306 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 11, 1889. 
to your will more readily in January than later on. But it is a poor 
expedient to have recourse to feeding bees during the spring 
months either with candy or syrup. Bees will take to candy more 
readily during cold weather than syrup, but they often die with 
candy overhead. In fact, it is most injudicious to feed with candy 
overhead, or even to leave a syrup-feeder on during winter. It 
draws the bees from their natural resting-place in the centre of the 
hive to the crown to stop the draught created, and instead of the 
vitiated air being carried off in a gaseous state in its proper course 
it is condensed upon the bees, and the evils of distension and spring 
dwindling follow. 
As I predicted in the fall of the year, I learn many hives are 
queenless, although otherwise well managed. I also learn from the 
papers that many hives are lost from other causes, all which might 
have been saved had proper care been exercised during the month 
of November. It is between July and that month that bees must 
he cared for in a rational manner to insure safe wintering, and 
much can be done when 
PREPARING FOR THE HEATHER. 
It was an old custom for bee-keepers, previous to moving their 
bees to the Heather, to drive them all from their hive at a time when 
no brood was present into an empty hive, carefully storing the full 
hive until the Heather was past. If the season was a failure the 
bees were returned to their original hive ; if a success, then the 
surplus only was taken from the new hive, and the whole contents 
of the original one. The above plan had many advantages, but 
there was one drawback ; when the bees were transferred imme¬ 
diately before the Heather season and the weather fine breeding 
went on rapidly, and by the time the honey season was at its height 
the bees were too much engrossed with the care of their brood to 
gather the maximum quantity of honey. After frame hives came 
into more general use similar plans were adopted, but the following- 
is more to be commended when it is found to be the most practical 
and other plans not so workable. My attention will be wholly 
directed to the Lanarkshire or Stewarton storifying hives, as after 
long experience, and the evidence of most of the fraternity, there 
£s no doubt that they are the hives for bee-keeping generally. 
After the Clover season is past, or when the bee-keeper deter¬ 
mines to move his bees, if the season has been a good one and the 
bees properly managed the three body boxes will be fully occupied 
with bees, brood, and honey, the latter mostly in the upper storey. 
Remove the full combs, which may be all of them, and store in 
a dry place on racks or in boxes. When bees are deprived of so 
much honey they are liable to draw their brood ; to prevent this 
feed liberally, say from 4 to 6 lbs. sugar, and it will not only 
prevent brood drawing, but encourage breeding. The hive will 
now be much lighter to handle and all the combs occupied. The 
bees will be crowding out. Place on the supers at once at least two 
deep, better three storeys of them ; this extra room prevents 
crowding out, and gives ample breathing space when in transit. 
If the weather is favourable the bees will have no alternative but 
to store all honey in the supers, and much more quickly than if the 
hive had not been so manipulated. Of course the above refers to 
single hives, but where the bee-keeper can join two together 
the results will be greater, provided the same rules are at¬ 
tended to, and combs filled or partly filled with brood only kept. 
When hives are joined it necessitates more body boxes, perhaps 
.four or five instead of two ; but the extra strength and size of hive 
will repay the bee-keeper for the extra bother. 
The bee-keeper at the end of the season will appropriate the 
full frames of honey, or return them to the bees according as the 
season has been, and to the stocks most in need ; that done, and 
with a proper number of bees, say 30,000, or even 20,000, and the 
bives covered as has been directed in these pages, they will not 
require attention until genial weather returns, although it may not 
be until the fruit trees put forth their blossoms, far in April. 
Again we repeat, Let your art be in accordance with Nature, and 
although bad seasons may sometimes dishearten, cheer up, and the 
bees will reward you in due time. Reduce all manipulations to a 
minimum ; winter and spring ones are entirely obviated by attending 
to the foregoing instructions, and foul brood and dwindling 
apiaries will be unheard of. But “ the iron must be struck while 
it is hot,” and nothing neglected that should be done at the proper 
time. Delay not when action is necessary. As “ the early bird 
catches the worm ” so the man who does his work betimes and in a 
perfect manner reaps the highest reward. 
DAMP IN HIVES. 
I took a peep lately into a Syrian stock located in a double-cased 
hive having a half ventilating floor. I also examined several 
single-cased hives having full ventilating floors for the purpose of 
convincing some amateur bee-keepers of the superiority of these 
hives. Not one of them showed the slightest damp or mould. 
But what I wish to refer more particularly to is, how easily the 
Syrian stock was manipulated. Not one attempted to sting. I used 
neither smoke, carbolic acid, nor veil, but exercised caution not to 
arouse them by sudden ]erks or quick motions until they were fairly 
exposed. My vests have sleeves which button tightly at the wrist 
when desired ; dangling garments irritate bees greatly. Linseed 
oil upon the hands prevents bees stinging, and can be cleaned readily 
by using carbonate of soda, which saponifies the oil.—A Lanark¬ 
shire Bee-keeper. 
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 un¬ 
avoidably. We request that no one will write privately 
to any of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to 
unjustifiable trouble and expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions 
relating to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should 
never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended for insertion should be written on one side of 
the paper only. We cannct reply to questions through the 
post, and we do not undertake to return rejected communica¬ 
tions. 
Gardenias (iZ. C.). —If the blooms you send are the worst the 
plants produce, you have not much to complain of. They are probably 
from weak buds, and the stem3 are too thin and hard for supporting the 
finest blooms. 
Cinerarias (A. G. F.). —The blooms you have sent “from plants 
grown by a lady in a north window of her dining-room,” surpass many 
that are sent to us from plants grown in greenhouses. They are very 
good indeed, and could only have been produced under the circum¬ 
stances by the best attention bestowed in ministering to the wants of 
the plants. 
Shallow Pots for Ferns ( [E. L. G.). —Undoubtedly shallower 
than ordinary sized flower pots are suitable for many Ferns, especially 
such as Davallias and others with creeping rhizomes. What are known 
as seed pans are regularly used for such Ferns. These receptacles, 
which are made of the same material as flower pots, can be had in sizes 
varying from 3 inches to 18 inches across. They can be procured from 
advertisers of flower pots in plain smooth ware, or ornamental, the 
latter being of necessity the more costly, but the former are neat and 
equally good for the plants. 
Climber for North Wall ( Very Old Subscriber'). —We know of no 
plant that grows more quickly than the common Virginian Creeper, Am- 
pelopsis hederacea, but the growths do not cling to the surface and the 
leaves fall in the autumn. No evergreen clinging plant would cover the 
north side of a stone wall so quickly, constantly, and satisfactorily as 
the common Irish Ivy. If you require a less common variety you may 
plant Racgner’s Ivy, Hedera Roegneriana. The rapidity of the growth 
depends on richness of soil and well rooted plants, those established in 
pots by nurserymen being much better than plants dug from the ground, 
though when these can be had with tushy roots they answer fairly 
well. 
