May 2D, 1866. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOSTICULTDRE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



411 



Polish class has been added, and the second prizes increased in 

 all the classes to 15»., the third prize being withdrawn except 

 in the selling class, the restricted price in this class being fixed 

 at £2. The Bantam classes and tho Duck classes still have 

 second prize 10.>-. In lieu of a silver cup for the best single 

 cock in the sweepstake classes, the best bird in each class will 

 receive an additional prize of 7s. 6rf. This is a good alteration. 

 The prizes arc most liberal for the entry — viz., 3s., and we 

 southerners must trust that the Show will prove Buccessful. 

 — T. B. A. Z. 



NEW BOOK. 



The Apiarij : or Bees, Bee Iliies, and Bee Culture. By Alfeed 



Neighbohk. Second edition. London: Kent & Co., and 



Geo. Neighbour & Sons. 



Mb. NEiGHBorE's book, the first edition of which was noticed 

 by us in February 1805, now makes its appearance in a new 

 guise, being reduced from demy 8vo. to crown 8vo., whilst 

 the number of its pages is increased from 134 to 274, with but 

 a slight increase in price. In addition to a description of the 

 various hives and apiarian apparatus sold b; the well-kuown 

 firm of which the author is a member, it contains a con- 

 siderable amount of geucrallv accurate information compiled 

 from the best authorities, Mr. Woodbury's contributions to 

 our pages beiug in particular heavily drawn upon. 



A new feature in this edition is a couple of steel plates 

 illustrative of the anatomy of the bee, engraved by Mr. E. W. 

 Robinson with his customary ability; embracing also coloured 

 delineations of tho three sexes of the Ligurian or Italian 

 variety of honey bee. Of these illustrations that of the queen 

 is the best, the worker not doing justice to the elegant and 

 graceful form of the original; whilst the drone is simply a 

 faded cabinet specimen wbicli has shrunk to the length of the 

 worker. 



Mr. Neighbour possesses a very great advantage over a mere 

 compiler in that he is himself a practical beekeeper, and 

 divers anecdotes of his experience are related by him in a 

 light and amusing manner. For this reason, also, the infor- 

 mation conveyed in his pages is, as we have already stated, 

 very generally correct, although he may occasionally be found 

 tripping. For instance : it is stated in page 17 that the eggs of 

 drones and queens " are hatched in warm summer weather, a 

 higher temperature being necessary ;" whereas a queen has 

 been known to be hatched at Christmas, and natural drones 

 frequently make their appearance in March, whUst in stocks 

 possessed of drone-breeding queens they come to perfection 

 much earlier. In page 22 wo are told that " the cause of a 

 swarm learing the stock hive is that the population has grown 

 too large for it," an idea which has frequently been disproved. 

 In the new chapter on the anatomy of the bee we are assured 

 that it is with the foremost pair of its six legs that " the bee 

 mJoads the little pellets from the baskets on her thighs ; " we 

 can only conclude, therefore, that the writer has never seen a 

 worker bee perform this everyday and simple action. In page 

 169 it is stated that for the successful fonnation of an artificial 

 swarm it is " necessary that the hive contain drones ;" another 

 mistake, as the presence of drones in neighbouring hives is 

 sufficient. We are also told that when bees are likely to in- 

 commode workmen or others, instead of confining them, " it 

 is better to move the hive a few paces." We certainly should 

 not be disposed to envy either the workmen or the beea where 

 such an expedient has been resorted fo. 



Mr. Neighbour copies the Rev. Mr. Tristram's erroneous 

 statement, that the Italian variety of honey bee is indigenous 

 in Palestine, and remarks thereupon — " Does not evidence 

 such as this point to the conclusion, th.at the bees which 

 Samson found iu the carcase of the li^m were Liguriam) .' and 

 may we not further speculate that the ribs of tho carcase con- 

 stituted the first bnr-hive f" Whatever may be thought of 

 this latter rather fanciful speculation, it is certain that Mi-. 

 Tristram's evidence is inconect, there being no doubt whatever 

 that, as stated by Mr. Woodbury in our pages a few weeks ago, 

 the Syrian hmiey bee is entirely distinct from that of Italy. 



The engraving copied from KJeine's work and representing a 

 royal cell on the edge of a comb protected by a wire pipe- 

 cover, embodies an idea which, like others of our German 

 friends, is mure ingenious than practical. Wc were omselvcs 

 somewhat taken with it at the time, but having submitted it 

 to the test of experiment in queeu-reariug operations, we soon 

 discovered it to be of no value whatever. 



We cannot but think that a little: more care might have been 

 advantageously bestowed upon ihe index, which is frequenilj 

 incorrect. A good index is, beyond qutation, a most valuable 

 adjunct to a work of this kind; but one which so often refers 

 the inquirer to a wrong instead of to tho right page, is likely 

 to prove a soro trial both of his temper and bis patience. 



Notv.-ithstanding this drawback, Mr. Neighbour may be con- 

 sidered as having performed his task in a creditable manner, 

 and substantially to have attained the end at which ho pro- 

 fesses to have aimed — viz., that of producing a "handy book 

 which should contain full and detailed replies sufiiciout to meet 

 all ordinary inquiries." 



SPARROWS EATING LIVE BEES. 

 I BEE by a letter in your last week's Journal that we bee- 

 keepers need not fear sparrows eating our bees, but only tom- 

 tits perpetrating that enormity. Up to last week I was myself 

 of that opinion, never having seen sparrows attempting apicide 

 nor would I have believed any one who had told me the con- 

 trary, thinking they must have made a mistake. However, 

 on Sunday last, in the middle of the day, I noticed one of 

 these birds jumping up at the hives, and immediately flying a 

 few yards off, and there hammering a bee held iu its beak, and 

 then starting off to its neut with the wiugs and legs of the 

 insect left behind. In a few moments back it came again, 

 renewing the operation, and this time accompanied by its 

 mate, both of them flying away each witlr a ladeu bee. On 

 further watching I not only saw this couple, but two other 

 couples doing the same thing, each flying to its ovm nost and 

 I feeding their young. So rapidly were they doing this, that 

 I there was always one bird at least on the ground iu front of 

 my hives, and sometimes three. Hitherto I have rather en- 

 j couraged these birds building round my house and stables, and 

 i at that time there were at least fifteen or more with young 

 I and eggs in various stages of progi-ession. I immediately 

 ' ordered their destruction, and the next morning. my gardener 

 told me he had found more than fifteen young -birds, which, 

 with skc destroyed by myself, made twenty-one young sparrows 

 offered up to the manes of departed bees. 



I have kept boos for more than twenty-five years, yet Ihad 

 never before noticed such au occurrence ; and I believe it to 

 be an exceptional thiv.g, ov.ing to the dry, harsh, easterly 

 winds and cold nights preventing the development of insect 

 life, upon which almost entirely the young sparrows are fed. 

 ' Driven hard to find subsistence for hungi-y mouths, the parents 

 had recourse to living bees, and dearly they have paid for 

 their temerity. 'ttTiether this has been the cause or uot I do 

 not know, biit most of iry hives are very backward and no 

 honey collected, whereas this time last year they were making 

 honev fast. — A Bl.\ckhi;ateas. 

 I P.S.— I have this day (23rd), had my first swarm ; very larg*. 



DO SW.OIMS e\t:r issue before drones 



MAKE THEIR ^U^rEAR.VNCE '.' 

 My reason for asking is, that on the 14* inst. I opened my 

 Ligurian hive, which I received from Mr. Woodbury in October 

 last, and I could not find the queen, but I found five sealed 

 royal cells. There were not the least signs of drones, drone 

 brood, or drone eggs, and tho population seemed to have de- 

 creased ; and there appeared to be no breeding going on, there 

 being no young brood iu the hive. I opened the .'^amo hive agam 

 on the 18th inst., and found the royal cells being torn open, and 

 the young queens, two of wliich were killed, making their 

 appearance. I captured one, and placed her in a nuoleus-boi 

 with a comb of bees out of the parent hive, and gave her a 

 broodcomb out of a Clack stock. I also placed the comb con- 

 taining the only roval cell that was not torn open into another 

 nucleus-box, after having brushed the bees back into the hive, 

 and added to it a black broodcomb well covered with bees. I 

 could onlv find ono more queen, which Heft in the parent hive. 

 Is it possible that the mother of thoi hive may have led off a 

 swarm ? or what do you think has become of her ? They have 

 never shown the lea<=t signs of swarming. There is not a 

 single drone, cither Italian or English, to be seen in my apiary, 

 which consists of one Liguriau rtock and five Euiihth stoohs, 

 all of which are in Woodbury hives, and the two nuclei before 

 mentioned. I have been vcrv particular to discourage drone- 

 breeding among my black bees by cutting out all the drone- 



