May 30, 1867. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



383 



from -weather, and will be found most desirable for general pur- 

 poses. The roosting portion occupies the whole area of the upper 

 floor; beneath this are laying boxes, occupying one-third of the 

 ground floor, fitted with sliding doors, by which means a broody 

 hen can be shut in for sitting, without the possibUity of being 



Fig. 1. — Back view. 



disturbed. The remainder of the ground floor, open at back, is 

 a general shelter for the birds, providing also the dry dusting- 

 bath, so necessary to the well-doing of poultry. This house 

 gives great command over the birds, is well ventilated, and 

 light and elegant in appearance. Dimensions, 6 feet square. 

 Height, 5 feet to eaves, 6i feet to ridge. 



Fig. 2. 



"The Double Poultry-house (Jifl. 2), comprises two houses 

 under one roof, on oue floor; and where more than one variety 

 of fowls is kept, will be found a desideratum. The building has 

 a division down the centre, forming thus two houses alongside 

 one another, with nests arranged at the back. Trap doors at 

 each side of the building open into separate yards. This house 

 presents a very elegant appearance. Dimensions, 6 feet square. 

 Height 5 feet to eaves, 6i feet to ridge." 



LIGURIAN DISAPPOINTIMENTS. 



In my few notes on bees, which appeared in " our Journal " 

 of 11th December, 1866, I mentioned having introduced two 

 stocks of Ligurians into my apiary during the preceding au- 

 tumn, with what results the following narrative will show. 



The first stock I received was purchased of Messrs. Neigh- 

 bour & Sons, and arrived during very warm weather in the 

 middle of September, 186.5 ; they reached me in good condition, 

 and passed the winter safely, were forward in the spring, but 

 although with such a cold May as that of last year I did not 

 attempt increasing them until the 30th of that month, I had 

 by the middle of June three stocks formed from them. I then, 

 for certain reasons, ceased to multiply them, and well was it I 

 that I did so, for the original stock eventually died of foul 



brood during the following winter, and all the stocks formed 

 from it have fallen a prey to the same dire disease. A hybridised 

 queen, which with another was received last October from Mr. 

 Woodbury, also perished during the severe weather in March 

 of the present year, leaving honey and combs useless. Messrs. 

 Neighbour, on being communicated with on the subject, at once 

 offered to exchange the infected stock for a recently imported 

 one with a pure young fertile queen. This stock I received 

 about the middle of last month (April), in good condition. The 

 queen breeds well-marked workers, and a few beautiful Ligu- 

 rian drones have appeared. I may add that my apiary was 

 originally, and I have every reason to believe that it now is, 

 perfectly free from the disease thus imported into it, and which 

 has proved itself so fatal. 



The other stock of Ligurians was purchased of Mr. Carr, of 

 Newton Heath, near Manchester; it arrived early in October, 

 1865, robbed of its heavy honeycombs, so that it might travel 

 better ; yet in spite of this precaution a great many bees lost 

 their lives during the journey. The remaining bees were 

 headed by a diminutive but good-coloured queen, which bred 

 good-coloured workers in a small eight- framed box 12 inches 

 square by 9 deep, which, as well as the frames, was painted 

 inside and out ! The bees, as might have been expected, never 

 did well in such a toy, coated as it was with oil paint. After 

 taking in their autumnal store of food they were, in spite of 

 upward ventilation, much troubled throughout the winter -with 

 internal moisture, and in the spring were in a wretched con- 

 dition. The queen did not begin to lay until the middle of 

 April, and during the summer never filled more than the 

 middle of three or four of the frames with brood, so that it 

 was the end of Jaly before the stock was in any way healthy or 

 strong. The honey season beiug then over, I had to give it 

 about 14 lbs. of food before it was safe for the winter. The 

 queen of this wonderfully prolific strain of Xjigurians ceased 

 laying about the end of August ! Frequent examination during 

 the spring of this year only revealed the mortifying fact that 

 this queen, which was advertised in your Journal as having 

 been bred from the " most beautiful strain of Ligurians to be 

 found in Europe," had not laid a single egg ! I know not how 

 prolific she might have been before she came here, but after 

 she came into my possession she certainly showed none of those 

 great breeding powers attributed to Mr. Carr's strain of Ligu- 

 rians, and up to the 29th of April had not commenced egg- 

 laying. I therefore took her from her remaining subjects 

 (about twenty in number), and placed her at the head of a 

 strong stock of black bees, whose queen had been removed 

 eight days and royal cells one day previously. She was well 

 received, and lived in the hive until about the 3rd of May, 

 during which time she never laid an egg, and was ultimately 

 missing on the evening on that day. So ended my Ligurians. 

 The case and particulars were duly reported to Mr. Carr, but I 

 have never received any aus'iver from him. 



I have since obtained a stock of pure Ligurians from Mr. 

 Woodbury, which, all being well, will, with the other sent by 

 Messrs. Neighbour, shortly increase the Ligurian element in 

 the apiary of — J. B., Bracl^cn Hill. 



[I am very sorry to learn from the foregoing narrative that 

 Messrs. Neighbours' bees are infected with foul brood, and 

 trust that " J. B." is correct in believing that noue of the 

 seeds of this insidious malady ar« lurking either in the second 

 stock received from them, or in his own apiary. Although it 

 is now approaching four years since I finally got rid of it, I 

 have too vivid a recollection of my own woeful experience of 

 foul brood not to sympathise most sincerely with any bee- 

 keeper whose apiary may be suffering from so terrible a disease. 

 I trust the Ligurian stock which " J. B." has recently received 

 from me, and which I know to be thoroughly healthy as weU 

 as perfectly pure, may do something towards compensating 

 him for his previous disappointments ; but it does appear to 

 me that Jlr. Carr should cither refund the money paid for the 

 abortive Ligurians, or replace them with a good stock in a 

 properly constructed hive. — A Devonshiee Bee-keepee.] 



MEAD, METHEGXIN, AND HYDKOMEL. 



A cor.KESPONDEXT of The Jochxal of Horticulture (May 

 9th), inquires for receipts for making mead and metheglin. I 

 enclose some taken from an old book of receipts of Sir Eenehn 

 Digby's, published in the year 1075, by Henry Brome. 



" Mr. Wehlie's Meath. — Master Wel.be, who inaketli the ting's meath, 

 ortlereth it thas : — I take as much of Hyde Park water aa will mate an 



