March S, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
181 
varieties of bees of different races are now so much and widely 
spread throughout the country, that unless in some isolated spot the 
black bee in its native purity will be unknown. I am well aware 
that some bee-keepers situated within easy bee flight of foreign 
varieties maintain they are in possession of the pure black bee. I 
am just wondering if your “Notts Bee-keeper” is not holding the 
same opinion. He says “ that the strain of English bees I have 
been testing are far superior to any foreigners I can hear of,” 
while he admits that there are foreigners in his neighbourhood. I 
know there is a great difficulty in getting pure fertilisation, or even 
a proper cross, without isolating and at a great distance from the 
influence of drones not wanted. There is a bee-keeper whose apiary 
is seven miles distant from me and the same from another bee¬ 
keeper in another direction, and we were the only ones at the time 
that had Ligurian bees in this part, yet at that distance our Ligurian 
drones mated with his queens. In the same year, at an apiary three 
miles distant from me, a black hive of bees had many Ligurian 
drones, and doubtless were from my apiary. Now, is it not possible 
that the superiority of “ Notts Bee-keeper’s ” bees is entirely due 
to the foreign blood of his neighbours’ bees, or perhaps due to the 
mode of management ? I have found, and frequently stated, that 
these broody foreign varieties must be kept in much larger hives 
than what most bee-keepers incline to do if success is to be expected. 
Small hives are of no use with these fertile bees, and nothing but 
disappointment will follow with those who persist in that course. 
Your correspondent admits that a “ little foreign blood does good.” 
That is what we very soon discovered when the Italian bee was 
introduced. The cross on either side showed distinctly more stamina 
and hardiness than the pure races, while the fertility remained 
unimpaired. I am not quite sure what “ Notts Bee-keeper ” means, 
whether it is that he attributes the loss and deficiency of weight to 
the bees being numerous, or because they are foreigners. If the 
latter, then I can relieve his mind on that subject. 
The progeny of the first Cyprian queen I had from Mr. A. 
Neighbour in 1877 have never received any artificial food during 
the whole of these years. They were always heavy and gave a 
surplus of honey when other varieties had to be fed. I have already 
recorded the doings of these bees, which will be found in back 
numbers, and the Syrian bees promise to be not behind the Cyprians. 
I will make an effort to keep these pure and watch the effect of the 
climate upon them. I have the third generation of these pure, and 
will be able to form an opinion during winter whether they are 
becoming hardier than when first introduced. If so, then I shall 
hope as they become hardier they will also become milder in 
temper. Whether it is from the effects of the climate or not I 
cannot say, but one thing is certain, the bees are slightly more highly 
coloured than were the bees of the first generation. 
As to bees consuming much food, I have always found that the 
more numerous the bees and the more brood that is being hatched, 
the more food is consumed. The Syrian hive that consumed so 
much during the autumn months might be said to have been in an 
abnormal state. During the winter it dwindled down to queen and 
about a score of bees. I kept it alive for a considerable time by 
catching young bees from other hives and introducing them to it' 
It rallied, and during the month of August was strong. I exchanged 
some combs with it for the purpose of queen rearing, removing all 
empty ones and filling the space with full frames of honey, expect¬ 
ing the manipulation would serve till spring ; but instead of the 
bees remaining quiet they, true to their natural instinct, started 
afresh to breed the moment they found themselves in possession of 
so much honey, and continued to do so until a young queen was 
raised and hatched, consequent on the excessive and long-con¬ 
tinued breeding of the queen, which by that time would be inclining 
to seek repose, when, as is commonly done in all such cases, the old 
queen was deposed. The enormous quantity of young bees that 
were brought forward partly accounted for the large consumption 
of food, but all hives in this locality have consumed much food this 
past autumn. 
Will bees under certain conditions consume more food at one 
time than another ? I am inclined to think so. If a hive of bees 
is reduced to starvation point, will these bees not require a certain 
amount of food to bring them up to condition that would not 
have been required had they not been allowed to reach starvation 
point ? During the end of July in the memorable year of 1877 
when I returned from Edinburgh on the 1st of August, found all 
my bees dying of starvation. Most of them had been attended to 
by my wife in my absence and were so saved. I immediately fed 
each hive 25 lbs. each of sugar, and in a week’s time examined 
every one. All seemed to be then in good condition to stand the 
winter unless one hive, extra strong, and had not reduced its brood 
any. This hive had not a vestige of food that I could see after 
examining every comb. Other 25 lbs. was given to it; this time it 
was all stored, Now, where did all this sugar go, if it did not 
build up the reduced bodies of the bees and sustain the many young 
ones which were rapidly hatching ? The above is the only reasonable 
solution of the mystery I ever could make, for there was no 
robbing. 
If an excessive number of bees in a hive during autumn con¬ 
sumes an excessive quantity of honey and jeopardises its safety by 
reducing it to starvation—and bearing in mind the fact that a mode¬ 
rate number of bees are as good for forming a stock if not better 
than an excessive number—is it not, then, a mistake continuing 
the practice of joining two or more stocks together during Septem¬ 
ber V I have in a previous number shown the proper time to join 
stocks together is immediately before a honey glut or when at the 
Heather. Certainly to have bees to gather the honey when it is 
there is without doubt the most sensible way of reducing the 
number of our stocks and turning them to the best advantage ; but, 
again, we are never sure when a glut of honey is likely to come if 
at all, and by joining two strong stocks together may defeat the 
object we have in view. I feel confident, however averse I am to 
it, that the time is not far distant when more bees will be killed at 
the end of the season than has ever been at any previous time. 
The only reasonable way I see of getting over the difficulty is 
by uniting stocks as described above. But in spite of all precautions 
stocks will increase in number by swarming, which in some years 
cannot be prevented without much manipulation, and very often, 
after all has been done to prevent it, they will swarm. Whenever 
a hive has made arrangements to swarm and is prevented from 
doing so, honey gathering in many instances cease. When bees can 
be prevented from swarming and kept working at the same time, 
then all goes well. The bee-keeper must study that question and 
judge for himself how best to act. Two or more swarms are easily 
joined, but when stocks of full strength become to be joined, it is 
easier said than done, and will end in failure in many cases. I shall 
take my own case as I was situated during summer. My stocks 
increased to double the number I wanted in spite of every precau¬ 
tion. These stocks were occupying about 5000 cubic inches of 
space and clustering out. To have joined two of these stocks 
together the hives would have stood nearly 6 feet high, a quite 
impracticable height taking bees to and from the Heather. Yet 
nothing less would do. To join two such stocks together before 
being put up for winter would simply have been courting failure. 
The stores unless extra would have been consumed in a short time. 
If feeding became a necessity, late breeding to a great extent would 
have followed, and if the weather became untoward the unflown 
and distended young bees would have succumbed as well as the 
nurse bees, having semi-digested pap in their stomach, being simply 
one of the forms of distension termed by some dysentery. A 
moderate number of bees, about third size in bulk to the internal 
dimensions of the hive, and in numbers from 25,000 to 30,000 bees, 
forms a good stock, and when the hive is roomy and airy, but not 
draughty, will as a rule meet all the requirements of the hopeful 
bee-keeper, and will neither consume an extraordinary quantity of 
food themselves nor suffer in any way from late breeding, and will, 
if kept dry, stand the severest cold ever experienced in this 
country. 
Bee-keepers will easily understand what I mean by strong stocks 
and swarms if they compare a standard hive of nine or ten frames 
with mine of nearly three times larger ; and they have already 
heard my account of hives of different form and size and their 
doings at the moors, when smallish hives standing with only a wall 
separating them from mine made little or no weight, while mine 
rose in most cases 50 lbs. One Syrian swarm, counting the making 
days only (and allowing 20 lbs. of honey to make 1 lb. of wax, but 
which I do not believe), must, if the water vaporised, to be taken 
into account, have made 25 lbs. daily. I have no doubt whatever 
but it made from 12 to 14 lbs. daily, the difference in the figures 
being what I consider the error in the estimation of wax-making. 
The idea that small hives, which cripple the egg-laying powers 
of the queen and keep down the population, give more supers is 
ridiculous. A small hive will of necessity fill a small super at 
times, often of inferior quality too, when a strong swarm in a full 
sized hive is only preparing for the future, but when the time comes 
will store more in a day than the other will do in a week. Swarms 
of such magnitude doubtless require more honey to support them 
during the entire year, but their extra gathering makes up for the 
loss. 
In districts where the fruit blossoms are the only source of 
honey, the bee-keeper must have strong hives, and early too. 
That can only be attained by keeping extra strong hives during 
winter, or by judiciously uniting the brood of two hives together 
and raising queens after the gathering season is over. In such cases 
stocks will not increase so readily as where the honey season is more 
protracted. 
From my surplus stock I gave away four nuclei, started three 
