July 30, 187-4. ] 



JOURNAL OF nORTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



Ill 



ianumerable tricks and antics. I heard of one being kept in a 

 cage with a Canary, and the two remained on very excellent 

 terms, eating and drinking from the same dishes, at the same 

 time, without ever quarrelling. When I was nine or ten years of 

 age, I remember quite distinctly of a white mouse that escaped 

 from its cage, and for a long time would, every night, scamper 

 up aud down my mother's bed after she had retired, keeping her 

 awake a good part of the night. Many efforts were made to 

 effect its capture, but all were vain, till one night it was dis- 

 covered behind a trunk. Crack, crack, crack went its poor little 

 bones, as the trunk was pushed back against the wall, and un- 

 fortunate mousey, now a shapeless mass, was thrown into the 

 street to make a dainty meal for some homeless pussy. 



Generally the first pets kept by children, they are soon neg- 

 lected for the more highly-prized Rabbit and Pigeon. Their 

 great deterrent to popularity is their " mousey smell." Of 

 course they smell "mousey." It is their natural odour, which 

 no degree of domestication will ever remove. A recipe to 

 subdue this objection I now give : Take an empty tin baking- 

 Boda box, pierce it with holes by means of an awl, and fill it 

 two-thirds full of chloride of lime or carbolic disinfective 

 powder; nail the box to the upper part of the cage, and I will 

 warrant no bad odour will ever be perceived as long as this 

 remiins in their cage. This same recipe will effectually 

 neutralise the bad odour emitted by any animal. 



White mice are very prolific, producing from four to twenty 

 young at a birth, and having litters monthly. 



A good cage for them may be made out of an empty starch 

 box, fitted with a second storey, connected with the first by 

 means of stairs. I once sawoue made entirely of tin, and avery 

 beautiful cage it was, with its little tin apartments tenanted by 

 mice of all ages, from the hairless babe to the grey-coated 

 grandfather. 



The best food on which to feed white mice is wheat flour and 

 cracker dust, given alternately, with oatmeal once or twice 

 a-week. Occasionally give a crust of stale bread, oats, canary 

 seed, &c. Raw meat fed to them just before littering will 

 satiate their appetite for fresh flesh, and often prevent them 

 from devouring their young. Milk is in every way preferable to 

 water as a drink, and should be given altogether or as often as 

 possible. 



As soon as a female shows unmistakeable signs of being with 

 young, she should be immediately removed from the common 

 cage and placed in a small box by herself. Leave her aud the 

 young in quiet for three weeks, and then replace them in the 

 common cage. If one exhibits cannibalistic habits, and devours 

 the young, give her an ounce of oak wood administered on the 

 back of the head. 



A very beautiful variety of mice are produced from the union 

 of the brown and white mouse. The manner in which to effect 

 this is to allow a female her liberty in a iilace infested by 

 common mice. After running at liberty for a few nights, con- 

 fine her in a box separated from the rest, and await the issue. 

 This plan generally proves successful at the first trial ; indeed 

 I have never known it to fail, though sometimes the progeny, 

 instead of being " pied," are brown, and in every way resemble 

 the common mouse. Be sure and clean their cage once a-day. — 

 {A7nerican Fanciers^ Journal.) 



NADIKIXG. 



Nothing is more astonishing than the confusion which seems 

 to prevail in the minds of our bee-authorities on the subject of 

 nadirs. Mr. Pettigrew only recognises the nadir which is made 

 the stock hive. Mr. Pagden in his little book only recognises 

 the nadir put under the stock hive, just as the super is put above 

 it. " B. & W.," if my memory serves me right, recommends 

 coaxing the bees into a nadir and then making a super of it. 

 Mr. Payne in your useful manual, and Mr. Pettitt in his " Man- 

 agement of Bees," do not recognise any kind of nadir ; nor does 

 Mr. FiUeul in his " Profitable Bee-keeping," a book dear to 

 cottagers, of which I hope we shall soon see a new edition. The 

 only writer I know of who draws a clear distinction between the 

 two kinds of nadirs is Mr. Taylor in his " Bee-keeper's Manual." 

 Speaking of the nadir put under the stock hive he says, " This 

 mode of applying the nadir, or rather nether principle, must 

 not be confounded with Va.e usual plan ol disturbing the stock 

 hive for the purpose of placing an empty one beneath it, with a 

 new entrance in the latter for the bees. Under such circum- 

 stances the queen will commonly descend and breed in the nadir, 

 which is converted into the stock, occasioning much subsequent 

 inconvenience." 



I must leave your more learned correspondents to discuss the 

 relative advantages of the two kinds of nadirs. My own humble 

 experience leads me to think with Mr. Pettigrew that the kind 

 which Taylor condemns offers many advantages in good years, 

 whilst I have also found the other kind (the nether, as he calls 

 it), answer fairly well. The greatest objection to the latter is 

 the difficulty the bees have in finding their way out. Mr. Taylor 

 wisely recommends "a small aperture at the bottom or side of 



the nether as a mode of exit for the prisoners, to be closed at 

 pleasure." — E. H. R. 



THE HONEY HARVEST. 



For several years, including last, I have taken an average of 

 about 25 lbs. from each hive. This spring I started with three 

 hives all in first-rate condition, with a great number of bees in 

 full activity, but the cold weather in May appeared to paralyse 

 all their energies, and they have done nothing during the 

 summer. There are plenty of bees, but they appear as if they 

 had no spirit in them, and I do not think that the three hives 

 will give me a pound of honey between them. It is just the 

 same with one of my neighbours, though another not far off has 

 taken three small glasses. I observe that her bees have a touch 

 of the Ligurian in them. I do not know whether that can 

 explain the difference. — H. 



I HAVE been a bee-keeper for fifty years, and never have 

 witnessed such an occurrence, I may say phenomenon, as the 

 following. I had a swarm from a hexagon hive on the 2nd of 

 this mouth, and in a fortnight from that date they had filled the 

 stock or parent hive weighing 22 lbs., aud a super weighing 

 7^ lbs., with honey of the most delicate colour I think I ever saw, 

 and from that I conclude it has been a most productive season, 

 but now at an end, in the way of honey-getting. — T. Gandt, 

 Nelson Place, Kew BrUhje. 



My present stock consists of ten IG-inch, five 18-inch hives, 

 one 20-inch Pettigrew straw hive, and one fancy hive made of 

 wood and glass. Four of these I had not the opportunity of 

 weighing on the 20th inst — viz., my 20-iuch hive, it being about 

 three miles from home in the midst of abundance of white 

 clover, two of my best IG-iuch hives working beautiful glass 

 supers, and my fancy hive. 



The past fortuight has been very favourable for honey-gather- 

 ing in this district, it being dry and warm, and had there been a 

 few slight showers to have given a little moisture, we should 

 very likely have been astonished at the gatherings of our little 

 favourites. As it is, I have great pleasure in sending you an ac- 

 count of work done during the last seventeen days by thirteen 

 of my stocks, being an average gain of nearly 26i lbs. per hive 

 during that time. 



The above are uett weights — that is, the weight of hive and 

 floor-board deducted. — Thos. Bagshaw, Longnor, near Buxton. 



BEE PHENOMENON. 



In The JonRN'AL of Hobticl'lture of .luly 16th you inserted 

 a paragraph from me under the above heading. The two queens 

 were first seen on the 28th of June, and since then I have fre- 

 quently visited the hive. On the first occasion the queens were 

 on adjacent bars; on another visit, I found them on opposite 

 sides of the same bar, and Mr. Boulton's opinion was, that should 

 the contiguity continue, and the queens meet, the destruction of 

 one or the other would result. This morning (July 17), however, 

 we found them working together on the same side of the bar 

 within 2 inches of each other, both they and the bees in the 

 greatest possible harmony. — J. R. R., Vlverston. 



IS THIS A HONEY TEAR? 

 We bee-keepers in the Yorkshire dales have had favourable 

 weather for our busy subjects. There has a been a fair amount 

 of dews aud rain. Perhaps the balance may, however, lean a 

 little in the favour of dryness, but on the whole we have been 

 highly favoured, and the heather is already in bud and will soon 

 be out; it is early this year. To give one instance of the weather 

 we have had ; On Sunday evening, June 28th, our bees were 

 working at 8 p.m., as at midday; the air was warm with a good 

 deal of moisture. " B. & W." also speaks of his stocks being in 



