May 12,1S-7. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
385 
singly at the same time, a puff of smoke being sent clown 
between the frame so uncovered and the adjoining comb 
•until all the frames are exposed, if it is necessary to have 
ho whole surface exposed at once. If only a few frames 
are to be removed from the sides such frames alone 
should be uncovered. All movements must be slow and 
■steady; no hurried gestures should be made over a hive 
-of bees. A little more smoke must be given occasionally 
if the manipulation is prolonged and the bees begin to 
recover from the effects of the smoke first given. Carbolic 
acid is often substituted for smoke. For clearing supers 
it is, as “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper” has pointed out, 
most successful, and those who have once tried it will 
never again resort to the use of smoke. It is cleanly, 
epeedy in its effects, and the vapour soon passes away and 
leaves the hive untainted. It is often said that when we 
are going to manipulate a hive a puff of smoke should be 
injected at the entrance of the hive. To this I object. 
No smoke is necessary at the entrance; indeed, it is a 
positive injury, because it sends the hees crowding up to 
the top of the combs, and we have simply to undo the 
•effects of our unwise “ smoking ” by sending them down 
again. 
Careless jolting and jarring of hives will rouse bees to 
fury. If by chance bees do become thoroughly enraged 
it shows a wise discretion to at once close up the hive 
and leave them until they have recovered, when another 
attempt must be made. A few years ago I had a frame 
hive with six tiers of sections in it, 12G one-pound sections 
in all. By accident, owing to the giving way of a small 
strip of wood when lifting up three racks together, some 
of the sections fell out of the racks on to the sections left 
on the hive. The jar was great and the fury of the bees 
wonderful. They rose in clouds, and had I not taken the 
precaution, as usual, to put on a veil before interfering 
with the sections it might have been a serious matter. 
The accident was easily remedied. A sleep may be 
manipulated with ease. Although it is impossible to in¬ 
spect each comb so thoroughly as in a hive with frames, 
it is quite possible to gain a good idea of the state 
of the stock, and to perform such manipulations as 
may be necessary from time to time by injecting at the 
■entrance a few puffs of smoke, then gently t ipping the 
top and sides of the hive and waiting until the bees have 
had time to gorge, when the hive may be lifted, inverted, 
and the combs examined. When a hive has been very 
securely fastened to its board it is well when there is no 
need for haste to loosen it an hour or so before actually 
interfering with the bees, because unless great care is 
taken the hive will be considerably jarred in passing a 
knife between the hive and board, and the bees may be¬ 
come angry. This delay is never necessary; it miy, 
however, occasionally be politic. 
New combs are very tender, and therefore great care 
is necessary in handling them. It is at no time safe to 
turn up a skep containing new combs, and still greater is 
the danger of doing so when the weather is hot and sultry. 
Combs built from sugar are more brittle than those 
elaborated from honey. Frames of new comb may be 
inspected with care, but no attempt should be made to 
invert a skep until the comb has become less fragile and 
the weather cooler. All necessary operations may be 
performed by the assistance of a man who will lift up the 
skep perpendicularly while the bee-keeper examines its 
state, inserts his queen cell, or performs such other opera¬ 
tion as he may desire to carry out. Sleeps must at all 
times be inverted the way that the combs were, otherwise 
the weight of the combs themselves may cause them to 
break from the top and sides of the hive. This is a point 
to which particular attention must be paid. 
In concluding, it may be well to warn all who desire 
to become practical bee-keepers that a stock or swarm 
should never be interfered with unless there is some 
necessity for such interference. Hives which are never 
manipulated at all give the best results. At the present 
time I have two frame hives which have never had a single 
frame removed for the past three years, and the average 
yield of honey has been over eighty 1 lb. sections each 
every season. Beyond occasional feeding, closing and 
narrowing of entrances, and adding driven bees, no mani¬ 
pulation has ever been performed with these stocks, and 
this year they are again in the grandest condition, and 
will, unless some accident happens to them or the season 
is bad, no doubt give a large yield of honey. I do not 
wish anyone to think that 1 advise frames to be so 
entirely left alone as in these cases, because the frames 
become so firmly fixed that when necessity demands their 
removal it is most difficult to loosen them. What I do 
wish to impress upon all is that frame hives give a bee¬ 
keeper absolute power over his bees, but that the less this 
power is exercised the better it will be both for the bees 
and their master. Long periods often pass by without 
the slightest interference being necessary, and again in a 
short time several manipulations may be required. 
If a stock must be examined let it be examined with¬ 
out delay; if a stock must be manipulated let it be 
manipulated without hesitation; but a stock must never 
be interfered with unless there is good cause to believe 
that mischief can be repaired or some benefit arise to 
the bee-keeper or the stock from such manipulation. 
It may be urged that it is not very easy to say when 
manipulation is really necessary, and this is strictly true, 
but experience will teach everyone who pays attention to 
the wants of his stocks when his active interference is re¬ 
quired. Of all the manipulations which stocks have to 
endure at the hands of an advanced bee-keeper but very 
few are really necessary. The rest are absolutely injuri¬ 
ous to the bees, and consequently an actual loss to their 
owner. A little skill well applied gives better results 
than the greatest skill badly used. —Felix. 
APICULTURAL OBSERVATIONS 
Owing to a number of circumstances, I find that my stock of 
observations are accumulating much faster than I have communi¬ 
cated them to the public. The fault is hardly mine, for if I have 
advanced a fact I have been assailed by ignorance and prejudice, 
which has resulted in controversy, so that now I hardly know where 
to begin. In this district bees have wintered very well. At Easter 
bar-frame hives had from three to seven frames of brood, mostly 
four and five with young bees hatching. Straw skeps were full of 
bees, and as the trees promise abundance of bloom I anticipate a 
busy season. The losses have been in every instance through 
queenlessness, and they have been very large, averaging about three 
out of every twelve, so I will begin with the 
CAUSES OF QUEENLESSNESS. 
Judging from the accounts in my neighbourhood, as well as my 
own experience, I should think the loss of queens the past winter 
has bean g eater than ever before ; my loss alone being three queens 
out of fifteen, two of them being young ones. Some, if not all, 
are at a loss to account for the cause, therefore I will give my ideas 
on the matter. Last spring, on a warm Sunday, I was sitting on a 
stool in the apiary watching the bees flying merrily after a long 
confinement, when my attention was drawn to a stock from which 
the bees were coming out poll mell, and before half a minute every 
bee hid left it. I at once opened the hive to see the cause, but 
could find none. There was brood in all stages and plenty of eggs. 
Where the bees went I know not, further than they did not settle 
anywhere, for each one went a way of its own. Knowing the queen 
could not fly, being in laying condition, I searched the ground and 
soon found her crawling about. In about ten or fifteen minutes the 
