216 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 
and eaten as sea-kale. As an ingredient in winter 
soups, tliey are of much service to the cottager. 
Hedges. —Wo conclude our monthly advice by 
expressing a hope that the cottager will see that all 
his 1 ledges are neatly dubbed ; true economy of soil 
demands this. The character of a cottager may in 
general be guessed by the condition of his hedges. 
THE BEE-KEEPER’S CALENDAR.— August. 
By J. H. Payne, Esq., Author of “ The Bee-Keepers 
Guide," Ac. 
I trust that I have already sufficiently insisted 
upon the necessity of uniting second and third 
swarms, so that, amongst the readers of The Cottage 
Gardener who are bee-keepers, not even one second 
or third swarm can be found by itself. It should be 
impressed upon the mind of every apiarian, “ that 
the larger the colony at the outset the better the 
bees will work, and the more prosperous it will 
become.” A stock weak at the outset never does 
well; the method of uniting, as given at page 104, 
is very simple, and may be accomplished in a few 
minutes, even by the most inexperienced person. 
Returning Swarms. —Returning swarms, either 
first or second, to their parent hives, is what I have 
never done myself, neither have 1 ever recommended 
it to others. It is not only attended with much 
trouble, and, generally, with a failure of the object 
desired, but also with much loss of time to the bees, 
and that at a season of the year when every hour is 
of importance to them. I have a letter now before 
me, in which it is stated that a swarm left a Nutt’s 
hive on the third of June: the queen was captured, 
and the swarm returned. Within a few days of the 
time before mentioned it came out again, and was 
treated in a similar manner; and so it continued to 
go on until nearly the end of the month, when the 
swarm, instead of being returned to the parent hive, 
as had been done many times before, was hived into 
an improved cottage hive, where it is doing very 
well, but during the whole time that swarming was 
going on, which occupied three weeks, and these the 
best, three weeks of the year, working was entirely 
suspended (which is always the case), and not a 
pound of honey was stored; whereas, had the swarm 
been put in the cottage hive in the first instance, 
from fifteen to twenty pounds of honey would, in all 
probability, have been collected by it in that time. 
I well remember that an aparian friend in Norfolk, 
some years since, had a stock of bees in a favourite 
hive, which, very much against his wishes, and not¬ 
withstanding every means having been taken to 
prevent it, sent out a swarm. Ho captured the 
queen, and returned the swarm; after a few days 
the swarm came forth again, and was treated in the 
same manner; and it went on to swarm for either 
seven or nine times, and was returned as many 
times, except the last, when it was put into a new 
hive. Thirteen queens were captured and destroyed 
during this process, very nearly a month was spent 
iu swarming and being returned, and, consequently, 
no work was done during that time, the result of 
which was that, the best part of the season having 
been lost, neither swarm nor stock were of any valuo. 
I would, therefore, say, let all be done that can be 
done to prevent swarming, by giving room and ven¬ 
tilation, which with me has very rarely, indeed I 
may say never, failed. But if, after every means 
have been used to prevent swarming, a swarm should 
come off, never attenrpt returning it, but hive it by 
itself in the usual manner. 
Taylor’s Amateur’s Bar-hive. — In this hive 
swarms may he returned successfully in the following 
manner: as soon as the swarm has left tlie parent 
stock, the combs of which will be left almost without 
bees (except brood in the cells), with the help of a 
few puffs of tobacco smoke from a cigar, proceed to 
take out each bar with the comb attached to it, and 
wherever a queen cell is seen cut it out, and return 
the bar to its place—this operation may perhaps 
occupy ten minutes. When this is done return the 
swarm, and the queen, finding no successor in the 
hive, will not attempt leaving it again. Queens’ 
cells may readily be distinguished from those either 
of drones or workers—the two latter being in a hori¬ 
zontal position, while those of the queens are per¬ 
pendicular, and upon the edyes of the combs. 
I am now enabled to make a very satisfactory 
report of this hive, having three of them at work in 
my own possession, and live others amongst my 
friends, all of which are doing remarkably well. The 
combs in every one of them are worked evenly upon 
the bars, and the upper boxes of several of them 
are already nearly filled with honey. Indeed, it is 
the opinion of my friends and myself that the bees 
work with greater vigour in these boxes than in any 
other kind of hive. 
I may here observe that Mr. Taylor has lately 
made a very considerable improvement in this hive 
by the addition of another box, which, in good 
seasons, may be placed between the lower and upper 
box, before the latter is quite filled. 
Entrances to Hives to re Narrowed. —Towards 
the. end of this month, it will be necessary to con¬ 
tract the entrances of the hives, that the bees may 
be better enabled to defend themselves from the 
attacks of wasps. In Taylor’s hive these things are 
supplied, but, in the cottage hive, I have found 
wedges of cork of different sizes to answer remark¬ 
ably well. 
Wasps’ Nests to re Destroyed. —It will be well 
to have diligent search made in the neighbourhood 
of the apiary for wasps’ nests, and to have them 
destroyed, for which purpose spirit of turpentine 
appears to answer remarkably well. The usual me¬ 
thod of procedure, I believe, is to put a small quan¬ 
tity into a common wine bottle, to put the mouth of 
the bottle into the hole leading to the nest, and sur 
rounding it with earth ; veiy little turpentine is re¬ 
quired, merely as much as will wet the sides of the 
bottle; if applied in the evening, every wasp will be 
dead by the following morning : in no instance have 
I known it to fail of the desired effect, except in 
cases where the nest is deep in the ground, or at a 
greater distance from the mouth of the hole than 
was anticipated. A partial failure may sometimes 
occur when there happens to be two entrances to the 
nest instead of one, but a second application on the 
following evening is sure to j trove effectual. 
Additional Room. —It will be quite useless to give 
additional room to any colony of bees, be they ever 
so prosperous, after the month of July is ended; for 
the honey season is now fast drawing to a close, and 
the population of the hives very much upon the 
decrease, not only from the killing of the drones, but 
by the death of numbers of the workers. 
Removing Glasses and small Hives. — Small 
hives and glasses that are filled, and the cells scaled 
up, may now he taken off’ and stored in cool places, 
observing to keep them in the same position as when 
standing upon the stocks ; but supply no fresh 
ones—the honey gathering season being now chiefly 
over. 
