134 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[Novkmuer 28. 
feeding, get them tip to twenty pounds, at least, if it has not I 
been already done. I would very strongly recommend the 
food being supplied at the top of the hive ; and should the 
bees be in a hive that has not a hole in the top, with a sharp 
knife make one forthwith, for the danger as well as the 
inconvenience of feeding at the bottom, and more especially 
at this season, is very great. 
Titmouse (Parus Major).—This sad enemy must now be 
looked sharply after, for it is already beginning the work of 
destruction; the life even of a single bee, and more espe¬ 
cially at this time of the year, is of importance. 
Yentidation. —It will be advisable where bees are in 
boxes, to see that they are well ventilated. If in Mr. Taylor’s 
amateur’s bar hive, I would recommend the feeding-pan 
being allowed to remain on dining the winter,—say till the 
end of March,—and one of the zinc slides of the hive taken 
out; and if in any other kind of box, let a bell-glass be 
placed over the opening at the top, on the inside of which 
the vapour of the hive will condense, and so pass off. “ Per¬ 
haps,” says Mr. Taylor, “ there is nothing more prejudicial 
than the moisture often engendered in hives at this time, 
particularly after frost and in certain states of the atmo- 
j sphere : it accumulates on the top and sides, moulding and 
rendering offensive the combs, and producing disease 
amongst the bees. For this reason, hives with flat roofs 
have sometimes been objected to, and perhaps justly, when 
no provision is made for ventilation.” Gelieu obviated the 
evil by placing caps or small hives over the stocks, the 
moisture ascending evaporated through tire opening. “ I 
have,” says Mr. Taylor, “ tried different expedients, and 
have found nothing better than the practice of condensing 
the vapour of the hive as much as possible, and conveying 
it away.” ( See “ Taylor’s Bee-keeper’s Manual,” page 149, 
fourth edition, where a figure of a condenser is given.) I 
would, strongly recommend that particular attention be given 
to this little matter by those whose bees are in boxes; for 
want of it many excellent stocks are lost, or become so de¬ 
populated as scarcely ever to recover. 
In a letter from a gentleman at Dublin, of the first of 
last month, he tells me that he has just concluded feeding 
two stocks of this year with about thirty-seven pounds of 
honey divided between them, which they have eagerly appro • 
inflated. One of these stocks is a second swarm, to which has 
been added about a pound and half of bees, but so amazingly 
fertile is the queen, that the colony is Highly powerful, and 
breeding is now going on rapidly; the quantity of pollen 
brought in is not only enormous, but seems to be daily in- 
\ creasing in amount. Another proof this, that a stock, be 
| it ever so weak, and at almost any time of the year, may, 
with very little attention, be made strong in numbers and 
| rich in store. 
Floor-boards. —It will be necessary to clean the floor¬ 
boards frequently with a dry bush, but more especially so 
upon the breaking-up of a frost, for it is then that dampness, 
especially in boxes, is most to be feared. 
FEEDING ARTIFICIAL STOCKS. 
Your correspondent, “A Most Edified Reader,” in the 
111th number of The Cottage Gardener, has made some 
suggestions for the feeding of artificial stocks according to 
my plan, which seem to call for a few remarks from me. 
He is evidently a thinker, and as such must make a good 
apiarian. But I am sorry to be obliged to differ from him 
altogether in his proposed manner of feeding his artificial 
stocks in future. His suggestions had long ago presented 
themselves to my own mind, but there then appeared, as 
there still do appear to me, several grave objections to 
them, which I am anxious to state explicitly, as suggestive 
of caution to those who may be disposed to agree with his 
primA facie just observations, and to follow his advice. 
My objections are two-fold : 1st. That in no case, probably, 
would more than a quarter, or a third-part at most, of the 
“ eight or nine pounds of honey” which he proposes to give 
“ after the first three or four days” of the hive’s establish¬ 
ment, really find its way into the cells of the hive; and 
2ndly. That instead of this surviving the winter consump- I 
tion of food, and being the last of the store to remain in the j 
hive, it would be among the first to disappear. These oh- i 
jections I will undertake to prove. ' 
I. It is well known to the scientific apiarian that bees, 
except when in the midst of vigorous breeding, do not make | 
more comb than the)' are likely to want for the immediate 
purpose of storing honey; or, in other words, comb-making , 
proceeds in exact proportion to the abundance of food, or the ' 
wants of the queen-mother. In the instance of a stock artiti- 1 
cially formed in the early part of August—at which time 
breeding goes on more or less actively in all good hives— 
every constructed cell which is not tilled with food is quickly- 
seized upon by the queen as the depository of an egg (and 
every cell, as I shall presently show, not occupied by an egg, 
is more or less filled with honey, i.e., the provided mixture); 
now such a cell cannot be free for the reception of food for 
three weeks to come, and as the queen sometimes (especially 
if she be a young and vigorous mother) lays very consider¬ 
ably at this season, a large breadth of comb will be thus 
occupied as fast as it can be made. Although, therefoi’e, it 
be true, as your correspondent stated, that comb-making 
at first, in this instance, is the order of the day, while but 
little, food is stored, he must not suppose that the combs j 
already made at the end of three or four days (and they are j 
not many) are, therefore, ready to receive his eight or nine i 
pounds of honey. He supplier the bees with it, however, 
who thankfully accept it; but where is it to be stored ? 
They do not hesitate, but set to work, more diligently than 
ever, wax-elaborating, for the purpose of constructing a re¬ 
ceptacle for it; and in this process a great part of it is neces- I 
sarily consumed—for it cannot be supposed that the bees 
will prefer to use the mixture already stored (for some will 
be stored) from foresight of its ill-capacity for preservation. 
In confirmation of the above, I may mention my asto¬ 
nishment this autumn to find how small was the weight 
gained during the most liberal supply of food. “ Where 
does it all go to?” I have often asked myself. Doubtless 
the answer is,—in the process of comb-making ; for the con¬ 
sumption of food itself, as such, cannot be very great at any 
time. On referring to my note-book, I find that one of my 
lately-formed artificial stocks indicated a weight of only 
sixteen pounds net (i.e., hive deducted) as the result of a j 
supply of forty-five pounds, at least, of prepared food,* and 
this, too, composed of a greater amount of saccharine matter 
than is usual in such food!! Now if, as Huber states, sugar j 
is more productive of wax than honey is, what becomes of ' 
your correspondent’s generous supply of eight or nine 
pounds ? If my experience as detailed above be generally j 
true, not more than two or three pounds, at the outside, is 
likely to find its way among the permanent stores of the | 
hive! 
Again, supposing the stock was formed late in the season, 
when little or no brood is being reared, A. M. E. R.’s honey 
becomes absorbed in the same manner. Perhaps a little 
more may be laid by than in the former case (though I very 
much doubt, it), because they make no more comb than they 
want; and in this case they store as fast as they build, and 
build as fast as they store. If A. M. E. R. could examine 
his stock three or four days after its establishment, he 
would find about three or four combs in different stages of 
advancement, every cell of which (except those which were 
! not completed) would be found more or less full of the 
mixture with which he had supplied them, some, perhaps, 
| being near ceiling over. The honey afterwards given must 
i then take its chance with the other food, part being stored 
i away, but by far the greater portion consumed in wax¬ 
making. A. M. E. R. seems to argue that in every case 
the bees for the first few days would build nothing but 
comb : they are, however, far too sagacious to do that; they 
never waste their substance in expensive house building, 
leaving it in uncertainty whether their new granaries shall 
be filled or no—like many human beings, who claim supe¬ 
riority to them as being endowed with reason. I use the 
expression “■expensive” advisedly, for I reckon that not 
far short of fifty pounds of honey (or, at least, prepared 
food) is required to elaborate one pound of wax —so costly is 
this substance, for which only about Is. (id. can be obtained 
in the market!! 
II. In the next place, I affirm that the honey or mixture first 
stored is among the earliest consumed ; that is, us soon as the 
bees have done comb-making, and have eaten the honey in the 
* Observe, I take no note of the honey which the bees collected all 
this time in the fields. 
