June 10, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
475 
the salient points of his article seriatim. Before doing so I will 
endeavour to make plain to your readers that the construction of his 
and my hives are apparently different, which makes a great difference 
in the mode and ease of manipulation. All my hives are smooth on 
the upper surface, and bees are admitted to the supers from the out¬ 
side spaces only. This secures—if the stock hive is large enough — 
an entire immunity from brood in the supers ; purity of comb is 
secured by the absence of the vitiated air that ascends from the 
centre of the brood nest, which should be free from draught, and as 
a rule the combs in the supers will not be attached to the crown of 
the hive. Supers so detached are prettier and easier managed, both 
in the on-putting and the taking off. In the former case I can assure 
bee-keepers that gloves irritate the bees, and more bees are killed by 
their use than without them. My plan is never to approach a hive if 
the bees show signs of spitefulness without taking means to quiet 
them. Nothing is better than carbolic acid. Smear the alighting 
board with it in such a manner that it will not injure the bees, and 
slip beneath the combs some sheets of carbolicised paper. This will 
at once subdue the most vicious bees. Smoke with me is a thing of 
the past. It irritates the bees and affects the honey in the hive, and 
cannot do otherwise than injure the brood. When that operation is 
past uncover the hive, and if the operator is timid have more pieces 
of carbolicised paper. Place these at the sides of the slides or what¬ 
ever closes the opening, then place the supers and cover as directed 
by “ Felix.” Supers on Stewarton hives can be placed first, then the 
elides can be withdrawn after, thus securing the timid bee-keeper an 
entire immunity from stings. Stand behind the hives in all your 
manipulations. If any of the hive tops are not made after this 
fashion, do so the first opportunity. Wide holes in the centre of 
straw hives and narrow top bars of frames give the bees a great deal 
more labour, irritating them much whenever manipulated, and the 
beauty of supers is destroyed. 
Bellglasses are a sort of luxury some bee-keepers have a desire for, 
but are unprofitable and difficult to handle. I cannot recommend 
these to be used on any hive unless on a straw hive expected to 
swarm. Very often a good-sized super will be got from such a hive, 
and yet not retard the occurrence a single day, and is likely to be 
finished in greater purity after the exodus of the swarm by the re¬ 
maining but fewer bees. From the slippery nature of the glass the 
bees are more liable to fasten their combs to the top of the hive than 
when wood is used ; but where they are not allowed to build their 
combs upwards very small attachments will be the result. 
When it can be carried out 3 p.m. is the most suitable lime of 
the day for all manipulations. At that time the heat is greatest and 
the bees are busy and less inclined to rob. If honey is not plentiful 
the bees are not only more irritable, but are liable to rob ; when 
prentiful are neither. The removing of a bellglass requires more care 
than that of a super. If thoroughly finished the bees retreat down¬ 
wards, but very often a great many bees cling to the combs, and if 
there are no broken cells they begin at once and nibble the seals, de¬ 
stroying the appearance of the comb, and if young bees are in it, 
which is often the case, are liable to soil the combs after they have 
gorged themselves with the honey. 
To get the bees quickly and successfully out of these glasses, and 
to prevent the comb being broken or soiled, is the work of the bee¬ 
keeper, If the day is warm and the honey is coming in plentifully 
there is little or no difficulty in getting the bees out. Immediately 
the glass is inverted the bees will leave it and enter the cap held over 
it ; but if the weather is unfavourable then the bees cling to the 
comb and will leave it reluctantly. 
The moment a bellglass is detached from the top of the hive slip a 
carbolicised paper in a line as the combs run until all is covered, 
unless opening enough to allow the bees to pass downwards into the 
hive. This operation is easily performed if three wedges are used to 
support the bellglass—one in front and at each side, leaving the back 
part open for paper. Another plan is to slip a cardboard or piece of 
wood fitted with a trap, and set it in a box or on a stand close to the 
hive and cover thoroughly. The bees will leave as well as the queen, 
should she happen to be in the glass, and pass out and into the hive 
(if a gangway has been provided) without the loss of a single bee or 
jar to the bellglass. If there is any likelihood of the bees in the 
glass breaking the seals have a furrow or two on the top of the board, 
and put a little liquid honey in them ; the bees will sip this and the 
seals will not be interfered with. 
Removing supers is, comparatively speaking, mere child’s play. 
They must, however, be all of the divisional sort. Close crowns should 
not be tolerated in the apiary ; tiering cannot be performed with 
them while the bees are as difficult to get out of that sort as from 
bellglasses. When removing supers of the right sort we care not 
what sort of a day it is nor what time. Before packing up our 
supers we cover the top ones with a piece of white calico. Having 
the carbolicised paper sheets in readiness, we uncover the top of the 
eupers (after a card or wire has been passed between each tier or 
top of hive), beginning at one side, slipping in the paper as each 
opening appears, from which not a bee need escape. By the time the 
last paper put in is withdrawn, which may not be longer than a 
minute, there will not be a bee left in the super, and no seals 
broken. 
When is a hive ready for supering ? This is an important 
question. No hive is ready for supering unless it has its complement 
of bees in a full-sized hive. If hives are undersized little good can 
be got from them beyond a pigmy super. If full-sized and of full 
strength the sound of the bees at night, together with the weather, 
indicates the proper time to super, but unless crowded better not to be 
in too great a hurry. The number of supers to be kept on a hive 
depends upon the abundance or the paucity of flowers in the locality 
as well as that of the hive of the season. If at the beginning more 
super space may be given, but if further on less. The bee-keeper 
must exercise his own judgment in this, and learn how much super 
space his bees are likely to fill during the season the honey is likely 
to last. We generally build up by degrees (the small supers are best 
adapted for this work), and we have had frequently from 100 
to 200 lbs. of supers filled and on at a time. 
The plan of raising the first-put-on super and placing an empty 
one beneath is not objectionable if the weather is and con¬ 
tinues fine, but if that is not likely to be it should not be at¬ 
tempted, because the bees will make an effort to fill the vacuum 
at the expense of the raised super. With the little supers I 
work them by lifting nearly full ones, placing these over other 
filled or partly filled ones, and adding empty ones on the 
most convenient place over others advancing. By this means I 
manage at times to get some off quicker ; but as a rule the honey 
season lasts so short that no supers are finished ; nor ought they to 
be interfered with till the season is past, but remove as soon as the 
bees become inactive, or the comb will become discoloured. 
A one-windowed room is doubtless a good place for manipulating 
bees, which I often take advantage of ; but a chest having a pane of 
glass in which to place the supers as they are taken from the hive I 
much prefer, because the bees find their way more readily to their 
hive, and are easier caught and carried to it than when they are 
allowed to escape by the window, many of which must necessarily be 
lost because of their youth, perhaps never having flown, but the 
carbolic acid obviates all risk. To what “ Felix ” has said with 
the above remarks nothing need be added. If we do not quite agree 
it is because our hives and appliances are different.—A Lanarkshire 
Bee keeper. 
P.S—The weather still continues cold and damp. The thermo¬ 
meter on the morning of the 27th May stood at 25°. There has been 
only four days during the whole month the bees could venture out. 
My hives are all ready for swarming or supering, and queen-rearing, 
which should have been going on, is at a standstill owing to the 
extreme cold. I have fed none yet, but shall be compelled to begin 
soon unless genial weather sets in. Hives allowed to go back now 
will be unprofitable. It is better to feed in time than to allow any to 
suffer from want.—L. B. K. 
INTRODUCING QUEENS. 
“A Surreyshire Bee-keeper,” page 411, says, “When we 
consider the life history of the bee, it is sometimes difficult to know 
which to admire most — its wondrous wisdom or its fatal folly. At 
times it would seem to possess the power of reasoning, at other times 
it seems deprived of the slightest evidence of instinct. Take, for 
instance, the behaviour of bees when deprived of their queen. One 
would imagine that they would only be too thankful to accept the first 
one offered to them, but, on the contrary, they will frequently sting her 
to death, or suffocate her by balling, even when she has been caged for 
forty-eight hours .... and the older the bees the more difficult it 
is to introduce a queen,” Then he gives elaborate directions for intro¬ 
ducing one, which reads like a passage in some old work on alchemy, 
and winds up by saying, “ Unless obliged, we do not attempt to introduce 
queens either in early spring or late autumn. Bees are kittle cattle; 
no method has yet been found to be infallible.” cm 
After reading such remarks by one who presumably examines and 
grants experts certificates of competency in bee-keeping on behalf of the 
British Bee-keepers’ Association, it is quite refreshing to read the first 
paragraph in “ Lanarkshire’s ” article, which follows that referred to 
above. 
Had “A. S. B. K.” not been such a great authority in bee matters, 
and so important a one, that bis letters in this Journal are made use 
of in the British Bee Journal , I would have treated his letter as by a 
novice, but instead, I must, in the interest of progressive apiculture, take 
him to task for being behind the times. 
He has said, a fresh queen cannot readily be introduced to old bees, 
noi in early spring or late autumn would he have us to accept the absurd 
theory that if bees had no means of rearing a queen, that Nature had 
ordained that the stock should die off, and if a strange queen should 
happen to come to them (say one lost on her bridal trip, which often 
happens) that the bees should “ ball ” her to death. Such a teaching 
