402 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[September, 26. 
i 
THE APIARIAN’S CALENDAR.— October. 
By J. H. Payne, Esq., Author of “ The Apiarian's Guide." 
My apiarian friends who are readers of The Cottage 
Gardener, (and who that loves a garden is not?) will 
naturally be desirous of receiving some communication from 
me at the dose of the bee season —this untoward close, I am 
sorry to say, so far as many of my friends and myself are 
concerned; for non-swarming and migratory swarming 
have been the order of the day. Anxious, myself, to people 
one of Mr. Taylor’s box-hives of the latest construction, I 
obtained the promise of a first swarm from several cottagers, 
that by so doing I might insure a good one, by having four 
or live to choose from; but, to my great disappointment, 
neither from them nor from any of my own stocks could I 
get one, for the few that did swarm located themselves in 
chimneys, in the roofs of houses, in hollow trees, and such 
like places from which they could not be taken; swarms 
have been repeatedly seen flying in different directions over 
the town (Bury St. Edmunds), and in our Botanic Garden 
they have been observed partially alighting, and shifting 
about from place to place, but not remaining stationary 
sufficiently long to be hived. Yet, after all the unusual and 
perplexing circumstances of this most unpropitious season, 
the stoclcs generally appear to be good and sufficiently heavy 
to go through the winter without feeding; but the sic arms, 
what few there are, are very, very poor, and without copious 
feeding must perish ; as to honey in glasses or small hives, 
in this neighbourhood, there is none. 
A gentleman writing to me from Dublin the other day says, 
that on the Lsth of May, he united two strong first swarms 
(to stock a favourite hive, I suppose), and upon weighing 
them a fortnight ago, the gross weight of the hive was only 
seventeen pounds and a half; and that the like is very com¬ 
mon in the neighbourhood around him. 
Wasps, also, appear to have been affected in a very un¬ 
usual manner by the season, for although we had a very 
large number of queen wasps in the spring, scarcely a wasp 
has been seen since that time. I have seen but one myself, 
and upon making inquiry amongst the confectioners and the 
grocers, I can hear of only two having made their appear¬ 
ance ; whereas, at this time of the year they usually have 
them by thousands, so that we have nothing to fear for our 
little favourites from this class of their enemies. 
Autumnal Unions. —This process is now become so sim¬ 
plified, that the greatest novice in bee-management may 
accomplish it with ease, and with the most certain success ; 
for at the conclusion of the honey season it appears that the 
bees may be driven from old worn-up hives, and from weak 
second and third swarms that have not been joined at the 
time of swarming, and that by putting three or four of these 
families together in an empty hive, and feeding them care 
fully, combs will speedily be formed ; and that in this manner 
good stocks may be made for the ensuing season. The 
several methods for all these operations, with their results, 
have already been given in the pages of The Cottage 
Gardener ; and surely, now, as Mr. Taylor says, “ enough 
has been said of the folly, or rather wickedness, of killing 
bees," to prevent its ever being resorted to again ; but should 
the trouble of feeding in this manner be objected to, let the 
bees be driven from the weak hives into a tolerably strong 
stock, by inverting the weak hive and placing the other over it, 
mouth to mouth, and tying a napkin round where the hives 
meet, so as to make the escape of a single bee impossible, 
and then gently tapping the lower hive continuously for ten 
or fifteen minutes, when the bees will be found to have left 
the lower for the upper hive ; and this doubled population, 
however paradoxical it may at first appear (for it has been 
proved again and again), will consume a less quantity of 
honey during the winter than if the driven bees had not been 
joined to it. 
Making-up. —The time has now arrived for making-up 
stocks, as it is termed amongst apiarians, that is, joining the 
bees of late swarms or casts together ; and when united, to 
feed them until they weigh twenty pounds without the hive 
or box which contains them, thus making-up good stocks for 
the next year; indeed, no hive should be suffered to pass 
through the month of October without being made to weigh 
twenty pounds beyond the weight of the hive, for by so 
doing the danger as well as the trouble of feeding during I 
the winter months will be avoided; and should the winter 
prove a favourable one for them, a little barley sugar only, 
| in March and April, will be all that they require. 
WINTERING BEES. 
Your correspondent, “ A Country Curate," has directed 
the attention of the apiarian public to some remarks as to 
the best mode of preserving bees in winter; a matter of 
great importance in our variable climate. It will be allowed 
that the experiments cited by him are of far too indefinite a 
character to be followed without a more accurate account of 
place, dates, Ac. I never doubted the possibility of preserv¬ 
ing life in a hive of bees through the winter, by covering it 
up from the influence of the atmosphere, either under or 
above the ground. The main question is whether this extra 
trouble and expense is actually called for. I am an old 
bee master, and believe that it is not; and that bees may 
pass the winter with the smallest possible consumption of 
food in then' usual positions. Repeated experiments have 
convinced me that nothing more is needed than the entire 
screening of the hives from the influence of the sun in the 
cold months. My practice is the same as that recommended 
by Mr. Taylor, in his “ Bee-keeper's Manual ’’ (illustrated at 
page 147, fourth edition). If the bees are attracted from 
the hive by every gleam of winter sun or reflection of snow' 
on the ground, the most disastrous consequences may ensue. 
Keep them quiet and torpid, and little or no food is wanted. 
In the contrary event their store is rapidly consumed ; disease 
and death assuredly following. The little additional expense 
of such screens is as nothing compared with the certain ad¬ 
vantage. But I have yet another plan, which I hope to be 
enabled to carry into execution ; and I trust others of your 
correspondents will tiy it with me. I mean to face a few of 
my hives entirely to the north, throughout the year. I am 
convinced that the bees in leaving home are guided solely by 
the outer atmospheric temperature at all seasons, preferring 
shade for their domicile, where the choice is offered. White 
informs us that bees thrive well to the north. Gelieu always 
screened his hives from the sun. Mr. Taylor says, that 
“ an apiarian of great celebrity placed his hives around the 
interior of an octagon erection, without perceiving any 
sensible difference in their well-doing." A friend of my own 
last year had a stock, the best in his apiary, which never 
faced otherwise than due north. The “ Country Curate ” 
appeals to the “ intelligent and curious apiarians wdio read 
your pages,” for assistance in carrying on a series of whiter 
experiments. Will some of these make a trial of my pro¬ 
position, by placing a few stocks altogether to the north (well 
sheltered of course), and compare them with those worked 
in other aspects ? I would advise their permanent re¬ 
moval in November. The Cottage Gardener has ren¬ 
dered invaluable aid to apiarian science and practice; and I 
feel confident that its columns would be open to receive well- 
authenticated details of useful and interesting experiments. 
Will any correspondent favour us by saying whether he has 
already witnessed the adoption of my proposed scheme ; and 
with what result ? An odd Bee Master. 
ARTIFICIAL SWARMS. 
Berm it me to occupy a space in your valuable paper with 
a few remarks, by way of supplement, to my former letter 
on the subject of my plan of effecting autumnal unions, 
and forming artificial stocks, which seem called for by 
some observations of Mr. Payne upon both, and my know¬ 
ledge that several of your readers are trying, or have tried, 
my method as recommended in The Cottage Gardener 
of August the 1st. But first, let me thank Mr. Payne 
for the cordiality and frankness with which he has acknow¬ 
ledged the utility as well as the simplicity of my plan of 
uniting bees. I have only to say, that it is adapted to every 
purpose of this kind, whether it be to effect autumnal unions, 
to transfer stocks, or to strengthen working hives in the 
breeding or honey gathering seasons. It has this advantage 
over the fumigating system, that whereas in the latter case 
several days are generally wasted before the bees recover 
their wonted energy, in the former instance there is no 
interruption whatever to then’ laboins beyond the momen¬ 
tary interruption necessary to the operation itself. Every 
intelligent apiarian will at once perceive the capabilities of 
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