July M, 1886. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



75 



faction must bo, that if ho loses some eggs it is only some out 

 of very many laid, and tho egg-collecting boy must be told to 

 koop bis eyos about him. A brooder of Hamburghs of many 

 yoars duration tells me that only a few of her's bad this fault, 

 one hen out of several, which it was best to kill. I will add 

 that I always recommend Dorkings as the best birds for the 

 farmer, though Hamburghs are charming pets for amateurs 

 who livo in the country.— Wiltshire Rector. 1 



EXTRACTING THE GAPES WORM. 



I have seen the remedy recommended for gapes by " G. W., 

 Cardiff," in The Journal of Horticulture for Juno 12th. 

 How is it possiblo to introduce the gut into the windpipe ? It 

 seems to ho the throat of the chicken it, or a feather, goes into, 

 and how can the difference be known and made ? I have been 

 told by a medical man that it is very difficult to introduce any- 

 thing into the windpipe. — F. P. 



[The medical man is right, it is difficult to introduce any- 

 thing into the windpipe, but by no means impossible or inju- 

 rious. We are always cautious bow we attempt it with any- 

 thing as hard as gut, but we work freely with a feather, as 

 danger is impossible. If it have the effect of a crumb going the 

 wrong way so much the better, the coughing will get rid of 

 some of the worms. When the bird breathes, the feather can 

 be introduced. You may not succeed the first or second time, 

 Imt you will at last. We dip a feather in turpentine.] 



THE EGYPTIAN BEE.— Part I. 



ITS MANAGEMENT IN EGYPT, AND ITS INTRODUCTION INTO 

 GERMANY. 



*' In conclusion the author enters npQn the question of the acclima- 

 tisation of new forms of bees. For Europe he thinks the most valuable 

 form would be the Egyptian, partly on account of their beauty, and 

 partly because of their unwillingness to use their stings, which appears 

 to he common to all African bees, and is also one of the recommenda- 

 tions of the Italian bee." — Annah and Magazine of Natural History 

 for May, 1863. 



Some time before the appearance of Mr. Dallas's epitomised 

 translation of Dr. Gerstiicker's paper on " The Geographical 

 Distribution and Varieties of the Honey Bee," from which the 

 above extract is taken, I had become aware of the value attri- 

 buted by the learned German to the Egyptian race of honey 

 bees (Apis fasciata), and had taken steps for obtaining it by 

 sending an order to a distinguished mercantile firm in that 

 oountry, to whom I had obtained an introduction, for three 

 colonies of bees, accompanying my order with full instructions 

 for packing and transporting them to England. This order 

 was, however, never executed, for reasons which I could not at 

 the time comprehend, but which the following narrative ex- 

 plains clearly enough, and the whole affair remained in abey- 

 ance until last year, when I learned that the Berlin Acclimati- 

 sation Society had token the matter in hand, with what success 

 Herr Vogel, the distinguished German apiarian who has acted 

 for the Society, shall relate for himself. — A Devonshire Bee- 

 keeper. 



"We believe that Egypt was included in the range of the 

 creation of tho bee, since, on account of the obscurity and in- 

 sufficient knowledge we possess of the ancient history of this 

 country, we can neither prove that our favourite insect spread 

 by degrees voluntarily into it, nor that it was man who intro- 

 duced the bee into the valley of the Nile. 



" The historical fact that the ancient Egyptians were a culti- 

 vated people gives us reason enough to suppose that tho bee 

 was domesticated in Egypt in the earliest times. Although we 

 do not find it reckoned among the animals that were consi- 

 dered sacred, yet different antiquarians are of opinion that the 

 mythical sacredness of the bee was likewise intimated in the 

 name of Apis, by which name the sacred bull of the Egyptians 

 was called, as the name of the sacred bull is identical with the 

 later Latin denomination of the bee. It would be overhasty to 

 infer from tho biblical account that because the old patriarch 

 Jacob amongst other presents also sent honey to "the man" 

 in Egypt, that the bee did not exist in Egypt at that time, 

 and that therefore Jacob wished to make a valuable present of 

 lioney to Joseph. According to the opinion of biblical com- 

 mentators the honey (D'basch), mentioned in Gen. liii, 11, 

 was not the honey of bees, but a kind of succcdaneum, a thick- 

 ened grape jnvie, which was afterwards also taken from Pales- 



tine into Egypt, which was poorer in honey. It is still at tho 

 presont day called Dibs. 



" Tho ancient Egyptians used tho Nilo to obtain rich har- 

 vests, and the ancient Egyptian bee-keepers understood also 

 how to use the river for profiting from the plants through their 

 bees by carrying on an extensive wander-bee-keeping on the great 

 river. As Upper Egypt is hotter than Lower Egypt, and tho 

 country thero is sooner freod from the inundation, the honey- 

 yielding piants also develope themselves earlier. In Lower and 

 Middle Egypt tho beo-hives having been previously numbered, 

 were piled in a pyramidal form on boats specially constructed 

 for this purpose, and were taken up tho Nile with tho wander- 

 ing bee-house. 



" When the chief gathering in Upper Egypt was over, they 

 were shipped a few miles lower down the stream, and a halt 

 was again made so long as the bees found plenty of food. In 

 the beginning of February tho stocks arrived in Lower Egypt, 

 where they were again delivered to their owners. The bee- 

 keepers of Upper Egypt who had accompanied them, after 

 their hives had profited by the pasture near the sea, went 

 home again with their heavy stocks up the stream, in April._ 



" The civilisation of Egypt fading by degrees, and becoming 

 worn-out and effete, ultimately expired under the rule of the 

 fanatical Mahometans. With the vanishing culture, bee-keeping 

 in Egypt, old and extensive as it was, sunk too; at least, 

 modern travellers no longer see anything of wander-bee-keep- 

 ing on the Nile. A change has taken place in Egypt also in 

 modern times. At present it is only those Arabs (Fellahs) who 

 are settled and carry on agriculture and a few Copts who keep 

 bees, whilst the Bedouins living on the borders of the desert 

 keep none at all. From the small number of inhabitants in 

 the country (about three millions), we may judge of the very 

 small number of bee-keepers there. Bees are most extensively 

 cidtivated in Upper Egypt. They are kept there in moveable 

 earthenware vessels, and it is said that these vessels are imme- 

 diately walled in. In Middle and Lower Egypt there are but 

 few apiaries. An architect named Kindler travelled in the 

 neighbourhood of Cairo for some time without discovering one 

 apiary. Besides earthenware vessels, the bee-dwellings here 

 also consist of clay cylinders. Straw hives do not seem to he 

 in use, and when the word Wrbe (straw hives), is used in ac- 

 counts of travels in Egypt, when speaking of bee-keeping in 

 that country, it probably means bee-hives only. 



" I only know the Egyptian cylinders by sight. They are 

 made of the Nile mud, from which material also the poor 

 people in that country construct their miserable cottages. Such 

 a cylinder is about 15 inches diameter inside, by 3 feet long, 

 and has, therefore, about the same internal dimensions as a 

 large Dzierzon hive. It is lfc to 2 inches in thickness. The 

 hive is closed at both ends by means of circular discs made 

 of the same material; and the entrance, which is but small, 

 is made in one of these discs. Cross sticks are not employed. 

 The cylinders lie in a horizontal position, and are placed, 

 like draining tiles, under the shade of a tree. The stock 

 which was introduced into Germany stood in Egypt until its 

 removal under the large tree in the English churchyard at 

 Cairo. The hive of the imported stock was a cylinder, only 

 about one-third of the size of the usual hives, made so small 

 purposely for transportation. February is the swarming season 

 in Upper, and March in Lower, Egypt. The imported stock is a 

 small second swarm, which issued in the latter end of March. 

 An artificial increase of stocks is not known. Bee-caps are 

 unknown. The Egyptian bee-keepers always approach their 

 bees with their faces unprotected, hive the swarms, and de- 

 prive the bees of honey according as they have gathered. The 



Egyptian clover, Trifolium alexandrinum, is the favourite plant 



of the bee. 



(To he continued.) 



SIZE OF HIVES— BLACK BEES. 



I have a prime swarm hived June 10th, which has to-day, 

 (July 12th), as late as six o'clock, clustered on and underneath 

 the alighting-board of a frame hive (mentioned below as ob- 

 long). It has been very warm here. How can I stop this in 

 future ? As I can make my own hives I followed the direc- 

 tions given in the "Bee-keeper's Manual" for frame hives, 

 and was afterwards told they were too large for this part 

 (North Cheshire) ; so I then made my next hive to consist of 

 eight frames of the same size as the previous one instead of 

 ten, thus making it a parallelogram. Will this matter ? 



Why are all bees not Ligurians called black bees? Mine 



