May 19, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
407 
hives, and when a hive is once ready to swarm do not 
hinder it, as by so doing the old queen may be deposed, 
leather swarm artificially as allow this to occur. Have 
hives in readiness for any emergency, and take the proper 
time lor superingwhen it arrives.— A Lanarkshire Bee¬ 
keeper. 
NOTES ON BEES. 
SCIENTIFIC QUEEN BREEDING. 
Mr. Cowan gave minute instructions in the British Bee Journal 
in 1883 for queen rearing that may be summarised as follows 'The 
stock must be very strong, the queen be laying her utmost, and 
then be removed ; the first cells started being removed so as to get 
them started from the just hatched eggs. But he failed to say 
what was to be done with the queen, or how she was to be success¬ 
fully introduced to another stock in her heavy condition, which was 
to be the most valuable one in the apiary. Nor could he explain to 
several querists why they had lost them in the attempt of reintro¬ 
duction. His ideas are about right on the matter regarding theory, 
but the difficulties were on the practical side. Mr. D. A. Jones 
improves on this, by crowding bees on empty combs, and then gives 
them a frame of eggs from the selected stock, so that he does not 
remove the queen ; but neither Mr. Cowan or Mr. Jones can tell 
within two days of the time the queens will hatch, and to avoid the 
risk of getting them destroyed they are cut out several days too 
soon. I believe to have good queens—that is, improved cultivated 
queens, the following conditions at least are necessary :—The 
mother queen must be laying her fullest, cells must be started from 
the egg in a vast number of bees, and each cell must be well fed 
and brooded by the bees right up to the moment of hatching, and 
on no account must they suffer a chill while being cut out. Without 
my “ law ” if would be impossible to get more than one queen 
under the above conditions, but with it, all that is necessary is to 
prepare your breeding stock as advised by Mr. Jones, and forty- 
eight hours after let the choicest and heaviest queen run in. She 
can be removed in an hour and given to another lot, so that we get 
eggs that can be calculated to just the hour when the queens will 
hatch out. 
I maintain that my “ law ” is infallible, and every supposed 
failure will be found to have been caused by an overlooked condition 
when I described it. I said the bees received her “ joyfully.” AH 
ths bees in the hive at once make a peculiar hum or buzz. I am 
well aware that bee3 can hear, but when I introduced the queen this 
spring to the queenless stock, I determined the experiment should 
be directed to shed light on 
THE LANGUAGE OF BEES. 
I therefore lifted out a frame from the hive—holding the queen 
in my hand at the time—and when I had it a yard off, the bees 
sitting still on the combs, and those in the hive also quite still, I 
dropped the queen on one side. The bees at once began their 
peculiar buzz and ran about. The bees on the other side did the 
same, as also at nearly the same moment did all the bees in the 
hive, though I saw no bees pass from one side of the comb to the 
other, and I firmly believe none left the comb—they seemed too 
pleased. The queen remained where she was placed, and though 
she looked frightened, having only just been taken from another 
stock, the bees did nothing but dance round her and offer her food. 
The bees in the hive certainly heard those on the comb, as none 
passed from one to the other, and they were too far off to touch. 
1 think if Sir John Lubbock tried the experiment he would be 
satisfied bees could hear, and then his mind would be open to the 
fact that they have a language, which has been brought before the 
public by Mr. Grimshaw. I have for a long time been convinced 
of this, and that hearing, next to sight and memory, was far more 
acute than that of smell ; in fact, I rather think they cannot smell. 
I never could get them to find honey placed on glass when I have 
set them the task of finding it during a dearth in autumn, having 
first given them a taste to draw them out. The glass with the 
Jioney on it was placed on the top of a hive. I have placed a piece 
•of dry empty comb on the glass, on which they fairly swarmed, and 
though wasps quickly found the honey, I never could get bees to 
find it. In travelling across the country with driven bees in per¬ 
fectly empty boxes on dull days, and when I have known for a fact 
that no hives were within half a mile, I have had scores of bees 
come to the boxes attracted by hearing their hum. A few bees in a 
box and a piece of comb, with honey or syrup in it, are very handy 
to have with you when hunting up driven bees. Anywhere within 
quarter of a mde of an apiary’ the bees will find you, and after 
huding up will soon return with hundreds. You can at cnce strike 
a line and walk straight to their owners, who may be very glad to 
have them driven. You can have them found long before you 
would perhaps find anyone to tell you of them. 
Same bee-keepers, when feeding their bees, contract the entrance 
to keep robbers out. They little think the robbers are attracted by 
the loud hum made by the bees ventilating their hive through the 
narrow opening. Open the entrance so wide that they need not make 
such a noise and the robbers will go home. I always give an extra 
wide entrance in autumn and winter, and never have any robbing 
now, and I always feed them when I can, by means of an inverted 
bottle at the entrance. All that is necessary to prevent robbing or 
fighting is a large entrance, so that they can take it quietly. 
Another point on the hearing or language of bees. When a hive is 
killing its drones a loud guttural noise will be heard. This sound I 
have always heard the day before the drones were killed. It is kept 
up during the night, and then the slaughter begins in the morning. 
Most people have noticed all their hives on this work at one time, 
and Huber relates how it was seen in every hive placed on a glass 
table at one and the same time. My opinion is this, perhaps only 
one stock begins sounding the death knell, then others hearing it 
they also begin, perhaps thinking it is started in their own hive, 
while before dawn every stock is soundinc it and all are ready to 
begin business at one moment.—A Hallamsiiire Bee-keeper. 
(To be continued.) 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
•Tames Veitch <b Sons, Royal Exotic Nursery, 541, King’s Road, Chelsea, 
S.W.— Catalogue of New Plants, 1887 ( illustrated), ajid List of Bedding 
Plants. 
William Bull, 53G, King’s Road, Chelsea, S.W.— Catalogue of New, 
Beautiful and Bare Plants and Orchids, 1887 ( illustrated ). 
T. S. Ware, Tottenham. —Catalogue of Dahlias and Hardy Florists’ 
Flowers. 
Thomas Painter, Smallwood, Stoke-on-Trent. —Catalogue of Dahlia 
Plants. 
H. Hildman, Oramenburg, near Berlin. —Catalogue of Succulent Plants 
and Cactece ( illustrated ). 
e o 0 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 cannot reply to questions through the 
post, and we do not undertake to return rejected communica¬ 
tions. 
LATE INQUIRIES.—It is necessary to again remind correspondents that 
letters arriving on WEDNESDAY MORNING cannot be answered 
in the “ next issue,” which is then far advanced for press. 
Garden Instruments ( Suburbanist ) —The instruments to which you 
refer can be obtained from Messrs. Negretti «fc Zambia, High Holborn, 
London. 
Currant Buds Diseased (W. X. and others). —Your Currants are in¬ 
fested with an insect known to entomolgists as Phytoptus Ribis, and 
popularly as the Currant Bud Mite. See page 391. 
Gloxinia Leaves Scorched ( Kittie —The leave i not only appear but 
are in reality scorched or crumpled through being exposed to too dry an 
atmosphere. The remedy is to afford shade from powerful sun, avoiding 
sudden fluctuations of temperature and drying currents of air. 
Rhododendrons (Af. C. B.). —Rhododendrons Edgeworthi and fragrant- 
issimum are distinct species, but we cannot say to which your plant is 
referable without a leaf is sent or a fuller description is given. Tou can, 
however,readily determine if the plant is R. Edgeworthi, as this has the 
under surface of the leaves and stems thickly covered with a yellowish 
brown wool-like substance. 
Shows at the End of May ( S.E. ).—The only horticultural exhibition 
near London in the period you name is that at the Crystal Palace, Syden¬ 
ham, on the 21st inst. It is, however, a good time to visit the nurseries, in 
all the more important of which you will find abundant attractions, but 
you can only obtain admission to the leading private gardens by previous 
arrangement with the proprietors or their gardeners. 
