38 



JOURNAL OF HOETICnLTUEE -VND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



; July H, 1663. 



ehe then came from the nest. I gave her water and food 

 and she returned to the neat, remaining on until ten o'clock. 

 She then deserted the eggs until four o'clock in the after- 

 noon, when she came to the nept and laid, and then sat 

 with a good will. On the following Monday morning about 

 eight o'clock I placed under her the same eggs fhe sat on 

 before. ThJE time I was full of confidence, and should bt- 



again. for she hatched thirteec beautifiil chickene, and now 

 they are doing well. 



1 Fhould not object to siv a hen on eggs that had not been 

 sat upon more llian twenty-four hours, for I am of opinion 

 that vitality does not commence untO after that time. 1 

 have a fiieud who has had a similar ca.se this sea.son, and aU 

 the eggs jielded chickens.— T. May. 



hen-ajS'D-chickens coop 



1 KAVK had coops tor chickens made of many difl'erent 

 kinds, but all cumbersome to move and stow away in the 

 winter, and occupying much room. Lately, ataneighboiu-'s 

 I saw some which I think excellent, and am induced to send 

 the particulars. 



The coop is raa<le without a bottom, to be placed in an 

 orchard, &e., as may be convenient, and two (one ir verted) 

 can be stowed away iu a loft compactly. Next, the enclosure 

 is foi-med of two boai-ds placed edgeways, with a shoi-ter one 

 at the end, fastened at the comer, "and attached to the 

 coop by small wii-e hc.oks, hookinc into vdre staples. 



tuig 



Then there ai-e three deal feames filled in with galvanised 

 wii'e netting, two lying horizontally on the boards forming 

 the enclosure and one standiug upi-iglit against the front ol 

 the coop, and just retained there by similar hooks, &c., to 

 those spoken of before. Pretty enough did the chickens look 

 running about beneath the wire. The hen was in the coop, 

 and the sliding-bar let down. 



Now. the advantages 1 conceive to be these. The 

 cMckens are restrained from wandering into the high and 

 wet grass, and their food is protected from the small birds 

 and themselves from cats, and the whole is comparatively 

 inexpensive, because, walking over the kiti'hen garden, 

 I found similar boards (forming the enclosure) and similar 

 wire-filled frames in use by the gardener to protect seed- 

 beds. I think the boards might also be found useful in 

 keeping together and tidy the covering put over late Sea- 

 kale ; and the frames, elevated at the fom- corners by means 

 of inverted flower-pots, might be found useful for drying 

 onions before stoiing, and. covered with paper, for diying 

 seeds, &c., either on the gi-ound or on the front stage of the 

 greenhouse — useful, because air would be admitted beneath 

 the roots,EeedE, or fruit.— S.C.W., BmmUu. Kent. 



Eggs sat upon and then Chilled. — In reply to 

 " EvESHAK," I am quite convinced that the hen 

 sitting upon the eggs for only seven hooi-s could 

 not possibly be the 

 cause of their being 

 addled. I' have tried 

 similar experiments, 

 and have taken the 

 eggs from the hen 

 after sitting close for 

 twenty -four hoiu's, 

 and at the end of a 

 week or eight days 

 I have again placed 

 them under a hen, 

 and the result wa.s 

 eleven chickens out 

 of fifteen eggs. 1 

 tried this thi-ee suc- 

 cessive times with 

 Dorkings, Game and 

 Cochins, the result 

 Ijeing the same. — 

 Westmoreland. 



LOSS OF QUEEA^S— PEOCEEDINGS 



Events proved the correctness of your verdict in page i 

 464. of the last volum.-. that the queen ejected ' from mv 

 stoi-ified-hive on the 25th of May was the mother of the 

 hive. She must, however, have "been assassinated by her 

 subjects, as twelve days elapsed before the commencement ' 

 of piping, and it was not untU the thirteenth or fourteenth 

 day after her expulsion that the bees attempted to swarm. | 

 It seems that even a fertile queen is exposed to some risk 

 when hives ai-e transposed, as the following will prove : — On 

 the 20th of May I made a small swarm by placing two frames 

 of Virood (one of them containing a neai-ly mature royal cell), | 

 and two frames of empty comb into a four-frame nucleus- 

 box ; and on the 16th of June, finding that the young queen 

 had laid a considerable quantity of eggs, and that the combs 

 were well filled with brood, I "determined to shilt the four 

 frames with thefr queen into a, tuU-sized ten-frame luve, and 

 transpose them with my first swaxm of May 9, which was 



OF BEES PKIOK TO SWAEMING. 



becoming so crowded that I apprehended a maiden swanu 



would shortly issue foi-th if not prevented. 



The operation was quite successful as far as the workers 

 wei-e concerned, very little fighting taking place, but on the 

 following morning I found the young queen dead in front of 

 the liive. Happening to have a very fine Italian queen in 

 my unicomb-hive, I caught her and carefully introduced her 

 to the queenless hive, as recommended by " B. & W." I 

 placed her witli only two of her subjects under a small bell- 

 glass, and putting them over the aperture in the crown- 

 board, with a sUp of perforated zinc to regulate the atl- 

 mission of bees from below, slowly and cautiously permitted 

 the bees to ascend. Pinrling them all well disposed, in less 

 than two hours I withdi-ew the slide entirely, and the queen 

 with a considerable number of bees which had been allowed 

 to ascend, speedily disappeared between the frames. I ex- 

 amined the interior of the hive a few hoars afterwaa-ds, and 



