476 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 18, 1866. 



GAME FOWLS. 



I hold that " A Lancashire Breeder of Game " is in error 

 in saying that no one can lay down as a rale which sorts of 

 Game are the best fighters and layers, as the best colours both 

 for laying, and more especially for fighting, are well known to all 

 good judges and breeders in every locality, and some parts of 

 England have worse breeds than others, as is well known. That 

 there are some good birds of each colour I readily admit, and 

 so will every one. Game fowls are generally known as very pro- 

 lific birds everywhere, I believe, though some of the sorts are 

 less bo, the Brown Reds being one of them. Game hens when 

 young lay throughout the winter, and the older hens always 

 lay early in the spriDg as a rule. They want to sit often, of 

 course, as all hot birds will do, and their chickens being of a 

 hotter nature stand cold best of all the breeds, but not damp. 

 Yorkshire has plenty of good, large, white-legged, barndoor- 

 fowls such as I described, but Lancashire may have fewer of 

 them. Many judges despise some of the breeds they judge 

 and award prizes to, and I flatly deny that there is anything 

 in the least narrow-minded in so doing. " A Lancashire 

 Breeder " has a bad-laying stock of Game fowls, perhaps, and 

 fancies, therefore, that all other Game fowls are bad layers. 

 I must say I altogether disagree with him in most of his re- 

 marks. 



I beg cordially to thank " Chanticleer " for his little com- 

 pliment to my rough notes on Game Fowls. 



I have known Game fowls well since eleven years old, in 

 1831, thirty-five years, and have bred Game Bantams from 

 1832 to 1856, or twenty-four years. — Newmarket. 



remain in my new hive ? I may mention that the top board is 

 made of fir, and has a very strong smell. — A. W. B. 



[Your concluding remark appears to afford a clue to the 

 solution of the mystery, although we should have supposed 

 that the obnoxious smell would have disappeared by the second 

 season. We are, however, unable to suggest a more probable 

 expluntion.] 



STINGLESS BEES. 



Having to go south I went round by Devonshire, and called 

 on our valued friend the " Devonshire Bee-keeter," who re- 

 ceived me very kindly, showed me over his apiary, and took 

 the top off a hive of his Lignrians, lifting out and showing me 

 every comb, with the bees and queen, without a single bee sting- 

 ing or annoying us in the least, and without having anything on 

 to protect us. May I not, therefore, say these bees are practi- 

 cally stingless? and are we not very much indebted to our 

 Devonshire friend for introducing these beautiful and valuable 

 bees into England, as well as for his numerous inventions in 

 bee-culture, and his ever-ready kindness in giving any of the 

 numerous readers of " our Journal " every information they 

 may ask for ? 



I also saw our friend Mr. Bevan Fox's apiary, and his 

 numerous and different kinds of hives, and he was so kind as 

 to say which he had found most useful either for honey-gather- 

 ing or increasing the number of stocks. Here I also saw the 

 Egyptian bees, which appear, at a cursory view, very much like 

 tne Ligurians, but smaller and more waspish, and therefore 

 inferior to them. I was much pleased with my visit, and am 

 sure if any bee-keeper being near Exeter will call on our 

 apiarian friends there, he will be as delighted with his visit, as 

 1 was. 



I find from the weather being so open, and there being at the 

 same time nothing for the bees to collect, they have consumed 

 a very large portion of their winter's store. Most of those stocks 

 that were sent to the moors are said to have come back, if any- 

 thing worse than they were when they left, consequently 

 nearly all require feeding. — A. W. 



REGICIDE AMONG BEES. 



I :iad a curious case of encasement last year. I had pre- 

 sented to me an Italian stock hive in the beginning of the 

 month of August. To my great astonishment, in the latter 

 part of autumn a young queen was seen emerging from the 

 hive for the purpose of going to meet the drones. Those in 

 the apiary had nearly all been extirpated, and in all probability 

 she had not been rendered fertile. 



One evening I noticed commotion among the bees, and on 

 looking in saw that the queen was encased. She was enclosed 

 in the centre of a dense cluster of bees ; they were all lashed 

 round her. This continued for a day or more. Eventually 

 she was thrust out dead. My impression was that the hive 

 would go to ruin, but, strange to say, the old Ligurian oy 

 Italian queen was still in the hive, but she was in an infirm 

 state. I found her scarcely able to crawl ; she was paralysed 

 in four of her legs. She died in the course of the winter, and 

 the hive would have gone to ruin had I not supplied it with 

 another queen. The bees had, no doubt, perceived that their 

 queen was becoming old and infirm, and unable to discharge 

 her maternal duties. They, therefore, had reared a successor 

 in the event of her demise ; this was the young queen I saw 

 taking an airing, but she not being fertilised was encased and 

 ultimately destroyed. Had she become fertile I believe the 

 bees wouid have despatched the old queen, and permitted the 

 young one to reign in her stead. — J. 



BEES DESERTING ONE OF NEIGHBOUR'S 

 HIVES. 



Earlv last year I purchased one of Neighbour's humane 

 hives, being unwilling to destroy my bees. My first swarm 

 was accordingly hived in the lower compartment, hut in about 

 fifteen minutes out they came again. I succeeded in again 

 hiving them, but in the course of half an hour, and whilst I 

 was still watching them, they made a fresh start, and this time 

 I lost them altogether. I had another swarm the week follow- 

 ing, which I hived in the same hive, but, to my dismay, they 

 quitted it within an hour. I did not, however, lose these, for 

 I put them in a common straw hive, in which they remained. 

 This year I again tried to stock my unfortunate hive, but the 

 swarm deserted it on the third day, and alighting on a neigh- 

 bouring bush was put into a common hive, where it remained, 

 and in which it has done well. 



Can you tell ire why the bees have so persistently refused to 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



' S hdahd OF Excellence ',' (Peter) .—You will see what is said about, 

 it in our columns to-day. We believe all tlie eggs laid by fowls at tin 

 Birmingham Show are broken by a man appointed to collect them. We 

 have not heard any statement to the contrary. 



i vtor [Curio Mi nasi' . — Your letter is an advertisement, and if paid 

 for, soma portion of it migut be inserted in the advertising columns. 



Brahma Pootra Cocks at Birmingham. — " In your observations oo 

 the Birmingham Poultry Show you say that the ' heaviest' Brahma cock 

 weighed but ll 1 lbs. I beg to assure you I exhibited two cocks, one 

 weighing almost 14 lbs.— that is, over 13] lbs., the other over 13) II 

 re still in my possession.— E. W. Boyle, Galtrim Home." 



WinEwoRM in Fowl's Excrements (It. C. It.). — We have seen hard 

 substances which have escaped a fowl's digestion, though rarely. If, 

 anything organic could defy a fowl's gizzard it is a wireworm. .< n 



. ' rove no apprehension of ill consequences, and, probably, will never 

 again witness such an occurrence. 



Poultry Jttdges (An Old Exhibitor).— We are obliged by your 

 but we do not think it desirable to give the subject p minent publicity, 

 i -ed that any one pretending to t -i.ei of common 



sense and to position in society could have written aganirt three ol 

 beet poultry Judges. We are glad that the Committees so written to have 

 left the letter unnoticed. 



Dark Brabaias (R. H., A Subscriber).— In buying your Erahmas be CO - 

 ful to buy both with pea-combs and without vulture hocks. The cock 

 have light hackle and saddle, dark or speckled breast. The hen 

 should have striped haoMe, r.nd grey-pencilled plumage all over the body, 

 The less of buff or white there is in the feather the better. Both should 

 have yellow legs feathered with black. — B. 



Comes of Cockin-Chinas (A. B.). — Your cock has that which is e.il!. 



comb. It is not an indication of impurity, but it would be a dis- 



ition in exhibiting, and it is by no meass desirable in a breeding 



bird. The comb of a Cochin cock should be moderate, rather small than 



large, perfectly upright and smooth on both sides. If even the spi' 



loose and incline to one side, it is a disqualification in close competition. 



Preserving Queen Anne's Pocket Melon. — When the Melon is 

 nearly ripe, make a small incision at one end, remove all the seeds, 

 cover it with salt water, changing the latter every day for three days ; 

 then put it in clear spring water, changing the water twice a-day for 

 three days. Make a thin syrup.and boil it together with the Melons once 

 daily for three days. Next make a thick syrup, adding the rind of one or 

 more Lemons cut into strips, according to the number of Melons, the 

 juice being squeezed in ; then add some of the best white ginger with the 

 outside cut off, so as to make the syrup taste strongly of the ginger. 

 Boil and when cold add to the Melon.— THOtfis Too?, Gardener; Great 

 ey Lodge, Manningtrce. [Mr. Toop had more than seventy applica- 

 tions for the above iv ' 



L/.ld-heaoed Canary (Goddess).— I fear your Canary is suffering from 

 the richness of his diet. Do not let him have any mawseed for a time : 

 sprinkle a little flowers of sulphur in his seed, and allow him the daily 

 use of the bath and plenty of green food. If he hangs near the ceilic 



:n well warmed or lighted with gas, it will be as well to remove 

 him to a more healthy place. — B. P. B. 



. | ,. . - ... , ).— Toexcinde them from your chicken? whilst young 

 they might be placed within an enclosure of small-meshed galvat l 



i on fin 'at! put phosphorus pills h < i dins. 



