October 31.] 
THE COTTAGE GATtDENEE. 
73 
remarks; and I do not remember an instance of my vene¬ 
rable friend allowing a swarm to be added to bis stock with¬ 
out his having made the acquaintance of her majesty; and 
when, as I have before said, her subjects were not numerous 
enough, or even herself defective in personal agility, or, in 
plain words, poor looking, she was, like royalty of yore, 
doomed either to death or captivity; in fact, the former 
always followed the latter, for although we often succeeded 
in keeping her alive for a few days, she eventually died. Her 
subjects, consequently, were returned home again, and their 
numbers considerably increased by recruits by the time 
another queen was being prepared to lead them forth to 
honourable industry, which was usually about ten days. We 
shall presume this swarm was up to the mark. It was 
accordingly placed in its proper box at once, and allowed to 
stand the afternoon near where the swarm alighted, and 
when all was quiet at night it was removed to its final place; 
or, if it was not early in the season, it was bundled off that 
night or very early the next morning to the station on the 
heath or moors, although at that time there might be lite¬ 
rally nothing there almost for it to live upon, as the honey¬ 
making heath (Calluna vulgaris) is seldom in bloom before 
the tenth of August in the northern counties, while the 
purple bottle-shaped heath (Erica cinerca ), which flowers 
all the season, is of very little use to the bee, the interior 
being inaccessible; but when fine bright weather follows 
the blooming of the pink flowered heath above alluded to, 
it is surprising how quickly the bees fill their cells. But, 
as I said, the moor presented only poor pasturage for the 
bees early in the summer, and they would have been better 
in the garden at home; but then, as it was invariably our 
custom to remove them all to this heath station about bloom¬ 
ing time, this young swarm might not, perhaps, have filled 
its box with comb, and as they, contrary to other artificers, 
always begin at the top, the rough usage of a moorland 
journey might easily break the whole down. But when the 
swarm is sufficiently early in the season to ensure their filling 
it with comb before the time of removal, they were allowed to 
luxuriate in a garden and enjoy the usual pasturage which 
meadows, hedge-side flowers, fields of clover, and other 
things in their immediate neighbourhood afforded. 
The second and all after swarms gave more warning, and 
often sent forth some two or three queens; the number my 
worthy friend could always foretell by listening attentively at 
the back of the hive in the evening, the peculiar sounds of 
the queens differing very much from the usual hum of the 
rest of the hive, as well as from each other; it would be vain 
my attempting to explain such music, although at the time I 
was well versed in it; and, if no untoward weather retarded 
| them, could reckon pretty sure the night before they came 
off; and have been placed beside the hive, and caught as 
many as three queens as they issued forth ; and, perhaps, 
one might still escape for the bees to cluster to; but when 
more than one queen existed, it was our practice to destroy 
all but the strongest one. That the bees do that themselves 
I have no doubt; at least, that is the received opinion. I 
may here remark that all late or small swarms were at once 
returned to the hive again, minus the royal family; they 
would easily go back even with her, hut would most likely 
come off again next day; but, by abstracting these necessary 
personages, the delay of procuring another enables other 
younger bees to join their ranks; so that the next migration 
is more powerful and likely to succeed; while the very late 
swarms only weakening the parent hive, and with only a poor 
chance of surviving themselves, had at once better be sent 
back to their homes. 
Having detailed the swarming process, and presuming the 
old stocks to be crowded full, the next thing was to give them 
increased accommodation. For that purpose the corks stop¬ 
ping the holes at the top of the box were drawn out, and 
another box placed on the top; this second one being, as I 
said before, only half the depth of the bottom one, but in 
every other way exactly like it; and when this was filled, 
another similar box to the last was placed on the top of that, 
I but in all cases ingress and egress was still confined to the 
bottom. It was these half boxes that were made available for 
| honey, as when they seemed full, they were removed, but 
I only one at a time, and an empty one put in its place ;' and 
| whether the one taken away was at the top or the middle, 
j the empty one was always placed in the middle, so that the 
occupants of the upper story had to pass through the empty 
room on their way to then' own quarters. Even when the 
third one was first placed there it was put in the middle, to 
enable those boxes to part freely from the one below them ; 
the bottom was laticed over with strips of wood to take out 
when the honey was to he removed; this kept the comb 
from adhering to the top of the box below it. Care was 
taken that those slips did not cover the holes of ingress and 
egress, and likewise that they did not prevent the close fit¬ 
ting at the edges, so essential in all matters. I may here 
observe, that the taldng away of those filled-up boxes was 
done in the middle of the day, and could only be performed 
by the parties being well secured against the vengeance of 
the plundered bees. This was a job differing widely from 
handling swarming bees ; every individual here was an as¬ 
sailant—-and a formidable one too—if they were not carefully 
guarded against. A large muslin bag was thrown over the 
hat and tied securely about the neck, taking care that it did 
not touch the face anywhere, otherwise it was not proof 
against their stinging through it; good gloves, and all places 
of entry about the breast, wrists, and legs, guarded against, 
we went to work, one person marching off with the plundered 
box as fast as he could, leaving the other to place the empty 
one and put all right. By carrying it some distance, many 
of the bees left it; others bent on revenge, or in despair, still 
clinging to their former property, were occasionally dislodged 
by coming in contact with smoke, which, perhaps, some third 
party might have contrived at the right time; at all events, 
| they were to be removed some way ; tickling them out with 
a twig was often tried, and all schemes except killing, which 
we were loth to do. By this plan, too, there was less fear of 
that still more cruel death, starvation, which driving so often 
accomplishes. Here there was only a portion of then’ store 
taken away, and if we may judge by the quickness with which 
the works of the new abode were earned on, we may come 
to the conclusion that the whole fraternity assisted in its 
formation, and not the losing individual bees only ; at all 
events, in about a week, if the weather kept fine, the place 
was completely filled again with comb, and in a few more 
days with honey ; then probably the top one was taken away, 
and the last placed on elevated to the top, the empty one 
being always in the middle. I do not remember of an in¬ 
stance in which bees were sacrificed, except it were such as 
appeared unable to survive the winter even 'with feeding; 
these were destroyed in the usual way. 
As soon as the first blooms of the honey heath, as it is 
familiarly called, made its appearance, the whole stock was 
carried to these working quarters ; the boxes were furnished 
with necessary fastenings to hold them together, and a rude 
frame, fitting to the back of a horse or donkey, and so 
contrived as to allow the boxes to stand upright—one being 
placed on each side, and one, a small one, on the top or 
middle; of course the hole stopped up to prevent their 
escape. All wheel-carriages were out of the question here, 
as every one will know who has traversed any extent of 
waste. Soon after midnight was our usual hour of de¬ 
parture, and I dare say the appearance of the whole might 
form a not uninteresting subject for the pen of poetic genius; 
but our purpose was to get them safely there, and we gene¬ 
rally succeeded without any mishap. A rough stone enclo¬ 
sure on high ground, and used in winter for the shepherds 
to drive their flocks into in stormy weather, was our summer 
apiary ; the tops being guarded against wet by a large turf, 
which, taken from these moorland places, throws off more 
rain than would be supposed. But all our care and trouble 
was unavailing if bad weather followed; wet, dull, and cold 
seems to paralyze the powers of the bee, while bright hot 
sunshine, increasing their industry, their cells were speedily 
filled with honey. Generally they were placed there with 
one empty box each to fill, and if the weather held fine, 
another empty one was added, taldng a full one away; but 
towards the end of the season they were more leniently 
dealt with, as it was an important part of the plan to have 
them as strong as possible for the whiter. But it is sur¬ 
prising how quick they make honey on the heath when fine 
weather occurs at the time it is in blossom, which is not 
more than a month; but after that, they continue to make 
honey from the flowers found in the boggy places of those 
wastes. The Blue Scabious is very abundant, and some¬ 
times so conspicuous as to form an immense flower-bed; it 
