202 



JOURNAL OF HORTIODLTDEE AND COTTAGE QARDBNEB. 



f Angust 27, 1874. 



garden hedge. I was away at work, so a friend of mine covered 

 them over until I got home, when I put them into an empty 

 hive, and in the evening I joined them to my first swarm in the 

 18-inch hive. This I managed the same evening without any 

 fighting, it being three weelis since I swarmed the large hive. 

 I drove all the bees into a 16-inch hive, and tools the honey, 

 24 lbs. Three days afterwards I took the other common hive, 

 joined the bees to the first turnout, and secured 9 lbs. more 

 honey. I had now my bees all in good " Pettigrew " hives. If 

 it had been a good May I should have done better still. This is 

 but a poor locality, so I consider that I have done very fairly for 

 a beginner. I sold all the honey I had to spare at Is. Od. per 

 pound. Twelve months since I was as frightened of bees as any 

 one. If all beginners, and I think there are plenty, will only try 

 the same methods that I have done, and follow Mr. Pettigrew's 

 instructions in the Journal, they will succeed a great deal better 

 than they expect. 



The weather here has been very unfavourable for bees since 

 about .July 2-lth. My swarms were gaining weight rapidly ; one 

 gained 9 lbs. weight in four days, and then the weather changed, 

 and they have lost 3 or 4 lbs. since instead of gaining, and the 

 others have lost more still. The turnouts I am feeding well, so 

 that they may make as many combs as possible before winter 

 comes on. Artificial swarming is a good plan, especially for any 

 one who works any distance from home. — P. K.usford, Wigan. 



NADIRING. 



Tour correspondent " E. H. R.," at page 111, draws attention 

 to the value of nadirs "in good years." Of this there can be 

 no question; but then at such times — i.e., when honey is very 

 plentiful, bees will build comb and store honey anywhere. 

 They have been known to do it outside the hives, even below 

 the floorboard. I have known them do it between the general 

 covering of the hive and a super, thus building within and with- 

 out the super at the same moment. Still I cannot say in or- 

 dinary years I have found the nadir principle a good one ; cer- 

 tainly in every way a well-managed super is preferable. The 

 objection against the nadir, arising from the difficulty of the 

 bees in finding their way out in the upward direction, has per- 

 haps created a prejudice against it unnecessarily, because a few 

 narrow slits in the top board, sufficient to allow the bees a tree 

 passage up the sides of the nadir into the main hive above, 

 would at once obviate this difficulty if these slits, say half an 

 inch wide and 2 or 3 inches long, were made in the middle 

 of each side. There are other objections to the nadir which 

 make it awkward of management, arising from the necessity of 

 elevating the hive over it, which in my own case in my bee 

 house and elsewhere would be very troublesome. The quasi- 

 nadir, or rather super placed nadirwise pro tern., is all I can 

 conveniently use. It is used simply to induce the bees to com- 

 mence building combs earlier than they sometimes will do in a 

 super proper. I also have put a large empty hive below, in order 

 that it may be treated as a stock hive another year. — B. & W. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



PiEATixG 0T7R ILLUSTRATIONS. — We have received the followins — " Gentle- 

 meD, — Refen-ing to the editorial footnote on paye 89 of your Journal of 

 Horticulture, it is proper that I should say that the illustration of the 

 Fantail Pigeon which appeared in our July issue was purchased from the 

 proprietor of the 'Rural New-Yorker,' and the writer had no knowledije that 

 the same had ever appeared in your paper. It seems proper that I should 

 make this explanation.— A. B. Estes, Editor of Pet-Slock Bulletin, New 

 York.-' 



[The " Rural New-Yorker " systematically copies our illustrations without 

 acknowledgment.] 



Hereford Poultry Show.— Mr. Feast writes to ns that he seldom ex- 

 hibits White Cochins, and that the hird which died went to Hereford direct 

 from his yai-d at Swansea, and that he has too many good birds in his hundred 

 pens to require them to be overworked. He thinks our correspondent's obser- 

 vations were malicious and libellous, but we are s'ore that they were only 

 intended for the safety and better chance of success of valuable birds. 



Prize Goldsn Polish Hf.s at Earlsheaton.— " In your report of the 

 Earlsheaton Shovr you mention a Golden Poland hen whose crest had the 

 appearance of having been operated on by a barber. I have seen the hen in 

 question two or three times during the summer, and although she certainly 

 has that look, yet I do not think she has been trimmed. She has, I believe, 

 chafed it away with rubbing it against exhibition pens. The hen seems to be 

 of a restless disposition, aud I have no donbt that that is the cause of her 

 present appearance. She is a fine one, has a good crest, and ishould not be 

 shown nntil she has moulted. — G. W. Boothby." 



Cheap Babbitry. — " On page 65 of No. 094 I seo yon have taken an 

 article, headed ' Cheap Babbitry,' from tho Chautuaona Farirn'r, and credited 

 it to Dr. Pond of Cassadaga, N.Y. If you will refer to ' Pet-Stock, Pigeon, and 

 Poultry Bulletin ' for March, 1874, page 2-20, you will flud the article entire as 

 it [originally appeared over my own signat'Jre.- A. M. Halsted, Pet-Stock 

 Bulletin, Neio York.'* 



LiGURiAN Bees (E, S.). — We have had these bees for many years, either 

 pure or hybrid, but we cannot say we find them less irascible than the com- 

 mon English. In point of temper we find " much of a muchness " between 

 them. They are pretty bees to look at, good honey-gatherers, famous breeders, 

 and the fawhion, which is saying a great deal for them. Messrs. Neighbour 

 and Sons, Holbom, supply hives of them. The best time to commence keep, 

 ing bees is the spring. 



S3IALL Black Bees (HiiUand Counties Bee-keeper).— Ibe bees enclosea 

 in your envelope ilid not appear to differ from ordinary bees, but they change 

 so rapidly after death that it is difficult to report upon them. We infer that 

 yonr bees are Italians, because you ask if they are " the offspring of a puro 

 English queen ;" but if not, " small black bees " are referred to in Eevan on 

 the " Honey Bee," and have been noticed by other writers. They occur at 

 times in larger numbers than at others, but so far as we recollect have never 

 been satisfactorily accounted for. 



Preventing Swarming (P. fl.).— Placing an eke under a hive after it has 

 swarmed once will not prevent it from sending off a second swarm. Driving 

 all the bees out of a hive when the young cjueens are piping, cutting out all 

 its royal cells, then casting back the bees, will prevent swarming. Throwing 

 back second swarms a few hours after they have issued will, in almost aU 

 cases, prevent their coming again. 



Saving Bees (D. B., Enjicldl—We gather from yom- letter that your hive 

 to be plundered, and that to which you would join your bees to be saved, are 

 identical in shape and size ; also the hive beneath the first, which is empty, 

 save a little comb. Nothing can be easier under the circumstances. First 

 smoke, then drive the bees out of the hive which is to be plundered into the 

 last-named hive which has a little comb. Next drive the bees in the same 

 manner out of the hive which you intend to keep along with the other bees, 

 or you may drive them separately into different hives. In either case knock 

 them out together in front of the hive which is to be kept. There will bo 

 no fighting. You will find full instructions for driving in " Bee-keeping for 

 the Many," which can be had from this ofiice for 5d., postage paid. 



METEOEOLOQICAL OBSERVATIONS, 



Camden Square, London. 



Lat. 51° 32' 40" N. ; Long. 0° 8' 0" W. ; Altitude 111 feet. 



REMARKS. 

 19th. — Fine day, mocli warmer in the evening, 

 20th. — Very bright and fine all day and night. 

 21st. — Rather dull early, but a very pleasant day ; quite as bright, but cooler 



than yesterday. 

 22nd. — A most beautiful day, cool evening, and starlit night. 

 23rd. — Fine morning and afternoon, rather cloudy and stormlilie between 



6 and 7 p.m., but a fine night. 

 24th. — A very pleasant day, but again stomiHke about 7 p.m. 

 25th. — A little rain in the early morning, and rather thick at 9 A.M. ; bright 



before 11 a.m., and continuing eo till 3 p.m ; but then clouding over, 



and looking stormlike, with puffs of wind at times ; fine night. 

 A week of most agreeable weather, bright aud fine, and though the tempe- 

 rature has been about 3° in esces9 of that of last week, it has rarely been 

 oppressive or felt stormlite, though it has frequently looked so. Heavy dews, 

 but no rain, except on morning of 25th. — G. J. Symons, 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— August 26. 

 Vert little alteration to be noticed here. Peaches and Nectarines are 

 coming in freely from open walls ; Hothouse Grapes more than safficient for 



I 



