268 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 26, 1865. 



it proved me to have been mistaken on this point, gave me no 

 reason to regret the loss of so diminutive and mutilated a queen. 

 The fourth and last case has caused me much vexation, 

 having cost me the loss of a young queen bred late in the 

 season, and which I was especially anxious to preseiTe. On 

 the evening of the 4th inst. I noticed a violent commotion 

 among the inhabitants of a nucleus box containing a queen 

 thirteen days old, having been hatched on the 22nd of August. 

 On opening the liive and lifting out the combs I presently 

 discerned the horrible little regicidal cluster, with whose ap- 

 pearance I have, unfortimately, become too famihar not to 

 recognise it immediately ; and having manipulated it in the 

 manner before described, I had the mortification of finding its 

 nucleus to consist only of the lifeless and disfigured remains 

 of' my once beautiful queen — a mortification which was by no 

 means diminished on a minute examination leading mo to 

 believe that she had been murdered on her return from a 

 successful wedding trip, and in this, as in a former instance 

 related last year, my hopes had indeed been blasted in the 

 very moment of their fruition. 



So much for my more recent experience of regicide and 

 regicidal attacks among bees. I will now turn to the considera- 

 tion of Mr. Lowe's articles on the subject, to which, however, 

 he has preferred giving a different name. 



In " our .Journal " of the 3rd of January, page 19, Mr. Lowe 

 expresses an opinion that the queen, in a case previously re- 

 lated by me, was " evidently wounded" before being returned 

 to her own liive, where she was incarcerated and kiUed. This 

 is, however, quite a mistake, since I can assure Mr. Lowe that, 

 on the contrary, she was perfectly unhurt by the strangers by 

 whom she had been so briefly imprisoned. 



As all the instances I have now related refer to queens 

 artificially reared they would unquestionably appear to bear 

 out Mr. Lowe's idea, that such queens are peculiarly liable to 

 maltreatment by their workers. Such, however, is not my own 

 opinion. These miscarriages bear but a small proportion to 

 the number of queens successfully reared, and none of them 

 escape discovery. My observation of apiaries in which natural 

 swarming alone takes place, convinces me that at least as gi-eat 

 a proportion of mishaps of some kind happen to young queens, 

 but the construction of the hives, and lack of obsen'atiou on the 

 part of the bee-keepers themselves, preclude the production of 

 evidence which woiild in all probability estabhsh the fact, that 

 queens reared in the ordinary manner are quite as liable to 

 become victims to regicidal attacks as their so-called "artificial " 

 sisters. 



I am unable to indorse the opinion of " A Lanaekshike Bee- 

 KEEPEii," that regicidal attacks on young queens may always 

 be referred to the presence of stranger bees ; nor can I, on the 

 other hand, agree with Mr. Lowe, that they are owing either to 

 defects in the procreative powers of the queen or to the want 

 of timeous fecundation. In the first two cases which I have 

 related, both the queens which I succeeded in rescuing com- 

 menced egg-lajdng within the average time, and have since 

 proved themselves fully competent to fulfil all the duties of 

 their position ; whilst the one that perished so miserably was 

 barely thirteen days old, .and had I been so fortunate as to 

 have been warned in time to save her, would probably have 

 turned oiit by no means inferior to her rescued sisters. 



Whilst thus doubting the theories advanced by others, I 

 must honestly confess to being imprepared to propound any 

 of my own. So far as my observations extend, regicide and 

 regicidal attacks still appear to me to be a mysterious and very 

 unsatisfactory chapter in the natural history of the honey 

 bee. — A Devonshire Bee-keepek. 



GAS TAR INJURIOUS TO BEES. 



One of yom- correspondents asks if gas tar is prejudicial to 

 bees. If my experience is worth anything, he ought on no 

 account to use it. Some years since I covered the walks of my 

 kitchen garden, where I kept my bees, with a mixture of gas 

 tar and ashes from the furnace of a steam boiler, and in a day 

 or two all the walk in front of the hives was strewed over with 

 thousands of bees in all stages of decrepitude. It seemed to 

 act on them like chloroform, only they never got up again. 



Whilst I am on the subject of bees, let me ask bow the bees 

 get rid of the drones. You see them generally in August 

 driving them out of the hive by hundreds, but I have very 

 rarely seen one stung to death. If observed carefully, ninety- 

 nine out of every himdred are held by the working bees at the ' 



base of one of the wings, which the bee seems to be biting as 

 ferociously as possible ; and my belief is, although I have never 

 seen the remark made nor a similar question asked, that the 

 wing is weakened by this, and breaks down during the flight of 

 the drone after escaping from its persecutors. — T. G. 



LIGURIANS IN STAFFORDSHIRE. 



I SEND the sole surviving queen raised from the brood of my 

 first Italian queen. I believe she is rather more than three 

 years old. and shall be obUged by Mr. Woodbury informing me 

 if she exhibits any symptoms of an exhausted spermatheca. 

 She has been very prohfic during the whole of this season. I 

 have not seen this queen since last summer, and could not 

 swear to her identity with the one raised in July, 1862 ; but 

 the hive has never changed queens to my knowledge, and the 

 coloiu- of her progeny this year agrees -ivith that of the two 

 preceding years. She is either thi-ee years old, or not more 

 than one. 



The hive which I reserved for late di-ones still contains a 

 great number of those gentlemen. They have a young queen 

 which is, I have no doubt, impregnated, "but she had not com- 

 menced to lay a few days ago when I examined the hive. 

 She is almost certain to prove pure. A second queen was 

 either lost on her wedding trip, or killed by her subjects, as 

 she has disappeared. The bees in the drone hive are perse- 

 cuting the drones. — J. E. B. 



[The spermatheca of the queen which accompanied your 

 letter proved, on examination, to be fully charged with sper- 

 matozoa, nor did it exhibit the slightest sigu of exhaustion. — 

 A Devoxshiee Bee-keepeb.] 



Game Bantam Cup at Bikmingham. — I have received the 

 following promises of subscriptions : — Geo. Manning. Esq., 

 £1 la. ; ilr. J, Crossland, jun., £1 Is. I hope other exhibitors 

 will allow me to add their names. — R. B. Posians, Brentwood, 

 Esac.v. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



White Spanish Fowls (..1. P. B.). — We have not seen any White Spanish 

 fowls for a lonfl time. They were always looked upon more as pets and 

 eccentricities than anything else, and were not largely bred. They 

 lacked the contrast that forms the chief beauty of the Spanish — black 

 plumage, white face, and red comb. 



Calne Poultry Show. — We are glad to observe the Committee show 

 their appreciation of the value of Brahmas by making sepiirate classes 

 for hght and dark. We trust the error in tlie schedule of then- being 

 styled hght and dark pencilled ^vill not cause confusion, as it was not 

 observed until too late for alteration. The classes are well divided, and 

 the prizes though not large, as liberal as the funds will admit of. 



Earth Floor of Poultry-house— Nests {A. S. B.). — After seeing the 

 floors of the pens at the Poultry Company's establishment, and their 

 entire freedom from offensive smell, we would, if we had need of manure, 

 turn over the dry earth of the poultry-house floor three times weekly, and 

 remove it entirely, and replace it with fresh dr}- earth at the end of eveiy 

 two months. We think that a nest having for its flooring nothing but 

 perfectly di-y sandy earth would be excellent, and freer from vermin than 

 if lined with hay or straw. 



Points in S'ilver-spangled Hamburghs (-7. B. B.). — Well-formed 

 combs ; piked behind, and the pike turning slightly upwards, firmly placed 

 on the head and perfectly straight. The hackle feathers of the hen should 

 be black and white-striped. -A white hackle is a defect. The tail should 

 be white, but tipped or mooned with black at the end of each feather. 

 The body should be mooned all over, and the wing laced and barred. 

 Legs blue. 



Profitable Poultry {Pu^hh). — Brahmas, Cochins, or Spanish will be 

 the birds that \viU suit you best. They will agree with the common barn- 

 door fowls; but we do not see why these latter should be kept if you 

 adopt our suggestion of one of the breeds we have named. 



Peacock's Feathers Brittle (J. P.). — We are at a loss to know to 

 what to attribute the breaking of the Peacock's feathers, but he will 

 recover his plumage. 



Poultry Diseased (C. T. r.).— We believe the rain, which is beginning 

 to fall as we wTite, will remedy many of the diseases which have tor- 

 mented you, and us, and many more. Everything is too dry and husky. 

 Give eve'ry fowl affected a table-spoonful of castor-oil, continue the bread 

 and beer, and give to each a pill of camphor as large as an ordinary pea. 



Vulture-hocked Brahma Pootras iW.). — The vulture hock is as ob- 

 jectionable in these as in the Cochin-Chinas. The legs shoiUd he well 

 feathered. We hardly know what to advise in the case you mention. 

 We have never had a similar case. We should advise that it be treated 

 with stimulants. 



Canary with Sore Feet (S. D. H. H.).— Sore feet may arise from.two 

 causes. If the perches cross each other so that they catch the dirt, the 

 feet become dirty and sore. Wash the feet clean and auuiut them with 

 salve. Scrape the perches clean, and alter them so as not to catch the 

 dirt. Sore feet may also proceed from wool or the tibres of silk or cotton 

 becoming entangled around them, cutting to the bone and becoming 

 embedded in the flesh, causing the toes to mortify and drop off. Wash 

 the feet clean, pick out the fibres— a magnifying glass may be necessary 

 to enable you to see them— then anoint the feet, and if you get out the 

 thread the'y will soon heal. This is not imfreyuent ivhca ladies allow 

 their birds wool or floss silk to build with.— B. P. Beent. 



