File:British bee journal and bee-keepers adviser (1879) (20228358050).jpg

Title: British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser
Identifier: britishbeejourna7980lond (find matches)
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors:
Subjects: Bees
Publisher: London
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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May 1, 1879.) THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 17 last week in December, but they brought out no dead bees. It was not till about the 10th of February that I ventured to examine the bees ; I then took off all the covering and took out the floor-boards. No. 1 had 80 dead bees there, No. 2 rather more than 100. I consider these are all the bees that have died in the hives since the frost first commenced. The floor-boards were perfectly dry and clean ; there was not a single speck of dust on them, and nothing whatever but the few dead bees and the chisellings of the comb-cells ; all was cleaned off with a feather, and perfectly sweet and dry. They are now, April 9th, looking promising, and young bees have made their appearance the last few days. I have omitted to say when the hives were ex- amined in February they were weighed. Contents of No. 1, 7 lbs. ; No. 2, 11 lbs., so that each stock is reduced in weight just 7 lbs., or about ^ lb. to each per week. Began to feed regularly when March came, using the needle feeder — giving about 1 lb. sugar in syrup to each stock in ten days. I certainly have been agreeably surprised, con- sidering the winter we have had, to have found them in such good condition, and am inclined to think there are other advantages to be gained from the system.—P., Warwick. PASTURAGE FOR BEES.—No. XL (Continuedfrom p. 229.) Fruit-trees.—Plum (Primus), sloe, or blackthorn (Primus spinas), wild cherry (Primus cerasus), bird- cherry (Primus padus), pear (Pyrus communis), apple (Pyrus mains), almond (Amygdalus communis), peach, ajsricot, nectarine, &c. All these fruit-trees yield a great quantity of beautiful and highly- flavoured honey, and when in bloom the bees are working from morning to night collecting the honey and pollen, and fertilising the bloom. We should have little fruit if it was not for the agency of bees. All good fruit-growers keep bees to fertilise their fruit-bloom. This reminds me of my visit to (our noble and good President of the British Bee-keepers' Asso- ciation) the Baroness Burdett-Coutts' residence at Highgate, on April 8th, 1870. When I went into the peach-house, the gardener said to me, ' See what a quantity of peaches I have got set !' I said, ' Yon have indeed ; how do you account for it 1' ' Well,' he said, ' I have always kept bees to fructify my fruit-bloom ; but last autumn I bought a stock of Ligurian bees, and they being hardier than the com- mon bees, they began working earlier, and got into the peach-house just as the trees were coming into bloom, and the result is I have nearly double the quantity of peaches set I ever had before.' With such evidence as this, it does seem strange, indeed, that the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society are so blind and ignorant as not to encourage bee-keeping, as the bees so benefit the agriculture of this country, and it is for that the Council are elected to their high office. Golden-rod (Solidago).—There are many species of the genus Solidago, growing in all kinds of soils, and nearly all yield a large supply of rich, thick, golden honey, of excellent flavour ; they are also rich in pollen, and continue in bloom from July to November, or until the frost cuts it down, and long after most other plants have ceased to secrete honey. There are about 150,000 seeds in one ounce. Willow herb (Epilobium). There are eleven species of the genus Epilobium. The rose-bay, or French willow (Epilobium a ngustifolium), looks very handsome on a large bed in the garden, with its pretty rose-coloured flowers, and it continues in bloom through July and August. It is a perennial, and grows from four to six feet high. Bees collect both pollen and honey from this honey from morn- ing to night. It dies down to the ground in winter, and grows up again in spring. Great hairy willow herb (Epilobium hirsutum).— This plant grows wild in watery places, from four to five feet high, blooms in July and August, and is an excellent plant for bee food. Thyme (Thymus). — This plant yields a great quantity of very beautiful honey and of exquisite flavour. Lemon thyme might be advantageously used as edging for garden-walks and flower-beds. It is the wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum) that has made the honey of Mount Hymettus so celebrated. Cecrops took the bees to Mount Hymettus, and the Cecropean bees have survived all the revolutions which have changed the features and uprooted the population of Attica. Though the defile of Ther- mopylae has become a swampy plain, and the bed of the Cephisus is laid dry, this one feature of the country has remained unaltered, and there are now upwards of five thousand bee-hives on Mount Hymettus. ' And still Inn honey'd store Hymettus yields, There the blithe bee her fragrant fortress builds, The free-horn wanderer of thy mountain air.' —William Carr, Newton Heath Apiary, near Man- tester. ,?„ fa continued.) COMB-FIXING IN FRAMES. Whilst waiting for hives which I am getting made I have been thinking of the easiest way to fasten combs into bar-frames, and I think you will say that my plan is the most simple and effective yet in use. I take a piece of tin or stout card, 1 in. x 1£ in., and pass it through the combabout 1-gin. from the top, and then tie to top of frame with string, or pass an india-
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rubber band over the top bar, and put the loops over the ends of the tin. I have tried to illustrate what I mean, but you can try it for yourself in two minutes. a, top of frame ; b, piece of tin or card passed through comb, 1^ in. from top bar; c, string or

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