The substance of the following and succeeding communications was delivered in the form of a paper entitled 'Half an Hour on Bees,' and was read at one of the Hanwell (Middlesex) penny-readings by a "Hanwell bee-master".

In saying a few words on behalf of my especial favourites, I trust they will tend to a better understanding of their nature and habits, and of some of the causes of failure and disappointment that often mar the best attempts and aims of the bee-keeper. I have no more to say on the natural history of the bee than may be necessary to explain phenomena alluded to as I take my way in pursuit of my subject; nor shall I advance any statements, theories, or so-called facts, culled from any published works, on the subject of bee-management, but shall state only what I know to be true from actual experience. Published works are in many cases little better than advertisements; and their theories, statements, and facts contradict each other proportionately as each particular writer is interested in the system he endeavours to uphold.

Bees may be profitably managed under any system but that of systematic neglect, and the wilful disregard of the dictates of commonsense, which is so prevalent among the prejudiced; but no system can be perfect which does not give the bee-master entire control over every comb in his hive, and every part of the hive itself. My observations will be confined to bees in straw skips, such as were used by our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, whose principal knowledge of bee-management consisted in their ability to hive a swarm in spring, and to take the honey in autumn, which latter operation necessitated the previous destruction of all the bees in the respective hives by a violent and cruel death.

Bees are property of great value, and in ordinary seasons, with proper management, require no feeding at all; and by the exercise of care, and the possession of a right understanding of their nature and habits, will yield a profit of at least a hundred per cent per annum after they become well established. As a rule, bees are very badly treated. If a stock or a swarm be obtained, it is generally placed on a stand with perhaps just sufficient shelter to keep off the rain if it would always fall perpendicularly, and quite unprotected in any other way; and no servant or visitor is allowed to interfere with it in any way, while the owner is generally afraid to do so.

Any idea of improving the breed of bees by crossing them with any superior kind, or even of causing a change in that respect by obtaining a stock from a long distance at swarming-time, does not seem to have been thought of or recommended. They are left to themselves, and to their own instincts, until they all become blood-relations; and their vitality and ability to propagate their own species thereby become so materially interfered with and lowered, as to render them in many instances physically unable to fulfil the natural conditions of existence; and such stocks are always weak, dwindling, and unprofitable. Such treatment, at best, shows a great want of wisdom. All those who keep bees on the old principle know that in early spring their best stocks cluster by thousands on the outside of their hives; and as the earth puts on its summer verdure, and adorns itself with multitudes of flowers, and the land literally "flows with milk and honey," the bees are comparatively idle, while the honey is wasting its sweetness at a time for which, according to the teachings of instinct and reason, they were designed to put forth their working powers to the utmost.

Why is this? Honey and pollen are abundant, and it is perfectly natural for bees - I had almost said the end for which they were created - to collect and store them; and yet for many days, and even weeks, they remain idle, until the golden opportunity has passed. Why 1 Because the bees have no room in their hives to store honey or pollen if they gathered it. The queen having occupied nearly all the cells with living brood, the heat within the hive causes the mature bees to be crowded out, and they cluster in heaps about the mouth of the hive, idle and listless, while the bee-keeper stands by in blissful (?) ignorance, waiting for his bees to swarm. Waiting for bees to swarm is weary work. We do not wait for ripened fruit to fall from the trees before we garner it. We exercise our judgment, and gather it at a time when experience tells us it is likely to be most useful to us; and the exercise of the same judgment with regard to bees would teach us, that if ever a swarm is worth having, it must be at a time when flowers are plentiful and honey abundant; and if at that time working bees are not plentiful too, it must be to a great extent the fault of the beekeeper. It is in his power to insure that his stocks shall be strong at the times when honey is likely to be abundant.

But to insure this he must first be sure that each stock is healthy, and has a fairly prolific queen; and then he must treat them as he would his chickens - feed them when they cannot get food for themselves, regularly and sufficiently, until the recurrence of the honey season renders such aid unnecessary.

Wealth in bees does not consist in the number of stocks so much as in their individual strength, and the consequent abundance of working bees, and their power to collect and store honey, a surplus of which is the legitimate profit in bee-keeping. Swarms may be profitable to a bee-dealer, but they are of no profit to a bee-keeper, it being rather his province to prevent them, so that the supernumerary bees may collect honey in the parent hives, instead of consuming it in the manufacture of comb for their new habitation; for it must be remembered that in the manufacture of 1 lb. weight of comb 25 lb. of honey are consumed, and all the bees so converting it are clustering and comparatively idle. The mere keeping of a number of stocks from which nothing is obtained but swarms is simply absurd. Yet the same quantity of bees gathered into one-third the number of hives would yield a large surplus of honey under ordinary conditions. The reason for this is, that in three weak stocks there would of course be three queens, each instinctively anxious for the welfare of her colony; but being short of provisions, in early spring she cannot commence laying her eggs, except to a very small extent, until honey and pollen are plentiful, when her propensity is stimulated to such a degree that the honey and pollen are consumed nearly as fast as it is in the power of the working bees to collect them.

The reason of this is, that as the eggs and young brood increase, more nursing bees are necessary, and fewer working bees comparatively can be spared from the hive.

The propensity of the queen to lay eggs is governed by the quantity of honey collected daily; that, in its turn, is regulated by the yield of honey, as well as by the number of working bees that are available to collect it. By the time the population of such a bee-colony is sufficiently numerous to collect a surplus of honey daily, the spring honey-harvest is over, and the queen discontinues depositing her eggs accordingly, and at the end of the season it will be a weak stock again, alternating thus: in spring, weak in numbers; in autumn, weak in provisions. They may possibly throw off a swarm once in a year or two; but it is sure to be weak and late, and unless under very favourable conditions, it will be only one more weak stock. Whereas, if three weak stocks had been united in autumn, and placed in one hive, they would have had ample provision and plenty of bees; the queen would have commenced laying eggs at the beginning of February, and by the time the fruit-trees were in blossom they would be a strong stock, in a condition for gathering honey, or swarming, as might be most desired by the bee-master. Besides which, there would be two spare sets of combs in the hives from which the weak stocks had been driven, available for early swarms, which might be placed in them if desired.

It is not, however, always in the power of the bee-master to prevent swarming, especially in straw hives, although he may reduce the probability of it to the lowest minimum by giving increased space for oviposition and stowage. All weak stocks may be made strong by gentle continuous feeding in early autumn and early spring, because, while food is abundant and the weather mild, the queen will continue to deposit eggs, and all the bees are enabled to remain at home as nurses. C. N. Abbott.

(To be continued).