April 8, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
281 
Boil. Unless this is done many of them soon throw up too many growths, 
and the bloom is much inferior accordingly. Besides, they are great 
exhausters of the ground, and during hot dry weather especially, present 
an unhealthy appearance if at all neglected. Early-flowering Chrysan¬ 
themums are becoming very popular, and they may be largely planted in 
the herbaceous border. Slugs are rather too fond of the young shoots, 
but where strong old plants have escaped, these may be freely divided 
and replanted. We are obliged to winter a few stock plants in frames, 
and from these we obtain abundance of cuttings, which are stiuck in 
boxes in a close frame, stopped once, and planted out early in April 
where they are to bloom. Some of the best are Mrs. Cullingford, 
Precocity, La Petite Marie, Lynn, St. Mary, Frederick Marronet, Madame 
Piccol, Little Bob, Virginia, Fiberta, Scarlet Gem, Madame Desgrange, 
and Mons. E. Pynaert Van Geert. 
INITIATORY INSTRUCTIONS.—No. 2. 
When a Stewarton hive is at first stocked with bees, and intended 
for profit, the swarm should be of sufficient strength to be able to fill 
two body boxes in about eight days if the weather is favourable. If 
the bees have swarmed six weeks before the expected honey glut, 
although the swarm is small, will by that time have made consider¬ 
able progress if it has been fed a little immediately after beiDg hived. 
Whenever the two body boxes are filled a super may be placed on ; 
but at this time first swarms are liable to start royal cells and prepare 
for swarming. To prevent this a third box should be put beneath for 
a day or two, or until the bees begin to make comb in it, known by 
looking in at one or both of the windows provided in these hives. 
When this is seen to be the case the box should be removed and a 
super put on, unless the one employed beneath was a super, then 
simply take it out from beneath and place it above. Such a super is 
a capital inducement for the bees to continue work. If it has been a 
body box, then lay it aside where it will be safe and ready to do 
service for some other hive, or it may be the one it has been under¬ 
neath already. 
I used to make my supers with doorways, so that they might be 
interchangeable. When the supers have no doorway it will be necessary 
to raise it with fillets of wood, forming a doorway when one piece is 
kept out. When supers are so used care must be taken not to let 
them remain too long, else the combs would be discoloured. Of old 
ekes or “ raises " varying from 2 to 3 inches were used for this 
purpose, as well as for putting underneath the hive during winter to 
encourage a circulation of air and insure dryness. The ventilating 
floors obviate these, and are a great improvement. Some of these 
ekes were used with bars and some without. The objection to the 
latter was the bees built right down their combs, and when they re¬ 
quired removing the combs had to be cut—a rather disagreeable duty to 
perform, and annoyance to the bees when they were allowed to remain 
flush with edge of hive. Bees always leave a half-inch space or 
more between the bottom of their combs and floorboard, and their 
desire to do this should not be frustrated. The hive that would yield 
the greatest amount of honey with the least amount of toil for the 
bees, and the one best adapted to their nature, and by far the best 
for wintering, would be the hive made of ekes or raises without 
bars, and the same dimensions as Stewarton. Such a hive, however, 
would not do for carrying or moving about, and would be very 
impracticable when depriving the bees of surplus honey. 
The best time for adding a second swarm of bees to a Stewarton 
hive is immediately before the honey glut, and if possible at the time 
described above for putting on the first 6uper. There are various 
ways of joining swarms. Success depends entirely on having both 
lots of bees fully gorged with honey, and when in. this state the 
quicker it is done the better. The way I generally perform the 
operation is, when I have the swarm secured it is placed near the one 
it has to be joined to whenever all the bees are settled and come to it. 
I either get assistance from someone to hold up the first swarm for 
me, or I place it on a tressle or bottomless stool of a good height ; 
then having some very thin honey and water in readiness (sugar is 
apt to clog the bees), 1 take a syringe with a fine rose and spray the 
bees as w T ell as I possibly can in that position, because to invert a 
hive with newly made combs would simply be courting destruction. 
After that one has been operated on I carefully invert the other with 
bees only and spray them well with the sweetened water ; then, quick 
as possible, with a sudden bump knock all the bees on to the floor¬ 
board of tbe other, on which a few pieces of wood have been laid 
to prevent crushing the bees when the other has been placed over them, 
which should be done instantly, and better if the operation has been 
performed on the ground in front of its permanent stand, so that 
the bees now heavy will be able to creep into the hive. Many of 
the bees of the first swarm will have been abroad when operations 
were commenced, will now be flying about in a distracted state, but 
they will be readily subdued and in a fit state for joining peaceably. 
As a rule when bees are swarming they are filled with honey, and so 
will all others be that are working in other hives, and might be 
joined in perfect safety, but this is not always the case, so it is better 
to use the precautions of spraying with diluted honey. Time means 
honey with bees, as it means money with man, so if bee3 can be 
joined when newly swarmed instead of waiting till night more honey 
Avill be gathered ; therefore, I advise immediate joining. When bees 
are left to join themselves by having one lot placed over the other 
time is lost, and if the upper portion has combs there is a danger of 
their repelling those below. 
When a second good lot of bees has been successfully joined to 
another good one place two supers on at once, and in a day or two the 
third body box should be added, and if one can be had full of comb 
all the better, if not fill with comb foundation. This third box has 
the effect of encouraging breeding, keeping the queen from the 
supers, and where the queen is young from swarming, as well as 
having plenty of empty cells to allow the bees to store as much as 
possible when the glut is at its height, which seldom lasts long. We 
may well judge what the future weather will be from that in 
past years. Dry weather often sets in after a long continuance of 
wet, when the thermometer registers 32° or a little more, or even less. 
On the same day after it may rise to 70°, and the bees will appear as 
if they were seized with madness from their alacrity and helter- 
skelter out and in the hive. People will begin to ask how long this 
fine weather will last. Bee-keepers will be very anxious it should do 
so until the full harvest is reaped, and prophets will fix it at so many' 
days or weeks. Do not mind what any of them say, but watch and 
weigh your hives, and you will find the income decrease at the end of 
the third day, and should it continue dry the change will recur every 
third day until again white clouds skim the horizon, or it may be a 
small one obscuring the sun when he sinks. The next day the sky 
may be overcast and the air oppressive, honey plentiful, bees so 
loaded that they fall short of the hive with a sort of a drowsy and 
monotonous hum, and at intervals they return in crowds to their 
hives. When these signs are seen be sure the end of the honey glut 
is near. I have mentioned these things so as to impress the bee¬ 
keeper with the necessity of studying the weather in conjunction with 
bee-keeping and its study. Bees are capital barometers, and where a 
journal of the doings of the bees and the weather is kept it materially 
assists the bee-keeper as well as the farmer as to what work should be 
performed. 
The foregoing is what may be considered the most likely work to 
be performed, but circumstances may alter the whole proceedings, 
and after all the young bee-keeper may be unable to carry out the 
work as advised. Using his own judgment with the advice given 
may enable him to overcome difficulties. The weather is the main 
factor. Without favourable weather bees will not thrive. Under 
these circumstances feed until the weather changes, but never count 
on more than a week at a time, nor on more than three weeks during 
the season ; and if at any time the three-weeks fine weather continues 
at a spell be thankful, but always have your hives in good order and 
things in readiness for fine weather come when it may. Believe that 
the bees have resources that man has not, and that if they have only 
room given in time they will collect and store more honey in a perfect 
state when let alone than when annoyed by man and his devices, 
which are often of a kind to thwart Nature. Learn to judge for 
yourselves; always buy the best article, and if ever it comes to be 
sold it will realise its full value, which an inferior one will not do. 
Use the microscope for amusement and study. When you have a 
feeder of the right sort and properly made a lens placed on the top 
of the glass will show to great advantage the parts of the living bee, 
and if of the yellow sort a glimpse of their internal parts may be 
had. A drop of condensed water from their perspiration is a good 
microscope when viewing the bees through the glass it is suspended 
on. Turn to the supers, view the bees through the window, and you 
will see them storing the honey direct from the fields, proving the 
fallacy of those who say it is first stored underneath and again 
methodically carried aloft. If you have been attentive readers of 
mod<rn bee literature think how absurd are some people’s teachings 
when they say the honey must first be stored underneath to be can led 
aloft during the night. Yet they recommend oblong hives, which 
precludes its possibility owing to the few frames they employ. They 
disparage the use of the Stewarton hive which is so well adapted 
for performing the work according to their own views. Another 
thing greatly recommended by some is to supply one hive with brood 
and honey from one or more others, then the contents taken from 
that one hive is put down as a bona fide gathering by one hive Let 
every hive perform its own duty except in doubling swarms, which it 
is more profitable to do when there is honey to gather than at ihe 
end of the season to preserve alive bungled and otl erwise mismanaged 
stocks. Bees are not worth keeping unless every hive can gather a 
