302 



JOUKNAIi OF HOBTICDLTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



The Bame principle and management can be practised with 

 bar-frame hivea. AH the combs can be removed for honey three 

 weeks after Dwarming, and the empty bars returned to be re- 

 filled. In bar-frame hives — indeed, in straw and all kinds of 

 hives, the centre brood combs could be left for breeding pur- 

 poses and the outside combs removed for honey. Better stocks 

 and sweet young combs are obtained by the removal of the 

 centre as well as the outside combs. A few pounds of sugar 

 costing Is. or Is. tid. given to the bees will enable them to make 

 good the loss they sustain in the removal of the old brood 

 combs. 



For non-Bwarmers provide plenty of supers to place on hives 

 before they are ready for swarming. Straw and wood supers 

 are more easily managed than glass supers, but glass looks better 

 than either wood or straw. A hint was lately given in this 

 Journal to prevent the loss of swarms while supers are being 

 filled. In all non-swarming hives we would have queens that 

 cannot fly. This can be done by cutting a wing off each. The 

 loss of wings will not cripple them in any way for indoor work. 

 If the bees of any of the hives attempt to swarm the queen 

 will go with them to the point of the flightboard and drop to 

 the ground. The swarm will go without her and return as soon 

 as it discovers its loss. The queen will probably crawl back 

 into the hive. We have known one do so five times. Facilities 

 to do so should be provided. A stone or piece of wood touching 

 the ground and flightboard is all that is required, provided the 

 hive is within a foot of the ground. 



" But," someone may ask, " how is the queen to be caught ?" 

 If in a common hive the bees should be driven into an empty 

 hive, the queen seized between the finger and thumb and de- 

 prived of a wing; then cast all back into the hive. It is simply 

 the work of four or five minuter. In bar-frame hives she must 

 be found by the withdrawal of one bar of comb after another till 

 she is seen and winged. In both kiuda of hives the process is 

 simple and easy. In providing and prepari; g hives and supers 

 guidecombs should not be forgotten, for they are of oouBiderable 

 importance both to swarms and in supering for honeycomb. 

 — A. Pettigrew. 



CRUDE AND PERFECT HONEY. 

 I CANNOT forbear to reply in a few words to a statement which 

 Mr. Pettigrew makes in the Journal for March 22nd. Here I 

 read, " Bees in returning from the fields first drop their pollen 

 and honey in the cells in the centre of their hives, afterwards 

 convert it into honey, carry it aloft, and there store it up." lu 

 answer to this I will only state that last summer, when the 

 supers were being filled by my bees belonging to the straw hive 

 which gave me 131^ lbs. of virgin comb, although some bees 

 may have first passed through the stock hive, I know that thou- 

 sands never entered it on their way to the supers. As I stated 

 in your pages last autumn, some supers were placed at the side 

 of the straw hive and some over it. All those bees which entered 

 the side supers alighted on the floorbo.ird, which was much 

 larger than the circumference of the stock hive, and passed into 

 these supers direct with their burdens of honey. The pile of 

 supers above rested on a Lee's squai'O super, the corners of which 

 projected over the top of the mother hive. This pile had been 

 placed on a square of thick cardboard. The bees, a few days 

 after the cardboard had been placed there, nibbled away one 

 projecting corner, and until all the supers were filled and sealed 

 a continuous stream of honey-bearers daily passed in at this 

 open corner and discharged their burdens at once into the grow- 

 ing cells of the supers. How Mr. Pettigrew can reconcile this 

 with his statement as quoted above I do not see. Certainly the 

 honey stored in my supers was far from being crude ; it was of 

 finest flavour and aroma.— P. H. P., Offlei/ Lodge, Hitchen. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Eggs D>rFEnTn:.B (lgnoramm).—'Danag the winter (December, January, 

 and first half of February) if it be wished the eggs should be fertile a oock 

 should have two, or at most three, hens with him, and even then all the eggs 

 will not be fertile. If a cock be put down among seven or eight pullets he will 

 probably make his selection and adhere to it. There is no mistake greater 

 than to suppose there is no like or dislike in the case. Not only is dislike 

 evinced by a cock, but it is perpevered in, and unless the victim is removed 

 she is always killed, if in conflnement, or pines away and hides herself if at 

 liberty. It is tor this reason that where a cook runs with eight hens in the 

 winter many of the eggs are clear— r^., they are not impregnated. The clear 

 unfertile eggs do not change uuder the hen. At the end of three weeki they 

 are as bright and apparently as fresh as the day they were laid. The egg 

 that has become rotten has had a germ of life developed; that has been 

 destroyed by cold or neglect, and decomposition follows. There are some 

 points that need clearing up. It is said that the presence of the cock is only 

 necessary for a few days, and all the eggs will be fertile. It is so with 

 Turkeys. Others say that when the cock is taken away the eggs soon become 

 unfertile. We have known a hen Turkey steal a nest, lay, and hatch every 

 egg iii_ confinement, and she had been in that confiuemeut a month before 

 she laid the first egg. On the other hand, we {for the experiment sake) 

 shifted a hen from one pen to another three times ; we put her on her eggs, 

 and the produce showed three distinct paternities. 



Hen's Legs Powerless (J. B.\ — There is a pressure of blood upon the 

 brain. The fowls are too fat. Give lettuce leaves and no barley, bat a Uttla 

 barleymeal and bran mashed twice daily. 



Dari (A Fancier). — It is a species of millet, native of India, and known to 

 botanists as Panicum miliaceum. It is nourishing, but not more likely to pro- 

 mote egg-laying than other grain. 



Cdbe of Gapes ( W. E. C.).— We have learned to jest at gapes by making 

 free use of camphor. We give to a chicken in a very bad case a pill the size 

 of a small garden pea. As soon as we see symptoms of gapes we give the 

 birds wafer to drink which is strongly impregnated with camphor, thus giving 

 to the chickens that which was a favourite medicine with oar great grand- 

 mothers, "camphor julep." The treatment seems to explain itselX. Tho 

 gapes or "gaping" is caused by the presence of small red worms in the 

 windpipe. No medicine can reach them unless it does so by vapour. An 

 hour after the chicken has swallowed the pill it smells of camphor. Camphor 

 is a very strong vermifuge, and the worms die. 



Shell-less Eogs (F. J.).— The hens are probably too fat. If so, feed on 

 less nourishing food and have a heap ol lime rubbish for them to scratehin. 



Address.— Mr. Abbott, Fairlawn, Hanwell. 



Bar-frame Hive ( H'. B. r.).— We cannot state any preference. We have 

 seen them all employed satisfactorily. 



Straw Hives. — " I would remind your writere and readers that straw 

 hives require no ventilation in the winter, and also that they may be much 

 more easily and cheaply protected from rain, cold, or heat than wooden hives. 

 — E. H. E., West Norfolk:' 



Stewarton and Carr Hives. — The correspondent "ScoTca" page 244, 

 possessed the octagon Stewarton as well as square hive designated the " Carr 

 Stewarton," and in reply to his queries, to prevent confusion, the terms 

 "Stewarton" and "Carr" were alone used. Mr. William Carr, Newton 

 Heath, Manchester, writes that his, presumably the original or " Carr " proper 

 hive, to which no allusion was intended, is not "too cramped and small for 

 practical bee-keeping," having a capacity of from 1822i to 3956 cubic inches 

 without supers. Tho name " Carr Stewarton " seems" unfortunate, leading 

 to the muddle that it is the " Carr " on one side and the " Stewarton" on tho 

 other, while it is really neither. — A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper. 



Dogs and Cats iKittit). — The cost would bo according to the liberality ol 

 diet. No one could give a precise reply to your query. 



Bats. — " J. P." asks to be informed of the best way of keeping bats oat oi 

 a church, and if they are to be killed how it is to be done. 



METEOROLOGICAl OBSEBVAIIONS. 



Camden Square, London. 



Lat. 51" 32' 40" N. ; Long. 0= 8' 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 feet. 



REMAKES. 

 11th.— Slight fog and very dark for a short time about 8 A.M.; fair foreuoon, 



bat a short and slight thunderstorm at 1 p.m., with heavy rain; fine 



afterwards. 

 l'2th.— A very fine day and pleasant, though much colder. 

 13th.— Fair but dull day ; rain commenced a little before 5 p.m., and con- 

 tinuing during the evening. 

 14th. — Fair but dull all day, and chilly towards night. 

 15th. — Fine morning ; a fair but dull day ; wind rather high at night. 

 16th.— Dull morning and forenoon, the afternoon a trifle brighter; starlit 



night but very cold, and wind high. 

 17th. — Fair and bright at 8 a.m., but only for a short time ; a solar halo at 



0.30 P M.; dull, grey, cold, aud windy afternoon, evening, and night ; 



a few drops of raio occasionally, but not a measurable quantity until 



after midnight. 

 A dull cheerless week, especially the last two days. Temperature generally 

 about 4^ colder than last week.— G. J. SYaiONS. 



COVENT GARDEN MAKKET.— a^pril 18. 



A MORE lively trade doing, and prices have been well maintained. A few 



good samples of new Grapes have arrived, as also Peaches and Figs, the last- 



named from the Channel Islands. A slow trade for Cucambers at lower 



rates. 



FRtJlT. 



R. A. s. d. I a. d. 8. d 



dozen OtoO 



, V 100 8 12 



I Peaches dozen IB 30 



Pears, kitchen,... dozen 



dessert dozen 8 12 



PineApplea lb. 2 5 



Plums i seive 



Quinces bushel 



I Raspberries lb. 



~ — ' ' strawberries oz. 6 10 



Walnuts bushel 6 8 



ditto ^ 100 



Chestnuts bushel 



Currants i sieve 



Black 1 do. 



Figs dozen 12 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 1 



(looseberriea quart 



Grapes, hothouse.... lb. 15 



Lemons ^100 6 " 



Melons each 



