February 21, 1889. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
161 
use there is none. That great supposed evil, unsealed honey, being 
the cause of dysentery, is nothing more than an error in failing to 
trace the cause and effect. More evil arises through damp con¬ 
tracted in badly constructed hives, imperfectly covered ones, and 
unnecessary cooling down in the hive by injudicious and untimely 
manipulations, than if the bees were supplied with nothing but un¬ 
sealed stores. 
THE AGE OF BEES. 
That beesdive only for forty days is an error still perpetuated, 
and believed in by some. Nothing could be more absurd. Owing 
to most of my young queens failing to mate last summer, and 
owing to the untoward weather in Austria, I did not procure my 
supply of queens until November instead of October. I began to 
despair of having queens at all, so made special efforts to secure 
every spare one I heard of. “ A Hallamshire Bee-keeper ” hearing 
of this sent me a spare one of Syrian and Punic blood. I put her 
at once to a nucleus of June, which had not only wrought well, but 
had its bees well preserved. Probably some of these bees might be 
bred in March ; they are at this moment healthy in every respect 
with not a single sealed cell, and all of the syrup has been con¬ 
sumed within the past sis weeks. Another nucleus which I joined 
a laying queen to, and which had more drones than bees, and did 
good service at the hatching of a large quantity of brood, has 
succumbed. The young bees being prevented airing until too late 
perished, and all the adults -with them. Contrast the condition of 
both these hives with about equal number of bees—the one having 
all stores sealed, the other not a cell sealed. Although we are 
always being told how valuable autumn bees are, it is to old bees we 
depend most. Autumn-feeding, does not insure the lives of our 
bees, but the reverse. Notwithstanding the high temperature in 
December few of our bees have flown, and in one hive not a single 
bee has shown since the middle of October, so with the exception 
of the one casualty all are well. 
STRENGTH OF HIYE3. 
It is a well known fact that I do not approve of extra strong 
hives during winter, always putting more faith in young queens 
allowed to go to rest naturally in September with a well furnished 
hive. 
So far as I have been able to calculate, bees occupying a sixth 
space of a full-sized hive in December, will, in May, occupy the 
whole of it, while those with five times the number will be no 
further advanced. At present I have a number of nuclei occupy¬ 
ing not more than the twentieth part of their hives, and in one or 
two instances considerably less, all of them June-formed, too. As 
much of the foregoing is at variance with present day ideas, I 
will, for the benefit of bee-keepers, give the result as the year 
advances. 
A RETROSPECT. 
With all that has been written upon bees, and the many “ new 
ideas placed before the world during the last twelve or fourteen 
years, very few inventions remain with us. I have watched care- 
fully for twelve months in some of our contemporaries for some¬ 
thing new, but beyond old things appearing as new, I have neither 
found nor seen anything. One thing is certain, the Lanarkshire 
tiering hive is coming to the front, and although we get no credit 
for it, nor for pushing it forward, we have always dates and records 
to clear away doubts. The greatest satisfaction is, that while I 
never flinched from altering my course in recommending this tiering 
hive amidst so much opposition, my opponents are now the greatest 
advocates for its use. 
KNOW THE STATE OF TOUR HIVE3 BY APPEARANCE. 
Not only is it desirable to possess that knowledge of the coming 
weather by the actions of our bees, but it is equally so to know the 
state of them by appearance, such as whether they have a queen or 
not, and what is their strength, or in what condition as to health they 
may be, all giving external signs throughout the year, whereby a 
practical and experienced person can, without opening the hive, 
know the state they are in. One or two of these signs only I will 
give for the present. It has been often advised before purchasing 
a hive that the number of bees carrying pollen in a minute should' 
be taken as a criterion to form an opinion. This in many cases, 
where the hive is strong, cannot be done, nor is the busiest-looking 
hive always the strongest. A strong well provided hive sometimes 
during the spring makes by far the least show, and only when the 
weather is extra fine will the bees leave their hive in great num¬ 
bers, to gather a supply of pollen for the future, thus contrasting 
greatly with the constant fed hive ever on the wing in foul and 
fair weather, thereby losing it3 bees daily until it is depopulated 
altogether, while the former maintains its strength in old bees, and 
increases it greatly with the daily numerous hatching of young 
bees. A strong hive goes on in this fashion, quite deceiving the? 
uninitiated until near swarming time, when but a few days before 
it the bees rush out and in the hive. It is just at this stage that 
supers may be added, or a swarm expected, or may be taken. 
HOW TO HITE BEES. 
Where a few bees only are kept the great annoyance and diffi¬ 
culty of having many swarms at one time are unknown. To the 
bee-keeper surrounded by bees, or having many of his own, do 
these trying circumstances occur. When the season is far advanced 
I do not care whether two or more swarms join, but in the early 
part of the season it would be a positive loss to allow them to do so ; 
then to prevent a neighbour’s swarm joining sometimes makes 
things more pleasant in the future. I have previously explained 
my hiving boxes or swarm-catchers, so like what the Americans- 
have been discussing last year, so will pass on and describe how to 
hive easily caught swarm-. 
All my hives have a super-protecting case, which are of the- 
same dimensions of the hive, but run from 9 to 12 inches deep,. 
These serve for marketing crates, and are provided with a move- 
able top and bottom, the top one being always used when in- 
transit, affording ventilation to the bees, and prevents sparks and 
ashes falling and setting fire to the supers, which sometimes are 
emitted from the chimney of the locomotive in great profusion.. 
This box is also fitted with one piece of very light wood, a little 
less in size than the inside of protector, or four or more pieces- 
which the size of the supers demand. 
To this thin piece of wood, or pieces of wood, two strings are 
attached, so that it can be gradually lowered after the upper lid 
has been removed. The strings are attached to screws or pegs, so 
that the board will be level at the top, and then the upper one is- 
screwed. The bees are then hived in this box, and if signs of more 
swarms are likely to join, a carbolicised cloth is thrown over the 
bees, which wards the strangers off, and as soon as possible the 
swarm is lifted and placed upon the top of the hive prepared So 
receive it, thus practically securing the swarm and locating them in 
their permanent hive, with no risk of losing the queen, or the 
whole, as is often the case when the clumsy method of shaking is 
resorted to. As many bees of a swarm sometimes return to the 
parent stock if the swarm has been hurriedly dealt with, as it 
should be when several are on the wing at the same time, and but 
few of the bees of the stock will leave the parent hive or join the 
swarm, it is advisable to remove the old stock, shut the bees in, 
ventilate, and remove it to a distance, setting the swarm in the old 
stock’s place. All the other swarms should be similarly treated, 
and is the easiest and most expeditious method of hiving bees. 
The bee-keeper must next return to the first-hived swarm. If 
the bees have not retreated downwards the moveable inside lid 
must be lowered so as not to crush bees, which it will scarcely do 
if properly made and rightly applied. Should the bees be slow in 
retreating to the frames below a carbolicised sheet of paper 
properly applied between the laths of the lid will in a short time 
clear the box of all its tenants, which in a few days supers may be 
put in. All the other swarms must be similiarly treated, and the 
bee-keeper will not only be thankful for the plan, but will wonder 
why so simple a method of putting bees into a hive was not 
