Angnet 20, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Ill 



birds with nest-feathers upon their heads and neck, which came 

 thirty or forty miles. Young birds on their return should not 

 be allowed to remain on the roofa, but must be driven in as 

 soon as possible. If, however, there is any difficulty in doing 

 this, turn eut an old bird or two, and the youug birds will 

 follow their example, and enter the cote immediately. After 

 the birds are all well practised never let them out more than 

 once a-day, as thus treated trained birds will return home 

 much more quickly for forty or fifty miles, although they may 

 not have been let out for weeks. 



I have described the favourite colours of the Belgian Smerle, 

 there being two varieties as stated ; I always found as a rule 

 that the short thick-headed birds when turned up rise in the 

 air the highest, and take the best way home. The long-headed 

 birds seldom rise bo high, and in windy weather skim in their 

 flight much like the Dragoon, and waste time on their way by 

 plunging and rising. 



Some fanciers consider flying long distances a matter of in- 

 stinct ; this I hold is not correct, homing and flying being, in my 

 opinion, simply a question of training and observation on the 

 part of the birds. If you send a young bird fifty miles you 

 seldom see it again ; they must be trained to fly from short to 

 longidistances gradually, as a bird thus trained will not alight 

 until it reaches its own landing board, unless benighted. I 

 never yet tossed up a properly-trained bird that attempted to 

 alight either in town or country. I should recommend birds 

 not to be flown any long distance from October to March, as 

 the best-trained birds have been lost in foggy weather. — John 

 Cbosbland, jdn. 



THE KOEHLER SECRET REVEALED— A NEW 

 MODE OF PROPAGATING LIGURIANS. 



[Mr. Koehler has recently made his process public in the 

 following article, which appeared in the German Bee Journal. — 

 A Devonshire Bee-keeper.] 



Now as to the operation itself. It is founded on my obser- 

 vation, that during many fine forenoons and afternoons the air 

 is still warm enough for queens to fly out when drones usually 

 have not commenced flying, or have ceased to take wing. 

 Until, therefore, the young queens become fertilised we must 

 compel the Italian queens and drones to go forth at such times 

 as the German drones cannot possibly be abroad. The time 

 during which drones are on the wing seldom extends with us 

 to later than 4 or 5 o'clock p.m. If, therefore, we have one or 

 more colonies, with young queens which we know to a certainty 

 have not yet been fertilised, we place these hives for three, 

 four, or five days in a perfectly dark and cool cellar, and with 

 them also the stock which contains the Italian drones. When- 

 ever a very warm and sunny day occurs we watch the German 

 stocks until the drones have ceased their flight. As soon as 

 this occurs we restore the hives containing the Italian queens 

 and drones to their accustomed stands, and set them at liberty 

 after giving to each a cupful of their liquid honey. The queen 

 and drones being ardent, and having been unable to fly for 

 days, the bees excited by the honey and their previous con- 

 finement, become so eager after flight, that all play as if mad, 

 and fertilisation follows. We must, however, be careful to 

 return to the cellar in the evening every colony the queen of 

 which has not been seen to return with the sign of fertilisation, 

 and repeat the process until it is certain that the desired re- 

 sult has been attained. This is essential, because it is well 

 known that under ordinary circumstances some queens take 

 flight several times before they succeed in meeting with a 

 drone. How much more, therefore, must this be the case 

 under the foregoing management, whereby the number of 

 available drones is limited to those only which exist in the few 

 Italian stocks :' 



You will, even before testing it, be satisfied as to the efficiency 

 of this process ; but as practice surpasses precept, you will, 

 doubtless, try the experiment and report the result. No one 

 to whom Italianising his stocks is of consequence but will 

 willingly contribute half a florin* in order to avail himself of a 

 process which promises him such great advantages and so much 

 pleasure. 



But now I will make a second communication, which will 

 certainly also be agreeable to you. I do not know whether you 

 give the preference to natural or to artificial swarms. My 

 practice combines both, as by it I obtain natural swarms by an 

 artificial process, and can at the same time with one good Li- 



' About cighteen-pence EngUsli, 



gurian stock Italianise a dozen colonies with the least possible 

 trouble. The process is as follows : — We take a hivo from 

 which a swarm has just issued, and put it in the place of 

 another very populous colony. After nine days, by means of 

 the population received from the removed hive, it will certainly 

 swarm again. If it is now shifted to the stand of another 

 strong stock it will, after two or three days, swarm again. We 

 continue this process as long as we can hear queens piping in 

 the hive of an evening. Under favourable circumstances wa 

 may in this way obtain ten to twelve swarms, as the first hive 

 supplies the queens and the others the bees. If, therefore, we 

 have one or two Italian stocks, and feed thera well early in the 

 spring, say from the 20th of March, especially if they are well 

 supplied with pollen, we may be sure that these hives will 

 swarm first. By transposing them in this way with German 

 stocks we shall obtain swarms with Italian queens and German 

 bees. 



The advantages offered by my system are very great. In the 

 first place we secure early swarms with young queens, and 

 these queens are generally larger and better than those which 

 bees hatch by compulsion. How quickly also can we ItaUanise 

 a hive ; for it is only changing places with two hives and the 

 work is done. We can also put the swarms in any place we 

 choose, which is less trouble than with artificial swarms, 

 which we cannot always establish where we would wish to have 

 them. We know also the day and the hour in which to expect 

 a swarm, for the second appears in nine days after the first 

 removal, the third three days after this, the fourth on the next 

 day, and so on. If we still hear queens piping after the last 

 removal, the stock will swarm to-morrow, and if we convey it 

 into a dark cool cellar in the evening, we can cause it to swarm 

 at any hour we please by bringing it out into the light and sun- 

 shine, and feeding it moderately. 



It follows, as a matter of course, that the foregoing method 

 can only be practised with single hives, which can be moved 

 from place to place although they may have fixed combs. 

 Those who have bee houses can, however, adopt it, because 

 they can transfer their hives from one place to another. 



I have still to add one remark : — The process for securing 

 pure fertilisation can only be relied on early in the season, 

 and not towards the end, for it often happens that certain 

 stocks which have hatched young queens will as soon as they 

 are fertilised begin to expel their drones, as I have observed to 

 be the case this year. In such instances the drones do not 

 cease flying so punctually as usual, but often continue on the 

 wing from early in the morning until quite late in the day. 

 We must not, therefore, be too late in breeding Itahan queens, 

 and liberal and judicious feeding is and will be the surest 

 means of expediting it. 



In the hope that you will be enabled to make experiments, 

 the results of which may not be marred by any unforeseen 

 accident, and desiring that you may be satisfied by experience 

 of the value of my method. — I am, &c., Koehlek. 



HONEY HARVEST IN THE NORTH. 



Odr Northumberland general flower-honey harvest is at an 

 end, and a poor one it has been. The few swarms we have will 

 mostly be required to make up our store stocks, and few bees 

 have put anything in their supers ; but now all are out on the 

 moors ; the hives are about one-fourth of the usual number, 

 and only about five to the score are young hives. There is a 

 fine bloom on the heather, and the weather being fine, our pros- 

 pects are good for the heather-honey harvest. On the return of 

 our hives the bees will not be much troubled with their enemy 

 the wasp, as I cannot hear of a single wasp's nest in the neigh- 

 bourhood, although queen wasps were numerous in the spring. 

 — G. Wilson, JDialtun. 



ECCENTRIC SWARMING. 



A BCTT of bees in this neighbourhood swarmed last June in 

 the following manner :— Ou the first day a swarm issued from 

 the hive in the usual way, and alighted in an orchard about 

 20 yards off, but retuined to the parent stock before it could 

 be shaken. 



On the second day another swarm issued and went to the 

 same place as before. When the woman who was watching it 

 returned to procure a hive in which to shake it, she was shown 

 another swarm which had issued subsequently from the same 

 hive and had settled outside the garden hedge. Both were 



