102 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Feiraory 3, IS'iB. 



I Bhall try the small-box system this year, not with a view to 

 profit, but to find ont how many can be obtained from one 

 stock hive in a season. If the season be a favourable one for 

 honey-gathering, the experiment will, I think, be both interest- 

 ing and instructive; and the readers of this Journal will have 

 a. full account of it at the end of the season. Whatever number 

 be filled they will contain nothing but pure honey gathered by 

 the bees from field flowers. — A. Pettigbew. 



THE WONDERS OF A BEE HIVE.— No. 4. 



AccoKDiKG to Wa'ter's Dictionary "a drone is an idler or 

 sluggard ; a bee which makes no honey." Drone bees are twenty- 

 four days in their cells, and are born amid an active commu- 

 nity without receiving any attention. Their introduction to 

 the world is without pageant, and during their lives they merit 

 and receive but little patronage. They are clumsy unmannerly 

 creatures, and quite incapable of culture or improvement. Their 

 great characteristic is laziness — dronishness in early life and 

 dronishness to the end. They have no inclination for a life of 

 activity and usefulness, and seem to take no interest in the 

 welfare of the community of which they form a part. 



Knowing as I do the gloomy future they have before them, 

 their early doom and suffering, sorrowful end, I can never view 

 drone life without being touched with a degree of sympathy and 

 sorrow. They are very unfortunate creatures, being without any 

 weapons or means of self-defence, and seem somewhat con- 

 scious of their inferiority and worthlessness. In watching them 

 going in and out of their hives, even in the heyday of their 

 lives, we naturally compare them to galley-slaves, spiritless 

 and hopeless. The climax of drone lite is wonderful and with- 

 out parallel in the insect or animal world. Drone bees are bred 

 and born by thousands in a natural way, but when and where 

 do we find one dying a natural death ? 



Drones being males are produced in hives when their bees 

 have to make all necessary preparations for swarming. The 

 swarms take the old queens with them, but before they emi- 

 grate the bees prepare royal cells and place eggs in them, which 

 speedily l*ecome perfect princesses ready to take the places and 

 thrones of their mothers. The advent of swarming is generally 

 preceded by the production of dones. Connected with the 

 question of the production of drones and their matrimonial 

 alliances we find many wonders and mjsteries, but owing to 

 their nature we shall do well not to mention them in this series 

 of letters. 



After, some ten days after, the bees discover that their yonng 

 queens are laying in a satisfactory manner, they commence to 

 worry the drones, which are harassed and persecuted more 

 bitterly every day. Then the bees resort to the cruel process of 

 hungering the drones by driving them from the combs down to 

 the boards, where they can find no food. Here they may be 

 found for days pining and languishing from sheer want. Liter- 

 ally they are being starved to death. Many of them may be 

 seen on the flight boards with savage tormentors on their backs 

 trying to escape, but where can they go to find a home ? Thy 

 are incapable of work, and are the most stupid, shiftless, help- 

 less creatures possible. Friendless and homeless they can find 

 no rest or sympathy anywhere. Truly the termination of drone- 

 life is a chapter of horrors — rather painful to write, and painful 

 to read. 



There may be another production of drones later in the sea- 

 son. Hives may become full of brood in July and August, and 

 when this happens another hatch of drones will appear. First 

 and second swarms too may become full in July or August, and 

 prepare for swarming by setting a great number of drone eggs in 

 drone cells. Thus a second massacre of drones becomes neces- 

 sary, and generally takes place in September. In hives that 

 have lost their queens, or possess worthlees queens, the bees do 

 not kill their dones. 



In most hives far too many drones arc reared. In all such 

 too much drone comb has been built. It is a stroke of good 

 policy and management to have hives with very little drone 

 comb in them. When we come to write on practical matters 

 we may have something to say on this subject. Within the 

 last five years drone traps have been invented and introduced. 

 They are clever inventions, and answer pretty well. They are 

 placed on the mouths of hives, so that all the working bees in 

 going to the fields pass through the traps. The drones go into 

 the traps in leaving the hives, but being larger than workers 

 they cannot pass through. They are caught thus and easily 

 destroyed. 



Perhaps the best way of ridding a hive of its drones is to 

 drive all the bees and drones into an empty hive, catch the 

 queen, and pnt her with a few bees back amongst the combs of 

 the hive, and place it on the old stand ; then put the queenless 

 swarm on i. boaid, raise the hive high enough to let the workers 

 come ont. In less than an hour the bees will have left their 

 drones in a state of confinement to the mercy to the bee- 

 master, and it will be an act of mercy to destroy them speedily. 

 — A, Pettiorew. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



DoEiaNG AND Game Cross (Scotch-Grey). — You will have difficulty in 

 finding a hardier fowl than the Dorkiug crossed with Game. They will bo 

 good egg-producers if you keep early-hatched pullets that will attain to 

 matority in the winter. Pure Game arehardier than the cross between them 

 and Dorkings. The disadvantage is their pugnacity. We should prefer the 

 Houdan. You will find good mention of the Game in all the poultry books. 

 We know no book especially devoted to that breed. It is well to remark the 

 HondauB do not sit, nor do the Spanish. 



Grey and Silvee-Gret Dorkings {J. C.).— There is no defined colour 

 for the Grey Dorking. The Silver-Grey cock must have an entirely black 

 breast and tail, very light hackle and fa-Idle— not one white spot en the 

 breast, and no colour on the wing hut metallic black with silver bar. The 

 hen should have a black-and-white striped hackle, a robin breast, light grey 

 ft athers all over the body, each having a white shaft ; no white spots on the 

 plumage. They are difiicult to breed correctly, as, being birds of feather, a 

 tiifiing fault becomes a fatal one. 



Cracks in Cement (E. S. IF.).— There is no mode of filling the cracks 

 than by inserting some of the same kind of cement. 



METEOEOLOGICAL OBSEBVATIONS. 



Camden Sqdabb, London. 



Lat. 61° 33' 40" N. ; Long. 0= 8' 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 Jeet. 



REMARKS. 

 26th. — Foggy morniag, bat clearing off by noon, and fice the remainder of 



the day. 

 27th.— Very thick fog all day; a few gleams of 6un about 1 p.m, but the fog 



very dense about 3 p.m. ; clearer towards night. 

 28th.— Very foggy, but the sun managed to get through it occasionally in the 



middle of the day. 

 29th.— Dense fog iu morning, but the sun ahone brightly in the middle of the 



day in spite of the still remaining fog, which got more dense and 



damp towards night. 

 30th.— Fog in morning, rain at noon, and very damp all the rest of the 



day. 

 Slfit. — A clefir, bright, pleasant day thronghout. 

 Feb. Ist.- Rather thick all day, but not near bo much so as during the past 



week ; rain at night. 

 High barometer, scarcely any wind, much fog, and little rain.— G. J. 

 Symons. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— February 2. 



There is very little alteration to report from last week. Late Grapes are 

 Btiil in good supply and fiiir demand. A fiae sample of Aab-leaved Kidney 

 Potatoes from Jersey baa been in the market. All kinds of green stuff are 

 now coming in fair quantities, and can be bought at reaaonable prices. 



s. d. B. d. 



Apples i Bie'^o 1 0to2 



Apricots dozen 



Cherries lb. 



Cheatnuts buahej 12 



Currants j sieve 



Black do. 



Figs dozen 



Filberts lb, 



Cobs lb. 



Gooseberries qnart 



Grapes, hothouse. . . . lb. 2 



Lpmona ^ ItiO 6 



Melons each 1 



Mnlberriea lb. 



Nectarines dozen 



Oranges %• 100 



Peaohes dozen 



Pears, kitchen.,., dozen 



deeeort dozen 



Pine Apples lb. 



Plums.. i sieve 



Quinces bubhel 



Rasybetties lb. 



Strawbenies lb. 



Walnuts bushel 



ditto ^100 



B. d. B. d. 



OtoO 

 



VEGETABLES, 



Artichokes dozen 



Asparngus 1:^100 10 



French bundle IS 



Beans, Kidney. . . . i sieve 



Beet, Red dozen 1 



Broccoli bundle 



Brussels bprouts i sieve 2 



Cabbage dozen 1 



Carnits bunch 



Uapucums ^100 1 



Cauhtlower dozen 2 



Ct-lery bundle 1 



Coleworta.. doz. bunches 2 



Cucumbers each 1 



Endive dozen 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish bundle 



Lettuce dozen 



French Cabbage .... 



B. d. B. d. 



OtoO 

 12 

 

 

 6 



Leeks bunch 



Mushrooms potlle 



Mudtard & Cress punnet 

 Onions bushel 



pickling quart 



Parsley.... doz, bunches 



Parsnips dozen 



Peas quart 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do... 



New lb. 



Hadiehes.. doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Salsafy bundle 



Scorzonera bundle 



Seakale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes dozen 



I Turnips bunch 



I Vegetable Marro^v3 



9. d. s. d. 



4 too 







