94 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
July  25, 1895. 
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APIARIAN  NOTES. 
The  Honey  Yield, 
It  is  to  be  feared  the  honey  yield  from  Clover  in  many  districts 
will  turn  out  a  failure,  and  honey  is  scarce  accordingly.  The  best 
results  I  have  witnessed  are  in  a  friend’s  apiary  of  Lanarkshire 
hives,  near  the  best  Clover  fields  I  have  seen  this  year.  All  his 
hives  have  one  crate  of  sections,  or  supers  filled  with  spotless, 
sealed  combs.  I  enclose  with  this  MSS  further  proof  of  the 
superiority  of  full-sized  hives. 
I  thought  perhaps  it  would  interest  you  to  hear  how  I  have  been 
getting  on  in  the  bee-keeping  line  this  season.  The  hive  that  I  wrote 
to  you  about  some  time  ago,  which  I  thought  was  queenless,  has  turned 
out  all  right.  The  queen  was  late  in  commencing  laying,  but  soon  made 
up  for  lost  time.  I  have  taken  one  eight-bar  super  off  it,  and  I  see  that 
a  second  one  is  nearly  ready  for  removal.  That  will  be  a  finish  for  this 
year.  I  extract  the  honey,  as  comb  honey  will  not  sell  here.  This 
same  hive  yielded  60  lbs.  of  extracted  honey  last  year.  I  sold  what  I 
had  to  spare  at  Is.  4d.  per  lb.  Jt  has  not  swarmed  this  time ;  it  is  a 
Lanarkshire.  A  standard  frame  hive  is  nowhere  in  comparison  vi^ith 
one  of  them.  Another  Lanarkshire  hive  swarmed  on  June  20th,  a  very 
fine  swarm  indeed.  I  did  not  expect  it  to  swarm,  as  it  was  a  cast  of 
1894,  and  the  bees  were  working  well  in  the  super.  On  the  19th  I 
examined  it, ‘and  found  six  queen  cells  in  the  top  brood  box  sealed. 
It  was  my  intention  to  rear  two  young  queens.  I  examined  the  hive 
the  day  after  the  swarm  had  issued.  On  looking  through  the  brood 
box  I  found  all  the  queen  cells  empty  ;*an  opening  had  been  made  at 
the  side  of  the  cells  to  get  the  queens  out.  I  next  examined  the  bottom 
box  (I  had  two  brood  boxes  on),  and  found  four  more  queen  cells  that 
had  been  served  the  same  way.  I  also  found  a  young  queen  not  sealed 
over.  On  examining  the  hive  on  July  6th  this  queen  had  hatched  out. 
She  crept  on  to  my  hand,  flew  about  20  yards,  and  returned  to  the  hive  ; 
she  has  not  commenced  to  lay  yet,  at  least  she  had  not  a  few  days  ago. 
Is  it  usual  for  bees  to  behave  in  this  way  in  regard  to  destroying  young 
queens? — C.  E. 
Only  one-half  of  my  hives  are  supered,  and  have  had  one 
swarm  only.  The  stock  with  all  the  others  are  killing  their  drones, 
although  there  is  abundance  of  honey  in  their  hives.  Young 
queens  for  1896  will  have  to  be  raised  and  isolated  at  the  Heather, 
where  they  will  be  in  a  few  days. 
I  have  nothing  new  to  report  on  preparing  and  moving  bees  to 
the  Heather.  After  my  hives  are  supered  a  few  seconds  is  all  the 
time  necessary  to  shut  the  bees  in  and  ventilate  them  for  their  long 
journey.  I  never  lost  a  hive  from  breakdown  of  combs  nor 
smothering  during  my  fifty  years’  experience,  nor  ever  had  bees 
escape  to  sting  or  annoy  anyone,  and  I  have  had  some  difficult 
routes  to  take  them  to  different  parts  on  the  coast.  On  one 
occasion  I  was  being  launched  into  the  sea  along  with  a  barrow  and 
twelve  hives.  The  night  work  moving  them  thirty  miles  away 
gives  me  many  amusing  incidents  tcf  think  and  speak  of,  but  the 
narration  would  be  too  prolix  for  the  Journal. 
Queen  Cells  Destroyed. 
In  reply  to  “C.  R.,”  it  is  quite  common  for  bees  to  gnaw  the 
sides  of  queen  cells  to  destroy  the  inmates  when  not  intent  on 
swarming,  but  why  they  will  at  the  same  time  bring  forward  others 
is  where  the  mystery  lies.  It  is  usual  for  bees  in  spring,  long 
before  they  are  crowded  in  the  hive,  to  raise  one  or  more  young 
queens,  which  sometimes,  but  not  always,  supersedes  the  queen 
regnant.  If  every  gardener  were  to  keep  one  hive  with  the 
intention  of  using  the  profit  from  it,  as  provident  money,  either  by 
way  of  insurance  or  of  keeping  himself  in  a  benevolent  society, 
much  good  might  result  from  the  course. — A  Lanarkshire 
Bee-keeper. 
RE-QUEENING  STOCKS. 
No  time  should  now  be  lost  in  re-queening  stocks  that  are 
beaded  by  old  queens  which  were  hatched  previous  to  1894.  These 
should  all  be  replaced  by  young  fertilised  queens  of  the  present 
year,  and  if  previous  instructions  have  been  carried  out  there  will 
be  no  lack  of  young  queens  for  the  purpose.  I  have  upwards  of 
twenty  queens  that  were  fertilised  during  the  two  or  three  bright 
days  experienced  three  weeks  ago,  and  these  without  a  single 
exception  are  now  laying.  During  the  next  few  days  these  will  be 
introduced  to  those  stocks  that  have  old  queens  or  are  otherwise 
unsatisfactory,  and  will,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  give  the 
best  results  next  year.  By  following  a  few  simple  rules  no  loss  of 
young  queens  will  occur. 
The  plan  I  prefer  is  the  direct  introduction  system.  This  is 
done  by  examining  the  stock  about  mid-day  which  it  is  intended  to 
re-queen.  After  quieting  the  bees  with  a  little  smoke — the  less  used 
the  better — commence  by  examining  the  centre  combs,  as  the  queen 
i*  usually  found  on  these.  As  soon  as  found  remove  her,  and 
replace  the  combs  in  the  hive,  covering  them  up  as  warmly  as  they 
were  before.  Then  go  to  the  hive  in  which  the  young  queen  has 
been  reared  and  remove  her,  placing  her  quite  alone  in  a  small  box. 
Place  the  box  containing  the  queen  in  a  warm  place  until  late  in 
the  evening,  then  take  a  light,  and  the  box  containing  the  young 
queen,  to  the  stock  from  which  the  old  queen  had  been  removed, 
lift  a  corner  of  the  quilt,  and  with  a  puff  of  smoke  drive  the  bees 
down  between  the  frames,  open  the  box,  and  permit  the  queen  to 
run  down  ;  replace  the  quilt,  and  do  not  examine  the  stock  for  at 
least  forty-eight  hours.  By  this  means  I  have  introduced  a  great 
number  of  queens  without  a  single  failure. 
Caging  the  young  queens  is  another  simple  way  of  introducing 
them.  There  are  various  cages  used  for  the  purpose,  and  those  I 
have  'often  used  are  home-made,  and  answer  the  purpose  well. 
Take  a  piece  of  perforated  zinc  about  3  inches  square,  turn  the 
edges  down  about  half  an  inch,  place  the  queen  on  the  comb,  and 
place  the  cage  over  her,  firmly  pressing  into  the  comb.  Forty- 
eight  hours  afterwards  liberate  her,  and  the  bees  will  take  readily 
to  her. — An  English  Bee-keeper. 
•.jj*  All  correspondence  should  be  directed  either  to  “  The 
Editor ’’i^'or  to  “The  Publisher.”  Letters  addressed  to 
Dr.  Hogg  or  members  of  the  staff  often  remain  unopened 
unavoidably.  We  request  that  no  one  will  write  privately 
to  any  of  our  correspondents,  as  doing  so  subjects  them  to 
unjustifiable  trouble  and  expense. 
Correspondents  should  not  mix  up  on  the  same  sheet  questions 
relating  to  Gardening  and  those  on  Bee  subjects,  and  should 
never  send  more  than  two  or  three  questions  at  once.  All 
articles  intended  for  insertion  should  be  written  on  one  side  of 
the  papep  only.  We  cannot  reply  to  questions  through  the  post, 
and  we  do  not  undertake  to  return  rejected  communications. 
Books  (A  Reader').  —  Flower  gardening  is  dealt  with  in  the 
“  Garden  Manual,”  that  may  be  had  from  this  office,  post  free,  for 
Is.  9d.  ;  and  also  in  “  Garden  Plants  and  Flowers,”  published  by 
Macmillan  &  Co.,  which  can  be  purchased  from  any  bookseller  for  Is.  ; 
“  Table  Decoration,”  by  W.  Low,  published  by  Chapman  k,  Hall,  will 
probably  suit  you.  The  price  is,  we  believe,  about  58. 
Carnation  Seedling  {T.,  Guernsey). — The  flower  sent  is  that  of 
what  should  prove  a  good  border  variety,  but  is  of  no  special  value. 
The  colours  are  “  run,”  the  centre  petals  of  the  blooms  are  small  and 
imperfect,  besides  which  it  is  practically  scentless. 
iviushroom  Spawn  {J,  P.,  jim.). — The  Mushroom  spawn  in  the 
bricks  appears  quite  healthy,  there  not  being  any  foreign  body  in  them 
likely  to  interfere  with  the  Mushroom  mycelia ;  at  least,  there  is  ne 
fungus  present  on  the  threads,  or  any  on  the  bricks  outside  of  a  parasitic 
nature.  It  is  beyond  explanation  how  the  low  forms  of  fungi  gain 
access  to  certain  substances,  but  the  spores  have  been  present  in  the 
material  used  for  covering  the  bricks  or  in  the  atmosphere,  and  have 
simply  germinated  and  developed  in  the  presence  of  suitable  nutrition 
and  environal  conditions.  The  spawn,  if  anything,  is  drawn  too  much 
outside  of  the  bricks  and  too  highly  developed,  yet  there  is  little,  if 
anything,  to  cause  anxiety. 
Grapes  Scalded  (A,  P.). — The  berries  of  the  Lady  Downe’s 
variety  are  scalded,  this  variety  being  more  subject  to  it  than  any  other 
sorts,  it  frequently  scalding  badly  when  the  berries  on  adjoining  Vines, 
as  in  your  case  with  Black  Hamburgh  and  Foster’s  Seedling,  are  not 
affected.  It  almost  invariably  occurs  when  the  Vines  are  kept  rather 
close  and  the  atmosphere  moist  towards  the  close  of  the  stoning  process, 
usually  from  a  fortnight  to  three  weeks  before  changing  colour  for 
ripening,  and  is  considered  to  be  due  to  the  Grapes  then  requiring  a 
drier  atmosphere  or  the  dispersal  of  the  moisture  before  the  atmosphere 
is  heated  by  the  sun  considerably  more  than  the  berries.  But  various 
theories  have  been  advanced,  yet  there  is  no  question  about  the  pre¬ 
vention,  which  consists  in  admitting  a  little  air  constantly,  and  keeping 
a  gentle  warmth  in  the  hot-water  pipes,  so  as  to  maintain  a  night  tem¬ 
perature  of  65°  to  70°,  and  insure  a  circulation  of  air.  This,  with 
admitting  air  early  in  the  day,  or  before  the  sun  acts  powerfully  on  the 
house,  and  increasing  it  rather  liberally  with  the  advancing  heat,  has 
been  found  successful,  it  being  only  necessary  to  continue  it  for  the 
time  mentioned  or  until  the  berries  generally  commence  changing  colour, 
when  the  danger  of  scalding  is  over.  The  Madresfield  Court  berries  are 
fairly  good,  but  not  coloured. 
