302 



JOURNAL OF HORTICTJLTTJRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t October is, iscs. 



not speedily abated. They therefore pray your Worships' 

 powerful decision npon the subject." 



Mr. Kiuglake, after reading the petition, said it was 

 rather a difficult subject on which to give advice. He sup- 

 posed that the rights and privileges of the lord of the 

 poultry-yard had been interfered with, and his domestic 

 happiness blighted, or he would not have crowed out of his 

 grief at so early a period (laughter). It might seem to the 

 Court a laughing matter, but in truth the loud crowing of a 

 cock in the ears of p-a invalid was as great a nuisance as the 

 howling of a dog at night. He remembered the judgment 

 of the County Court Judge at Exeter, where the owner of a 

 Bantam cock was made to pay the expenses of a neighbour 

 changing his lodgings, as the cock had been known to have 

 crowed 500 times in less than five hours. The judgment 

 was appealed against, but the Superior Court confirmed the 

 County Court Judge's opinion, and laid down a wise and 

 humane principle that no one had a right to injure the health 

 or peace of his neighbour. Mr. Williams was a respectable 

 tradesman, and would, no doubt, confine the cock in a box, 

 where his crowing could not be heard. 



APIAKIAJST NOTES. 



(Continued from page 282.) 

 Mt Apiakt. — To sum up the proceeds of my bees this 

 season I give the following table, some little modification 

 in the results having occurred. I have found since writing 

 the paper which appeared on the 22nd of September, that 

 the super taken from No. 7 weighed 30 ibs. instead of 35 lbs., 

 the mistake having arisen fi-ora miscalculating the tare of 

 the box. In one or two cases an increase is to be noted. 



No. of Hnnry 



hive. Pemaiks. taken. 



14 ... L:gu:ian 601bs 



15 ... Aiiifi'^ial !,lock u 



17 ... ^ent cff two swarms 15 



19 ... Ueprived of bees& bruotl 



20 ... Larce Ewarm lost 15 



21 ... Ejgbtetn-framehive...... a5 



22 ... Suspended hive 10 



23 ... Artificial Bwarm made... 8 



24 ... Broken up 



25 ... Artificial Ewarm 



Totil.. 



..331 



No. of Honey 



hive. Remarks. t^ken. 



1 ... Artificial swarm, 18C3 .... Olbs 



2 ... Old stock 



3 ... Artificial swirin, 1862 ... 22 



4 ... Five-3'ear-old stoik 20 



5 ... Threw off fine pwann ... 

 fi . . Gave an immense swjrm. 10 



V ... Old stock 30 



■rf ... Gave swarm and 8 



9 ... Old stock broken up 48 



10 .. Ligurian 54 



11 ... New Bwarm 



12 ... New Bwarm G 



Having in the spring united two stocks to others and 

 given away a third, there remain sixteen available stocks 

 from which the harvest has been obtained ; the residue 

 being composed of natiural and artificial swarms, or stocks 

 lately fabricated with driven bees supplied with fi'ames of 

 comb removed fi'om my strongest colonies. This will show 

 an average of 20 lbs. 11 ozs. of honey afforded by each hive, 

 together with swarms from some of them ; certainly not a 

 bad average considering the circumstances under which I 

 am compelled to follow the pursuit of my favoiu'ite hobby. 

 I could very well have taken 100 lbs. more from these stocks, 

 the hives being very large and generally more than suffi- 

 ciently stored with honey. The readiness with which the 

 frames can be removed renders this an easy and a safe 

 operation, as the exact condition of the hive can be so 

 readily ascertained. 



Three only of the whole number have done very well, the 

 remainder but moderately bo. This may in great pai-t be 

 attributed to my having taxed the powers of the majority of 

 my hives to a very gi-eat extent last season in rearing Ligu- 

 rian queens, and in making ai-{ificial swarms. In conse- 

 quence of this, combined with the miserable summer we 

 had in 1862, necessitating an extraordinary amount of 

 feeding, my hives were not as a rule in a position to make 

 the most of a good honey-harvest, with the exception of 

 Nos. 10, 14, and 21, which acquitted themselves very well -. 

 and of Nos. 6, 17, and 20, which would sw.arm rather than 

 work in their supers. 



Tee Hev. R. Kikvpan's Apiakt has, I believe, proved 

 tolerably prosperous. From one of three artificial swarms 

 made last year from his original Ligui-ian stock he obtained 

 a very beautiful bos of honey of 42 lbs. weight. The super 

 was a large mahogany-framed glass box capable of holding 

 twelve bars of a Woodbury-hive. A less number was in 

 reality used, sothat some of the combs attained a consider- 



able thickness. I also observed a very nice bell-glass, but 

 do not remember the weight of its contents. 



Mr. George Fox's Apiary. — -The most astonishing re- 

 sults of scientific bee-keeping have been manifested in the 

 apiary of this gentleman, who resides at King^bridge, in 

 this county of Devon. 



1st. From a cottager's common straw hive, an old stock, 

 he took off a glass box super, the nett contents of which were 

 1092 lbs. ! This super was worked on the plan of his adjust- 

 ing principle, the combs being raised gradually wiihin the 

 glass. The combs ai'e about 19 inches in depth, and some 

 of them would weigh about 20 lbs. each. 



2nd. From a box-hive, which was entirely colonised by 

 two lots of di'iven bees last autumn, he obtained a glass box 

 super of 112 lbs. nett contents. This also was on the ad- 

 justing principle, only in this instance the glass box fitted 

 down outside the stock-box, and was itself gi-aduaUy raised 

 as the bees constructed combs. 



3rd. An octagonal glass stock -box peopled by a swarm in 

 the fi'st week in June of this summer, fr-oni which the bees 

 were driven out and united to another stock, holds the 

 hardly less astonishing quantity of 82 Iba. 14 ozs. of pure 

 honeycomb. 



The honey in all three boxes is of the most beautiful 

 quality and delicate colour, and I should doubt if supers at 

 aH approaching to these in weight and quality have ever 

 been seen in this country. I have been informed that the 

 owner was offered for the lot of three boxes the large stun of 

 i40, which he declined, preferring to retain possession of 

 them as wonderfal specimens of the industry of the bees. 



The produce of his apiary may be summed up as follows : — 



Honey. 

 No. of hive. Remarks. lbs. oz. 



6 A driven swarm 10 6 



7 Glass ^ox super 109 8 



8 Octapon stocK-bos, a swarin of this summer... 82 14 



10 Glass bos super 112 



11 Three glasses 20 



j2 Driven bees, a super 15 



Total.. 



... 349 12 



Thus it appears that 350 lbs. have been deprived, without 

 injury to the bees, from six stocks in one garden, an average 

 of 58 lbs. each. 



The remainder of his hives. No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, and 9, arc 

 principally either swai'ms, or stocks from which swai'ms 

 have issued, and no honey has been taken. With one ex- 

 ception, a Ligurian colony, they are in good condition for 

 next year. 



Certainly, I did rather plume myself upon my supers of 

 54 lbs. and 50 lbs. weight resjiectively, but now is my pride 

 laid low. What are they to those in the xjossession of this 

 truly practical and scientific bee-keeper ? Nor must it be at 

 all left open to any doubt as to the con-ectness of the 

 weights stated. They are in each case the exact weight of 

 the contents exclusive of the boxes. The total gross weight 

 of one super is 126 lbs., and of the others 123.V lbs. As this 

 successful apiarian would not accept of any assistance in 

 their removal, it is not difficult to imagine by those who 

 have lifted off heavy supers, the gi'cat labour it must have 

 been to him. In fact, his expression in a letter to me 

 announcing the occuri'ence, was, that he was stiff, sore, and 

 weary, with the amount of exertion necessary in removing 

 these ponderous supers from the hives into the house. 



I have had in my possession for the last twelve yeai'S a 

 beautifuUy-filled glass globe wliich also came from the 

 apiary of the same gentleman. This was worked in 1857, 

 en the top of a common straw hive, and I have long fondly 

 imagined it to have been most probably the largest and 

 handsomest glass of honey in the kingdom. Its nett weight 

 was 48 lbs. G ozs. It still stands as an ornament in my 

 drawing-room, but I must confess to its now being of less 

 value in my eyes than before these much lai-ger glass supers 

 were heai-d of. 



But there is anot'ner confession to be made. These are 

 all the produce of our common English black bees, and o<ur 

 bee-master is rather incUned to crow accordingly over my- 

 self and others who have been sticklers in favom- of the 

 Ligurians. It is, perhaps, an accidental cu-cumstance, but 

 the hives which have afforded me the largest and best sup- 

 plies of honey, have this year been Ligurians, none of those 

 of the black bee having neaa'ly approached to them in this 



