114 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE QAKDENEB. 



I Aagntt 6, 1800. 



On the 13th of Joly, and after the foregoing part of m; 

 article waa written, 1 was nopleasantl; reminded that there 

 was yet another contingency which had not previously occurred 

 to me. Being then with my family by the seaside, I was tele- 

 graphed for, and on my arrival in Exeter, found that a con- 

 signment of Italian queens had come to hand without any pre- 

 vious notice whatever. The remainder of the day being taken 

 np with examining the condition of the royal travellers, and 

 despatching most of them to diflerent parts of the kingdom, I 

 was obliged to defer operations on my own behalf until the 

 next morning, when not having any colonies in a fit state to 

 form artificial swarms, I was compelled to attempt the direct 

 substitution of one queen for another, which was effected in 

 the following manner : — 



Looking over the combs I discovered and captured the queen, 

 which with a few of her workers, I confined in a small box with 

 a bit of sealed honeycomb, until the fate of the pretender 

 should have been determined. Two days afterwards, I ex- 

 amined the hive, and slitting open every royal cell picked out 

 its diminutive occupant with the point of a penknife. I then 

 caged the Italian queen on a brood-comb, and next morning had 

 the satisfaction of finding that no more queen-cells had been 

 founded, and that, as far as could be judged by the demeanour 

 of the bees, they were likely to accord a favourable reception to 

 their new sovereign. I lost no time in putting their amicable 

 disposition to the test by releasing the captive queen, and had 

 the pleasure of finding that she was accepted without demur. 

 It is not a little singular, that most of those to whom I sent 

 queens in this unexpected manner, seem to have had but little 

 difficulty in introducing them, and I hope ultimately to learn 

 that all have been successful. 



Imported Italian queens are, however, cheapest in the 

 autumn (about October), when it is no longer practicable to 

 form artificial swarms and thus to introduce them to juvenile 

 bees only ; but fortunately at this season the elders of the hive 

 Beem no longer to entertain an insuperable objection to a new 

 sovereign, and the exchange may be eilected with little or no 

 risk, if only the requisite degree of caution be observed. 



The hive must in this case be examined as soon as advice is 

 received of the approach of the Italians, and the queen having 

 been captured, should with two or three score of her subjects 

 be placed with a bit of sealed honeycomb in a small, well-ven- 

 tilated box, and carefully preserved as a dernier ressort in case 

 of failure. Kxtinction of her dynasty having been afterwards 

 effected in the manner before described, the Italian pretender 

 to the vacant throne must in the same way be first introduced 

 to her intended subjects, under the protection of a wire cage, 

 which having been secured between two of the brood-combs, 

 the hive should be closed and left undisturbed until the next 

 day, when the cluster of bees surrounding the royal prisoner 

 should be critically examined, and her liberation or continued 

 incarceration determined on in accordance with their de- 

 meanour. If this cluster assumes the appearance of a dense 

 knot of workers intertwined and clinging closely together with 

 all the strength and energy of which they are capable, and 

 momentarily increnses its dimensions by the accession of 

 numbers of bees which rush impetuously towards it from all 

 parts of the adjacent combs, the regicidal frenzy continues in 

 full force, and its hapless object must still remain within her 

 prison-bars, in order to be protected from the fury of the 

 raging multitude without. If, on the other hand, the bees 

 which surround her cage are so few in number as to permit a 

 glimpse of the movements of the royal prisoner and her com- 

 panions in captivity, whilst none cling " like grim death" 

 with curved and threatening abdomens against the wires of the 

 cage, but rather assume the quiet and respectfully attentive de- 

 meanour which marks the ordinary deportment of workers in 

 the presence of their acknowledged sovereign, the imprisoned 

 queen may be at once released with every prospect of success, 

 and if she be allowed to traverse the combs for a few seconds 

 in view of the beekeeper, he will be enabled to judge of the 

 character of her reception. Should she obtain the respectful 

 homage proper to the royal progress of a liege sovereign among 

 her loyal subjects, the hive may at once be closed with every 

 hope of a successful issue; but if she be seized and detained, 

 she must again be restored to the protection of her prison, there 

 to await the return of her rebellions subjects to a more dutiful 

 frame of mind. There are, of course, almost infinite gradations 

 and degrees of difference between the dense knot of would-be 

 regicides which I have first described, and the comparatively 

 few watchful attendants who wait with respectful patience to 

 welcome their future sovereign on her release from captivity, 



and it requires some practice to enable the bee-keeper to de- 

 termine with certainty when it is best to release an imprisoned 

 queen, since, if she be left too long incarcerated, the outsiders 

 seem at length to come to regard her with indifference, and she 

 nltimately perishes either from lack of food or from the effeotg 

 of her unnatural and constrained position. — A DEvoNsniBS 



Be£-E£EP2B. 



(To be eostiooed.) 



ENTHRONING LIGUPJAN 

 I FlEceived two queens from Mr. Woodbnry on the evening 

 of the 14th July. The following morning I took the queens 

 from two stocks which I had prevented from swarming, and 

 made two swarms from the old bees, and then placed the two 

 Italian queens on the top of the old stocks, putting perforated 

 zinc between for them to fraternise through until the morning 

 of the ICth, when I bored a small hole in the zinc, so as to 

 allow one bee to pass through at a time ; and when four or five 

 had passed, finding that they joined the few workers in the 

 box peaceably, I allowed a few more, until I had a good many 

 mingled together. In about an hour I removed the perforated 

 zinc and allowed them to ascend. They set up a joyful hum, 

 and to-day (Saturday, July 17th|, they are working cheer- 

 fully, and I believe I have not lost a single bee from fighting ; 

 so that I have been successful with both queens, having placed 

 them at the head of two good stocks, with full combs and 

 plenty of honey to keep them through next winter. — C. B. H. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Turkeys Rocpy {if. H.).— Torkeye, like Pheasants, want mach pains- 

 takiDc bestowed on tbem when young. They are very subject to the 

 incipient roup from which years are sufferinp. Keep the old hen nbnt 

 Qp till the sun has dried the grass and the cocntry, and there is no ap- 

 pearance of dew or frost. Choose a very dry place for the hen to be 

 under the rip, and let it be tolerably open to the sun. Wash with cold 

 water and vinegar the heads of those affected. Give them ale to drink, 

 and administer to all two pills of camphor the size of peas. If yon do 

 this, shelter them from draughts, and let them out only when all is dry, 

 they will recover. 



Chickens Dtiso iA Suhicriher). — Something disagrees with yonr 

 chickens. They have too much of somettung, or they lack something. 

 As we cannot tell which it is, we shall endeavour to give yon some general 

 rules, which, if followed, should prevent such a visitation. Keep the hen 

 always confined ; let her rip face the sun ; see that the chickens are fed 

 at daybreak ; let them have dust to bask in ; give them beer to drink ; 

 feed frequently on chopped egg, bread and milk, bmised wheat, meal 

 slaked with milk, and cooked meat chopped fine. Let the rip in which 

 the ben la confined be thifted to a fresh spot every day. If she is not on 

 the grass, let her be supplied daily with a large sod oi growing grass, cut 

 with plenty of mould ; she will tear it to pieces, and the chickens will 

 find food and health from it. These are only necessary cares while ttc 

 chickens are young or sickly, and it is because yours are sufTering we 

 advise it. You may give each a pill of camphor the size of a small pea. 



Black Hamecsohs' Plitiuge {Black Bamhurrih'i.—Vio shall be very 

 glad to give you our best advice. All the black breeds are prone to throw 

 coloured feathers. Our best Spanish breeders can tell you the plague of 

 white feathers in the bens and red in the cocks. You say the white 

 feathers have appeared only in the cockerels. It is common. The Black 

 Cochins were given up for this reason. The pullets were always black, 

 the cocks never were. They were sometimes white, sometimes red. There 

 is the same in Black Polands— the cocks very frequently throw red 

 feathers. The Spanish chickens are all hatched black and white, and 

 frequently keep white feathers till after the first year. If all the chickens 

 come as you describe we should doubt the purity of the parents : if only 

 the cockfl are faulty we do not doubt it at all. The B nek Hamburgbs ore 

 a manufactured breed like the Black Cochins, and subject to the same 

 Viiu'aries. Tell us whether the parents are black, also whether the chicken 

 pullets are black. 



Papdock Pocltrt Snow.— We have received complaints of letters to 

 the Secretary having been returned to the writers, in consequence of 

 insufficient address. 



Feedixo Cvoxets (.V. C.I.— The proper way to feed cygnets if to give 

 them bran, cats, and meal in a large flat vessel, the bottom of which 

 should be covered with gravel or a sod of growing grass, the food placed 

 on it, and the whole covered with water. Cygnets, and even grown-up 

 Swans, love to make *' little dirt pies." 



Keeping Dccks (fd<ni).— Ducks as a rule do not require water. In 

 the breeding season a tub or small pond about 4 feet square and 2 feet 

 deep is necessary. 



" Gapes {D. K). — Give each chicken daily a piece of camphor the ai*e of 

 a* pel. Rail-ofl* the sewage gutter : let them have none but clean water 

 to drink, and give them br€.id soaked in ale once daily. 



General Treatment of Parrots {E. F^.'?).— Bread and milk sbonld 

 be the principal food, but not too much milk. Give also biscuits broken 

 small, grain, iiut=. and ripe fruit, also boiled Indian com. Let them have 

 water to drink, and sometimes a bath. ! Keep them very clean and warm. 



Aged Parrot (Tr^ror DicAfiu).— We believe the paralysed bird is 

 utterly incurable. 



EEEKEErlSG {T. p. F.).— We know of no shorter or plainer pamphlet 

 on the subject than "Beekeeping for the Many." Y'ou can have it •«« 

 by post if you enclose five postage stamps with your direction II » 

 often given away among cottagers. 



