360 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 7, 1867. 



I ever sJiowed at, when really the exhibition was merely " a 

 few fowls." I have watched its growth, have made suggestions 

 in the schedule, that have been duly carried out, and it seems 

 almost like breaking off with my " first love." The Great 

 Western Railway, however, leaves me no other alternative.— 

 Y. B. A. Z. 



EXCLUDING THE QUEEN FROM A SUPER- 

 VIRGIN HONEY. 



I HAVE waited to see if some one more experienced than I 

 am would answer the inquiry of " Apicola " in the number of 

 October 10th, but as no one has done so, I wish to say I tried, 

 this summer, gratings three-eighths of an inch, and I found 

 they did not answer ; for the super, containing 25 lbs. of honey, 

 was completely spoiled by the queen having bred in it. 



I think " T. M." was too late in the day in driving his bees, 

 as I find it takes some time to sweep the remaining bees from 

 the driven hive, and keep them from re-entering before they 

 will fly back to the old stance on which you have placed the 

 driven hive. When about to unite the hives, a better plan, I 

 think, than shaking the bees on a cloth is to invert, very 

 quietly, the hive containing the driven bees (a bucket is an 

 excellent stand for this hive) ; place the hive you wish the bees 

 to enter on the top of it, leaving the entrance of each open. In 

 the morning you will find all will be right. 



In a back number I remember reading an account of the 

 death of many bees after being fed on barleysugar made 

 according to receipt in " Bee-keeping for the Manv." I made 

 some from the same receipt, with the same result. I placed a 

 piece, 5 inches square, in the empty super, and next day I 

 found a pint of dead bees. Can you give any reason for this ? 



Can I procure virgin honey from a hive put on the top of a 

 stock with a hole in the crown of the stock for the bees to pass 

 from one hive to the other ? — Amateur. 



[We imagine that you have by a slip of the pen written 

 "eighths" instead of "sixteenths," and that what you have 

 really tried and found to fail is limiting the communication be- 

 tween stock hives and supers to gratings with longitudinal ori- 

 fices three-sixteenths of an inch wide. We cannot account for 

 bees dying immediately after being fed on barleysugar, which, 

 however, we ourselves never use as bee food. What is usually 

 called " virgin honey " may often be obtained by putting a 

 hive on the top of the stock with a central aperture ; but there 

 is less risk of the queen breeding in the super if side commu- 

 nication be adopted.] 



JUDGING SUPERS OF HONEY. 



One of your correspondents asks for the points of merit in a 

 super. Although I am not aware that there are any fixed rules, 

 the following may be relied on as good points — viz., the combs 

 straight, all one thickness, and well proportioned, every cell 

 sealed, the underside finely rounded, all worker comb, and free 

 from brood, the honey of a fine light golden colour, and the 

 comb pure and white. Such a super as this may be termed 

 first-class, any possessing drone comb, or brood in the comb, 

 unsealed cells, crooked or dark combs, can only be termed 

 second or third class. 



Such then being the properties or defects, how to obtain the 

 one, andavoid theother, are matters of much importance. Hints 

 on the management of supers might be extended to a long 

 chapter, but I will only mention one point, which is, however, 

 an important one, in getting bees to take to, and finish their 

 supers. It is a well-known fact that bees do not travel or sit 

 much on sealed honey, therefore to induce them to ascend into 

 a super when the stock hive has sealed honey directly under 

 the wax into it, is as much against their nature as it would be 

 for a gardener to travel over beds of the finest flowers in order 

 to reach some portion of unfinished ground, and this is often 

 the cause of bees refusing to work in supers. Whenever a hive 

 has sealed honey next to the communication between the stock 

 and the super, it ought to be removed, and empty or brood 

 combs put in its place. This is also frequenlly advisable to 

 afford freer communication. — A Lanareshike Bee-keeper. 



ANTS IN A BEE-HOUSE. 



My bee-house is one of Neighbours'. In it was a weak hive 

 which ants found out and attacked. I tried everything ■ guano 

 lime, oU. Nothing stopped them until I had some little zinc 



troughs screwed on the four legs of the house, and made water- 

 tight with putty, and then kept filled with water. — C. A. J. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Strawberry Cottage, Stockport (A Victhn). — It is a Rimple debt. 

 Your only remedy is iu the County Court. Wo advise you to inquire at 

 Stockport about the party, and if the inquiry is satisfactory proceed.at uuce. 



Fowls for Laying Early and Late in the Season (Zagairer).— The 

 history of layint^ hens in the winter is to have them the proper age. It 

 depends far more on that than on the breed. When a pullet comes to the 

 age of maturity she lays irrespective of the time of year. She lays be- 

 cause she has attained the age when she should lay. After she has passed 

 through this flhe becomes a hen, and lays only at the regular season. 

 HaWng said thus much we are quite prepared to admit there are some 

 breeds which are better layers than others, and, therefore, lay earlier and 

 later than those that are less productive. Granting that all have food 

 and treatment alike, we should give preference to the French breeds as 

 egg-producers — La Fleche, Creve Coeur, and Houdans. Their eggs are 

 numerous and large, and we found these fowls last w inter the best winter 

 layers. 



Feeding Poultry (E. S.). — It is impossible to say what weight of food 

 shoidd be given to fowls, as they are differently circumstanced with re- 

 gard to the food they obtain accidentally or naturally. You must form 

 your own conclusions, and will by moderate observation soon find what 

 is the consumption iu bulk of a given number kept iu first rate condition. 

 Finding its weight, you wUl then feed daily by giving the game weight, 

 and you will find the smaller the bulk of the food as contrnsted with 

 weight, the greater will be the progress of the fowls. The increase of 

 bulli is from the offal or inferior parts of the grain. 



Rouen Docks' Wings Standing Out (T. T.). — There is no remedy. 

 It is peculiar to some breeds of Ducks and fowls. No fault can be found 

 with the judge who gave them the prize. It may be the parents were 

 esempt from the fault of their offspring. It must also be borne in mind, 

 a judge has to award to the best in a class, and if he waited for per- 

 fection, very many prizes would be withheld. 



Lame Cockerel {A. Z.). — If there is an open wound where you ex- 

 tracted the thorn, cover it with a piece of diachylon plaister, and sow a 

 piece of rag over it, so as to keep the plaistar in its place. If dirt is ex- 

 cluded from the wound it will soon heal. 



Canary Moulting (C. A. J.]. — The cause of your bird's continually 

 moulting arises from the blood being in a bad state ; the bird is sickly. 

 Keeping it in a room too warm, or hung up too near the ceiling where 

 gas is burnt, also catching cold, will cause the bird to remoult. Put a 

 little saffron in the water, give it grits (or groats), and fresh sand often, 

 and throw some maw seed amongst it. Change its place and cover the 

 cage over at night when the fire or gas is out, as the sudden change of 

 the heat of the Toom to the night atmosphere, will often cause birds to 

 lose their feathers. 



Blindness of a Canary {ilcN.). — There was probably some disease of 

 the brain. We would omit hemp seed entirely in feeding your birds. 



Weight of Prize Rabbits at Wolverhampton {Tenet). — Mr. Guest, 

 one of the Judges, has obliged us by stating that the weight of the Rabbit 

 that won the first prize for weight at the Wolverhampton Show was 

 14 lbs. 11 ozs., that of the second-prize Rabbit 12 lbs. 12 ozs., and there 

 was another that weighed 12 lbs. 10 ozs. 



Feeding Bees (P. Barington) — It is worse than useless to feed stocks 

 that are already amply provisioned. You should therefore endeavour to 

 obtain some idea {which can readily be done by weighing them), of the 

 state of the stores in each hive, and give what is wanting to such as re- 

 quire it. All this is best done by the end of October ; but if it has been 

 neglected no further time should now be lost in attending to it. 



Bees not Taking Food (A. F., Booth Sfrfct).— Although strong stocks 

 undoubtedly appropriate food much more rapidly than very weak ones, 

 we are inclined to fancy that mere paucity of numbers is not the only 

 reason why the feeding-bottle is so much neglected by your weak colony. 

 Is not the covering material of too close a texture ? and does it not after 

 a little time assume a concave form, thereby placing the food nearly if 

 not entirely beyond the reach of the bees? We have often witnessed 

 this result where either muslin or fine net has been employed, and con- 

 sider that no material should be used the meshes of which are less than 

 a sixteenth of an inch in diameter. By attending to this precaution you 

 may yet, if the weather be mild, administer a sufficient supply of food; 

 but we believe that the bees would infallibly die if confined in a hothouse. 

 You do not appear to bo too near the city for successful bee-keeping. 



The Book Worm (A Country Gentleman),— The following extract is all 

 we can offer to you. — *'The great enemies of books, next to careless 

 readers, are damp and the book grub, or the larva of the little beetle, 

 Aglossa pinguinalis. To avoid damp, books should not touch the wall, 

 so that air may circulate freely behind them, and a fire should be in the 

 room where they are during damp weather. If books are kept damp for 

 any length of time the pages become spotted with mildew, to remove 

 which bleaching liquid, formed of half ounce of chloride of lime to a 

 pint and half of water, may be applied very gently with a sponge, and then 

 the page be washed wver equally and gently with a sponge dipped in clean 

 water. The sponge need only be just dampeil with the ble:iching liquid. 

 To remove ink stains and ironmoulds adopt the same process, only sub- 

 stituting a strong solution of citric acid for the bleaching liquid. The 

 book grub, we beUeve, is bred iu the paste employed by bookbinders, and 

 to prevent the parent beetle depositing her eggs in tlie paste, alum, 

 arsenic, and other chemical preparations have been added to it. The best 

 preventive is having books bound in what is termed Indianrubb. r bind- 

 ing; but wo believe if books are kept dry, frequ«»ntly moved, and well 

 rubbed with a flannel, kept for the purpose, in which some of the bark of 

 the white birch is rolled up when the flannel is stored away, it will pre- 

 serve them from this insect." 



Kitchen ^avoe.—" Home-made Bread" would be obliged if any of 

 your subscribers would state the name and addrf ss of the maker of open 

 kitchen ranges, which have a fireclay oven for bnking bread. 



Modelling in Wax.—" W." wishes to be informed of a biok giving 

 directions how to model fruit and flowers in wax. 



