July 29, 1876. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



105 



DliBY FOB 1875. 



February 10th. — No. 5 found perished, dysentery ; i and 3 

 very weak. 



March lat.— Took 2 and 3 into greenhouas. The warmth set 

 them moving. Fed with syrup. Weather miserably cold. Snow 

 on the ground. 

 April 1st.— No. 2, all dead I Dysentery in both cases. Plenty 

 April 7th.— No. 3, all dead ) of sealed food in both hives. Ob- 

 tained lots of clean guide combs. Fed all hives gently. 



May 4th.— Placed 20-inch hive under No. 8. Stopped entrance 

 to top hive. Bees very quiet. 



May 5th. — No. 8 doing well and working combs into nadir. 

 1, i, G, 14 growing very strong. 12 seems weak but healthy. 

 Fruit blossoms fully out. The various kinds of willow have 

 snpplied abundance of pollen during the past month, but 

 weather so cold that the bees can seldom seek it, often dying in 

 the attempt, being frozen by the cold E wind. Have discon- 

 tinued feeding with syrup, finding barleysugar a cleaner and 

 more gentle substitute. 1 give it over the centre opening, placing 

 a flower-pan inverted above it. 



May 18th. — No. 1, tilled a flower saucer with combs and partly 

 with honey. Cut off the saucer and placed super with guide 

 combs. May 20th. — Bees in No. 1 commence in super. 



May 21th. — Placed 20-inch hive under No. 6. Bees instantly 

 took to it. 



May 25th. — Drove an artificial swarm from No. 4 into a 

 6s. 6d. Abbott bar- frame hive. Placed it on No. 16, and the 

 stock returned to its own stand, the number of bees left in it 

 being small. Two outer combs fell, from which I obtained 

 5 lbs. of pure fruit-blossom honey. 



May 26th. — Took a strong artificial swarm from No. 10, and 

 with it tenanted a bar- frame hive. Placed the swarm on No. 10, 

 and removed the stock to No. 3, having closed the entrance. 

 4, 6, and 16 doing well. 



May 2Sth— Shook out two swarms of to-day bought of villager 

 into 20-inch hive. No fighting. Placed on No. 17 and fed. Fed 

 all new swarms with syrup. 



May 31st. — Natural swarms from 8 and 1 placed on 12 and 14 

 in 18-inch hives, and the stocks 12 and 14 removed to 2 and 5 

 respectively. 



June 3rd. — Placed super on No. 4. Great cluster outside 

 No. 8 all night. Weather very sultry. 

 June 4th. — Placed supers on 5 and 14. 



June 6th. — Heavy swarm while at church from 4. Hived at 

 4 P.M. into 18-inch hive and placed on 7. Continue to feed all 

 new swarms at night and on cloudy or wet days. 

 June 7th. — No. 14 very strong. Bees hanging out. 

 June 8th. — Cast from 14 very heavy, but as heavy a mass of 

 bees left in the hive. (There was a good peck of bees put into 

 14.) Placed in 18-inch and on No. 9 stand. 

 June 10th-14th. — Very wet and cold. Fed all swarms. 

 June 14th. — Afternoon finer. Bought two old stocks. Drove 

 bees from one entirely which had sent out a swarm a few days 

 before. Also drove a heavy swarm from the other stock. Joined 

 both these at evening in 18-inch hive, and put them on stand 

 No. 11. Placed the empty stock with lots of brood in it over 

 No. 3. Removed the other stock in evening, closed the entrance, 

 and placed it on No. 13. The super had been removed from 

 No. 1 when it swarmed. Bell-glass placed over No. 1 to-day, and 

 bees took to it. 



June 15th-Gave water through the hole in the top of No. 13, 

 which I cut and covered with perforated zinc last evening. 



June 17th. — Opened entrance to No. 13. Bees work in and out 

 well, none returned to their old stand, about 200 yards from my 

 garden. Clover in flower 100 yards distance. 



June 19th. — Very heavy swarm from No. 5. Super deserted 

 with two nice combs in it. Joined this swarm to No. 12, which 

 appeared weak. Bean field in flower very near to which the 

 bees work. Clover cut to-day. 



June 19th-24th. — Bees working well, no more symptoms of 

 swarming. Placed small bell-glass over 8. 



June 24th-30th. — Great change in the weather. Stormy and 



cloudy. Bees cannot get out at all day after day. This being 



the best season for honey-storing, the " look-out " is a bad one, 



a small harvest is probable. Drones killed off in several hives. 



July Ist. — Rain the whole day. 



July 2nd. — Showery. Bees go out but little. Gave a small 

 quantity of syrup to four lightest hives. 



July 3rd and 4th. — Weather very bad both for bees and hay. 

 N.B— I have lately noticed white grubs being dragged from the 

 hives and pitched over the floor-board. They are doubtless 

 being killed off to lessen the hungry population. 



July 5th-8th.— E. wind, cold but a little finer. Bees go 

 out a little for honey from the limes. A splendid avenue of 

 these glorious trees now in full blossom, and the melhfluous 

 treasure being washed away by the rains. Drones are lying 

 dead in numbers around the hives. 

 July 9th. — Wind W. Heavy rains again. Not a bee out. 

 July 10th and 11th. — Very showery. Many bees tempted out 

 and drowned. 



July 12th. — Fine and warm. Bees crowding out, but the 

 flowers all too drenched to be worked upon. 



July 13th-15th. — From 11 a 5i, on the 13th until 10 a.m. on the 

 15th an incessant pour-down of rain from S.S.E. 



July IGth. — Cloudy and showers. The bees must be fast con- 

 suming what little honey they have stored in the spring. 



July 17lh. — Torrents of rain from N.E. 



July 18th. — Fog until 11 a.m., then sultry and sunny. Bees 

 working with all their might. The glasses of supers which had 

 been deserted again full of bees. This I fear is but a break 

 between storms. Eveiy indication of rain again from the west. 



July I'Jth. — Torrents of rain again from S.S.W. The season 

 is now so far advanced for this neighbourhood that I must 

 expect no honey this year, but that I must feed them all in 

 autumn. From Jane 24th to present date the bees have not 

 had but two days for working, and so I send my diary up to this 

 date, as I am going from home for some time. In late autumn 

 I hope to tell you the results of my examination of the hives, 

 and the number of stocks I rescue. — P. H. P., Offley, Hitchin. 



MANCHESTEB HONEY SHOW FOE 187.5 



ABANDONED. 



Owing to the long-continued unfavourable weather for bees in 

 this locality, the Committee of the proposed Show have thought 

 that an exhibition worthy of the name, or of the expense and 

 trouble necessary, could not be secured this year, and therefore 

 have decided not to have one. Some disappointment will be 

 felt by those who have been at some expense in preparing for a 

 competition. More disappointment would probably have been 

 felt if we were to beg and spend £50 and produce little for it. 

 Yet, having an Exhibition at Manchester this year has beea 

 abandoned with reluctance. — A. Pettigrew. 



QUEEN BEES FROM EGGS. 

 Seeing that the question as to whether bees have the power 

 to raise queens from the eggs which produce ordinary workers 

 is still a debateable one, the following facts which have recently 

 occurred in the north of England may help to throw some light 

 on the matter. The hives of the Rev. E. Brierly of Great 

 Broughton, Cumberland, are upon the bar-and-frame principle, 

 so that any given comb can be removed at will. The glass 

 super of No. 3 hive was found deserted of bees on July 7tb, and 

 the super and the cover of the stock hive underneath were 

 removed, when it was seen that the hivo was in the reverse of 

 a prosperous state. A minute examination of every comb 

 showed that there was no trace of eggs, grubs, or sealed brood, 

 and it was clear that the hive was going down. A comb full of 

 eggs only was at once selected from another stock, marked, and 

 dropped into hive No. 3. The queen bee happened to be on 

 the selected frame, whence she was removed and the remaining 

 bees brushed off. The comb was new, but all the space in the 

 frame was not filled with comb. On July 14th the cover was 

 again raised, when a great difference was observable in the 

 manner of the bees, and on taking out the marked comb the 

 experimenter was rewarded by finding five of the so-well-known 

 queen cells, three of which were already sealed. A portion 

 of the empty space in tb« frame had been filled with drone 

 comb. — B, 



OOR LETTER BOX. 



Bramley Show {J. Firth and Others). — No more need be said upon the 

 subject of the rough handling of the Rabbits. The conduct was very wrong, 

 but we need say no more than that thenamesof the delinquents eurpiise us. 



Tdsiour in Hen's Breast (A Constant Reader). — Open it with a sharp 

 knife or i}ointed Bcisaora, squeeze out the contents, cover the oi'eniDg with 

 diacylon piaieter, and leave the cure to Nature. A bruise may have caused it. 

 Your half-round perches are good, but no perches should be more thau 2 or 

 3 feet from the floor, and this should he covered with sand 2 inches deep. 



HouDANS Unhealthy {E. J. P.). — We rather hcsitaU- how to advise you. 

 We look with affection on Houdans wherever they can have a Rood run on 

 their owner a property. We cannot explain it, but we know it is a fact, that 

 if in their run there are ten square jards out of a hundred acres that do not 

 belong to their legitimate owner, that is where they will, if possible, lay their 

 egga. Our nest complaint against them is, that in coDliuenient Ihey eat 

 each other's feathers — truly a foolish habit. Jiugle lived a long time on a 

 coat and a pair of boots (bad pohcy to pawn the pair), he should have pawned 

 one, and accounted for his uni-bootal appearance by saying the other was 

 gone round the corner to have " a brad or two put in." In like manner we 

 read in shipwrecks of a boat's crew nourished by a pair of Welliiij^tons. This, 

 however, is sheer necessity. Your fowls have nothing of the sort. Judging 

 from the bill of fare you send, it is not for want they eat their feathers. 

 Nevertheless, we would suggest a change. Let the whole grain be given at 

 midday, and the ground oats in the evening. We do not liud they are at all 

 particular aa to soil. We find them pood layers, hardy birds, and excellent 

 for the table. We have acores of them ; their feet are not swollen. What is 

 the flooring of their house ? It ia likely you may there find the cause of the 

 swelling. If the flcor ia anything but earth, that is the cause. We use no 

 patent foods, we would not if they were given to ua. So far aa we can we 

 follow "Nature's cookery book," "what to eat, drink, and avoid to reach a 

 healthy old age." We seldom fail, no artificial heat, no spiced foods, no 

 laying powders, but good houest wholesome food. You will be troubled to 

 find a iMtter fowl thau the daik Brahma, but the Houdau is a good one. 



