February' 14,' 1867. ] 



'JOUKNAIi OP HORTICUM'UBE AND COTTAGE &ABDENEK. 



189 



constmct'ed, ■will not answer well, if properly worked, I am quite 

 sure no incubator can ; it has the advantages of being very 

 compact, and, being a handsome piece of furniture, it may be 

 kept working in any out-of-the-way comer of a room, and, it 

 taken care of, twenty years will ,not wear it out. When at 

 Birmingham daring Ike late Show I was complimented by all 

 who examined it, and had the pleasui-e of taking many orders. 



— JODN BkINDLEY. ,[^,j[^ ,„j,„,, ,, ,.,M,H_..,, 



NEW PUBLICATION. 



The hvitantankcvus Eeferencn for Poultry, Piijeons, and Rahhits. 



By David P. Gooding, Tower Hill, Ipswich. 



We are disposed to think gratefully of those who undertake 

 to lessen our labours. Thus we recollect seeing in a nursery 

 a large sheet, very like that with which we have to do, v/hieh 

 started well. It said, " In the event of accident or illness send 

 for a medical man, but if none be at hand, iise the following 

 remedies ;" and then there were instructions for burns, sprains, 

 dislocations, fractures, and all the other ills that flesh is heir to. 

 So again the industrious compiler of " Europe at a Glance," 

 who gives the population, revenue, expenditure, army, and navy, 

 of every country at a glance, is no mean benefactor to those 

 who need such knowledge, and has much to do with the repu- 

 tation for talent and industry gained by many men by their 

 readiness at handling millions, and comparing great things. 

 We think a good history of any country, " abridged for the 

 use of schools," is a boon, and dispenses with the necessity for 

 reading much that occurred years ago, and is not very impor- 

 tant now. 



Mr. Gooding seems to be ambitious to rank among the bene- 

 factors of the poultry world, and has abridged the poultry 

 books, condensing their information. He is bold in his labours, 

 inasmuch as he challenges the best judges to impugn his cor- 

 rectness in any particular. We believe we could point out 

 inaccuracies, but we would rather speak of the whole as a use- 

 ful sheet and guide for the young amateur, enabling him at a 

 glance and in a minute to see the merits or deficiencies of his 

 pets. He goes well into Pigeons ; but we could not refrain a 

 smile when at the end of the Babbits we find the "Welsh 

 Babbit." It is said to weigh from 8 to 12 lbs. ; we confess we 

 do not know it. We think Mr. Gooding might give us some 

 instructions about food, as to quantity and quality; also a few 

 hints indicating the necessary treatment of fowls in health and 

 disease. Until we obtain all this, we wish him a good sale for 

 his jjresent sheet. 



AN UNLUCKY APIARY. 



HAviKn been a bee-keeper on a small scale for about five 

 years without taking much trouble to comprehend my little 

 labourers intimately, I last year thought I would make a grand 

 effort to become a scientific apiarian. 



In February last I became the purchaser of twenty stocks in 

 a miscellaneous collection of hives (making with my original ones 

 twenty-tlnee), some strong in bees, but, apparently, all weak in 

 honey. I set to work at once, and built a commodious bee- 

 house, dry, light, and airy, and ensconced my hives therein. 

 My next move was to make half a dozen Woodbury hives, to 

 which I thought I could transfer some of the weak stocks. The 

 hives made, now came the trial of driving. Following Mr. 

 Woodbury's directions, I succeeded very well ; in most instances 

 I saw the queen in her transit. I made no failures ; sometimes 

 I fovmd the bees very obstinate, hut as I did not intend to be 

 beaten, I took out the combs, and brushed the bees off. The 

 combs were then fixed into the frames with wires, &c., and left 

 for their proprietors to repair, a bottle of syrup being placed 

 on the top of each hive, and all made snug. 



Now came the first hitch, the syrup was of but little attrac- 

 tion, and the bees made no efforts to fix the combs for some 

 weeks, and then, after making good the damage, some deserted 

 the hives entirely, while others did not attempt to take in the 

 food, and died eventually of starvation. My other hives, which 

 I hadnot meddled with, fared no better ; and although I liberally 

 supplied the syrup, by May my twenty-three stocks were re- 

 duced to eleven. Not discouraged, I trusted to repair damages 

 by good manipulation in the way of artificial swarming. As 

 soon as the bees began to hang out I proceeded to drive the 

 artificial swarms. Here again, following the " Devonshire 

 Bee-keepeb's" instructions, I found no difficulty, and soon 

 became so expert that I could dispense with the close junctions 

 of the hives, and drive openly. My bee-house soon became 



populous again, coriiaiuing then dtofff 'tweiiy-five hives; hut 

 things did not yet go smoothlyy the hives were constantly being 

 plundered and deserted; one hive especially, a Neighbour's 

 cottage, I stocked four times, and still have it empty. On 

 some of the hives, apparently strong, I placed supers, but only 

 one supplied about 5 lbs. of honey. _ , ' ,' 



July now camo, and a month's absence occasioned by 0W9ir 

 avocations, coupled with a severe illness, caused my bees to be 

 left to their own resources, and on my next examination I 

 found five hives minus their inhabitants. Such desertions 

 continued till late in the autumn, when the result of the season 

 was that I was left with fourteen stocks, beside? three which 

 I had disposed of, and 19 lbs. of honey; and not more 

 than a third of my stocks had a full store. This was the 

 more annoying to me, as I had been trying to impress the 

 merits of modern bee-keeping on some of ray neighbours of the 

 old school, and when I find that a cottager adjacent with about 

 eight stocks has on the fire-and-brimstone principle secured 

 upwards of 100 lbs. of honey and an increase of bees, it seems 

 good evidence against scientific bee-keeping. 



However, I think Nil dn.'iperandum a very good motto, and I 

 do not surrender yet, so have begun to prepare for another 

 campaign. Last December I purchased four hives for a trifle, 

 strong in bees and honey, but with all the combs broken loose, 

 and to their last owner unmanagable ; some person had, appa- 

 rently from malice, tried to destroy the whole. The day I 

 received them was raw, cold, and foggy, but as the case would not 

 admit of delay, I drove them all into straw hives full of empty 

 combs, and fed them with the bottle, to which they took kinffly ; 

 their old combs, mostly full of honey, I intend fixing into Wood- 

 bury frames, and then to re-transfer the bees. I should have 

 domiciled them in these hives at once, but had none ready. 



My bee-house now contains eighteen stocks, twelve of which 

 by the spring will be in Woodbury hives, and I intend another 

 fair trial, trusting with experience gained to be more success- 

 ful this year ; but I should like to ask some of your more ex- 

 perienced apiarians if they can point out any probable cause of 

 the wholesale desertions from my hives. I may say that all 

 my straw hives were in good condition, and none new. The 

 new wooden ones were made of inch deal, old stuff, so that 

 there should be little smell of turpentine. 



In conclusion I may say that two years ago I should never 

 have thought it possible tliat I could have managed to manipulate 

 my bees in the manner I have. I have come to the conclusion 

 that the great desiderata are courage and coolness. As an in- 

 stance I may say that my little son, eight years old, has several 

 times, perfectly unprotected, assisted me when driving by hold- 

 ing the empty hive, and has come to no harm thereby. — Nil 



DESrEKANDUJI. 



[This is a good illustration of the mistake committed by 

 endeavouring to " run before you are able to walk." Had yon 

 felt your way, and advanced cautiously step by step, you would 

 have saved yourself much trouble and disappointment. The 

 cause of your first failure is evident enough ; you attempted the 

 transfer into frame hives too early in the season, before the 

 bees were suflSciently numerous to set to work with spirit in 

 the reparation of damages, and whilst the weather was not 

 only so chilly as to render it diflficult for them to do so, but 

 actually so cold as to compel some of them to starve through 

 inability to appropriate the contents of their bottle-feeders. 

 The causes of the subsequent failures and of the wholesale 

 desertion of your hives are not so apparent from your descrip- 

 tion, and might probably remain obscure, even if you entered 

 into more minute particulars ; yet we have no doubt whatever 

 that they arose from mistakes attributable to inexperience, 

 which would not have been committed by an accomplished 

 apiarian, and which future practice will onable you to avoid. 

 Such experienee as yours says really nothing whatever against 

 truly "scientific" bee-keeping, but merely proves that, like 

 any other science, it cannot be mastered all at once without 

 difficulty.] 



PoLLEN-r,ATHEniNG AT Chkistmas. — I saw poUcn carried into 

 one of my hives on Christmas-day, and many bees were, doubt- 

 less, busy in other hives;' but tlie diminution of stores has 

 been great. I may add that after the recent frost on January 

 0th the bees were 'busy carrying out young dead bees in every 

 stage. The thermometer fell here to 10° Fahr. Another matter 

 of importance is to warn apiarians to see that their bees are 

 well supplied with food. The consumption of honey has been 

 very great up to January 1st. — B. cfe W. 



