Juuo 13, 1876. 1 



JOUBNAL OP UOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



479 



the Barb among the high classes ia a mistake. The houest way 

 in which dishonest practices are exposed is most oomineudable. 

 Whatever be the taste of a fancier, he will in this book liud bis 

 favourites fully spoken of, be he high-class fancier, flying man, 

 or feather fancier. A very valuable chapter on diseases of 

 Pigeons is given, and a most interesting one entitled " Metro- 

 politan Pigeon Societies and their History " concludes the 

 work. 



A separate word ia due to the illustrations. The Blue Pouter 

 and the P'antails are perhaps the very best. The Fantail never 

 before had justice done it. The colour of the Almonds is the 

 best yet. The Magpies, drawing, colours, and background all 

 good. The white birds, save and except the African Owl, are 

 less happy. The blue Carrier and the foremost Trumpeter in 

 the picture — the black Mottled — one feels one must stroke, they 

 are so well drawn and coloured. The yellow Dragoon, Barb, and 

 Jacobin are scarcely the colour of yellow feathers ; but all the 

 red and yellow birds in the latter numbers are of a much more 

 natural colour, as the red Pouter and yellow Tumbler. The 

 drawing of the Jacobin is all that can be wished ; and the figure 

 and colour of the Turbiteens is particularly happy. I do not 

 know what the poor white Pouter has done not to have his 

 likeness taken. I grant that he has no variety of colour; but 

 he is the most graceful in shape as a rule of all Pouters. Mr. 

 Ludlow has drawn all his Short-faces remarkably well, and in 

 the last number he has done a very good turn to all beginners 

 by his picture of Almond feathers, while the Dun Carrier in 

 build and culour well finished the series. 



Messrs. Cassell have of course done their part well in respect 

 of paper, type, and general getting-up. — Wiltshire Rectok. 



CANARY MANAGEMENT IN OLDEN TIMES. 



No. 1. 



Of the twenty-five chapters which make up Mr. Hervieus's 

 treatise on Canaries, one of them in particular may be of interest 

 to those fanciers troubled with hens which are but indifferent 

 nurses to their young broods. Not that I wish to encourage the 

 feeding and bringing-up cf young birds by hand, for no artificial 

 mode adopted can be expected to work to so successful an issue 

 as Nature can as to the proportions of food given and the number 

 of times such food is supplied to the young broods by their 

 parents. Experience has taught me to know that hen birds in 

 particular vary much in the way they bring up their young 

 birds, some of which, and even in the same nest too, may be 

 strong and thriving, whilst others will appear puny and dwindle 

 away, until at last they may be found dead and down-trodden 

 at the bottom of the nests. One cause of this may so happen 

 through the first-chipped birds becoming stronger and more 

 vigorous, and thus coming in for the lion's share of the food 

 from the crops of their parents. Although hen birds may, so 

 far as the construction of their nests are concerned, show some 

 power of discrimination as to the clioioe or sorting-out from their 

 nesting materials the coarser kinds for the commencement or 

 foundations of their nests, still over the rearing of their young 

 all discrimination as to the feeding appears to bo lost if their 

 young be irregularly hatched. This, in my opinion, is the cause 

 of the weaker birds " going to the wall" — an opinion gaiued by 

 morethan a quarter of a century's experience. 



Mr. Hervienx appears to have been very precise in his way of 

 treating the young birds when brought-up by baud, not only 

 specifying the number of times, but the different periods during 

 each day the birds should be fed. In his preface of the old 

 work, with some confidence he backsup hia views by saying, 

 "This Treatise will therefore be an improvement of all that 

 has been said before on this subject, and an exposition of 

 what has not been hitherto made very plain, being myself 

 perfectly knowing in what I am going to write about the 

 Canary birds." 



The writer says in a somewhat lengthy chapter, from which I 

 extract the following : — " I must tell them that the cause of 

 death whilst they are rearing by hand, ia their not being able to 

 brook the negligent looking after them, for sometimes they are 

 starved by the long interval between the times of feeding them, 

 and sometimes they are surfeited by being fed too often and in- 

 discreetly, and consequently young birds so irregularly reared 

 grow sickly, which is thought to be for want of feediug, and then 

 the keepers try all ways to make them open their beaks to 

 swallow something, but all in vain, their stomachs being so full 

 that they are choked-up, for nothing digests with them, and so 

 having pined a few days, at last they die." 



. Birds ill-reared, either by their parents or by hand, are espe- 

 cially prone to sickness, and have great difficulty in caaling 

 their feathers during the moulting period. To obviate this, 

 BO far as the rearing of birds by hand ia concerned, Mr. Her- 

 vienx has " fixed a rule tor finding-out the proper hours, 

 without being mistaken, when to feed the little Caniry birds 

 brought-ap by hand, to the end that such regularity being ob- 

 served, they may grow as strong and healthy as if they had 

 fceen reared by their parents. The rules to be observed by 



curious persons for feeding of their young Canaries are as 

 follows — namely : — 



" The first time at halt an hour after six in the morning at the 

 latest. 



" The second time at eight of the clock. 



" The third at half an hour after nine. 



" The fourth at half an hour after eleven. 



" The fifth at half an hour after twelve. 



" The sixth at two. 



" The seventh at half an hour after three. 



" The eighth at five. 



" The ninth at half an hour after six. 



" The tenth at eight. 



" The eleventh at three-quarters after eight, for the last time." 

 — Geokge J. Babnesey. 



SWAKMING IN 1876. 



" To speak of early swarms is not to be thought of," says Mr. 

 Shearer in the Journal of last week. He is, of course, speaking 

 of the year 1870. On this remark I purpose to hang a few ob- 

 servations relative to this year's swarming and what it will pro- 

 bably come to. About here no swarms have yet been heard of, 

 and it is now the 9th of June. It is, therefore, already full late 

 even for prime swarms ; and as the weather has suddenly become 

 cloudy and wet, not to say cold, after a drought of six-weeks 

 duration, it is not probable that swarming will commence till 

 the latter part of the month or the beginning of July, in which 

 case, if swarming goes on as usual, it will be all up with the 

 honey harvest. I anticipate a good yield of clover honey this 

 summer ; but if the bees are in agitation at the time and dividing 

 their forces by swarming, only a comparatively little of it will 

 be gathered in. 



In my own case I have resolved (if the bees do not wax restive 

 and take the law into their own haude) to prevent absolutely 

 their swarming till after the honey season, and to multiply my 

 stock in August, taking care to do so before the destruction of 

 the drones. This can be easily done as a rule by either plun- 

 dering the stock hives of part of their honey stores from time 

 to time as they fill them during the summer, or by giving them 

 abundance of room. The enlargement of the hives by means of 

 ekes is the surest way to prevent or postpone swarming ; but it 

 can be done by supers provided free access is given to such 

 supers from every part of the main hive. In this way all tho 

 honey that can be gathered will be secured before swarming 

 time, as numbers of bees in these large hives with overflowing 

 populations will have nothing to do but to gather it. 



I have made a beginning with my most forward hive. It ia 

 the strongest and largest of three which have alone survived the 

 late disastrous winter out of ten which I had well fed up last 

 autumn. I have given it a super of large size, equal, in fact, to 

 the stock itself. Already it is half fall of comb and promises 

 well. I intend to eke it according to requirement, so as, if pos- 

 sible, to postpone swarming till the middle of July, when I 

 shall be leaving home for a month. I hope in the few days 

 before I go to manage my swarming with the best effect, and 

 shall in due time report progress. 



Of course feeding on a large scale will have to be attended to 

 throughout the autumn to keep the late swarms alive ; but sugar 

 is cheap, and our apiarians are full of devotion. I intend, of 

 course, to make my bees Bwarm artificially as circumstances 

 shall guide me. There are many ways of carrying this out 

 which an apt apiarian haa recourse to. 



As to Italian bees— (how long will they be called Ligurians, 

 which is an entire misnomer ?)— Mr. Shearer should have quali- 

 fied his remarks by adding at the close " at least in Great 

 Britain."— B. & W. 



ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 



"Dear Sir, — It would be iuJeeJ a great boon if Mr. Pettigrew or eoms 

 other apiarian woukl kiiiLtly explain how bees are swarmed artiticially, lor in 

 this part of the couiitry there are many hives Itopt and mismanaged in the 

 way described by Mr. Ptttigrow in yonr last number; in fact I never heai*i 

 of anyone within miles of this place who has ever taken honey without 

 first killing the bees. Artificial swarming ia out of thoquestion; our ignorant 

 bee-keepers wo'n't believe it is possible ; so if you describe it in your nesfc 

 issue it would be in time for this season, and be of great advantage to us. — 

 John Oakey, jun., Winchcome." 



It is to be hoped that Mr. Oakey will, before the present 

 season ia over, become an expert in artificial swarming and 

 driving beea, and thus be enabled to help his neighbours. The 

 work of artificial swarming is very simple and easily understood. 

 To do it once, or see it done, is to make anybody master of it ; 

 and everything of this kind fairly mastered becomes our servant ; 

 and, sure enough, artificial swaiming is a very useful servant to 

 all bee-keepers who have not time to watch their bees during 

 the day. 



Bees are ready for artificial swarming as soon as they begin 

 to cluster about their doors, and to let them cluster long in fine 

 weather ia itself a piece of mismanagement. Large hives seldom 



