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Natural History 3 Situation of the Apiary 5 Hives 6 Payne's Improved Cottage Hive 6 Neighbour's Improved Cottage Hive 8 Neighbour's Observatory Hive 9 Taylor's Amateurs' Hive 10 Fenn's Hive 11 The Stewarton Hive 13 Tegetmeier's Hive 14 The Woodbury Hive 15 Method of Securing Combs in Frames 19 Swarming 20 Uniting Swarms 23 Ventilation 24 Feeding 25 Manner of Taking Honey 28 Stupifying Bees 29 Method of Draining Honey from the Combs 29 Preparation of Wax 30 Mead 30 Honey Vinegar 31 Remedies For the Sting of a Bee 31 Bee Dress 32 Purchasing Stocks 32 The Ligurian Or Yellow Alp Bee 32 To Unite a Ligurian Queen to a Common Stock Or Swarm 34 Multiplying Swarms of Ligurians 35 Bee-keeper's Calendar 37 January 37 February 38 March 40 April 42 May 46 June 50 July 53 August 55 September 59 October 61 November 63 December 65

NATURAL HISTORY.

The following brief but comprehensive epitome of the principal facts in the natural history of the Honey Bee is from the pen of Mr. Woodbury, of Exeter, better known to the readers of The Journal of Horticulture as "A Devonshire Bee-keeper."

"The Queen.--There is in every prosperous colony of Bees a queen, or mother Bee, whose peculiar office is to lay the eggs from which the future Bees proceed. Her fecundity is amazing, it being computed that she is capable of laying from 1500 to 2000 eggs a-day. She receives the greatest attention and respect from the other Bees; none of them appear willing to turn their backs upon her, but all are watchful to offer food and anticipate her every want. The cells in which queens are reared differ very considerably from those of the workers or drones, being much larger, and hanging in nearly a perpendicular position, generally from the edges of the combs. Queen Bees occupy about sixteen days from the laying of the egg to the evolution of the perfect insect, and take wing when a few days old, in order to pair with a male Bee or drone. When once fecundated, a queen Bee continues fertile during the remainder of her life. According to Huber, fecundation is imperfect when delayed beyond twenty days, and drone eggs only are laid ever afterwards; but the observations and experiments of Dzierzon and Berlepsch, which have been confirmed by Yon Siebold, the distinguished German naturalist, prove that this phenomenon is rather to be ascribed to parthenogenesis, and that a drone-breeding queen is in reality a virgin queen. I have myself succeeded in repeating and verifying the microscopical investigations of Von Siebold, which establish this remarkable fact beyond the possibility of a doubt. Queen Bees are readily distinguished by their larger size, being fully one-third longer than the common Bees, and are armed with a sting, which, however, they rarely use, except in combat with one another.

"The Workers are imperfect females. There is no doubt that every worker egg or grub not more than a few days old is capable, by appropriate treatment, of becoming developed into a perfect female or mother Bee. If the queen is removed from a hive the Bees avail themselves of this power by enlarging certain worker cells, and raising therefrom queens which differ in no respect from those bred in the usual manner. When this interruption of the ordinary course of things has taken place, it is occasionally found that the ovaries of some of the workers have become sufficiently developed to admit of their depositing drone eggs, although Yon Siebold declares them to be perfectly incapable of pairing with the male. The workers constitute the great majority in every healthy colony, and upon them devolves the labour of collecting honey for the subsistence of all, pollen for feeding the young, and propolis for stopping any crevice which might harbour an enemy. They are also occupied in secreting wax, building combs, feeding the young and the queen, as well as guarding and ventilating the hive. Huber noticed two kinds of working Bees, which he denominated respectively nurses and wax-workers. This division of the workers into two classes has evoked ridicule from some, and has been regarded with incredulity by many. My own observations prove, however, that there really is a division of labour among Bees, and that whilst the younger portion of the community devote themselves to the home duties of the hive, their elders are employed in ranging the woods and fields to provide sustenance for the entire family. Workers arrive at maturity in about twenty-one days from the laying of the egg.

"The Drones are males which take no part in the duties of the hive, and whose use appears to be that of fecundation. They are allowed to exist only during summer, when they are very numerous, apparently out of all proportion to the perfect females. But this apparent disproportion is only a means to secure the important end, that when a queen takes her wedding flights she may have a good chance of attaining her object. Although the drones are much larger and stronger than the workers, they have no stings wherewith to defend themselves, and are thrust out of the hive to perish when their office is accomplished. They mature in about twenty-four days after the egg is laid and are bred in larger cells than the workers."

SITUATION OF THE APIARY.

Stand for Hive.--Having, therefore, for these reasons, recommended the abandonment of Bee-houses altogether, I would say, Place each hive upon r separate board supported by a single pedestal 4 or 5 inches in diameter--a piece of wood with the bark on does remarkably well; place it firmly in the ground, and about 15 inches from its surface. Upon the top of this post should be nailed firmly a piece of board 8 or 9 inches square, upon which should be placed the board the hive stands upon, but not united to it, so that the hive may be removed whenever required without disturbing the Bees.

Clay or mortar should never be used to fasten the hive to the board; the Bees will do that in a much more effectual manner themselves, with a substance they collect from resinous trees called propolis. Mortar or clay tends very much to decay the hives; and hives managed on this principle are expected to stand for fifteen or even twenty years. Let the hives be placed about 3 feet apart from each other, and in a right line. The best covering, as a protection from rain, is a large flat earthen pan sufficiently large to prevent the drip from falling upon the board. It would in all cases be well to give them the shelter of a wall or fence from the north, but on no account place them close to it, but leave a space of 4 or 5 feet at least for a path; for the operations of taking off small hives, glasses, or boxes of honey, are much more conveniently effected at the back than in the front of the hives. It would be well to clean the boards on which the hives stand four times in the year--namely, in January, March, April, and November. January and March are the most important.

The place where the hives are fixed should be kept clear of weeds; and plants which rise in height equal to or exceeding the entrance of the hives should not be suffered to grow near them.

HIVES.

I am more and more convinced, from experience, that Bees do much better in broad, shallow hives, than in any others. All the hives that I have used myself for the last three years, and those that I have had made for the last two, have been of this kind--namely, 7 inches deep, and 14 inches wide, measuring in the inside. The only inconvenience that can possibly arise from a hive of this shape is, that from the great weight of supers which year after year it will have to bear, the top will sink a little; therefore it should never be used without an adapting-board of 12 inches square; this will take the weight of the supers from the centre to the side of the hive; indeed, it would be better to let the adapting-board remain a fixture upon the hive when once fastened down by the Bees, and should the corners at all interfere with the cover, where the milk-pan is used, they may be rounded off a little to the size of the hive.

PAYNE'S IMPROVED COTTAGE HIVE.

It is better to have a groove made in the floor-board for an entrance than to cut a piece out of the hive. The entrance should be 3 inches wide by three-eighths of an inch high, to which affix a piece of copper or zinc, about 6 inches long by 3 inches wide, having a groove to admit two sliding plates, one perforated, and the other having a hole large enough to allow but one Bee to come out at a time.

Great advantages arise from this little apparatus; the perforated slider is used to confine the Bees to their hive when snow lies upon the ground, which entices them out, and they perish; it is useful, also, when feeding becomes necessary, to exclude all intruders. The other slider is used both in spring and autumn, preventing either robbers or wasps from entering; for three or four Bees, with the help of this slider, can guard the entrance more effectually than ten times that number without it.

Adapting-Board.--A good supply of adapting-boards must also be in readiness. They should be made of mahogany, for it will allow of being worked very thin, without the risk of warping when used. They are a quarter of an inch in thickness , 12 inches square, with a circular hole in the middle 4 inches in diameter.

NEIGHBOUR'S IMPROVED COTTAGE HIVE.

In the top of each glass is a small hole, through which a tube of perforated zinc is suspended, upon which guide-combs may be fixed; it also forms a convenient support, to which the Bees attach their combs. Over the glasses is placed a cover of straw , closely fitting the top of the stock hive, and secured by means of thumb-screws, so that it can be removed with great facility, to allow of inspection or operations. This straw cover is surmounted by a ventilator, forming a neat finish, and by which the temperature of the glasses may be regulated.

NEIGHBOUR'S OBSERVATORY HIVE.

Is of very stout glass, with an opening at the top of about 2 inches diameter, over which a small glass may be placed when necessary. The large, or stock hive, stands on a mahogany floor-board, with a circular sinking to receive it; there are holes in the floor-board, covered with perforated zinc, for the purpose of ventilation. Within the hive, on an upright support rising from the floor-board, are arranged, in parallel lines at right angles, eight bars of about an inch wide, leaving a space next the glass all round, to which the bees in the first instance attach their combs, guide combs having been placed upon them. There is a cover made of straw for the whole, which reaches the floor-board, and can be raised at pleasure; a landing-place, projecting as usual, with a sunken way to allow the Bees egress and ingress, which completes the contrivance.

TAYLOR'S AMATEURS' HIVE.

FENN'S HIVE.

Then place on the permanent adapting board , when the tumbler will obtrude itself up through the flaphole, and no insect will ever be able to pass the cotton wadding one way, nor, by reason of the fillet, will the Bees be able to go between the hive and the adapter on the other. Now moisten the end of the adhesive paper, quickly take away the tumbler, down with the flap, press the adhesive paper on to the board, and place the super-board , which must have a flap in its centre to exactly correspond with the one below. Two guide pencil-marks on each board, previously marked, will point out their proper positions; and by reason of these duplicate openings in the flaps it will be seen by illustration to admit of two glasses , being worked in lieu of one, which is another great point gained in a good and early honey season. Now slip a carpet-bag over the glasses to keep them warm, and the super-over-hive over that; and then cover the whole with a brown glazed milk-pan.

THE STEWARTON HIVE.

During the last few years there have been great changes introduced in the form and arrangements of Bee hives, which have met with the highest approval of our best practical apiarians. Of these we shall just notice those which have come in for the greatest share of favour, and which are obtainable at a price which is within the means of persons of ordinary income.

The Stewarton Hive may be said to have revolutionised the whole system of storifying bar hives. It has been in use for many years in Ayrshire, and their introduction to the south is due to the late Mr. Eaglesham, of Stewarton--an enthusiastic and very successful apiarian

These hives consist of boxes of an octagonal shape, three of which are set one upon the other and constitute a hive. The inside measure is 13-3/4 inches across from side to side, or from back to front. The height of the box, measured inside, is 5-3/4 inches. The bottom is perfectly open. The top is quite flat, and consists of seven fixed bars, each 1-1/2 inch wide, placed parallel to each other in the direction from back to front. The spaces between the bars are three-eighths of an inch wide, and are capable of being closed by strips of wood, which slide in grooves made in the sides of the bars, and which can readily be drawn out behind when required. Across the middle of each box, at half its height, is a cross bar serving to support the comb. Windows with sliding shutters are placed in the back and front of each box, and an entrance is cut out of the front, 3 inches in width by half an inch in height, with a slide to close it to any required extent. In addition to the set of three boxes, a shallow honey-box 3-3/4 inches in depth, and without an entrance in the front, but otherwise made in precisely the same manner, is used as a super. These boxes being used on the storifying system, they are furnished with buttons and hooks for the purpose of securing them together.

The general outline of the management is as follows:--A swarm is hived into two boxes communicating with each other. When these are nearly filled with comb a honey-box is placed above, neatly furnished with guide-combs on the bars. When the Bees are fairly at work in the honey-box, the third body box may be added below to give increased room and prevent swarming. In the winter this third box is removed, and the comb it contains left in, as it possesses a value well known to every skilled Bee-keeper. Feeding when required is liberally pursued, enough being given at once in the autumn to last till spring. The feeding-box, 8 inches square by 1-1/2 inch deep, is divided by strips of wood into divisions half an inch wide. This is placed on the top of the hive, covered over with a box, and the slides withdrawn to permit the Bees to ascend to the food.

TEGETMEIER'S HIVE.

A modification of the Stewarton boxes was proposed by Mr. Tegetmeier, who adopted the square forms instead of the octagonal, and which certainly has this advantage over its prototype, that the moveable bars will fit any place in any box. The Stewarton may be described as consisting of two or more storifying-boxes, each furnished with seven loose bars to which the combs are attached. These are kept in their places by eight slides, which, when in position, render the loose bars perfect fixtures, so that the boxes may be inverted without the bars or slides losing their position. The size of Mr. Tegetmeier's boxes was originally 11-3/4 inches square inside, and of two sizes in depth--viz., 7 inches and 5 inches, but now he recommends them to be 13-1/2 inches square inside by 11 inches deep, each containing eight frames.

The plan of working the Stewarton and Tegetmeier boxes is the same. A very strong swarm, or two weak ones, are placed in two boxes, and when these are well filled, as may be seen by looking through the window behind, a honey box or glass is placed over, and communication made by withdrawing the slides.

THE WOODBURY HIVE.

Best, by far the best, of all this form of the bar hive, is that introduced by Mr. Woodbury, who has done so much of late to extend our knowledge of, and acquaintance with, the habits of the Bee.

"Floor-boards.--My floor-boards are made of one-and-a-quarter-inch wood, keyed to prevent warping, are 18 inches square, and show a projection of about an inch beyond the exterior of the hive, from which they are chamfered down on all sides nearly three-eighths of an inch. An entrance 3 inches or 4 inches wide is cut in front out of the substance of the board commencing at the edge, and continuing on the same level until inside the hive, where it slopes upwards. The entrance formed in this manner is five-sixteenths of an inch in height where the hive crosses it.

"Alighting-boards are moveable, being attached to the floor-boards by means of a couple of pins of stout wire; they are made from a piece of a silk-roller, 2 inches in diameter by 8 long, rounded off at the ends, which when quartered makes four alighting-boards. The surface should be roughened by a toothed plane.

"Hive-roofs and Outer Cases are made of half-inch wood 11 inches wide. The former is separate, and is cross-bradded together at the angles with a two-and-a-quarter-inch turned acorn in the centre; its frame fits loosely over the cover and rests on angle-pieces at the corners. A half-inch opening is left under the eaves all round for ventilation. The hive-cover is dovetailed together and glued, with a brad driven through each of the tenons; it rests on the exterior projection of the floor-board, and is retained in its place by a plinth 2 inches wide, which fits loosely outside the latter. It must not be forgotten that all wooden roofs and outside cases require to be kept well painted, whilst no paint should ever be applied to the hive itself.

"When a super is put on a second outer case becomes necessary, and this fits loosely on the first, when the hive appears as it is represented in the annexed engraving."

METHOD OF SECURING COMBS IN FRAMES.

When transferring combs into frames we temporarily secure them in position by the aid of slips of wood a sixteenth of an inch thick by half an inch wide, tacked on each side, and one or more zinc slips as delineated in the engraving.

All these artificial supports should be removed as soon as possible. The combs will generally be found firmly fixed in less than forty-eight hours.

SWARMING.

It frequently happens when Bees are managed upon the depriving system, that for want of timely room and ventilation being given, a swarm comes off from the stock hive, leaving the bell-glass, or small hive which has been placed upon it, in an unfinished state. Now, whenever this happens, let the swarm be hived into "The Improved Cottage Hive," and the bell-glass or small hive, with the adapter, immediately removed from the stock hive, and placed upon the newly-hived swarm; and as soon as the Bees are a little settled , remove the new-hived swarm to the place in which it is intended to remain, care being taken to fasten down the straw cover upon the parent hive; for no further profit can be expected from it beyond a second, and, perhaps, a third swarm, which are almost sure to follow. In this method of immediately removing a swarm to the apiary, Gelieu agrees with me, and for which he gives the following reasons:--"Most people who have Bees allow their swarms to remain till the evening in the place where they have alighted, and do not move them to the apiary till after sunset. This method has many inconveniences. As soon as a swarm has congregated in the new hive, and seems to be at ease in it, the most industrious among the Bees fly off to the fields, but with a great many precautions; they descend the front of the hive, and turn to every side to examine it thoroughly, then take flight, and make some circles in the air in order to reconnoitre their new abode; they do the same in returning. If the swarm has taken flight in the morning, the same Bees make several excursions during the day, and each time with less precaution, as, becoming familiarised with their dwelling, they are less afraid of mistaking it; and thus, next morning, supposing themselves in the same place, they take wing without having observed where they have spent the night, and surprised at their return not to find the hive in the same place, they fly about all day in search of it, until they perish with fatigue and despair. Thus many hundreds of the most industrious labourers are lost; and this may be entirely avoided if the swarms be removed as soon as the Bees are perceived coming out: this sign is alone sufficient." Experience has long since proved that the custom of beating warming-pans, and the like, at the time a swarm leaves the hive is perfectly useless. Much trouble may be spared the Bees if the loose straws be removed from its interior; and the best method of effecting this is first to singe them with a wax taper and afterwards to remove them with a hard brush.

It is now an ascertained fact that the old queen accompanies the first swarm; the period which usually transpires between the first and second swarms is from nine to thirteen days; between the second and third the time is much shorter. If second swarms come by the middle of June, and stocks are required, it will be well to preserve them, for after-swarms have always young queens, which is a great advantage. Should second swarms not come till July, let them be returned to the parent hive, or put two of them together.

Hiving.--"Whatever system is adopted let everything be in readiness for the reception of swarms, for even where the depriving system is followed, from some oversight on the part of the apiarian a swarm will occasionally occur. Watch the swarm in silence, and after it has once collected, lose no time in housing it into a new, clean and dry hive , and let it he placed where it is to remain within ten or fifteen minutes after the time of its being hived; it will not be necessary even to wait till the Bees clustered in front or on the sides of the hive are reunited to their companions inside, as they are never long in being so.

Hives with Comb in Them.--Hives of comb, in which swarms of the last year have died, should be carefully preserved for hiving swarms into them; it gives a swarm treated in this manner full three weeks' advantage over another put at the same time into an empty hive.

Putting Glasses of Small Hives upon Swarms.--The most proper time for putting the bell-glass, or small hive, or box, upon a swarm, will be from the eighteenth to the twenty-first day after their being hived; and should it be quickly filled, and more room required, which may be known by the crowded state of the Bees inside the glass, and by their being seen to cluster at the mouth of the hive at nine or ten in the morning, let no time be lost in lifting up the glass, and placing between it and the stock hive a small hive or box with a hole in the top. . It is necessary to use this precaution at all times, but more especially in a rainy season, as a greater disposition amongst the Bees to swarm then prevails. "Dry weather makes plenty of honey, and moist of swarms," says good Mr. Purchase; and, however, incorrect this position may at first sight appear, the attentive observer will quickly become convinced of its truth.

UNITING SWARMS.

I must here observe that second and third swarms are very seldom, if ever, worth preserving by themselves; but two second swarms, when joined, are very little inferior in value to a first swarm, and the union is very easily effected in the following manner:--When two second swarms, or a second and third, come off on the same day, hive them separately, and leave them till an hour and a half after sunset; then spread a cloth upon the ground, upon which, by a smart and sudden movement, shake all the Bees out of one of the hives, and immediately take the other and place it gently over the Bees that are heaped together upon the cloth, wedging up one side about half an inch, that the Bees outside may pass under, and they will instantly ascend into it and join those which, not having been disturbed, are quiet in their new abode. Next morning before sunrise, remove this newly-united hive to the place in which it is to remain. This doubled population will work with double success, and in the most perfect harmony, and generally become a strong stock, from which much profit may be derived.

Mr. Taylor says, "The stronger the colony at the outset, the better the Bees will work, and the more prosperous it will become. I never knew a weak one do well long; and a little extra expense at first is amply rewarded by succeeding years of prosperity and ultimate profit." And again, "Thus strength in one year begets it in succeeding ones; and this principle ought to be borne in mine by those who imagine that the deficient population of one season will be made up in the next, and that the loss of Bees in the winter is of secondary consequence, forgetting how influential is their warmth to the earlier and increased productive powers of the queen; and how important it is, in the opening spring, to be able to spare from the home duties of the hive a number of collectors to add to the stores, which would otherwise not keep pace with the cravings of the rising generation."

It is a remarkable fact, that two weak stocks joined will collect double the quantity of honey, and consume much less, than two of the same age and strength kept separately. Stocks must be joined after sunset, upon the day that one of them has swarmed; and the double stock must be placed upon the stand it previously occupied; great care must be taken not to shake the hive, nor must it be turned up. The combs being new and tender, will easily break, and the stock by that means be destroyed.

VENTILATION.

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