence the 
slightest interference with the hive, much more administering food of any 
description, will cause excitement, which will be increased if the bees are 
not numerous enough to throw off moisture sufficient to soften the candy, 
and they have therefore to go tr the fields to get water to soften the cake 
provided for them before they can make use of it, if the water is not 
supplied by the bee-master within the hive. In these early journeys many 
inevitably perish chilled by the cutting winds of spring, and if in addition 
they seek water in vats or even in spouts, where water is allowed to lie in 
sufficient depth, many will perish. Probably in your case the cold had 
chilled them and rendered them unable to return home. If they do get 
“ drowned,” the only remedy is to supply water either in the hive or near 
the apiary, and if the latter place in it straws or stones, upon which the 
bees may rest in safety and so escape from danger. 
The stock from which a first swarm has issued is without a queen, gene¬ 
rally speaking, for about ten days, while that from which a swarm has 
been driven is queenless for fourteen, unless it should so happen that 
queen cells had already been formed and tenanted before the swarm was 
