470 



JOUBNAIi OF nOETICrLTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ Dccombcr 9, 18(9. 



cloth, 3 J inches long, li broad, and half an inch wide, ■with 

 a door on one end, having n wire attached to it, which on 

 bfing pressed gently down, opens the door, and her majesty 

 at once goes out, and is received gladly. 



In concInBion, I may say that if the above mode of intro- 

 ducing queens is adopted and properly carried out, success will 

 attend ninety-nine cases out of every hundred.— Besjamin 

 Geegg, Miiuchlinc, Aynhirc. 



Two Italian qneens, the first of their race which I have ever 

 possessed, although always a bee-keeper, arrived all safe and 

 right about seven o'clock at night. As it was a very hard 

 frost when they came to hand, the next thing was to put them 

 into their hives ; and the weather being so frosty, I determined 

 to put one of the queens in the same night. I therefore took 

 No. 1 stock into a room, gave it a few puffs of tobacco, and 

 closed the hive for a few minutes. The song of the bees 

 told me when to commence searching for the queen, and en 

 discovering I captureiJ her, and put the Italian queen in a 

 wire cage la pipe ooveri, and fixed it on the comb, as described 

 by Mr. Woodbury. She started to feed at once, and puttin? 

 all the bees that had accompanied the queen into the hive, I 

 closed it, and placed it again on its stand. Nest morning all 

 was peaceable and right. 



Now for No. 2 stock. At noon next day I treated this in the 

 same way, as it was still frosty, and put the queen in : but, ! 

 to my disappointment, the bees worried every Italian that I . 

 put into the hive, so that there is not one left, and next day, | 

 on looking through the hive, it seemed all confusion, and on 

 opening it I found that the queen cage was full of black bees, 

 and the queen gone. I at once searched for, and on finding 

 her, one of the black bees had her by one of her wings. I 

 instantly killed the bee, and watched to see if I thought her 

 safe or not, as the bees were running like wild things over one 

 another. Two more set on her, but I killed them, and then 

 caught her, and made her again a prisoner, as I saw she was 

 not safe. I examined the comb that had the cage fixed on it 

 to see how she had made her escape, and found that the bees 

 had eaten down by the outside of the cage and up the inside 

 to get to her, and that was the way she had escaped. 1 re- 

 fixed her on a fresh part of the comb, and closed the hive 

 again, and the bees continued so savage for four days that if 

 I went near the hive they would dart at me from all directions. 

 I opened the hive every day to see if the queen was still in the 

 cage. On the fifth day they seemed more like settling. On 

 the sixth day they were all clustered and settled, and on the 

 seventh day I ventured to let the queen out, when they took 

 to her, and she is now all right with her new subjects. In 

 No. 1 hive I set the queen at liberty on the third day with 

 every success, as I beheve not one of her companions was 

 killed.— M. A. 



THE BACHELOR AND THE BEES. 

 A BACHELOR laird who resides in the JocaU of the Lomond 

 HUls, in Fifeshire, having been presented with a jar of honey 

 from a neighbouring cultivator of the soil and a bee-keeper to 

 boot, became so attracted by the nectatious liquid that he re- 

 solved upon becoming an apiarian instanter. After considerable 

 higgling he became possessed of a swarm of honey-gatherers 

 and had them borne to his homestead this week, but owing to 

 the severity of the frost, he, through a feeling of pity towards 

 the insects, had them placed overnight in his bedroom and in 

 front of a blazing big tire. The bee-master turned into bed to 

 dream of flowery meads and ambrosial sweets, but towards mid- 

 night a drumming singing sound, as if a congregation of pigmies 

 were at psalm-singing, aroused him from his repose. The 

 entrance of the straw skep containing the colony had not been 

 properly closed, and the swarm, thousands strong, were in 

 activity around him ! His loud cries for aid brought prompt 

 assistance, but not without suffering keenly from the darts of 

 the insects was he allowed to leave the room. Considerable 

 difiScnlty was experienced in getting the bees returned to their 

 former quarters, and the laird, having had enough of bee-keep- 

 ing, has resolved never again to be so tempted by " sweets.'' — 

 (^Vortft British Daily Mail.) 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Game Fowls (Haictiiu).— The book yoa mention is only reliable so far 

 as he compiler obtoictd iuformat ion from gocd authorities. We do not 



know what illnetraHons aro used. There wonld not be a ramnnemtivo 

 pale for the plate yoo wish for. 



Books {Awtrahnn Huhteribtr), — There is no book with coloored or 

 other plates devoted to Game fo^ls. It you enclose a post-oQlco order 

 for lOj., with yonr addrcs«, and order the " Poultry-Keepers' Mamial," 

 and the " Poultry Portraits," yon will have all we can help yon to. 



CncwnJo Pn-LtT (H/mrtY^r). — There is a " sound tinmnslcal "to poultry 

 (•are that approachoi* to a" crow, 1 :t it is not one. It is not performed 

 %vith " head and tail erect," but in a lack-a-daisical niannor, with tail on 

 the eronnd. It ii about as much like a real crow as a sneeze is like a 

 laugh. We never knew a hen crow when suffering: from ronp; the note 

 produced is more like a long complaint. A crowing hen haa an erect 

 comb and a Etmttlng air. \Ve believe implicity In the old saying — 

 " A whistling girl, and a crowing hen, 

 .\re neither good for yards or men." 



BccKWHUAT AMD 31ai:!e (2?. S. E.). — Buckwheat is not good poultry 

 food. Fowls will not eat it whole, and althonch it is used cstcu?ively in 

 France for poultry purposes, it has not been found successful in England. 

 The oUal you mention is to be bought as " sweepings." It is handy stufl 

 to tlurow down as feed, bjt in our opinion there is no economy in buying 

 low-class food. 



Eae-lobe or Sn.\TER-sPASOLED HAHErp.cHs r.Voi-if«).— The oar-lobe ol 

 a good Spangled Hamburgh coc'k must be white; any mixture of red is 

 very damaging. Minorcas should have red and swarthy faces ; this ap- 

 pUeB to all the breed. SUvcr-spangled Hamburghs do not improve as 

 they get older, rather the reverse. The hacklo of the cock should be 

 white. 



PLtJMAGE or Dase Braoma Pootba Cock iLegular SultrrHer,Ayr).— 

 It is common to have chestnut patches on the winpof a Brahma coeki 

 but it should not. under any circsmstacces, amount to anything like a 

 saddle. We do not think it is a cross, but we should not breed from him. 



Hatching bt Steam (D. Wood). — There is no separate work on the 

 sut ject. There is a chapter and drawings of apparatus in the " Poultry- 

 Keepers' Manual," which you can have at our office, price 7*. 6'f. 



Fatte>*tvg Duces fF. C. S.}.— Your letter came too late tote answered 

 in time to be nseful to you. The beet food for your Ducks would have 

 been oats mixed with irravel, and at times oatmeal and bran. Many of 

 the heavicEt aro made so by neat feeding. In our opinion the black 

 streaks en the bill are tmiinpOTtant ; many of the best birds have it. 

 A defective bill is one that is faulty-coloured throughout. 



Food Ton Dcckb (J. .9.).— If your Aylesbury Ducks will not monlt, it 

 is probably because they lack c'onditicn and health. In such a case the 

 body is fevered, and the fkin by its heat dries up the pulpy stu'o of the 

 feather. Ducks are not amenable to medicine, and the only treatment 

 is by way of feeding. Give them oat?, p-avel, and bran, put in a shallow 

 vessel, the bottom of which is covered with a sod of growing grass. They 

 will eat that, and do well upon it, when ihey will eat nothing else. A 

 good Duck and drake will weigh 12 lbs. 



Shy Tcueleb Pigeon.—" Reader," after seeking long and in vain for 

 this breed. Inquires, " Where shell we turn our course of search for the 

 Sky Tumbler Pigeon of pure En(.'Ush blood, untainted by Dove-house or 

 the continental (Roller) Btrain admixture ?' 



TcBKEv'a Head Swollen- {A. C.'.— We have known Turkeys attacked 

 at all ages, but, as a rule, latehatcbed birds are most subject to it. Vpur 

 treatment was right; camphor pills would have been a good addition. 

 They help to cure the disorder, and prevent it from being communicated. 



Expebimektal Bee Hives. — '^ An Exptrimtntal Bee-ma%tcr" vrri'itzio 

 say that he wishes for " the appearance of some advertisements " of such 

 hives. We can only say that we shall willingly insert them if sent 

 to ns. 



WixTEE Managemest OF Stewaetos Hites (Sxanhy).—" Zinc, from 

 its coldness, deleterious incrustations, besides draughts passing through 

 the perforations, causes the bees much annoyance, as well as labour to 

 stop up the perforations with pr-polis. It has, conseiiuently, been long 

 ago discarded from my apiary. Ten or a dczen years ago I was puzzled 

 to ventilate c square hive whose sides were formed of glass all round. 

 At last I bit upon the expedient of s-abstituting, for the wooden slides 

 between the moveable bars, strips of Cuba or India matting; and so 

 thorough was the ventilation thereby afforded, evon in the most stvere 

 frost, as recorded in " our Journal " at the tioie, that I forthwith con- 

 demned the wooden bungs and all ether stoppers ^fex the rentral aper- 

 tures of my stock hives, and ever since have employed small squares of 

 matting secured in their place with broad-headed small nails, and 1 And 

 they answer the purpose admirably. My strongest .'^tcwarton colonies, 

 in the best situation and aspect of my apiary, are not interfered with, 

 and do not suffer Irom dampness ; but in the case of those in the more 

 shady sheltered comers I invariably tack over the uppermost box an 

 octagon piece of matting, and draw all the slides. Stocks here are placed 

 in moveable wooden covers. Stcwarton. like all other hives, must be 

 protected bv good warm outer coverings winter and summer. The inva- 

 riable practice with ijtewarton hives has been to remove the lower box or 

 boxe=. as the case may be, as soon as vacated by the bees, reintroduce 

 the slides, wrap up the mouth with several pieces of paper to exclude 

 duEt and moths, and suspend in a perfectly dry loft or garret till the 

 exigencies of the colony call for them the following season. Thns cir- 

 cumscribed, the bees get more readily out for their winter flights, breeding 

 is promoted in the spring. r.nd the lower boxes are freed from the falling 

 dtbiis and possibly excrements after long confineroent. To keep the 

 combs a little ofT the board I set my stocks on a shallow octagon eke 

 2 inches deep : fresh air circulates freely below, and facility is thereby 

 afforded for feeding if required.— A P-enfeewshibe Bee-geepeb." 



CoMMXNCit^G Bee-keeping iA^i^aiiur). — All depends upon the object 

 which vou prcpose to yourself in commencing bee-keeping. If you mean 

 to become a scientific apiarian you cannot do better than follow the 

 example of "A Beginner," as" detailed in page 354 of our present 

 volume, and adopt the Woodbury frame hive. If, on the other hand, you 

 intend only ordinary bee-keepieg with the power of putting on an oc- 

 casional super, Payne's improved cottage hive made somewhat larger 

 than recommended in "Bee-Keeping for the Many"— say 18 inches in 

 diameter, by 8 or 9 inches deep, will answer every purpo.'c. Or you may, 

 perhaps, find a via mttlia in the Stewartcn hive and mode of manage- 

 ment. Spring is the best time fyrpoichasicg ".ees. 



