330 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE CAEDENEE. 



r October 17, 1865. 



Woodward, Kirton. Commended, Master W. Dring, Satton Marsh ; Mrs. 

 Gr^ger, Sutton Marsh; R, Bush (Spanish). 



The Arbitrator appointed was Edward Hewitt, Esq., of Eden Cottage. 

 Sparkbrook, near Birmingham. 



SUNFLOWER SEED FOR PHEASANTS AND 

 POULTRY. 



Seeing in your Letter Box an answer to a correspondent 

 about sunflower seed for poultry, I send you a short account 

 of how it succeeds with me. 



I have this year grown a large quantity, as an experiment, for 

 food for Pheasants, and I find they are most gieedy after it. 

 It is quite impossible to keep them away from the place in the 

 garden where I have laid the sunflower heads to diy ; as many 

 as thirty are sometimes among them in the morning. 



When I give the seed to Pheasants I only lay the heads along 

 different paths in the woods, and leave the Pheasants to pick 

 out the seeds, which they find great amusement in doing. If 

 your correspondent were to give them in the same way to his 

 poultry doubtless they woiild eat the seeds. — A Man of Kent. 



THE HUMBLE PETITION OF EXHIBITED 

 TURKEYS 



TO AiL POULTRY SHOW COMMITTEES. 



We hope that you will pardon us for intruding upon you ; 

 but on the eve of the poultry-show season we earnestly implore 

 your attention to one complaint. We feel emboldened by the 

 success attendant upon former suggestions, when the Bath and 

 West of England Society enlarged their Turkey pens. WeU 

 would it have been for us had the Committee of the late 

 Poultry Show at Calne followed so good an example. But 

 alas ! our miserable enclosui'es there, in a full sun, were a 

 " cruelty to animals ;" and bitter were the laments of our 

 owners that our beautiful plumage, just moulted out, would be 

 effectually ruined for any future exhibition. We envied the 

 useless heights of the Pigeon pens at that Show, to which none 

 of the officials were tall enough to aflix the commendatoiy 

 cards ! and we would humbly suggest that committees should 

 consign the construction of then' pens to some one versed in 

 the rules of proportion. Then may we hope that our majestic 

 forms will not only have room for comfort but for display. — 

 The Torket Pkisoneks at Calne. 



BEE-KEEPING IN YORKSHIRE. 

 Having lately returned from a tour through the East Riding 

 of Yorkshire, including the Pickering Valley, which is a noted 

 bee-country, perhaps some readers of " our Journal " maj- like to 

 know how they manage matters in that quarter. The season 

 of 1865 has not been very satisfactory, the complaint being that 

 no good has been done since the early part of July. As regards 

 the heather, the season could hardly have been worse, many 

 hives returning as Ught as they went. I lifted hives which 

 had just oome back from the moors, and others on the same 

 stand that had remained at home, and there was but Uttle to 

 choose between them. The bean-blossom is the chief depend- 

 ance of the bee-keepers in the summer time, there beiug vei-y 

 little white clover grown in the district, while beans are a very 

 extensive crop. A swarm which came o& just as the flower 

 was at its prime, had filled the skep with comb, and was ac- 

 cordingly eked in ten days after swarming. This, and some 

 other examples of the kind, would seem to indicate a very 

 favourable eounti-y ; but the universal statement was that the 

 heather furnished the principal harvest. I did not meet with 

 a single exception to this remark, or I should have been dis- 

 posed to question its correctness. The land is good ; a fair 

 proportion of it is under grass ; there is abundance of fruit, 

 and a still gi-eater abundance of wood, in fact, every apparent 

 indication of a good honey country ; nevertheless, hives are 

 scarcely ever fit to " take " unless sent to the heather. Things 

 are managed in the old-fashioned style — bell-shaped hives on 

 stone slabs. The only novelty % could discover, and the fame 

 of which was spread far and wide, was an ornamental hive, 

 standing in a garden in solitary state. It is an accurate model 

 of the neighbouring haU, every stone in the walls, and each 

 slate on the roof being distinctly marked, the patterns of the 

 chimney-pots likewise. The front door is panelled, and neatly 

 painted in imitation of mahogany. It has a brass handle, and 



wants nothing but a brass knocker (at which the pollen-bearers 

 might knock, and which the nurses might open). The door is 

 about 4 inches wide, and is left rather short to form an entrance 

 for the bees, the opening looking Uke a splashboard to keep oS 

 the rain. This miniature hall ought to have stood in a mini- 

 ature garden, instead of which it is placed on the simimit of a 

 rockery, the rockwork consisting of glittering white spar. By 

 way of heightening the incongi'Hity, it is covered like a chair of 

 state by a royal canopy of crimson and gold, sustained on pillars 

 of blue and ;-,'old, a Prince of Wales's feather surmounting the 

 whole. The only sensible thing about it is that when unlocked 

 the whole front of the house comes away, and shows a glass 

 window behind it the fuU size of the hive. The hives stand 

 rather thickly on the ground, and some of the better class of 

 cottagers will have as many as twenty or thirty, in a few cases 

 even more, though the average is from six to ten. The general 

 practice is to let a stock hive stand as it is until the drones 

 are killed off, and then eke and send to the moors. Swarms 

 are eked as they fill up, and so remain through the winter. 

 You may frequently see hives of the second year with three 

 and even four ekes, and standing half a yard high or more. 

 They reckon that unless a hive weighs three stone it is not 

 worth taking, while four and even five stone are not uncommon 

 weights ; but the honey is coarse, and very different from what is 

 obtained in this neighbourhood. Nearly the whole of it is 

 run before beiug sent to market ; but here and there is a travel- 

 ling workman who has added honey-dealing to his other callings, 

 and who buys a score of hives, and after sulphuring the bees 

 takes the hives with him just as they are, and disposes of the 

 honey in the comb. Doubtless, with better management, much 

 better results might be obtained. It is impossible to look at 

 the country and not be satisfied of this ; but although the bee- 

 keepers generally are a fine set of fellows, good-natured, frank, 

 and hearty, they have no liking for new-fangled ways, and they 

 prefer in these matters primitive simplicity. The only innova- 

 tion on the traditions of their fathers respecting bees was " to 

 mesmerise 'em a bit," fungus being the mesmeric agent ; but 

 this was only another way to destroy them without injuring 

 the honey, as the bees thus stupified are never added to another 

 stock. Nobody was -wilHng to be convinced that wood was better 

 than stone, or that bees should be furnished with water in the 

 spring. Super honey was a grand thing, and a man once got 

 some in a straw cap ; but if they began meddfing with new 

 fashions they would, may be, do \ery badly. Such seemed to 

 be the prevailing idea ; but I shall always have pleasixnt recol- 

 lections of the men themselves, and the picturesque, often 

 romantic nooks, in which some of them have their homes. — 

 F. H. West, Pottemewton, near Leeds. 



REMO^^NG BEES TO A SHORT DISTANCE. 



Having taken a house, situated about 600 yards from the one 

 I at present occupy, the removal of my bees demanded a little 

 consideration. An intermediate trip with nine frame hives with 

 covers, stands, &c., would have involved a good deal of trouble, 

 independently of the difiiculty of finding suitable quarters for 

 their temporary accommodation. After some deliberation I 

 resolved to try the following plan with one hive : — The entrance 

 was closed in the evening with a sUp of perforated zinc, and 

 the bung having been removed from the crown-board, a piece 

 of perforated zinc was fastened over the aperture to confine 

 the bees, but ensure sufficient ventilation. On the following 

 morning the hive was carried to its new site, and a circular 

 feeding-trough with a float, containing about a pint of syrup, 

 was placed upon the perforated zinc, closing the aperture in the 

 crown-board ; the zinc was then withdrawn, and the bees were 

 permitted to enter the feeder. The entrance of the hive was 

 kept closed until a good deal of excitement prevailed ; but when 

 the trough was well fiUed with bees, and the excitement of 

 feeding had pervaded the whole community, the slide closing 

 the entrance was removed. The bees at once rushed out most 

 tumulteously, but under the combined influence of feeding and 

 confinement, carefully noted the change which had been made 

 in their locality, and very few returned to their old quarters. 

 I subsequently removed the remainder of my stocks (one or 

 two at a time) in the same way, with most complete success, in 

 some cases scarcely a bee retmuing to the old garden. — J. "E. B. 

 p.g. — On Sunday I discovered that a cottager's hive, which 

 had sent out two swanns in the summer, was queenless. The 

 young queen had, no doubt, either been killed by her subjects, 

 ' or been lost on her wedding trip. 



