252 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 25, 1866. 



Referring to regicidal attacks on young queens, Herr Yogel 

 Says :— 



" It has frequently happened to me that young queens were 

 killed hy their own workers ; but this was only the case after 

 their returning from a successful wedding flight." For certain 

 reasons which Herr Vogel states, they then seem strange to the 

 bees, wherefore they are often treated hostilely, nay even killed. 



" You are quite right " continues Herr Vogel " in saying that 

 Egyptian queens mating with Italian drones produce only 

 Egyptian drones. Observation has shown this also in the 

 present year. Likewise Egyptian queens impregnated by black 

 drones bred only pure Egyptian drones. If the young queen 

 is a true one by birth, the mating with a drone of another 

 species has no influence whatever on her male offspring. 



" I do not find that the Egyptian queens quit their cells 

 sooner than the Italian. If this has been the case with you, 

 then the bees have chosen a larva more than three days old, 

 from which to raise a queen, wherefore your queens hatched 

 sooner. It has repeatedly happened to me, that queens left 

 their cells on the tenth day ; but this was only the case when 

 the bees had larvre four or five days old from which to rear a 

 queen. 



" You did well to raise young Egyptian queens this summer. 

 Next spring you will have Egyptian drones in greater abundance. 

 The latter are on the whole of a more beautiful colour than the 

 Italian drones, which, as a rule, vary in colour." 



Being willing to conclude what I thought worth extracting 

 from Herr Vogel's letters, I have advanced somewhat too far 

 in point of time, and must therefore go back to the end of 

 July, when I received the Egyptian queen. As before stated, 

 Bhe alone survived the journey and the hazards of an introduc- 

 tion to a small colony of Italians, which I immediately pro- 

 ceeded to strengthen by the careful selection and gradual addi- 

 tion of ripe brood combs from other and stronger stocks. This 

 process being necessarily somewhat slow, I could not wait for 

 its conclusion, but was of course compelled to defer operations 

 until my lilliputian Semiramis had so far recovered from the 

 fatigues and dangers incident to her journey and translation to 

 an alien stock, to commence the all-important duty of oviposi- 

 tion in her new realm. It was not, therefore, until the 7th of 

 August that I found myself in a position to take the first step 

 towards propagating my new and very interesting acquisition. 

 As it was essential that in endeavouring after this end I should 

 not deteriorate even in the slightest degree the little colony 

 presided over by the illustrious stranger whose dangers and 

 adventures formed the subject of my last paper, I may be ex- 

 cused for entering somewhat into detail in describing the pro- 

 cess by which the prosperity of the original colony was not 

 only not retarded, but was even actually advanced by the mea- 

 sures adopted for propagating the new race. Selecting, then, 

 one of the original combs in which her Egyptian majesty had 

 by this time deposited a good many eggs, I on the above-men- 

 tioned day swept every bee from it back into the hive with a 

 feather, and supplied its place with a comb full of sealed brood 

 from another hive, thus actually benefiting and strengthening 

 the Egyptian stock. Putting the abstracted comb into a nucleus- 

 box, I added to it two honeycombs, placed one on each side, 

 and brushed into the box all the bees from three brood-combs 

 lifted out of a strong hive for that purpose. Substituting a 

 sheet of perforated zinc for the crown-board of the nucleus- 

 box, and closing the entrance by means of the same material, 

 I at once conveyed it to a dark room, where it remained until 

 dusk. As soon as darkness had pretty well set in it was placed 

 on its intended stand, the entrance unbarred, and the crown- 

 board replaced. A grand rush was of course the result, but it 

 was too dark to take wing, and the involuntary truants were 

 perforce compelled to remain where they were until the next 

 morning, when numbers, doubtless, returned to their own 

 hive. Notwithstanding this desertion, so many bees remained 

 that had never taken flight, and, consequently, knew not their 

 way home, that royal cells were started in due course, and the 

 first queen was hatched on the 22nd of August, just fifteen 

 days after the formation of the little artificial colony. 



I had a few, but only a very few, full-sized Italian drones 

 remaining, and my principal dependence for the fecundation of 

 theBe late-bred princesses, was on the services of a number of 

 small Ligurian drones bred in worker-cells, and which have on 

 this account been deemed by some to be incapable of fulfilling 

 their proper functions. Evidences of fecundation were, there- 

 fore, watched for with no little anxiety, and it will readily be 

 conceived with what exultation the fact was hailed, that on the 

 9th of September, and on the eighteenth day of her existence, 



it was found that this, the first English-bred Egyptian queen 

 bee, had become fully capable of performing every duty con- 

 nected with her position. — A Devonshire Bee-keeper. 



TO PRESERVE FRUIT FOR WINTER USE. 



Quite till the ordinary wide-mouthed fruit-bottles with sound 

 fruit, let it be thoroughly shaken down, so that the bottles shall 

 hold as much as possible. Next, firmly fix a board horizontally 

 in a copper, on which set the bottles of fruit ; pour cold water 

 into the copper till it reaches to within about 1 \ inch of the 

 mouths of the bottles. Now, light the fire and allow the water 

 to heat gradually. As soon as the water begins to boil, the fruit 

 will shrink ; when it has shrunk about 2 inches take the bottles 

 out of the copper, and fill them nearly to the top with boiling 

 water, taking care that no fruit floats ; pour on the top about a 

 table-spoonful of strong spirit, then cork down tightly and seal, 

 first dipping the lower end of the cork into the spirit. Bladder 

 may be substituted for the cork, and sealing wax. 



It is essential that the final closing should be completed 

 ii-hili' (hi- bottles are quite lint. If a copper is inconvenient, the 

 boiling may be done in a saucepan of the requisite depth over 

 the fire, but the bottles must be prevented from touching the 

 saucepan, by means of straw. 



By adopting the above method, I have had for some winters 

 past a good supply of fruit, perfect in flavour', and bright in 

 colour. — H. W. 



A Good Disinfectant. — The carbolate of lime is recom- 

 mended by medical authority as an effectual and cheap disin- 

 fectant. Its preparation is very simple. Take a tub and place 

 some unslacked lime in it, then add water and stir up ; after 

 a time draw off the water, and add carbolic acid in the propor- 

 tion of one part to two hundred. Thus, as carbolic acid only 

 costs about Is. per gallon wholesale, we have the cheapest of 

 disinfectants. If this were extensively used to flush our sewers, 

 as also by private persons in their own houses, it would do 

 much to prevent disease. 



A Greenfinch Mule Breeding. — My attention has been 

 directed to the suggestions made by a correspondent, that an 

 error may have been made, and that the hen may not really 

 have been a mule, but, upon that I am perfectly clear. I bred 

 her myself from a cock greenfinch and a hen canary kept by 

 themselves in a breeding cage, so that of her being a mule I 

 have no doubt. She has brought up eleven young birds, and 

 is now sitting upon five eggs. I do not attempt to explain this 

 freak of nature, but of the fact itself I can bear positive testi- 

 mony. — W. B. Hughes, Chelmsford. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Honourable Man (O. B. L.). — "We do not know. 



Cochin-Chinas (H. O. E.).— The cock two years old and the pullets six 

 months are not objectionable as to age; whether their progeny is good 

 depends upon very different antecedents— breed, management, relation- 

 ship. &c. Vulture hocks are when the feathers of the thighs are so long 

 as to project beyond the knee or hock, as it does in the vulture and some 

 other species of rapacious birds. 



Game Cock's Bill Broken (Game Cock).— The bill will not grow again 

 to its original size, nor are there any means of making it do so. The 

 bird may be inconvenienced by it, but is not disqualified. He will 

 soon learn to eat. 



Oats Ground for Poultry. — In reply to your correspondent, I may 

 name Mr. John Hill, Maresfield Mill, Uckfield, Susses, who will forward 

 samples and price. — W. W. Townshend. 



Bee-house (E. W.).— The size of a bee-house must, of course, be 

 determined by the number of hives it is intended to accommodate, 

 whether eight or ten or more, allowing 3 feet between each doorway. 

 Ligurian bees are not now very expensive. If you write to T. W. Wood- 

 bury, Esq., Mount Radford, Exeter, he will give particulars. 



POULTRY MARKET.— September 17. 



The tardy harvest operations are not without effect upon the poultry 

 market. The people are too busy in the fields to kill and send up poultry. 

 This causes rather a better price than is usual for fattened and choice 

 poultry. 



s d. s. d | s. d s. d 



Large Fowls 2 6 to 3 Partridges to 



Smaller do 2 2 8 Grouse 



Fowls Hares 



Chickens 16 19 Rabbits 14 16 



Geese 6 6 6 Wild do 8 9 



Ducks 1 6 1 9 I Pigeons 8 8 9 



