302 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



[ April U, 1874. 



The plants may be wgII Byringed the following evening, but on the night of 

 the fumigation their fuliage onght to be dry. 



Name of Fruit (Charles BronmingK — Dr. Bretonneau. It never ripens, 

 and is only fit for stewing in this country. 



Names of Plants iYoung Qardener). — V,'e do not recognise the plant 

 sent further than that it is a Ranimculus. Send a specimen in flower. 

 (L. J. Q. 5.).— The common Maiden-hair Fern is the Adiantum capillas- 

 Veneris of botanists. 



POULTEY, BEE, AUD PIOEON CHEONIOLE. 



THE SPENCER PHEASANT, GROUSE, AND 



POULTRY FEEDER. 



Knowing that this haa been tried and approved we wrote to 

 the maker, Mr. Le Butt, Bury St. EdmuudB, and he sent us the 

 following particulars : — 



1. It is made of wood lined with zinc, consequently is more 

 durable, less likely to be injured by boughs falling, or other 

 accidents occurring in a wood or in preserves, and will, with care, 

 last a lifetime. 



2. The corn is entirely protected from the weather, and by a 

 novel application of glass the com is always visible, which in- 

 stantly attracts the attention and arouses the ingenuity of the 



birds the first time, and in less than a minute they find out how 

 to help themselves, and never afterwards forget. 



3. It is rendered vermin-proof by so arranging and balancing 

 a platform that it requires the length as well as the weight of a 

 Pheasant or Grouse to lift up the covers, while the troughs are 

 self -feeding ; and the moment the birds step off the platform the 

 iii of the feeding-trough instantly closes. 



4. They are made to hold about a bushel and a half of Indian 

 or other com, and, as there is a trough on each side, a dozen 

 birds can easily feed at a time. 



It has been highly approved by the Head Keeper (Mr. Dadley) 

 of the Marquis of Bristol, at Ickworth, Suffolk ; that well-known 

 sporting gentleman residing at Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Charles 

 Nunn) ; the Head Keeper to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales (Mr. 

 Jackson, of Sandringham), and others. 



Hen's Endurance of Fasting. — A singular evidence has just 

 occurred at Weybridge that fowls can live for a long period 

 without food or water. A month ago Mr. Barnard, of the Hand 

 and Spear Hotel, missed a fine Black Spanish hen, and she was 

 given up as lost. However, on the 31st of March a large heap 

 of hay was removed from the spot where it had been placed 

 exactly a month and four days previously, and the hen was 

 found to have been buried underneath the load. The poor bird 

 was in a shockingly weak condition, and apparently almost 

 lifeless, her comb being quite black ; but food and water having 

 been given to her, she speedily showed animation, and now looks 

 very little the worse for her long fast. — {Surrey Advertiser.) 



DUDLEY COLLIERY POULTRY SHOW. 



This was held on the 6th inst., when the following awards 

 were made : — 



Cochin-Chinas.— Medal and S, J. Webster, West Sleekbom. 2, J. Doddg 

 Nedderton Colliery. 



Brahma Pootras.— 1 and 2, W. Swann, Bedlin^n. 3, R. Shield. SwalwelL 

 he. Gillia & Anderson, Seghill. 



SPAKisH —1, R. Shield. 2, G. Scott, Dudley Colliery. 8, M. Gibson, Wood- 

 hom, Morpeth. 



Game --Blaclc.hre<u(ted —1 and 8, R. Sharp, Cowpen Colliery. 2, J. Stark, 

 Bebaide Colliery, he, T. Dodds, Seaton Bum. Brown Bcifa.— Medal, T. YounR. 

 Cowpen. 2, C. Smith, Dudley CoUiery. 3, J. Ferry, Cowpen. Any other 

 variety.— I, J. Morton, Choppington Colliery. 2,G. Taylor, Bedlington Collierv. 

 S, J. Brown, Seshill. 



BlKBonans.—SiloeT-span^led.—i, O. Stalker, West Sleekbum. 2, O. Tnmbnll, 

 Ashinifton OolUery. 3, W. F. Jonkinson, Dadley. OoUm-ifpanyled.-l, T. 

 Marshall, Mittord Vlcarase, Morpeth. 2, Miss M. Stewart, Dudley. 3, a. Harburn, 

 Bishop AuckUluL, 



UkMBUROBS.—8itv€r-penciUed.~\, J. Wilson, Shankhouse. 2, R. Blackburn, 

 Choppinuton. 3, J. Parker, Dudley. Golden-pencilled.— Sdedni, A. Stephenson, 

 Dudley CoUiery. 2, W. Stephenson. 3, Gillia & Anderson. 



B&.UTAW^.—Game.—Dlacl<-breasted and other Fteds.—Med&l, J. Short, BedlinR- 

 ton. 2, Miss M. J. Nelson, Cockahaw, Hexham. 3, H. Sharp, Bebaide ColUery. 

 Any other variety.— \, Miss M. J. Nelson. 2, T. Rennison, Seaton Delaval. 3, T. 

 GoIiRhtly, New Delaval. 



Bantams.— ^ny other variety.— 1 and 3, R. H. Ashton. Mottram. 2, Miss M. 

 Parsons. Coclc.—Any vari.ely.—l, J. Short. 2, R. H. Ashton. 8, G. Bell, North 

 Seaton Colliery, he. J. Wilkinson. Bedlington Colliery. 



Any OTHER VAKieTV.—l, M (jibson. 2, W. Swann. 3, R. H. Ashton. ^ic, B. 

 Parsons ; G. Alderoon, West Hartlepool. 



Any Variety. -iffin —1, A.M. Balmer.Biahnp Auckland. 2. W. Swann. 3,G, 

 Taylor, BedUngton Colliery, Cocfc.— 1, It. White, Cockahaw, Hexham. 2, J. 

 Ferry. 8. T. Dudd, Seaton Burn, hi, A. Stephenson, Dudley Colliery. 



Selling Class.— 1, Miss M. J. Nelson. 2, B. dharp. 3, E. Walker, Hexham. 

 he, J. Parkioson, New Uelaval. e, R. Parsons. 



D^cKs— Any variety.— i and 2, Miss M. J. Nelson. 8, W. Swann. he, J. 

 Curtis, Dudley. 



Chakcoal fob Pohltky, — Fowls of all kinds are very fond of 

 charcoal, and will eat it with great relish if properly prepared. 

 Pounded charcoal is not in the shape in which fowls usually find 

 their food, and consequently is not very enticing to them. To 

 please their palate the charcoal should be in pieces of about the 

 size of grains of corn, and if these are strewed around their 

 quarters they will readily eat thereof. Corn reduced to char- 

 coal, and still retaining the perfect shape, is eaten by them, 

 and makes a marked improvement in their health, as is shown 

 by the brighter colour of their combs, and their sooner produc- 

 ing a greater average of eggs to the flock than before. — (Boston 

 Cultivator.) 



THE QUEEN BEE. 



What a volume of interest and marvel we should have in a 

 full and accurate record of the birth, character, and career of a 

 queen bee ! But who can write it ? Possibly it may be for the 

 pen of a ready writer to portray the circumstances of birth, the 

 character and the life of a human king or queen ; but when the 

 majesty and activity of bee life are considered with a view to 

 unfold them, every humble honest historian must be convinced 

 that the subject is beyond his powers, and fear that in touching 

 it at all it will suffer and be dwarfed to some extent. Though I 

 have, perhaps, seen and bandied more queen bees in my day 

 and practice than any other person in these islands, and have 

 followed the destinies of many of them from their cradles to 

 their graves, I have no pretensions to a wider or more accurate 

 knowledge of queen bees and their natural history than is 

 possessed by very many other apiarians. In stating a few 

 things known about queens, the aim is to help and interest 

 young bee-keepers and uninformed people. 



A queen bee is cradled and hatched in a royal cell — a cell 

 very differently constructed from either drone or worker cells. 

 A royal cell is nearly as large as a small acorn, and not very un- 

 like one in shape and appearance. All the drone and worker cells 

 are horizontal, and built together with great architectural skill 

 and neatness, and with great economy in wax ; whereas a queen 

 cell is vertical in form, clumsy jn construction, its walls being 

 comparatively as thick as those surrounding the crowns in the 

 Tower of London. A queen is reared and hatched with her head 

 downward. Though the queen's cell is much thicker than 

 either worker or drone cell, she comes to perfection from the 

 egg a week sooner than a worker, and ten days sooner than a 

 drone. One of the most wonderful things seen in the economy 

 of a bee hive, is the fact that a queen bee is reared to perfection 

 in fourteen days, whereas a common working bee produced from 

 the same kind of eggs is twenty-one days in the cell ; nay, if a 

 hive lose its queen, the bees of that hive take eggs set in 

 worker cells, and place them in royal cells, and there convert 

 them into perfect princesses in six or seven days' less time than 

 would have been occupied in rearing them in worker cells; and 

 the wonder is heightened when we consider that this is done by 

 food and treatment. When an egg is placed in a royal cell, a 

 white-looking gelatinous matter is placed around it ; this matter 

 has been termed royal jelly. What it is, where the bees get it, 

 and how they manufacture it, are questions yet to be solved. An 

 investigation into the qualities and differences of the food given 

 to young queens and young workers in their cells would be 

 interesting, especially if the investigation were made with a 

 view to ascertain whether the queens are developed into perfect 

 females by the special treatment they receive, or whether the 

 workers are the receivers of special treatment which dwarfs 

 and renders them imperfect for life, which life is shortened to 

 nine months. 



It is interesting to note that when a queen dies, or by reason 

 of age becomes unequal to her important functions, or when her 

 departure with a swarm is contemplated, the bees rear more 

 than one queen — generally three or four, and sometimes six or 

 eight. Provision is thus made against a mishap. Better raise 

 a superabundance of queens than that the hive should be with- 

 out one. The supernumeraries are of course destroyed and cast 

 out of their hives. After the death or departure of a queen, and 

 before a successor is matured, there is an interval of some days 

 — often about ten days, and during thia interval everything goes 



