Jana S, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
453 
NOTES ON BEES. 
QUEEN AND DRONE-RAISING. 
Now that the season has come when bees will require attention, 
not only for the purpose of keeping up the strength of every hive, 
which is the best and only means to obtain heavy yields of honey' 
■but for the purpose of using the proper means to have every stock 
in order for next season, two essentials towards that important 
.point are absolutely necessary. Young, fertile, and prolific queens 
raised from the best strain of bees of any of the pure races—Syrian, 
Cyprian, and Ligurian—are improved by crossing, but the Carniolians 
with me do not seem to be improved by crossing. I cannot say they 
are impaired, but during the eight years I have had them now the 
pure ones have given every satisfaction. Next to the careful selection 
of queens come the drones, which must be selected fiom another 
strain or hive having all the good qualities bees should possess. The 
■moment this hive is of sufficient strength some drone comb should be 
inserted in the centre of the hive, but to be removed after the drones 
a £ e either to the extreme sides or better altogether, as excess 
of drone combs is unnecessary and is sometimes injurious. To insure 
success it will be better to remove queens and selected drones to a 
distance free from the influence of other drones. Where that cannot 
be carried out more hives should be chosen to raise drones, so that 
they will be numerous enough to insure the proper fertilisation, 
while at the same time the drones of hives not desired to wed with 
the selected queens should be kept under. Whenever the selected 
drones are hatched—which should be, if possible, eight or ten days 
before the queens—the hives containing them should be fed, so as 
to have them vigorous and much on the wing, and if it can be so 
-managed to have these drones along with a young queen all the 
better. We have had two summer-like days, but two only, the 6th 
and 7th May. The former day the temperature rose to 65° and the 
Dees carried well. The latter date the temperature rose to 70°, but 
the bees are not quite so active and look as if a change was near. 
1 was under the impression that all my hives were in possession 
of their full breeding space, but on the 6th of May I discovered one 
■evidently in a state approaching to swarming. On examining it I 
discovered it was in only two square Stewarton boxes. The third 
one was given it, and the bees at once took possession, and comb¬ 
making commenced rapidly, filling its box with comb. Early in 
■Tune most of my hives will be ready for supering. The Charlock 
will be in bloom, and if the weather be fine supers will be rapidly 
filled. Increased room will be given in supers only. The stock 
hives with their broody queens will cause the most of the surplus 
honey to be stored above. What is not will be amply sufficient 
to tide the bees over till the next summer, as the last year’s honey 
has done in this, bringing the bees through one of the most untoward 
and protracted seasons on record to swarming point, and in a state 
■to store surplus honey without so much as removing a single cover 
from one of them. What say our manipulators to that ? 
Should any of my stocks swarm through any unforeseen circum¬ 
stances I will not thwart their inclinations, but will if possible join 
•two together, transferring supers and perhaps part of combs to the 
swarm which shall occupy the site of old stock, and it shall get the 
task of raising one or more queenp. 
I have penned the above in anticipation of what is likely to 
happen, and the mode of management described is what I have pre¬ 
viously found the best, trusting it will be found to be the same by 
your bee-keeping readers who follow on the same lines. 
STATE OF MY HI YES. 
On the 19th of May we enjoyed a fine day, the first one for a 
fortnight past, the temperature rising from 32° to 60°. We have 
•not had severe frosts yet, although the weather has been far from 
being genial. Vegetation has been almost at a standstill, and bees 
have had a hard time of it. Many have succumbed altogether : the 
keen winds penetrating to the interior of their hives prevented their 
progressing with breeding, and a dwindling away or a general exodus 
has been the result in fed hives. 
That my own bees have had an entire immunity from the destruc¬ 
tive effects of the cold I can scarcely think, but I cannot detect any 
serious diminution of their numbers, as is certainly the case with my 
neighbours over the hedge, who had to feed to keep them alive, 
which liveliness has brought about to appearauce the death of at 
-least a third of their number. My Carniolians have kept withindoors 
during every cold spell, and work with extra vigour whenever a warm 
day occurs, which have been few and far between. On the 20th ult. 
the temperature was down to 47° with rain. The alighting boards 
and boards of ventilating floors are covered with the sealings of 
<drone cells. This is what every bee-keeper rejoices to see, indicating 
as it does that swarming time is drawing near or that they are in 
readiness for supering ; but the weather is suitable for neither, and 
the honey season is at a distance yet. 
With large hives and healthy prolific young queens there is no 
danger of the queen being crowded out, but with the teeming popu¬ 
lation there is a danger of the stores becoming exhausted, resulting 
in brood-drawing and starvation. The former will take place, even 
although a scarcity inside is not imminent; but when a continued 
and protracted spell of cold weather continues at this season it is 
almost sure to occur. 
To prevent such a calamity and losing all prospects of a honey 
harvest, feeding must be resorted to sufficiently to prevent disaster 
and disappointment to the bee-master. I have proved that it is a 
mistake to feed at a season when it is fatal to bee life outside the 
hive, but we hope that is past; but whether or not, the bees mu3t be 
fed now if this dull weather continues. We frequently have to do 
so till the end of June, so do not withhold the syrup till then if 
required. 
A DAY’S OUTING. 
In response to a request of Miss C. R. Macdonell of Glengarry 
(niece of the late Lieut.-Col. Macdonell, who held the gates of 
Hugoumont at Waterloo) I went to Rothesay, Island of Bute, on Satur¬ 
day, the 15th of May. The temperature of the morning was 35°, with 
a strong north wind, and was a most unpleasant day for an invalid 
to attempt the manipulation of bees one way or another. Loch 
Gaoith means “ Windy Loch," and certainly we experienced it in 
full force. To take the combs from some Renfrewshire Stewarton 
hives of nine years’ standing and refit the frames with comb foun¬ 
dation before an audience was ostensibly the work that was to be 
done, as well as to overhaul some double-cased frame hives having 
their combs parallel to the entrance, which from the glowing descrip¬ 
tion by the vendor should have been first-rate. I confess that I have 
an aptness to discover faults more readily than virtues, and in this 
case it was no exception to the rule, and as I consider the experience 
will be interesting and instructive to your readers will describe things 
exactly as I found them. 
The first hive that arrested my attention was a Renfrewshire 
Stewarton arranged in detail as that gentleman has long taught. The 
only improvement I suggested was a ventilating floor and a slight 
alteration in the covering of hive proper, dried grass in sufficient 
quantity, but not overmuch—just what would give results similar to 
the nest of the wild bee, mouse, or the hedgehog, not to imitate a 
rag store or a rick of hay in a position to draw moisture, and be 
transformed into a muck heap in a short time. There was a depar¬ 
ture with all the other hives from the orthodox style. The outside 
cases had the proverbial plinths and flat roofs, which were to be of 
so much importance, according to those who, perhaps, could make no 
other sort, at least to pay them so well as did these flowerpot 
carriers. Although the hives had about 15 inches of doorway, these 
outer cases had only about 3 inches wide by three-eighths high—one 
of the greatest mistakes that can well be. The flat roofs were 
covered with zinc, and to make it lie close was thoroughly nailed in 
perhaps a hundred different places, every nail hole being an aperture 
to take in water. These, with the pliuths and the case resting upon 
the floor instead of projecting over it, must, from their appearance, 
have had the surroundings of the hives proper in a pitiable state with 
damp. Thanks to the single-cased covers and hives, the latter 
standing free from the case was not affected by the damp, and the 
result is, with all the drawbacks, these hives are crowded to the door 
with bees, and occupy two 9-inch Stewarton boxes, are ready for 
swarming or supering, and have neither been fed nor otherwise 
interfered with. 
After getting through with the Stewarton hives I went to the 
frame hives, but these were in a very different state to that of the 
Stewarton ones, all being dead, or nearly so. The frames had the 
orthodox three quarters of an inch bars, that gives the bees so much 
extra labour propolising quilts, building combs above the top bar, 
and past the end ones, which makes manipulation so difficult, irritating 
the bees to the greatest extent, and killing many of them. In all 
the hives I ever possessed or made I never had or knew of a single 
comb being built between the hive wall and the frame. 
But even worse than that, the frames were not all supplied with 
distance pegs, following the advice given by our contemporary to 
have the distance between the frames wider during one season than 
at another, so that instead of having one comb to every frame some 
of them had two, neither of which could have been of use to the 
bees had they survived. I advised the immediate burning of these 
hives, and to look well at the contrast between them and the 
Stewarton ones. The day was cold, and the hills carried a 
heavy mantle of snow, so I left for lower and more genial ground, 
glad to get away from the cold, the mismanaged, and worthless 
hives, but not before warning their owners how to act in the future, 
and to keep everything in its place, particularly that of slides and 
