200 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 11, 1388. 
If extracting is carefully managed there is no danger of 
robbing, either by the other bees in the apiary or by stranger 
bees. All combs should be extracted in a room or shed, so 
that the bees cannot get in. When we are extracting from 
frames we take out two or more frames, empty them by 
means of the extractor, and then go to hive No. 2, remove 
those frames that are full, and in their place put the frames 
belonging to hive No. 1, and when we have finished extract¬ 
ing the empty space in hive No. 1 is filled up by the frames 
we took out of the last hive. By this means the bees are 
least disturbed, and we have never had any robbing. In 
extracting sections we remove the full crate, and place an 
empty crate or cover with carpet. Having brushed off as 
many bees as we can, we take the full crate into a room or 
shed, brush off any remaining bees into an empty skep or box, 
and after extracting the sections replace them in the crate, 
and replace on the hive, and if we are careless enough to 
spill any of the honey swab it up with a wet cloth. The bees 
having the empty comb will soon fill it again if there is any 
honey coming in, and so we can use the same sections over 
and over again. 
Fortunately the public are beginning to understand that 
granulation is more or less a proof of genuine honey, though 
there is now said to be a process by which even granulation 
can be imitated, and that a large quantity of spurious granu¬ 
lated honey is now being placed in the market.—A Surrey- 
shire Bee-keeper. 
BEE DIFFICULTIES—PREVENTING SWARMING. 
I SHOULD be grateful for information and advice cn all or any of the 
following points :—I have a bar-frame hive taking ten frames at right 
angles to the entrance. I put a swarm into this hive in June, 1883. The 
next season I put on a crate of twenty-one sections, but the bees refused 
to enter them, and a swarm issued. Last May (1885), the bees being 
very strong, I again tried the super, when they entered it and commenced 
working ; but in about ten days a large swarm left the hive, followed 
twelve days later by a cast, both of which I put into straw skeps. The 
bees in the bar-frame hive are very strong and wintering on seven frames, 
a dummy taking the place of the three removed. What should I do 
during the coming season to prevent swarming and enable me to obtain 
the best yield of honey ? I think of having another bar-frame hive this 
spring, and should like to know the best one to adopt and the mode of 
working, so as to obtain the greatest honey yield. Also, which do you 
consider is the best of the many smokers, honey extractors, and works on 
bees (cheap) now advertised so largely ? Only having limited time and 
means for devoting to my bees, plain, practical, simple, and economic 
advice on these subjects will be greatly esteemed by—J. C. 
[There are two reasons, either of which may account for the non¬ 
success following the efforts to get the stock to enter the super in 1883. 
If the swarm with which the bar-frame hive was stocked in 1883 was a 
first one, the queen, in all probability, was an old one, and perhaps so old 
as to be unable to keep the stock filled with brood, and this might have 
been a factor in causing the issue of the swarm in 1884. Again, if the 
sections were placed too late—even if the queen was young and in full 
vigour—preparations might already have been made for sending forth a 
swarm, and when this is the case a bee-keeper can only blame himself, 
and hope that, taught by experience, he may another year be more suc¬ 
cessful. To prevent swarming queens must be young and supers placed 
in the nick of time. In 1885, indeed, the first of the above-mentioned 
causes was absent, for the queen was evidently, judging from the antece¬ 
dent history of the stock, young—scarcely a year old ; but even then there 
was only partial success, and the reason of failure was this :—When bees 
were working freely in the crate of sections first given them another crate 
should have been added, either being placed above or below the former, 
and thus crate added to crate, room always being provided in advance of 
the requirements of the stock. As each crate is completed it should be 
removed and another added, until the judgment of the bee-master tells him 
that the season is drawing to a close, when all his efforts must be directed 
to getting the sections already partially filled completed ; and even if at 
this time the bees are a little short of room there is not much—at such 
an advanced period—likelihood of a swarm issuing. In the cases above, 
however, not only a swarm, but a cast issued by reason of insufficient room 
being provided at the necessary time, but even then with judicious manage¬ 
ment a partial success might have been achieved. If when the cast came out 
it had been hived in the usual manuer, placed on a temporary stand as 
near as possible to the stock from which it issued for four or five hours, 
and then thrown back on to the front of the parent stock, the cast would 
have quietly entered the hive, and in nine cases out of ten often remained 
working in supers until the enl of the season. This is worth a trial, for 
there is little trouble attending the operation and no skill is required. 
Let a trial be made if a swarm and cast again issues, and it may be added 
if the cast should issue again the next day a similar method of procedure 
must be adopted with the certainty of final success. If a cast returned 
should issue again, it shows the intention of the stock to throw a second 
cast, and this must in all cases be prevented. A second cast is certainly 
detrimental to the strongest of stocks and of little value to the bee¬ 
keeper. 
Again, this year the bar-frame hive contains a young queen not one 
year old, the one straw into which the first swarm was hived a queen 
not more than eighteen months old at most, and the other straw into 
which the cast was hived a queen a little younger than that of the bar- 
frame hive, so that so far as young queens are conducive to success in 
the production of comb honey in opposition to increase, the circumstances 
are favourable. If, then, super honey is required, all the efforts of the 
bee-master must be exerted to prevent swarms, not by cutting out queen 
cells and other such means, but by preventing preparations being made 
for increase by a judicious supering management, as before explained. 
But let it always be remembered that one day’s delay in placing a super 
when a stock requires extension may cause queen cells to be commenced, 
and if this is the case it is better either to take at once artificially, or to 
allow one to issue naturally, return the cast, manage the swarm so as to 
have it ready for supering, for which, if it comes out in good time, it will 
be ready long before the close of the honey flow, and thus have both 
stock and swarm at work in supers. For certainty, however, of getting 
super honey year by year in greatest quantity at the least expenditure of 
time and trouble, prevention of swarming is the most reliable system of 
management. 
The requisites for a good bar hive are four :—1, Good workmanship. 
2, Sound wood. 3, Capacity to contain sixteen standard frames at least. 
4, Adaptability for filling 100 1-lb. section?. From hives of ten frames 
only great results can be obtained, and in my own apiary ninety 1 lb. 
sections have been taken from one such, but the larger size is preferable. 
Dark walls and frames at right angles to the entrance seem to be, as far 
my experience goes, the best, but although it is well in making or pur¬ 
chasing a new hive to get a good one, it is not the hive but the owner’s 
management which causes success or disaster. If less dependence was 
placed on hives and more on management, profits would be greater and 
expenses less. The Bingham Smoker is a good, but I am unable to say 
which extractor has the preference, but for one who desires “ plain, prac¬ 
tical, simple, and economic ” advice there is apparently no necessity to 
invest in an extractor at all ; but the point is one which “ J, C.” can well 
decide for himself. Of books none is more suitable for anyone desiring 
to get good sound practical knowledge than the “Handy Bx>kof Rees,” 
by the late A. Pettigrew ; “ Manual for the Many, Bee-keeping,” by the 
late J. H. Payne ; and from the books of the more advanced school I am 
quite unable to pick out the one likely to do least mischief.— Felix.] 
TOMTITS AND BEES. 
I can fully endorse what “ G. H. P.” says relating to the blackcap 
tomtit destroying the honey bee. My father has kept bees for the last 
forty years, and during the winter they are very troublesome. It is a 
custom of his to reduce the entrance of the hive in the autumn with a 
piece of cork cut to fit the aperture, so that the bees can better defend 
themselves against the attack of wasps. The corks are in many cases 
pecked half away by the tomtits to disturb the bees, and as soon as one 
shows himself he is caught, and a3 “ G. H. P.” says, carried to the most 
convenient place. I have even seen the tomtit catch the bees when they 
have been at work at the Cherry blossom in the spring. 
The best mode of catching the tomtit is with the small steel mouse 
trap fastened on a stock with a screw, the stake driven in the ground so 
that the trap is on a level with the alighting board.—W. L. B. 
“ G. H. P.” (page 162) asks if other bee-keepers have found the tom¬ 
tit destructive to bees. I have many times seen “ Master Tommy ” 
behaving himself precisely in the manner he describes, and have long 
looked upon him as an enemy to my bees. I do not know if swallows are 
generally considered to be destructive. I saw them last summer skimming 
among my hives when the bees were on the wing, and though I did not 
see the fatal snap I have a very strong suspicion that they were reducing 
the population of my stocks.—T. S. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Waite, Nash & Co., 79, Southwark Street, London, SJB .—Wholesale Cata¬ 
logue of Agricultural Seeds, 1S86. 
Samuel Shepperson, Prospect House, Belper .—List of Florists’ Flowers. 
*All correspondence should be directed either to “ The Editor ” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
