214 



JOURNAL OK HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE, 



[ March 3, 1874. 



syrup mixed at the house, where with; to show you an easy and 

 excellent way of feeding bees. 



Mr. B.— What a wonderful power this smoke has over bees ! 

 I begin to think I shall have but little difficulty in mastering the 

 art of bee-keeping. Let me see you administer the syrup, or 

 tc-U me how to do it. 



Mr. p. — Turn up the hive once more, and hold it so that the 

 combs may be in a slanting position. Then pour the liquid first 

 along one comb, then another till all have been gone over. As 

 most of the cells are now empty, the sjTup will run into them 

 before it reaches the crown of the hive ; and if it goes on some 

 of the bees, no harm will be done, for other bees wOl speedily 

 lick it off. You now see how easily food can be given to bees. 

 There are many other ways of feeding them, any one of which 

 may be practised where ouly a few hives are kept. Tin troughs 

 about 12 inches long and less than half an inch deep are handy 

 appliances for giving small quantities of syrup to bees in spring. 

 A little more should be given to hives this mouth than what was 

 named for February. Hives by the end of this month will have 

 more bees and brood, and therefore require more food. 



Mr. B. — I can now see that hives standing singly on three 

 posts are more comeatable and easily examined than those 

 placed in a bee-house. 



ilB. P. — No competent practical bee-master prefers a bee- 

 house to separate stands for hives. All hives should be placed 

 Boas to be easily examined ; and the longer we practise bee- 

 keeping, the more clearly we see the importance of frequently 

 examining our hives internally. For instance, if the bees in 

 some stocks be found at the commencement of March to be 

 reduced to two seams — i.e., two lots on each side of a comb in 

 each hive — the safer way is to make one good hive out of two 

 weak ones by uniting them. If hives have three seams of bees 

 in March, and are otherwise healthy, they will live ; but when 

 reduced to two seams of bees many of them will not do so. 

 Let your aim be to have strong healthy hives, examine them 

 thoroughly as often as you have time, and thus you will speedily 

 become a master of the art of bee-keepiug, knowing intelligently 

 what both you and your bees are about, and free from the fear 

 of committing mistakes through ignorance. Study the natural 

 history of bees while you are aiming at their profitable manage- 

 ment, and I think I need not teU you that whatever is worth 

 doing should be done well. 



As bees use a great deal of water during the breeding season, 

 it is well to keep a supply of it near the apiary ; and many 

 writers recommend salt to be mixed with water given to the bees. 



If the entrances to hives have been contracted during the 

 winter, they should be enlarged at the end of the month. 

 Let it be remembered that the perfection of management from 

 March till August consists in keeping hives in a state of health 

 and progress. If the weather be unpropitious, bees should be 

 fed ; for if kept on the point of starvation, they instinctively 

 cast out their young and refuse to sit eggs, their combs become 

 empty of brood, and many hives thus suffer from a kind of 

 relapse and collapse. All this should be prevented by feeding 

 when necessary. A few pounds of food in a hive are an encourage- 

 ment to them to fiU their combs with brood. — A. Pettigrew. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Condition Powders (W. W.). — "We are Bon7 we can give you no receipt of 

 the kind. We do not believe in them. There is plenty of natural food for 

 men and animals, and as a rale the simpler it is the better. This will at once 

 conline us to Nature's menu. The treatment of a patient is to remove some- 

 thinc that offends, or to supply something that is lackinfi. They are the 

 conditions of cure, and are seldom necessaiy where the livinf,' is plain and 

 natural. We have kept horses, poultry, dogs, and other stock for fJty years, 

 and have used nothing of the sort. 



Dorkings Sicely (E. E. S.).— You have evidently disease among your 

 bird.g. It may be caused by the changeable and trying weather. It cannot be 

 caused by the ground oats if they are properly ground. If they be so, they 

 will then mix with water or any other liquid as aruoothly as cream or custard, 

 although none of the hull or skin of the com is removed, or bran taken away. 

 Not only is it impossible for this to injure fowls, but they do better on it than 

 anything else. It in the universal food in Sussex, whence we derive all our 

 best London poultry. Few millers have stones fitted for this process, and 

 when the operation is improperly performed the mixture presents the appear- 

 ance of having been mixed with clmff . Fowls dislike this, and will starve upon it. 



DccK-MANAGEMENT {Quack).—D\icks want very little water, and will go to 

 it when it is necessary. They need not live by tho stream. Yon may have 

 some Ducks as well as eggs. The former are useful in winter, when eggs are 

 out of the question. You will do well to keep a drake. Wc advise you to keep 

 Bouens. Yon must buy some aheap ones. Such, with defects known only to 

 the "pundits," are generally to ha met with at a moderate price. 



Foretelling the Sex of Eggs {X. £.).— Many hundi-eds of years ago 

 this knowledge was pretended to. It has remained the same to this day. It 

 ha^ always been said the pointed egg produced a cock, and the round one a 

 pullet. Wo do not believe in it. Trials made by om-selves and friends, many 

 of them medical men, have all been failures. 



Fence of Poultry-v.\rd {/uj/j.—Iirahmas and Cochins can be safely kept 

 in by a wall S feet hi'^h; Houdaua and Polands must have 2 feet higher; 

 Cr< ve-Cteurs, IlamburghH, Spanish, Game, and Dautams, by the great wall of 

 China. 



Game Hen Lame (F. Q. D.).— We can give little hope of any cure. The 

 only favourable symptom is that tho limb is not cold. It is, however, in our 

 opinion paralysis. We have a hea Pheasant that has been two years in the 



same condition. Year after year we have looked for improvement, and foun^ 

 none. We now intend to kill her. 



Excess of Spanish Cock's F'ace (IT. /. B.). — Your bird has a cauliflower 

 face— common defect among Spanish, and chiefly belonging to the best 

 specimens. There is only one treatment, and that is not without its disad- 

 vantages. It is to put two small straps of sticking or adhesive plaister on tho 

 skin, compelling enough of the eye to keep open to enable the bird to see. 

 There is no cure for it, but relief is sometimes afforded by frequent use of a 

 strong solution of alum in water. Vinegar may be used for the same purpose. 



Bees Ejecting Dead Pcpa, &c. {F. R. L.). — It is very usual at this timo 

 of the year. If you send the notes we will impartially judge them. 



Transferring Bees (Ivy). — If the combs in your bar-frame hive are 

 straight, you may easily transfer them to another hive by cutting them clean 

 out and unbroken from the old bars, and fitting them neatly into the new 

 ones. A few drops of melted wax will cement them to the new bars. The 

 operation should be performed at noon some fine day, or by candlelight in a 

 warm room. In this way yon may succeed without the loss of a bee. 



Canaries in a Gas-heated IIuom (J i'ou/if; £r{;iHntT).— It will neither 

 affect their health nor their plumage if the products of combustion are con- 

 veyed into a chimney and not allowed to vitiate the atmosphere of the room. 

 It matters not what the young ones are like in their nest feathers. The 

 time to decide their future is during moulting. After that it matters not if 

 they get as black as sweeps. It is a simple thing to wash them as often as 

 required for exhibition. — W. A. Blakston. 



Feeding Wax-bills, Budjertgars, and Weaver Birds (St. Edmunds). 

 — Spice birds and Was-biUs thrive best on millet seed; Weaver birds and 

 Budjerigars eat canary seed. Hemp seed should not be given to them, but a 

 little green food occasionally is good for them. 



Crushed Oats (Jwlia).— Apply to Mr. Agate, Slaugham Mills, Crawley, 

 Susses, or to Messrs. J. & H. Hobinson, Bridge Mills, Lewisham. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 



Camden Square, London. 



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



REMARKS. 

 25th. — White frost early ; a fine though not a bright day. 

 26th. — Wet morning, and showery all day ; showers frequent rather than heavy ; 



fine at night. 

 27th.— Very fine all the fore pait of the day, hutj rather windy; sharp shower 



about 5 P.M. ; fine night. 

 28th. — Foggy early, hut fine before 10 a.m., and a very fine day. 

 March Ist. — Rain early, hut fair by 9 a.m. ; rather sharp shower betweenS and 

 4 P.M., then fine. 

 2nd. — Foggy early, and rather so at intervals all day ; scarce any wind. 

 3rd. — A very pleasant spring day, at times beautifully bright. 

 The mean temperature about 3^ above that of last week, except in the case 

 of sun maximum, which is 11 above; of course caused by the greater alti- 

 tude of the sun, in addition to the much brighter days that we have had; 

 though the air is still far trom being so clear as usual at this time of the year. 

 — G. J. Svaious. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— March 4. 

 Our qnotations of last week are barely maintained in consequence of the 

 slack demand now prevailing. Hothouse Grapes of good quality are in fair 

 request, but Fines of English gi'owth are lower in price, in consequence of the 



large arrivals from St. Michaels. ^^^_„ ,^ 



FRUIT. 



