534 



JOURNAL OF HOR'tlCULTtrRE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ D«oenibei 2G, 1865. 



fly with the flight, but is what is called a top-flyer, flying above 

 all the others, ami every now aucl then rolling into the flight. 

 They were at the time taking a nice fly ; the cock in question 

 was at the height of abont 400 or 500 feet, as nearly as I could 

 judge, when ho made a sharp spin and rolled till he came to 

 the ground. I was much afraid ho would l)e hurt, but, fortu- 

 nately, he does not appear to have received any injury. He 

 quickly got up, flew to the roof and went in, leaving the others 

 to continue their flight, which they did for an hour. I have 

 several others that roll to the ground, but then they cannot 

 get up so high, indeed, it is the longest roll I ever saw or heard 

 of ; how many times he went over in that roll it is impossible 

 to say. 



Air-tumblers often tumble twenty, thirty, or even forty times 

 in a minute, and I once counted a white cock tumble forty-five 

 times iu a minute. I have still Borne of the breed, but the 

 beauty of their tumbling is that each somersault is made clean 

 and distinct, without rolling or falling ; first-rate birds are very 

 rare. Others of the House-tumbler variety tumble close to the 

 ground, the best cannot fly up at all, they will tumble in the 

 house or on the lawn, and are very curious and amusing. — 

 B. P. Bbent. 



A CAUTION TO SELLERS. 



A SHORT time since I received a memorandum bearing a 

 printed name and address at a certain street in Manchester, 

 requesting me to forward some birds which I had for sale. I 

 was not satisfied with the bait, and I did not swallow the hook. 

 I have since ascertained that the person in question is " a no- 

 torious swindler, and not worth a penny." 



This communication may be acceptable to your readers, as it 

 may prevent some of them from sending birds to Manchester 

 without a sufficient guarantee for their safety, and it will save 

 much trouble to the swindling fraternity to know that I am 

 not easily taken in, and that I am prepared to " ventilate " them 

 should they make the attempt. 



If any of your readers should have been victimised by an 

 application from Manchester, and will send me the name of 

 the swindler, I will publish the name and address in full if it 

 should be the same as that of the fellow who tried his tricks 

 upon me. — George Manning, SjJiinffJicld, Eascv. 



TliE WOODBURY Iin'E. 



In Mr. Woodbury's description of his justly celehrated hive, 

 respecting fitting it with bar frames, he says, " A three-eighth 

 rabbet is cut out of the top inner edge at the back and front, 

 and below this are the notches, seven-eighths wide by three- 

 eighths deep, in which rest the ends of the frames. This ar- 

 rangement affords the bees a free passage above the frames as 

 well as below and at the sides." Now, in the first Woodbury 

 hive I had made these instructions were rigidly carried out, in 

 fact, my Woodbury hive was exactly like the pattern given in 

 "Bee-keeping for the Many," and made by a good workman. 



My first swarm this year was on May 19th, it was hived in the 

 usual way, and the bees were aftenvards shaken out on a cloth 

 and the Woodbury hive placed over them ; they soon went up and 

 all went right. July 1st I removed the crown-board and placed 

 the super on, one exactly the right size and fitted close down to 

 the hive. August 14th I removed the super quite full of splendid 

 honeycomb, not a brood cell in it, and all sealed up, weighing 

 about 30 lbs. nett, and leaving the stock-box with 25 lbs. in it ; 

 but unfortunately the bees had worked between the super bottom 

 and the tops of the frames, though there was only three-eighths 

 of an inch between them (the proper distance), and then again 

 the bees had worked between the tops of the bars and crown- 

 board in the super. 



I have not had the frames out of the hive yet, but I do not 

 think that the bees have worked between the sides of the hive 

 and the frames, excepting a little down two frames which come 

 against the \vindow ; the glass being let in too deep a rabbet, 

 instead of being flush up, gave them a little more room. I sup- 

 pose Mr. Woodbury's reason for having the frames let-in the 

 three-eighth rabbet is that the bees may have free access to 

 the super. I should not have troubled you with this, but I am 

 having more boxes made, and I thought of ha\-ing the frames 

 put in level with the sides of the hive. Please say if you see 

 any objection to this, and if yoi: have known instances of bees 

 working between the frames and super, as I have described. 



In the spring I shall want to remove the bees and frames 



from this hive into another of the same dimensions ; but not 

 being quite such a good hand at it as Mr. Woodbury, I think 

 it would be best first to drive the bees into an empty hive. To 

 accomplish this, should I remove the crown-board and drive 

 them up in that v,ay, or should I remove the floor-board and 

 turn the hive upside down? Be good enough to say which is 

 the right way. — J. A. ," 



[Three-eighths space is left at the top of the frames in order 

 to facilitate the removal and replacement of the crown-board 

 without crushing the bees. It is true that during tbe height 

 of the season they wiU fill even this small space with comb, 

 but it can be readily scraped oil when supering is over, and the 

 crown-board will tlien remain free till next yeai'. If the combs 

 are not worked perfectly straight it may be the easiest plan to 

 drive the bees, and we should be glad if you would try to drive 

 them upwards through thu bars, and report the result, as it is 

 a little matter on which " doctors difi'er." During the autumn 

 of 1SC3 Mr. Woodbury hazarded the opinion in our columns, 

 that bees might be driven in this manner, which opinion was 

 demurred to by " B. & W." As we doubt whether either of 

 these gentlemen have submitted their ideas to the test of ex- 

 IJerimeut, we should like to see (i,t tried bj a.tiSxird gfrt^f J , 

 lu. ^ ' ■ . l.r;: :j A vi'iv/ - I. ; 



THE DIS!EiASES' OF BEES, 



(Coiitiimeil from 2iag'^ iiG.) , 



Dropst (?).— During the winter of 18G1-2 I lost three ptQcks 

 from what at the time I called, and believed to be, dysentery,* 

 but which I am now disposed to consider a malady heretofore 

 undescribed by apiarians, and which may, perhaps, he appro- 

 priately designated dropsy, to which disease it bears indeed 

 no inconsiderable resemblance. Its symptoms are great en- 

 largement of the abdomen, which becomes so distended with 

 a Watery fluid that the unfortimate bee is perfectly imable to 

 fly, in which state it either betakes itself to the top of the hive 

 or rests on the floor-board, where, if the weather be cold, it 

 dies, or whence, if the weather he warm, it (hops on the 

 ground, and crawls about until it expires. The natural func- 

 tions appear to be entirely suspended, and if the abdomen he 

 forcibly compressed a rupture of the membrane takes place, at- 

 tended by a flow of its watery contents, which emit a sour and 

 disagreeable odour. Contrary to what Dzierzon remarks in the 

 ease of dysentery, the queen enjoys no immunity from this 

 disease. When she is attacked she becomes incapable of ovi- 

 position, whilst her abdomen swells to a remarkable size : after 

 some days have elapsed she loses her hold of the combs, and 

 drops on the floor-board, where, surrounded by a number of her 

 subjects, she may yet linger many liours before death relieves 

 her from her sufferings. A friend of mine, who is an excellent 

 natm'alist, kindly undertook to preserve and set up a verj' hand- 

 some Ligurian queen that perished in this way, and he in- 

 formed me that on opening her abdomen a good teaspoonful of 

 fluid gushed out ! I had also a young Italian queen which, about 

 the time I expected her to commence egg-laying, increased so 

 rapidly in size that I became not a little proud of her as the 

 largest queen I ever saw. Alas, for the futility of human 

 hopes ! My magnificent queen turned out to be not cncientp, 

 but diseased, and perished without ever having laid an egg. 



I had two other instances of this malady about the same 

 time in which the queens escaped, and I could almost fancy 

 their breeding powers were actually stimulated by the presence 

 of the disease, since their fecundity not only overtook the 

 extraordinary mortality which constantly prevailed, but theirs 

 became two of the strongest stocks in my apiary. It was, 

 however, most pitiable to see, all through the spring and during 

 the finest summer weather, the ground in front of the hives 

 perpetually covered with hundreds of disabled and dying bees, 

 which crawled about in all directions, setting up at intervals 

 a feeble vibration of their wings, as if in faint imitation of the 

 hovering cloud of joyous labourers overhead, in whose delightful 

 toil they were never again to participate. It will readily be 

 believed that I exhausted my ingentiity, and sought for infor- 

 mation from all quarters, in the hope of effecting a cure. I 

 even obtained the advice of the great Dzierzon, who was, how- 

 ever, unable to suggest a remedy, but opined that the disease 

 I described was " akindof dysentery." Asaremedial measure 

 I first tried shifting the combs and bees into clean hives, but 

 no mitigation of the virulence of tbe disease was the reijnlt. I 

 next took away all their combs and brood, which I gave to other 



• ndt JouRNAi OF HoRTicDLTUEE, VoI. T., page EOS. 



