August S, 1865. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



119 



iloscriptiou rang music in my ear. " Sultans for a thousand," 

 I thought, '• now for the much-\yanteil change of blood." My 

 informant wanted lUilT Cochins, and an arrauKOinont was soon 

 etTocted for an uxchanKO ; but, alas ! I ccniUl nut only one, my 

 friend iuforinini.; me that the other having become tho intimate 

 friend and associate of the motlier of certain puppies, and 

 sharing in tlio maternal cares, his dangliter would not part 

 with her at any jirice. My prize arrived, yellow with Shannon 

 clay, with oidy lialf a crest, and generally dehipidatod, but 

 healtliy, and an unmistakeably pure Sultan, not a long-legged, 

 taper-bodicil White-I'oland-looking bird, in- a I'tarmigan, by 

 courtesy a Sultan, but the short legs, curiously square body, 

 upright and abundant tail, and five claws of tlie genuine 

 Sultan — a breed as distinct from White Polauds as Game from 

 Dorking. Tho peculiar hoji in tho gait of these birds is most 

 striking, and their legs are tho shortest in proiiortiou I ever 

 saw. I have twenty-five strong ami lii'ultliy chickens running 

 about fledged, and I hope to introduce some of them to notice 

 as winners in the Variety class before Christmas has turned. — 

 F. W. ZuiuioKST, llcli'illc, Vonnijbrook, Co. Dublin. 



A PATEKNAL BRAHMA. 



Many years ago, when I was in conversation with the Rev. 

 G. F. Hodgson, lie told me that a Partridge Cochin cock, which 

 be had imported, would undertake the charge of a batch of 

 ehickeus. I liad never known any of my Brahmas thus anxious 

 to show their paternal affections ; on the contrai-y, if they 

 take notice of the chicken it has been rather by an application 

 of the beak, whicli tender mercy never appeared to be appre- 

 ciated by the recipient. This year, however, my old bird had 

 been placed in a yard, where some three or four hens were 

 tiuisliing their maternal duties. To mr extreme surprise I 

 foimd, after a short time, that when feeding was going on he 

 would allow the chicks to take the food out of his beak. I 

 imagine this commenced by his calling the hens, but it has 

 been fully carried out since they have left the yard ; and it is 

 decidedly amusing to see him. surrounded by thirty or forty 

 chickens, now picking up a grain for this one and now for 

 another. Not satisfied, however, with this part of the per- 

 formance, ho first allowed the chicks to come against him for 

 ■wannth, and ixltimately to get under his wings — in fact, treat 

 him as their mother. At night the same duty is thoroughly 

 carried out, the united families making him the centre of 

 attraction, some resting on his broad back, heads peeping out 

 frJim under his wings, and a motley group around him. I had 

 ne\'er, as I Inivo already said, noticed this before, either in this 

 cock or in any other, and the tinestion in my mind is, "Why is 

 it so? Is old age affecting him? Well, he was hatched in 

 18S2, and is, therefore, now in his fourth year. I am disposed 

 to think this rather old either for a Cochin or Brahma, and 

 had almost at the beginning of this year made up my mind 

 that the present should be his last year for the stud. His 

 Idndness to the chickens has made me waver. He crows as 

 well as ever, is as attentive to any of his ladies admitted to the 

 j-ard as of yore, and appears every feather to be " monarch of 

 all he surveys," and I am, therefore, disposed still to retain 

 liim for another season. Should any of the readers of " our 

 Jom'nal " have had a similar instance I should like to know 

 what they think. 



His history during the last few months may offer some 

 solution. Could an old habitue of the exhibition tent, as he 

 was, toll whether or no the judge appreciated him, and whether 

 his pen was or was not decorated as it should be ? I will 

 not decide this knotty point ; but suffice it to say that at the 

 close of the past year he was, for the first time in his life 

 when shown, in first-rate condition, with two si)lend:d partners, 

 unnoticed. Why so I cannot tell. My man Friday ' ' couldn't 

 see the rights on it," and evidently thought it foul play. Friday 

 never pei-jietrates a pun, so he meant it seriously. I will con- 

 fess that with all my admiration for judges in general, and this 

 identical judge in particular, I felt a shade of dissatisfaction, 

 and can only suppose that his spectacles, if he wore any, 

 dropped off just as he came to my pen ; for I hold to this opinion, 

 that though beaten, a thoroughly good pen of birds ought to 

 be commended or more, even if there are a hundred. Tho 

 next week I sent the same pen somewhat doubtfully to a largo 

 show, saw them there myself placed in the worst light of the 

 whole class, still indubitably the best, and the coveted first- 

 lu-ize was there too, with good names not unknown at Birming- 

 ham following me. Since then by some accident, he and another 



of my birds met on common ground, and, as often hapi)ena, ago 

 and worth had to succumb to youth and power, and 1 found my 

 ]ionr old pet crouched under some wood, looking the jjicluro 

 of abject misery, with his rival carrying plenty of marks of tho 

 fray, crowing trinmiihantly alongside. He never recovered 

 his condition as to feather, yet was highly commended at a 

 grand show soon after, where, however, in repacking, he and 

 one of the hens were so roughly hantUcd that a broad bare 

 ])atch could be easily seen on tlio back of either, utterly devoid 

 of feathers ; so that until moulting is over his chances of prizes 

 are at an end. To-day I introduced some cockerels four or 

 five months old into the yard, but their intrusion he does not 

 tolerate ; so that, although he patronises cockerels of two months 

 old, he does not admire strangers of older growth. — Y, B. A. Z, 



LIGURL\N BEES. 



Thk following is a brief account of what various writers havo 

 stated respecting the Ligurian bee : — Aristotle speaks of threo 

 different species of the honcjy bee as well known in his time ; 

 the best variety he describes as small in size, nnnul in 

 shape, and variegated in colour. Virgil speaks of two kinds, 

 the better variety ho states to he spotted or variegated, and of a 

 beautiful golden colour. Mr. Langstroth gives tho opinion of 

 Captain Baldenstein, as observed in their own country, that 

 they differ from the common kind and seem to be more 

 industrious, and among the points which he considered as 

 definitely established by his obsciTations on the Ligurian bee 

 are these — 1st, the queen, if healthy, retains her proper fertility 

 at least three or four years. 2nd, the Ligurian bee is more in- 

 dustrious and the queen more prolific than the common bee, 

 because in a most unfavourable year when other colonies pro- 

 duced few swarms and little honey, his Ligurians produced 

 three swarms which filled three hives with corah, and together 

 with the parent hive laid u)) ample stores for winter, the latter 

 yielding, besides, a box well filled with honey, and the three 

 colonies were among the best in his apiary. The workers do 

 not Uve at most longer tfcan one year ; they do not sting so 

 much as the common bee ; they are more prolific, and con- 

 sequently gather more honey ; they are hardier, as many of the 

 common bees under more favourable circumstances died out 

 this last winter, and the Ligurians lived and did well. Ton can 

 go among the Ligurians without being stung, as they seldom 

 attempt to do so if not disturbed, and many of your correspon- 

 dents who have procured them would not now be without 

 Ligurians on account of their superior qualities. — J. Elko. 



AUTUMNAL UNIONS. 



Will you kindly inform me how soon it is prudent to unite 

 stocks, so as not to needlessly sacrifice brood ? I observe in 

 " Bee-keeping for the Many " that it is spoken of in the calen- 

 der under the head of August as well as September. My wish 

 is to effect several unions as early as may be consistent with 

 a due regard to the saving of brood, but I have not had sufii- 

 cient experience to be competent to judge when this may best 

 he done. May I further ask your kind advice as to the desira- 

 bility or otherwise of sprinkling bees to be united with sugared 

 beer? Taylor recommends it. " Bee-keeping for the Many " 

 makes no mention of it, but says (I quote from memory), that 

 after knocking the driven bees out and placing the stock hive 

 to which they are to be united gently over them, they will 

 quicldy ascend, and all will be jieaee and harmony. If the 

 sprinlding process may be safely dispensed with I should prefer 

 it.— G. S. C. 



[Unless you defer the operation until very late in the season 

 you must expect to find more or less brood. We, therefore, 

 never hesitate, but always utilise what bvood-eomb we find by 

 giving it to some of our stocks to hatch out. In moveable 

 comb-hives this is readily done by attaching it to bars in the 

 manner described in page 18 of the fifth edition of "Bee- 

 keeping for the Many," and placing it within the hive itself. 

 Where there are no bars but merely a hole in the top, the 

 brood may be placed in its natural position in a bell-glass or 

 other super, and this being put over the aperture in the top of 

 a strong colony, sufficient bees will usually ascend to hatch out 

 the whole. Sprinkling with syrup is not always essential to a 

 successful union, but we do nut deem it advisable to neglect i'. 

 Simple syrup scented with a little peppermint water is, hov. - 

 ever, much better for this purpose than sugared b;er.] 



