September II', 1876. J 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOOLTDRE AND COTXAGB QABDENEB. 



261 



daotion of the original type. As to the former, it is an estab- 

 lished fact, and I quite agree with him. His plan for the latter 

 is very good; and if committees and judges could come to such 

 an arraugement it would, I feel sure, bring fancy Pigeons up to 

 the old standard, which has not been improved upon in this 

 country. 



To return to the Jacobin. There is a new point besides the 

 mane now named by some of our friends, which Mr. Weir does 

 not notice. I purposely avoided naming it in my last paper, as 

 I could not admit that such belonged to this bird. That new 

 point is the rose. Until the present year (1875) I never heard 

 of the rose on a Jacobin (the rose is oue of the points ia the 

 Trumpeter). The so-called rose is caused by the ugly mane, 

 which generally brings the chain to an abrupt termination, 

 often stopping at the side of the neck from this cause. Now 

 the great beauty of the Jacobin is the chain down to the 

 pinions on both sides, or as much farther down as it can be 

 got, tapering off on the lower sides of the breast. The whole 

 characteristics of the head and neck of this bird should be of a 

 rounded nature, all softened off. The hood should not appear 

 to be gummed on to the head, but tilted forward easily and 

 gracefully. The chain, like a lady's boa, divided up the centre 

 over the neck, tapering to points ; and the head pleasantly 

 rounded, with a neat, small, well-set beak ; and the bird is 

 finished off by a fine taper from the shoulders, caused by the 

 long flights and tail. I say with Mr. Weir that I have not for 

 long seen a Jacobin "I would have as a gift," unless as feeders 

 for young Pouters. They now do well for this purpose, as all 

 cross-bred birds do. I have proved them. Fancy a pair of 

 Red Jacobins bringing up three young Pouters at one time ; 

 such was the case with the last I had. They were of the mane 

 and rose type. 



Mr. Ure has the credit of bringing forward anew this subject, 

 which must be of great interest to all Jacobin fanciers, and I 

 hope he will give us a few more lines on it, as they may be the 

 means of bringing out the ideas of some other of our friends. — 

 J. HuiE. 



BEE GOSSIP. 



Honey, it may be said, is the ulterior object in apiculture, for 

 a good harvest of it is pleasing alike to both amateurs and bee- 

 farmers. For the last five or six years we have not been favoured 

 with what we call a good honey season. In Scotland and Ire- 

 land the bee-keepers have been more lucky than those of 

 England. If the weather be favourable for honey-gathering for 

 a fortnight while the fruit trees are in blossom, and for three 

 weeks while white clover is in flower, bees swarm early and lay 

 np great stores. The clover season generally ends with July; 

 August follows, making, to use the language of royalty, the 

 moorlands "purple with heather." This purple heather yields 

 to bees more honey, or rather yields it faster, than any other 

 plant. When swarms rise in weight to 70 lbs. and upwards on 

 the clover bee-farmers are satisfied. When such hives are taken 

 to the moors they nearly gather their own weight of honey in 

 fifteen days of fine weather. We regret that so few'bee-keepers 

 in the south send their hives to the moora. 



Every year we send ours to the heather, a distance of twenty- 

 five miles, and on their way to and fro they have to be re-shipped 

 at Manchester. On three seasons of the last six years, while 

 many were lamenting unfavourable results, our best first 

 swarms rose in weight to nearly 100 lbs. each, from some of 

 which we obtained supers of honeycomb weighing 30 lbs each. 

 Most, if not all, of this was gathered on the moors. Last year 

 (1874) the bees had a good turn on the clover, and went to grouse- 

 land in good condition ; but on other seasons of late they were 

 less fortunate on the clover, and had to fill their hives from the 

 heather. Three years ago our hives were so well filled with 

 heather honey that we cut some i'30 worth of honeycombs from 

 them without reducing their number. In cutting-out honey 

 from hives kept for stock they are doubtless injured to a certain 

 extent, for the spaces left empty by the comb knife have to be 

 refilled in spring by the bees, and thus they are hindered from 

 coming to the swarming point so soon as they would otherwise. 

 As a setoff we have " a bird in hand," deeming it good policy 

 to take honey when it can be obtained. If the honey had not 

 been taken that year it would all have been eaten by the bees 

 in 1873, one of the worst seasons for honey-gathering ever 

 known. In a few days our hives will come back from the moors, 

 when the honey will be taken from all that are beyond GO lbs. 

 weight each. A hive GO lbs. weight yields about 30 lbs. of honey. 

 In heavier hives there is, of course, a proportionately larger 

 yield of honey. 



We would like to encourage all English bee-keepers who are 

 seeking profit to keep large hives, and to send them to the 

 moors every year. Those who resolve to do so will have to use 

 cross sticks in their hives to support the combs on the way. 

 Bar- frame hives, or hives of any kind without cross sticks, cannot 

 be safely carried during the summer months. A Manuhester 

 gentleman who has taken a fancy for Ligurian bees has had two 

 stocks sent him from the south by advanced and experienced 



apiarians. One of the hives is a bar-framer, the other a common 

 straw hive without cross sticks. Both hives came packed on 

 the crowns in boxes with great care. The bar-framo hive was 

 placed on four yielding indiarubber balls, but notwithstanding 

 all the care bestowed in packing them, all the combs in both 

 hives were shaken loose and detached from their holdings before 

 they arrived, and lay in confused masses. The bets in the 

 straw hive were the beat marked Ligurians I ever saw, but they 

 were suifocated and destroyed on their journey. It was sad to 

 witness such injury and destruction. We are sending hives 

 to distant parts, and never have such breakdowns. In a few 

 days we shall send half a dozen hives to a gentleman in Perth- 

 shire. All will be prepared for the journey in fifteen or twenty 

 minutes at most, and we guarantee their safe arrival. We 

 simply nail the hives to their boards, ventilate them with fly- 

 proof wire, and send them off in their natural positions without 

 box or basket, or anything else to protect them. Cross sticks in 

 hives are of great value to the bees while they are working, and 

 of great advantage to the bee-master while he handles them, 

 keeping the combs steady and secure on all occasions. 



On taking the honey from our heaviest hives we first drive 

 t'ae bees from them into empty hives, and unite them to the 

 bees of those we keep for stock. The stocks are thus strength- 

 ened very much, and made strong by numbers. We hear a 

 great deal of talk about managing bees on the depriving system ; 

 but any system of management that saves the lives of bees may 

 be termed a depriving system ; and one kind of hive is as much 

 depriving as another. The word as used is misleading, and 

 should have no place in apiarian literature. The bees of our 

 honey hives are all united to the stock hives; and the combs 

 containing brood are put into a hive or box, and bees put amongst 

 them to hatch the brood. These brood combs gathered from 

 several hives, and laid in one, yield a large swarm of young 

 bees, which strengthen many hives. The mortar of a building 

 is the least costly, but it gives strength and stability to the 

 whole; and from the refuse combs of honey hives wo obtain 

 swarms of bees, which give additional strength and power to 

 hives that have to face the winter storms. — A. Pettigrew. 



AN APIARIAN TREAT. 



One of the pleasantest traits to be found among men of 

 science is the hearty good feeling with which they welcome 

 one another for a friendly chat on their mutual hobby, and a 

 sight of the works and collections to illustrate it. Now my 

 hobby, at least one of them — for I have several — are bees, and 

 the occasion of a flower show at Horsham was a good excuse to 

 pay a visit to a friend, Mr. F. W. Cowan, and see his bees and 

 all belonging to them. Now Mr. Cowan is no ordinary bee- 

 keeper, for he manages his bees as well as keeps them to such 

 tune that the Times newspaper last year recorded his exploit 

 of obtaining 907 lbs. of honey from twelve hives of bees. Not 

 many people can beat this, so I went to see how he does it. 



Mr. Cowan is happily situated in pleasant Sussex. The 

 country around is naturally luxuriant, but not that I could see 

 marvellously favourable to the production of honey. Moreover, 

 the bees are in the town^open country behind it is true, but 

 still there are shops and breweries near, where many workers 

 must be attracted to their destruction. There is one grand 

 feature about Mr. Cowan's bees different from most people's — 

 that is, they are with few exceptions all in houses ; not the 

 pokey stuffy little places called bee-houses, where the owner 

 cannot get his head into, much more his body, but veritable 

 houses ! rooms 20 feet long or more. But I am getting along 

 too fast, so will return to my starting-point, which was from 

 the drawing-room window, into a beautiful well-kept garden, 

 gay with flowers and artistic beds of foliage plants in the highest 

 perfection, which having passed with a cursory glance only, 

 I was introduced to the sanctum sanctorum of the bees, a fine 

 old-fashioned substantial range of stabling, with servants' rooms 

 over. In these latter were the bees, every window having one 

 or more hives, about twenty in all, and every hive a covered 

 way from its mouth to the outer world. If insects have an 

 aristocracy I should say these bees belong to it. No squire of 

 high degree could be better lodged or have more careful thoughi 

 for his comfort. The hives are all home-made, but none the 

 worse for that, for my friend makes all his own, and is the 

 possessor of a circular saw. Knowing how to use it, it would 

 take a good joiner to beat him in hive-making. The Woodbury 

 pattern is evidently Mr. Cowan's favourite, although he has 

 others. The hives are populous, many having already filled 

 respectable supers, which will figure at our show, and nearly 

 all the others have supers still filling. I should except a 

 Woodbury observatory, which, with its six frames, is as usual 

 unprofitable for honey, but instructive and valuable for observa- 

 tion. Ligirrians are greater favourites than the common bee, 

 and such a practical owner has no doubt not given them the 

 preference without due consideration. One objection to bees 

 in rooms that I have found, has been when the crown board is 

 removed the bees fly to the window and are diflicult to expel i 



