286 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. February 5. 
Already are our pages enriched from week to week with 
sound bee-keeping information from two of the most 
enlightened apiarians of the day—Mr. Payne, author of 
“ The Bee-Keeper’s Guide,” and “ A Country Curate,” 
author of “ The English Bee-Keeper ”—yet their pens 
do not exhaust the subject, for we have now before us a 
goodly pile of manuscript with which we have been 
! favoured by Henry Wenman Newman, Esq., one of the 
deputy-lieutenants of the county of Gloucester. This 
gentleman is a veteran apiarian, for during fifty years, 
spent partly at Thornbury Park, and partly at New 
House, near Stroud, in that county, he has devoted 
! much of his attention to his apiary. The results of his 
long experience he jotted down from time to time, and 
they are now arranged in the papers before us, expressly 
for our pages. Our readers, before whom we hope to 
lay a portion weekly, will soon perceive that Mr. New¬ 
man says truth, when he wrote to us of these papers, 
“ The remarks are all practical; I detest the mar¬ 
vellous.” 
We will only give one extract from Mr. Newman’s 
prefatory remarks, as we wish to devote all the space we 
can spare to his practical directions, and that extract is 
the following:— 
“ The writer of these observations does not intend to 
go into long details, but ,is only anxious to publish the 
result of many years’ experience in as brief a manner as 
possible; in fact, to give a plain unvarnished account 
of bee-keeping, subject to all the vicissitudes of the un¬ 
certain climate of Great Britain, and to avoid the too 
common error of a highly-coloured account of, perhaps, 
one or two favourable summers. 
“ The writer will also give some observations on pro¬ 
viding pasture and flowers for bees in a country unfa¬ 
vourable to them. 
“ The following is a reply from a gentleman in Kent to 
the inquiry—If he kept bees ? ‘ Yes. I began with 
one stock, and gave an old woman £5 to feed them ; 
they increased year by year until I had nearly 100 stocks, 
but/ never got any honey from them, and in the end they 
ate each other up.’ What a true epitome of an over¬ 
stocked country! ! 
“ From the prince to the peasant bees are favourites, 
for it is known that our most gracious and excellent 
Queen and Prince Albert are ranked amongst the api¬ 
arians of the present day, an illustrious example well 
worthy of imitation.” 
Practical Observations on the Management of 
Bees. By Henry Wenman Newman, Esq. 
the apiary. 
Apes hyemis memores labor ant. 
(Bees labour mindful of the winter.) 
The situation of the bee-garden ought to be sheltered 
from the winds, and valleys are the best places for bees, as 
they have to descend with their heavy loads. Small running 
brooks, or rivulets, in the neighbourhood, are also most 
favourable, as the bees during the breeding season require 
much water; and where there is no running water, stone 
troughs ought to be placed, filled with pebbles, or pieces of 
wood floating on the surface, to enable the bees to alight 
and drink. The stocks, or hives, should on no account be 
placed very near walls; for if they touch these, every sort 
of vermin has the opportunity to get at the hives, and 
during cold weather in the spring, the artificial heat of the 
walls tempts the bees to go out, to their utter ruin, as they 
become chilled and die. The aspect of the hives should be 
nearly south. The south-easterly aspect, in our uncertain 
climate, entices out the bees during frost, as above stated; 
and when there are sudden changes of temperature—fre¬ 
quently from twenty to fifty degrees of cold, with a north¬ 
east wind, in the spring—great havoc is made by the too 
early shining of the sun on them. 
I will give the reader this instance of the sudden changes. 
In the last week in March, 1830, the thermometer in 
Gloucestershire ranged from 48° to 65°, wind s. w., for 
nearly a week; on the 31st of that month, at 2 o’clock p.m., 
it was 01° in the shade; at 5 p.m. a thunder-storm came 
on, the wind veered round to the n. e., and at daylight on 
the 1st of April the thermometer was at 2G C ! This was 
• equal to a change in Canada : the snow fell for about fifteen 
hours on the 1st of April, and at midday on the 2nd the sun 
shone out. I shall never forget an unfortunate stock of bees, 
many of which came out at 12 o’clock; the greatest part 
fell in the snow and perished. On the succeeding days 
hard frost commenced, and on the 10th of April the ther¬ 
mometer was as low as 10° ! So intense was the cold, that 
the milk was frozen in the dairy of a farm-house near where 
I resided. 
The next requisite is to have the bees in the vicinity of 
good pasturage; a corn country is the best, as the artificial 
grasses and clover are the most permanent pasture. The 
hives should have no bushes or trees in front of them, and 
the bees ought to have a clear ten or fifteen feet in front, 
free from all interruption to their flight, and all weeds, 
grass, <fec., should be cleared from them. Some writers 
recommend soot to be strewed round the hives, to prevent 
ants from getting at the hives. 
Bees dislike all offensive smells; the burning of weeds 
near them should never, on any account, be allowed, as the 
smoke is most disagreeable to them. 
The next consideration in the aspect is the danger of 
extreme heat, the injury from which affords the strongest 
argument for keeping hives clear of all w r alls, and with a 
thorough draught of ah’ round them, for I have known 
many stocks destroyed by the melting of the combs, in the 
summers of 1808, 1842, and 1846—the last particularly. I 
find this injury arise especially where stones had been used 
instead of wood, for the 1 lives to stand on. When the 
thermometer ranges from 84° to 88° in the shade, there is 
always great danger of the comb melting, unless the hives 
are shaded with boughs, or covered with wet cloths. 
It is a subject for great regret to see how careless some 
people are about their bees. In my travels I have often 
seen them quite shaded by trees, and even the entrance 
quite blocked by weeds, or some flowers, or vegetables, 
growing near; and when you ask them how the bees get 
on, they say, “ Oh ! Sir, we have had very bad luck, two of 
our stocks have died.” At one house where they kept bees, 
I found one stock with the hive two inches from the board, j 
leaning against a wall. There were about a hundred bees j 
in it. 
In no case ought the stocks to be nearer than three or 
four feet to each other ; but poor cottagers are from neces¬ 
sity obliged, for want of room, to place their hives very 
close together. Benches with ten or a dozen hives are 
detestable. 
I will here recommend to those who have large gardens, 
to keep their hives far asunder, and not near the walks. The 
owner can then visit each stock without annoying any other. 
My own plan is to place all my new swarms as close as 
possible to the spot where they settle in swarming. By so 
doing none of the bees are lost; and a friend of mine calls 
it “ colonising.” The farther the hives are apart the better. 
During the breeding season, from the end of March to the 
end of July, bees should be supplied with water regularly 
every day, if the weather be dry. It saves them long 
journeys in search of it. It should be within near reach of 
them from March until August. 
As the bee pasture remains but a short time, many recom¬ 
mend transporting the hives to heaths and moors, which is 
a good thing, when they are near—but in England this is 
more of a theory than a practice. Who would trust his bees 
