September 15, 1863. ] JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEE XHD COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



223 



Crystal Palace Show. It is time the entries were made. We 

 hope amateurs from all parts of England will support this our 

 Loudon Show, and that the Exhibition will be worthy of the 

 locality. It must be borne in mind this is instead of the winter 

 Show. The time is altered to insure iiner weather and longer 

 days than in December ; also to allow birds to he shown both at 

 Birmingham and this place without injury to themselves or 

 iiitonvenience to their owners. 



THE SQUmEEL. 



This pretty little animal is classed by natm-alists among 

 the Eodentia, or gnawing- animals, on account of its teeth ; 

 the front ones being formed, like those of the rabbit or rat, 

 for cutting or gnawing, while the liinder ones are adapted 

 for grinding. In a wild state SquiiTels feed on nuts, acorns, 

 beechmast, and the seeds of coniferous and other trees. 

 Thus autumn and early winter are their times of plenty, 

 and it is a question on what they feed when theii- favourite 

 food becomes scarce, as it must do in spring. Probably 

 they eke out their scanty store with bark, buds, and tender 

 shoots until the bii'ds begin to lay, when a plentiful repast 

 is offered to them in the form of eggs and young birds, of. 

 which, no doubt, they destroy a gi-eat many. 



The Squirrel's nest, or more correctly the ch-ay, is a rather 

 large structure composed of moss, &c., and not unfrequently 

 having for its foundation the old nest of a Wood Pigeon or 

 some other bh-d : it is domed over and has two openings. 

 I believe they usually have two young at a birth, which, 

 when tolerably gi-own, may be taken and reared by hand, 

 when they become very tame and amusing pets. The best 

 phin I know of is to suckle them on new milk by means of a 

 phial, with a duck or other small quiU put tlirough the cork 

 for them to suck through. The phial of milk may stand 

 in a basin of hot water till the milk is blood warm. Great 

 care must be taken that they have no sour milk, and that 

 they are kept warm, pai-ticularly at night, or they will not 

 thrive. 



The best cages I know of are those usuaUy made with 

 the centre Mke a large wheel that revolves, and having a 

 compartment at each end, the one to be fiUed with moss or 

 soft hay for the dormitory ; the other provided with a pan 

 for bread and milk, and to be used as a feeding-room and 

 for other necessary pm-poses. It should be provided -vvith a 

 sliding bottom, to be sanded or covered with some absorbent 

 substance so as to be easily cleaned. Some persons^ object 

 to these revolving cages as suggestive of the treadmill ; but 

 in reality they afford the confined Squirrel an unbounded 

 field for exercise, which to such a naturally active animal 

 must be very conducive to health. I know of no other form 

 of cage that could give the same amount of exercise in one 

 continued and unintei-rupted burst. The only objection I 

 can see to the revolving-wheel cage is where two Squin-els 

 are kept together, that one attempting to pass whale the 

 other is spinning the wheel it is liable to be hurt ; but for 

 one Squirrel I consider this the best form. Such cages are 

 •commonly to be piu-chased at most of the London cage- 

 makers or in almost aU large towns ; the price I do not 

 •know. 



The food I would advise for a Squirrel in confinement 

 should be a little sopped bread and mUk, corn, and nuts ; 

 Tjut if any one having gi-eater experience in keeping SquiiTels 

 ■can advise a more wholesome diet I hope he will do so. 



I find pet Squirrels are very tender, and usually come to 

 an untimely end — I mean such as are brought up tame, and 

 consequently are often indulged with a run about the rooms. 

 Their active habits prompt them to climb almost everything 

 and everywhere, while smooth-planed doors, polished fui-ui- 

 ture, and curtain-poles do not offer the seeiu-e footing which 

 the rough bark of trees does, and consequently the pet 

 .Squirrel in his gambols often meets with a fatal fall, to the 

 •great grief of an admiring circle of friends. — B. P. Beent. 



FEAME-HIVES. 



I SHOULD like to trespass on youi' space and ask your 

 esteemed correspondent, " B. & W.," a-question or two. 



I intend to adopt in my apiary either Mr. Woodbury's 

 frame -hives, or his thirteeu-iuch bar-boxes; I can hardly 



make up my mind which. I want a frame-hive, but my 

 bee-house and hive-covers are too small for the 14i-inch hive, 

 and I want to retain them, as otherwise they answer very well. 



" B. & W." says the single advantage of frames is the 

 facility they afford for moving the combs without crushing 

 a single bee, and the ease with which operations can be per- 

 formed. I would ask him what he thinks about a jjlan I am 

 almost determined to adopt to suit my case, and that is to 

 fasten pieces of perforated zinc three-quarters of an inch 

 wide, and long enough to reach to the bottom of the hive, 

 to the ends of my bars, and so adjust them as to hang a 

 quarter of an inch from the sides of the hive, affording the 

 bees space to pass between them and the hive. This would 

 prevent the combs being attached to the hive itself, and 

 would give me, unless I misjudge, the " single advantage " 

 of frames, with the advantage of a hive taking less room 

 than trhen a full frame is used. With this half-fi-ame, if I 

 may call it, I would use thii-teen-inch square hives, which 

 happens to be the extreme size I can conveniently adopt. 



Or would " B. & W." object to the adoption of thirteen- 

 inch square hives 10 inches deep as an alternative with the 

 above, with full frames ? 



Win Mr. Woodbury, or "B. & W.," say if they would ever 

 resort to driving bar or ii-ame-liives ? If they would drive 

 them, could it be effected by removing the crown-board and 

 driving upwards? — A. B. C. 



[I cannot imagine any circumstances under which it would 

 become necessary to drive bees in a frame-hive ; but I doubt 

 not that they could be driven upwards. " A. B. C." had 

 better enlarge his thirteen-inch boxes by deepening them 

 to 11 inches inside, and use complete frames rather than 

 resort to the contrivance he has described. — A Devonshire 

 Bee-keepee.] 



IIVTPvODIrCI^'G SEALED COMB INTO A 

 STRAKGE HI^'E— COMB FALLING. 



Can j'ou tell me where to procure a Liguriau queen bee ? 

 We are told in books after di-iving a hive, if brood is in the 

 combs and you give them immediately to another hive, they 

 will hatch it out and thereby strengthen a hive. My first 

 experiment in driving a hive succeeded in less than ten 

 minutes. I found the driven hive with beautiful new clean 

 comb partly filled with sealed brood, which I instantly placed 

 on the top of a box -hive under a bell-glass, which I covered 

 with a straw hive. Next morning, instead of hatching, the 

 bees were working busily at removing all the brood. I left 

 the comb for several hours, and then, thinking the bees 

 were only wasting then- time, I removed it and examined 

 the brood, and it appeared perfectly healthy in different 

 stages, but only one bee hatched whilst I was looking at it 

 after placing it under the beU-glass. 



Can you also remove another difficulty ? Last year I 

 bought a Woodbury bar-liive, and wishing to take out two 

 bars of honey in the beginning of this month, I found I had 

 fii-st to cut av.'ay the comb from each side of the hive where 

 it was attached and then the weight of the honey broke it 

 away from the bar, so the only way was to lift the hive and 

 let the comb drop through on to a dish. 



I have had frames made to put in instead of merely the 

 bars, and how am I to proceed with the remainder of the 

 bars ;■" as next year I am looking forward to experinients in 

 making some artificial swarms, having mastered driving and 

 uniting ; but if the combs aU break off the bars what am I 

 to do ? — A Lady Bee-keepee. 



[Mr. Woodbury having ceased to send out queens and 

 confined his attention to the multiplication of Ligurian 

 stocks, we do not know where the former are to be procured. 

 Bees wm usuallv hatch out sealed brood under the circum- 

 stances you describe. If you had attached the combs to 

 bars and placed them in an inhabited hive, they would 

 certainly iiave done so. The accident of a heavy side-comb 

 falling from its bar might have happened to any one, but a 

 novice would be especially liable to it. By carefully severing 

 the side attachments, and a little more skiU in manipulation, 

 you may avoid it in futm-e. A Woodbury baj--liive is too 

 small for the reception of frames. It should have been en- 

 larged to 14.i inches inside from front to back, and would 

 theli take nine frames of the usual size.] 



