May 28, 18C8. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



399 



another than to allow her to tidy the room, while a third is too 



young to do much else than purloin my egg, build houses with 

 the sand, upset the water, and other amusements. Still, who 

 can resist the gentle tap at the door, and " Papa, may .tacky 

 come in and help?" — W. A. Blakston, Sccnlari/, North of 

 England Oiiiitlioloijical Associativn. 



HINTS ON CANARY-BREEDING. 



I AM very successful in breeding Canaries, but I like them to 

 look pretty as well as comfortable. I take away the two ugly 

 boxes meant for nests, and also the wires, as I like only a pair 

 of birds in each cage. I next Arrange little branches of pretty 

 evergreens in the place of the boxes (avoiding Box, for its smell 

 13 very unpleasant), and tlien a handful of hay. Afterwards I 

 hang up the nest bags sold for birds, and add fresh moss and 

 white feathers. I like to see the birds building. 



I always open the cage door, and give the hen the option of 

 bathing whilst she is sitting by placing a glass dish on the top of 

 the cage. I take the opportunity of cleaning the cage whilst she 

 is out. They always are ready to go in again when everything is 

 ready for them ; and if the plan of the evergreens is once tried 

 I am sure the two equare boxes would never be used again. — 

 An Old Hen. 



FECUNDITY OF THE QUEEN BEE. 

 I SEE in the report of the May meeting of the Entomological 

 Society, which appeared in page 3G1 of " our Journal," thas 

 Mr. Desborough stated that "a single queen had produced at 

 many as 108,0tW eggs, which would be about 20,000 a-year." 

 There can be little doubt that Mr. Desborough has arrived at 

 this ridiculously low estimate of the breeding powers of the 

 queen bee by observing one in a unicomb hive, where her 

 fecundity has been thwarted and rendered of no avail by the 

 very limited number of breeding cells which she has had at 

 her disposal. Dzierzon gives four years as the average dura- 

 tion of life in the queen bee, and considers that during that 

 period an especially prolific queen may lay more than 1,000,000 

 eggs. No one who is acquainted with the internal economy of 

 a strong stock will consider this an over-estimate. It is nothing 

 unusual to see from 15 000 to 20,000 cells occupied by brood 

 during certainly three months of the year, and when we add to 

 this period the spring and autumn months, during which breed- 

 ing takes place, first in an increasing ratio until it reaches the 

 culminating point which I have indicated above, and after- 

 wards decreasing, until in October or November it entirely 

 ceases, and consider that during this protracted period the 

 tenants of the brood cells are renewed every three weeks, we 

 may form some idea of the enormous fecundity of the queen 

 bee. — A Devonshire Bee-keeper. 



NEW BOOK. 



Prnfitahlc Bee-keepinij on Improved Principles, Chiefly Desicined 



for the Use of Cotlaaerx. By the Rev. P. V. M. Fillecl, M.A. 



London : Cliristian Knowledge Society. 



This is a reprint of a series of papers on profitable bee- 

 keeping from the pen of the Rev. P. V. M. Filleul, better known 

 to the readers of this .Journal first as the '• Countuy Cceate," 

 and more recently as " B. & W.," which appeared last year in 

 the " People's Magazine." 



The highest praise which we can award to this little brochure 

 is to say that it is eminently practical and worthy of its accom- 

 plished author, in whose words we may state that " if the 

 reader will only be careful to follow its instructions, he will 

 find bee-keeping far more sure, not more troublesome, and 

 much more profitable than he has yet found it." We extract 

 the fnllowing description of the wooden hive recommended by 

 Mr. Filleul ; — " One of the best hives that can be made is a 

 common good-eized bucket without a handle, and with the 

 bottom knocked out. It will last almost for ever, which cannot 

 be said of any sort of straw hive. In this respect it will be 

 found much cheaper in the end. Turn it up on a bench or 

 st.«ol with its broadest end uppermost, and cover it with a flat 

 round board, and you have a most excellent bee hive. Any 

 cooper would make these without a bottom cheaper than a 

 Jiucket. The board at the top must have a 2-incli hole in the 

 middle of it, aud must lie so close upon the hive that the bees 



shall find no crack or crevice by which to creep in or out. At 

 the same time it is better not to fasten this top to the hive, as 

 the bees very soon fasten it down for themselves. It is well, 

 however, to place a flat stone or thick slate upon it, with a 

 trick or two to prevent it from curling or warping, and the 

 whole should be covered over with an earthenware pan to shoot 

 oil the rain. The hole in the top board can be stopped up 

 with a bung, or covered over with a piece of slate. A hive of 

 this shape can easily be made of straw, but in this case it is 

 better to work the round of straw both at top and bottom on a 

 hoop of stout wood, such as coopers use. These hoops wiU 

 preserve the straw much longer, and make the hive sit well on 

 its stand, and the wooden board on its top. 



" The use of this hive is great, for, in the first place, it is 

 very convenient for putting a cap on in the honey season ; but 

 its advantage will chiefly appear in the end of summer at the 

 time of the honey harvest. One of the greatest objections to 

 the common hive is the impossibihty of taking away the honey 

 without destroying a quantity of comb, which would be of value 

 to the bees another year— much more valuable than the wax 

 to be got from them would be to the bee-master. Not only so ; 

 there is often an immense quantity of brood (or young un- 

 hatched bees), destroyed, which if preserved would add greatly 

 to the prosperity of the hive another year, as these young bees 

 will live till spring. Now, this hive with a flat and moveable 

 top will remedy both these evils ; for, after getting rid of the 

 old bees, you may remove the top board by passing a knife 

 with a thin blade completely under it all round, so as to sepa- 

 rate the combs from it. Then the comb which contains the 

 honey can be easily cut out without injuring the lower part of 

 the combs at all, especially if there are sticks in the middle of 

 the hive to support them." 



WIDTH OF ENTRANCE TO SUPERS. 



I AM putting supers on my Woodbury hives. Can you in- 

 form me the best way to prevent the queen entering? I had a 

 large quantity of honey spoiled last year from this cause. I 

 have this year tried wires three-sixteeeths of an inch apart, which 

 appear to answer very well, with the exception of one, in which 

 I used brass wires, I think a little closer. The bees entered 

 the super, but in the course of two days I found about two 

 thousand dead, apparently all young bees. Should you think 

 the entrance too narrow for them to return, or were they 

 poisoned by the brass ?— S. Thorne. 



[We think the brass wires must have been rather too close 

 together, as we do not believe the bees to have been poisoned 

 by them. We should be glad if others would afford us the 

 benefit of their experience upon the point with regard to which 

 information is sought by our correspondent, as we are not our- 

 selves quahfied by experience to offer an opinion upon it.] 



Silkworms. — We are informed by Mr. L. Harman, of Catton, 

 near Norwich, that he has 200,000 silkworms, consisting of 

 mulberry breeds, producing yellow, white, and green silk, and 

 our readers may embrace the opportunity of making experi- 

 ments in silkworm-rearing if they apply to him during the 

 next fortnight. 



SILKWORM-REARING IN ENGLAND.— No. 10. 



An ounce of silkworms' eggs, numbering between forty and 

 fifty thousand, having been hatched, it is necessary to follow a 

 good system of management in order to rear the worms. I 

 shall premise all the worms to have come forth from the eggs 

 on the same day, although in reality they may have done so on 

 four consecutive days, and that they occupy four sheets of paper 

 or calico, it the latter be used, of the dimensions already named. 

 By judicious management the majority of the worms may be 

 brought to spin together, or within a couple of days of each 

 other — viz., by placing the first hatched on t'ae lower stages, and 

 the last on the higher ones. The higher the position the warmer, 

 and the worms so placed will eat more voraciously thfin those 

 lower down, aud, consequently, will grow faster. However, 

 their arriving at maturity on three or four consecutive days is 

 of no particular consequence, but where many are kept it is 

 advantageous, for the work of attending to them is belter 

 divided. 



To rear the worms, from 1500 to 2000 lbs. weight of mulberry 



