January 6,188*. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
21 
placing one tier of frames on the brood chamber I should begin 
to tier up racks of sections in the usual manner. Twelve 
frames would be too small for a good queen—at least, 
they would only give sufficient room for egg-depositing with¬ 
out leaving room for the storage of pollen and honey, but by 
placing a tier of frames upon the brood chamber space is 
aibrded for storing the honey, and if necessity should arise 
for an extension of the brood nest itself. In addition to this 
advantage a breadth of honey would intervene between the 
brood nest and the sections. In winter I should be guided 
by circumstances ; in some seasons two tiers of frames—the 
body-box and a super-tier—might be allowed to remain, in 
others the body box alone. 
The chief defect in such a hive as that described is the 
space between the top of the frames in the body of the hive 
and the bottom of the frames in the super-body. These bee- 
spaces are a decidedly weak point in such a hive, but at 
present there appears to be no way of obviating the difficulty. 
I rue, half bee-spaces have been introduced, but the only 
benefit to be derived from them is that the hive becomes 
more easily reversible—an uncertain advantage, if we may 
judge from the very contrary opinions expressed by those who 
have made a trial of the reversing principle. We must 
therefore, as far as I am able to see, take our choice of two 
things cither we must use a deep frame, or we must use 
two tiers of standard frames with a bee space between the 
upper and the lower tier. A deep frame is not very con¬ 
venient, while more than twelve standard frames in one 
length are not advantageous, although in the hands of an 
experienced man I believe that any here will give grand 
results. Metal ends may be dispensed with, but distance 
pins may be used, at any rate lor a time, until they also may 
with safety be discarded. In the matter of roofs there is 
little to say except that they must be made so that they can 
be handled with ease, and are a sure protection from the 
weather. They are most convenient when made in sections, 
so that when adding say two racks of sections, an outside 
case is slipped over them and the roof on the top of that. 
As many of these outside coverings should be made as may 
be calculated to be necessary. But room for an extra rack 
or tier should always be afforded, even after allowance has 
been made for the best of seasons requiring an extra number 
of supers. It is far better to have a little too much room 
than even an inch less than is required. 
.^®P r ^ oar ^ 8 “ay be of two principal kinds, either “ venti- 
ating or ordinary. Perhaps for the majority of bee¬ 
keepers a ventilating floorboard may be useful, but hitherto 
it has never been necessary in my apiary. “ A Lanarkshire 
Bee-keeper,” whose long experience has no doubt shown him 
t le practical utility of the floorboard he so constantly urges 
upon bee-keepers to adopt, is so trusty a guide that, although 
not using anything but the ordinary moveable floorboard 
myself I would advise those who have not hitherto done so, 
and whose bees have suffered in the past from an excessive 
mortality at any time during the autumn or winter or sprint 
months of the year, to try the effect of this certainly very 
easy and practical way of keeping a hive dry and warm and 
free from damp. Double walls are, I believe, in many ways 
an advantage, but they make a hive heavy and unwieldy. It 
is quite a matter of individual taste, for single walls of good 
sound timber will preserve bees through the coldest of our 
winters if sufficient care is taken to have them well packed 
up ; but for an apiary in which the hives are stationary from 
year s end to year’s end I prefer double walls. 
Simplicity and usefulness will in the main be the chief 
characteristics of the future hive; frames and walls, roof 
and floorboard, of plain and unpretending form, will in 
time to come prove most acceptable to bee-keepers; 
reversing, metal ends, and other contrivances, will die away 
and leave a hive of simple construction unencumbered by 
so-called improvements to supply the wants of the consumers 
of honey in the coming generation. The sooner such a hive 
is adopted the less we shall hear of foreign competition ; the i 
longer the adoption of such a hive is delayed the more keenly 
we shall feel the decline in prices likely to be experienced in 
future years. The friends of the British bee-keeper must urge 
upon him the necessity of rigidly neglecting new hives and 
new appliances, of practising the strictest economy, of being 
determined to overcome all obstacles, and by wise manage¬ 
ment to produce more honey in the future than in the past, 
and to produce that honey at a less price than he has been 
accustomed to regard as profitable in the time of good prices 
and ready sale. All this may be done by using simple and 
inexpensive yet efficient hives, and by acquiring a thorough 
and intelligent knowledge of bees and their management.— 
Felix. 
CYPRIAN BEES. 
‘ A Notts Bee-keeper ” wishes to know the average yield per hive 
of Cyprians for a few years past. I have never troubled in taking the 
average, my object always being to make the most of every hive, and 
managing them so as to bring them up to the highest standard of weight 
and everything else, always keeping the future in view, so that no sacri¬ 
fice would render my efforts abortive the ensuing year. 
If “Notts Bee-keeper” ha9 been an attentive and constant reader of 
this Journal for some years past, he must have observed the accounts of 
the doings of my bees, and I would particularly call his attention to the 
number for October 14th, which contains the particulars and results of 
many hives at the Heather. 
One thing was not recorded, but which I think is relevant now. I 
stated that there is a good deal of rivalry amongst bee-keepers as to who 
will have the heaviest hives ; it is a wholesome competiti >n, and causes 
much innocent discussion and not unfrequently much amusement. On 
the 4th of September last a number of us went to see our bees at the 
moors. As mine were probably the strongest and myself the weakest, 
they were the first visited, because they were set nearest the station and 
furthest from the Heather. On my approach I immediately examined the 
likeliest hives with supers, and fnding them less forward than I expected, 
made it known to my companions in the following words : “ They had as 
yet done little,” meaning the supers only, but which was construed by 
them as the total make. After they had examined and weighed their 
own hives they concluded theirs had far outstripped mine, and chaffed me 
much over their supposed victory. I knew that there was a day of 
reckoning coming, so kept silent. There were two companies of us, the 
hives of which occupied two trucks. On reaching home, and while dis- 
loading our respective trucks, I called upon a “ Hercules.” at least 6 feet 
4 inches high, and otherwise well proportioned. “You have heard,” I 
said, “how that truck of bees containing yours was so much heavier than 
ours in this one.” “ Yes,” was the reply. “ Come, then,” I said, “and 
feel the weight of them, and give your verdict.” He did so, and ex¬ 
claimed to the discomfiture of his pirty that each one of ours was as 
heavy as five of theirs. 
I had my first Cyprian queen presented me by Mr. A. Neighbour in 
1877 and bred from it; and since 1878 they, unlike other bees, have kept 
themselves without receiving any artificial feeding whatever, and have 
given a surplus of honey every year since, and in years too when other 
hives yielded none, and at t'-e present these stocks will weigh between 
60 and 70 lhs. of combs, store, and bees. So it will be observed that 
feeding will be unnecessary this incoming season either. 
If “ Notts Bee-keeper ” has not read the article referred to, nor those 
containing the information on the proper and profitable management of 
bees, I shall be glad to give a few introductory remarks for beginners or 
those unacquainted with the rudiments and scientific management of 
bees ; but I observe “ Notts Bee-keeper ” has been reading, because he 
says, “ I and many more are in a fog. We keep reading of the wonder¬ 
ful doings of these foreigners, but cannot get them to do it.” Reading 
alone, without thinking and acting, will not attain the end in view. Then, 
of more importance still, Does “ Notts Bee-keeper ” and his friends act 
according to the instructions given in this Journal ? 
It is but a few weeks since a question was put in a contemporary, 
“ Which is the best book on bees for a beginner ?” I observed several 
answers naming a certain book as “ the best book on bees.” The said 
book I had not seen, but shortly after saw it through the kindness of a 
friend. I then scanned its pages, and found it contained not only errors 
of fact, but recommended hives and a system of manipulation from the 
beginning of the year till the end of it, which if we adopted our harvests 
of honey here in the north would be nil. Our system of management is 
the only one that we can depend on in getting good returns ; and if we 
were in the sunny south the same system would also be the one that 
would give the largest returns with least trouble and the least outlay. 
The breed of bees in this district are so mixed that it is impossible to 
make comparisons, but that can still he done at the moors ; and as I have 
so often pointed out that fair trials and comparisons can only be made 
when hives are placed together. There are localities situated only threa 
miles from each other that bees will gather at one locality a large 
quantity, while at the others little or nothing will be obtained. 
The Cyprian and Syrian races of bees are very prolific, and to give 
them a chance to make weight and remunerate their owners the hives 
must be large, ai large again as most of the hives in use at the present 
day. Doubtless there has been a movement of late to adopt the tiering 
