June 30 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
2 37 
tliis by Mr. H. Taylor, who says,—“ The concluding part 
contains, I think, a very important suggestion, which, ; 
as the swarming season is so fast passing away, I lose no 
time in calling attention to in The Cottage Gardener, 
in the hope that some of your readers may have an op- j 
portunity at once of testing the principle, and informing 
us of the result. Mr. D. evidently courts publicity as 
to his discovery, and therefore I do not wait for consent 
to make the following extract. The preliminary process, 
when it is desired to extract the queen from a recent 
swarm, is well known; hut I give it in Mr. D.’s own 
words, to make the wholo question understood — 
“ In the swarming season let the apiarian consider well 
and determine his intentions and wishes respecting the 
future number of his stocks. In case he does not wish to 
increase the number of his stocks, when a swarm rises let it 
be returned; then let him watch carefully the proceedings 
of the hive or stock for tire next nine or ten days. If young 
queens are brought out dead, exceeding three or four, lie 
maybe quite certain the stock will not cast; if the stock 
commences honey gathering with energy, he may also rest 
satisfied that it will not cast. Should, however, t he bees be 
determined to follow their natural course, and cast, they 
must be returned again and again, until the whole of the 
young queens are disposed of, when the stock will quietly 
settle down, and the apiarian may look forward to his honey 
harvest. He will by this means have the increase of his 
stocks entirely at command; he will have the benefit of the 
labours of his surplus population; and if quality and fine¬ 
ness of honey is his aim, he can by no other means secure 
his object so certainly and safely as by returning his swarms, 
because in a stock when the swarm has been returned, no 
fear need be entertained of the queen depositing eggs in the 
glasses or boxes intended for surplus honey, and therefore 
extreme purity of the honey as well as whiteness of the 
comb is attained. 
“ This process of returning is an exceedingly simple one, 
and certain of success: the bees are hived in an ordinary 
straw hive, and when they are settled (probably about twenty 
minutes after being taken), they should be dashed out on a 
white cloth by suddenly striking the hive mouth downwards 
on the cloth—the sharper the stroke the better; the hive 
should immediately be lifted up, and the bees will be seen 
in a confused lump on the cloth; they will not rise or lake 
wing, but will spread themselves on the cloth. The queen 
must now be watched for diligently; when seen, she should 
be covered with a wine-glass, then slip under the glass a 
card or a piece of zinc, and care taken that she does not 
escape ; she must be removed and killed. The bees may 
then be left to themselves, and they will, when they miss 
the queen, take wing and return to the stock whence they 
issued; but what is better, the cloth may be taken up by 
the corners, laid on a hoard sloping towards the mouth of 
the hive, and a communication made between the bees of 
the swarm and the stock : as soon as this is done, the bees 
of the swarm will be as anxious to return as they were to 
come out of the hive, and the operation will be complete, in 
less than half an hour. 
“ There is no danger in the operation whatever; we have 
performed it scores of times without covering of any kind, 
and without being once stung in completing it, and we are 
quite sure that any apiarian who has once seen the experi¬ 
ment carried out, and has noted the advantage to be de¬ 
rived therefrom, will be certain to adopt it. Plain practical 
dii'ections may be given for performing the operation, but 
our strong advice to every one is, not to omit seeing it done 
by an experienced apiarian, if possible; more may be learned 
and more confidence gained in seeing once, than in reading 
a dozen times. We have practised this system entirely for 
the last six years, and during that time have never had 
occasion once to resort to any expedient to reduce the stocks 
in our apiary : the extract from “ my note book,” of the year 
1847, given at pp 153 and 154, will show how far the in¬ 
crease of stocks was prevented in that year ; from the num¬ 
ber of queens killed, the probability is, that had not the 
system been persevered in, the stock, No. 4, would have 
been split up into numerous colonies, and forty pounds of 
honey in glass would certainly not then have been obtained. 
u We cannot better conclude this essay than by suggesting 
an experiment which occurred to us in the year 1851, but 
from the extraordinary circumstance of our not having a 
single swarm in our apiary in 1852, it was impossible for us 
to carry out; and in thus making it known, we may probably 
induce some of our apiarian friends to try the plan, and 
thereby it may the sooner be established as successful, or 
not, and the benefit, if successful, may be the sooner pro¬ 
mulgated ; in doing this, we feel we are not overstepping the 
bounds of this essay, inasmuch as the experiment bears 
practically on the prevention of the increase of stocks. In 
the year 1851, by accident, the bees of a swarm were returned 
to a hive to which they did not originally belong ; that hive 
had been previously not much inclined to work (it is true, 
the population was not over large); immediately the bees of 
the swarm had joined this hive, the whole population com¬ 
menced working vigorously, and produced in the season a 
fair proportion of honey ; the stock from whence the swarm 
issued was a strong one, and although it did not produce as 
much honey as it would have done had the bees of the 
swarm been returned to it, yet it gathered strength and pro¬ 
duced three glasses of honey, one being thirteen pounds in 
weight. 
“ Now it occurred to us, that as the accession of the quan¬ 
tity of strange bees to the lazy hive immediately induced 
work, that it would be prudent, instead of returning the bees 
of a swarm to the stock from whence the swarm issued, to 
join them to another hive (if the queen be taken away, any 
hive will readily receive them); and the next swarm which 
issued from any other hive might be joined to the first hive 
which had thus lost its swarm, and so on, keeping up a con¬ 
tinuous change of the quarters of the bees when they swarm. 
“We have always observed, that, after returning a swarm 
to the stock to which it originally belonged, such stock does 
not generally set to work steadily until after the lapse of 
four or five days; and we argue the reason to be this,—when 
the bees are returned, they find their own hive in precisely 
the same state as when they left it, and there is therefore no 
inducement to work, in fact the bees are disappointed; but 
if these bees are joined to a hive where a different state of 
things exist, then that they are instigated to pursue their 
natural labours and gather honey. This is merely the idea 
of the writer; but the accidental experiment having suc¬ 
ceeded so well, he has ventured to mention it, at the same 
time explaining that he has not yet had the opportunity of 
testing its invariable success.” 
COVENT GARDEN. 
It may he said there is now a plentiful supply of 
everything in the market, and the demand is quite 
equal to the supply. Green Peas are so general as to 
he bought retail at from 8d. to Is. per peck; they are 
very good, and yield well. New Potatoes are rapidly 
displacing the old, some sorts of which are now all but 
unsaleable. The new are making about 12s. fid. per 
cwt., but some samples of superior quality realise from 
18s. to 20s.; they are very fine. Cauliflowers, of excel¬ 
lent quality, make from 2s. to 3s. per dozen. Cabbages, 
fid. to Is. fid. per dozen. Rhubarb, 2s. to 2s. fid. per 
dozen bundles. Asparagus, Is. fid. to 3s. fid. per 100. 
Cucumbers (tine), 4d. to Is. each. New Carrots are 
becoming plentiful, at fid. and fid. per bunph. 
In Fruits we bavo now a rather good supply of 
Strawberries, at fid. fid. and Is. per pottle; they are 
principally British Queens, Keen’s Seedlings, and 
Hooper’s Seedlings, the latter a first-rate variety, early, 
and very prolific. Cherries, of foreign growth, are now 
plentiful, at from fid. to Is. per lb.; but they are not 
sufficiently ripe—acid, and hardly even fit for baking. 
