July 21, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



59 



GAME AND A FEW OTHER BIKDS. 



In concluding my articles on birds as regards the good 

 and injury they do, it now only remains for me to glance at 

 those I have not previously noticed : they are the Doves, 

 Oame, Waders, and Swimming Bii'ds. 



Of Doves or Pigeons we have five wild species— namely, 

 the Kin" Dove or largest Wood Pigeon, the Stock Dove, the 

 Turtle Dove, the Blue Kock Pigeon, and the Chequered 

 Dove-house Pigeon. These are all seed-eating birds ; their 

 office is that of weeders, and they do a great deal of good in 

 eating the seeds of weeds — much more than is often supposed. 

 That they eat corn and peas when they can get them is 

 quite true ; but their feet are not made for scratching, nor 

 are their bills fit for digging, so that they do not do so 

 much injury as is generally laid to their charge. The grain 

 they devour is mostly scattered or imperfectly covered, and, 

 consequently, but a trifling loss. 



Under the head Game, I class QuaUs, Partridges, Grouse, 

 Ptarmigans, and Pheasants. These are also very useful 

 birds in the field, where they destroy an immense quantity 

 of insects, which if left would do a great amount of damage. 

 It is this kind of food that gives the peculiar richness of 

 flavour to their flesh. Of corn they also eat a little, but 

 except where they are kept in too large a number for their 

 natural food, the evil arising from them is not noticeable, 

 but in the neighbourhood of preserves Pheasants often do a 

 considerable injury to the crops just before harvest. 



Waders are a numerous family, but rather sparingly 

 spread over the country. I include under this head Peewits, 

 Grey and Golden Plovers, Com Crakes, Moorhens, and 

 many other bii-ds occasionally met with. Their food consists 

 almost entirely of insects, and they are good friends to the 

 farmer and agriculturist. It is a great pity they are so 

 scarce; but as they are not strictly Game, and excellent 

 eating, we need not bo surpi-ised at their scarcity. Some 

 meadows in Kent that used to be much frequented by the 

 common Plover, have much deteriorated in valu e since the 

 destruction of the Plover's eggs, which are sold as a bonne 

 houche at is. per dozen, for since the almost extermination 

 of these birds the daddy longlegs or gadfly have increased 

 to such an extent as to destroy the turf in many places. 

 These bu-ds are the best I know of to keep in gardens for 

 the destruction of many insect pests, but they are rather 

 delicate, and require protection from cats and rats. 



The Crane and the Heron are also waders, but the Crane 

 and Stork, Spoonbill, and Bittern, are now very rare in 

 England, while the Heron is also becoming scarce. I do not 

 think he does any good, and the injury he commits is only 

 that of taking a few fish. 



The water fowls, as Teal, Widgeon, and wild Ducks, feed 

 mostly on aquatic insects and seeds, and can scarcely do 

 much harm. Wild Geese, like tame ones, are vegetarians ; 

 they are not very numerous, and I am not acquainted with 

 SbUj injury laid to their charge. 



Sea bu-ds, as Petrels, Turns, Gutes, Cormorants, &o., do 

 not, I think, affect the gardener or farmer, unless it is in 

 assisting to form deposits of guano. 



With this I close my brief notices of the good and evil 

 done by British birds, and trust that these papers have not 

 "been without some interest to a few of the readers of The 

 JouKNAL OP Horticulture.— B. P. Brent. 



EEMOVING BEES TO THE MOOES. 



As the time has now arrived for removing bees to the 

 heather, I wish to remind your readers of the very great 

 advantage a hive taken to the heath has over one that 

 cannot be taken there. It gives the bees at least six 

 weeks longer honey-harvest, and I find my bees not taken to 

 the moors always lose weight after July. The heather, I 

 find, is fast coming into bloom, so that no time should be 

 lost in sending the hives ; and if this beautiful bee-weather 

 continue, the quantity of honey collected will be immense, so 

 that the bees should have plenty of room given to them 

 before they are sent. 



I wiU now give your readers a few directions for removing 

 their bees to the heather. The first thing to be attended 

 to is to give the bees plenty of room, as if the weather is 



favourable they collect from the heath a very great store 

 of honey ; so the day before I remove them I place another 

 hive on the top of the stock, when I want to join the bees 

 on their return home to another stock and appropriate to 

 myself the whole of their store of honey, or if I want to 

 take the old hive from the bees and leave them in the new 

 hive. If I want the bees to remain in their own hive I 

 place the addition underneath, as the bees always fill the 

 top hive first and afterwards the bottom one, and the honey 

 in the new hive being deposited in new combs in which there 

 has been no brood is very beautiful, and much more valu- 

 able than the honey out of old combs. Where the two hives 

 join I tie a piece of calico securely with two strings round 

 each hive, so that they cannot separate or any bees escape 

 when being removed. I then raise the hives about an inch 

 fi-om the floor-board upon pieces of wood, and early next 

 morning I find everj-bee has gone off the floor-board into the 

 hive. I spread a piece of net or leno on a board and lift 

 the hive upon it, and tie the net very secui-ely with two 

 strings round the hive, and when so fastened I turn the 

 latter gently upside down and place it on a cloth, and then 

 tie the corners together, so that the hive is easily carried by 

 suspending it by this cloth on a pole across the cart ; but 

 it matters very Little if suspended or not, as the combs wiU 

 not break down, the hive being turned bottom upwards. 

 The bees by that means obtain plenty of air, do not melt 

 the combs with their great heat (being excited), and I do 

 not find the honey run out of those cells that are not 

 sealed over, to do the bees any injury. I let the bees 

 remain at the moors until about the middle of September, 

 and when brought home I put them upon the scales, and 

 the next day I deprive them of their surplus stock (leaving 

 the bees, combs, and honey, 20 lbs. weight, which insi\res 

 their preservation until the next summer) ; this I consider 

 a proper return from these grateful creatures for my kind- 

 ness in having given them a change of air in such luxuriant 

 pastures, where many tons of honey are annually lost for 

 the want of collectors. — W. Caer, Clayton Brid^je Apiary, 

 near Manchester. 



P.S. — This month has so far been a splendid one for bees, 

 the white clover being so very abundant. Many of my 

 stocks have collected upwards of 2 lbs. of honey on several 

 of the days. 



BEE-KEEPEN'G IN DEVON.— No. XVIII. 



A DWINDLING APIARY. 



Eather more than twelve months ago * Mr. Edward 

 Fairbrother first made inquiry as to bees which had done 

 well one year gradually dwindling away the following spiing, 

 and ultimately, as he expressed it, "deserting their hives " 

 entirely. In making this inquiry he stated that his was by 

 no means a solitary instance, and was confirmed in this a 

 fortnight afterwards by my friend "Bar-hive," who testified 

 to his having experienced the same misfortune ; and whilst 

 declaring it to be a subject of great importance to the bee- 

 keeping community at large, appealed personally to me as 

 being " the very person to unravel this mystery." 



In reply to these appeals I did my best in the way of 

 suggestion as to the probable and possible causes of these 

 puzzling failures, gave such advice as seemed likely to be 

 beneficial, and, whilst confessing myself at fault, appealed 

 to others to aid me in endeavouring to throw Ught on the 

 subject ; but to this request no response was made. 



Here, then, the matter ended — unsatisfactorily enough, 

 I confess. TJnprolific queens were blamed for the absence 

 of prosperity in the hives over which they presided, and Mr. 

 Fairbrother was told, in reply to his fui-ther inquiries as to 

 the selection of queens, that tliis desuable end would most 

 probably be brought about by his attaining sufficient apiarian 

 skill to breed queens and select them tor himself. Now all 

 this was, as I said before, sufficiently unsatisfactory, and 1 

 could not but confess that we had eluded the difficulty rather 

 than fairly resolved it. Hundreds of people keep bees, and 

 make them prosper, who never saw a queen in their Uvea, 

 and are probably ignorant even of the very existence of this 

 important member of the bee community ; or, if they have 

 some dim inkling of the fact, they either confound her sex 

 • ride Tbk Jocrn.1l or HoRTiciaiyRE, Vol. III., page 1S7. 



