JOUEJS'AL OF HOKXICULTURE XKD COTTAGE GAilDENEE. 



[ January 10, 18S5. 



forty-seventh. Yet, reasoning analogically, that as a generijl 

 rule the queen does lay withm a few days after impregnation, 

 we are warranted, I think, in applying the same rule to her 

 conduct in this case, and concluding that impregnation had 

 been so delayed. 



Case 2. — On the 11th of August I removed the reigning 

 queen from a unicomb-hive, and inserted therein a royal 

 cell in course of being sealed. The young queen emerged 

 in due time. There were, as I said in treating of the former 

 case, few drones in my apiary at this time (the greater 

 number of my hives having been sent to the heath). Five 

 weeks elapsed, and no appearance of the queen having been 

 fertilised. On the 25th of September I discovered the queen 

 was encased, and in this state she was retained prisoner for 

 two nights. I released her and put her in again at the top 

 of the hive, but she was again surrounded, and I afterwards 

 found her on the board in the midst of a dense cluster of 

 bees apparently maltreating her. Not being desu'ous to 

 experiment ftu'ther with this queen, and she being a black 

 one, I permanently removed her. 



In addition to these cases I might also advert to one other. 

 In the same summer I was in possession of a young queen 

 also reared artificially — a most insignificant little ci-eatm-e 

 she was, and she continued so long and so frequently to in- 

 dulge in out-door excursions, that I formed a very bad 

 opinion of her indeed, and so apparently did her own sisters, 

 for they pai-tially encased her at the very entrance of the 

 hive on one occasion, as if determined to put a stop to her 

 profitless wanderings. This queen remained long unfertile, 

 though she ultimately became so ; but the colony over which 

 she reigned never prospered. At the close of the autumn I 

 joined a whole swarm to this hive but all in vain. The 

 prolific powers of the queen were evidently at fault, and the 

 following spring she again manifested the same inactivity. 

 Little progress was made in spring and summer. I then 

 removed her and presented her to a queenless hive, but here 

 she was maltreated and rejected. The bees would not have 

 her to reign over them, and I found her the next morning 

 extruded from the hive dead. 



These queens, it will be observed, were all reared artifi- 

 cially ; and I think it proper here to record an opinion long 

 entertained by me, and borne out, I think, by ample proof 

 in my experience, that such artificially-reared queens are 

 generally less to be depended upon by the apiarian, and are, 

 therefore, more hazardous tb the hive than queens reared 

 in the ordinary way. They are usually longer in getting 

 fecnndateil, and more apt, accordingly, to go astray and be 

 lost. They are also liable to encasement by the bees, and 

 to become defective and abnormal in their character. 



I am quite aware that these views do not find a place in 

 the works of our most eminent apiarian authorities ; but 

 it is, I am inclined to believe, because their attention has 

 not been experimentally di'awn to the subject in all its 

 details — indeed I am not very sanguine even that they will 

 be indorsed by the more esteemed writers in this Journal ; 

 but, be this as it may, we must always yield up our opinions 

 to the lessons of experience, and cannot run counter to the 

 " irrefragable testimony of facts." 



At page 19, second column, beginning of fourth para- 

 graph, for " had generally nothing to do with the queen," 

 read " had generally nothing to do with the loss of the 

 queen." — J. Lowe. 



(To be continued.) 



hives are damp, or that the floor-boards contain some de- 

 composing matter, such as broken combs and excrementitioua 

 matter. I am not aware that this section of the genus 

 Acarus feeds upon any living animal, but so far as is known 

 confines itself to decaying substances. If youi- correspon- 

 dent would favour you with a few specimens in a quill they 

 would probably reach you alive. We might then be more 

 certain as to the species, as the glass between which the 

 specimen is mounted is so that thick only a very low power 

 of the microscope will touch it — not sufficient for its proper 

 elucidation."! 



Bees not Swakming. — This season has been a remark- 

 able one in regard to bees swai'ming in Central New York. 

 In some oases not a swai-m has issued. We have about forty 

 hives of bees, and have not had a single swai'm, such a cir- 

 cumstanc'e never before ocom-ring in our own apiary. The 

 reason why the bees have not swarmed in our apiary is the 

 fact that no di-ones have been reared in it this season. We 

 never before, in twenty-five years' experience, knew of such 

 a oii'cumstanco with our bees. Why no drones were reared 

 we cannot tell ; but without drones swarms are useless, as 

 the young queens cannot be impregnated; as the bees, 

 knowing this fact, destroy all the young queens, if any are 

 produced, and in the absence of queens no swai'ms issue. 

 — (Rural American.) 



SUPPOSED BEE PAIIASITE. 

 You will find on the bees enclosed one of the Aoari. I 

 think they are common on bees after death. They are easily 

 found on any parts of bees when the temperature of the aii- 

 is not too low. I found many on poits of a few boos' stings 

 after a few days, when I had been examining and comparing 

 the Ligurian bees' sting with the sting of the blacl: bees; 

 but I have also found these Acari on living bees. — A Lan- 



AUKSHISE BEE-KEEPEK. 



[The mites had vanished from the dead bees enclosed, 

 but we have submitted the mounted specimen to Mr. I'arfitt, 

 the naturalist, who says : — " The little animal submitted to 

 me for examination I belleve'to be Acarus domesticus (De 

 Geer). From its being found in bee-hives I presume the 



OUR LETTEE BOX. 



Poultry Show Anviovncv.^ii^STs (Chateau Val I o?i).— You are only one of 

 many wbo similarly complain that exhibitlona of poultry occur to which 

 they would have sent birds had they known that Ruch exhibitions were to 

 take place. We insert in our list all that we aro informed of, and if secre- 

 uries do not send to ua, and if the committees will not advertise, we are 

 not blameworthy. Three shillings and sixpence Is the loweet charge, 

 whether the advertisement consists of five lines, or only one, two, or three. 



T. Anduews, Dale Street, Liverpool wrote some week3 since for some 

 chickens, but prepayment being required, nothing further has been heard 

 from him by A. C. P. Gurney, 



Diseased Pigeons (A?i Old Subscriber, Paisley). —Yoyxr Pigeons seem to 

 be suffering from a sort of influenza, and I fear the medicine (aloes and 

 pepper) you have been giving will not do much to relieve your patient. I 

 cured one of mine this spring by the following means, and if you like to 

 try it I should be glad to hear the result :— Take one grain of tartar emetic 

 and mix it thoroughly with twelve grains of calomel, divide this into twelve 

 equal parts, and give one in a bread pill each day until the bird improve, 

 after which give a bolus of cod-lirer oil and flounevery twelve hours for a 

 few days.— B. P. Brent, 



Covektrt Show {Pigeon). — We never heard of it. If secretaries will 

 not inform ua, and if committees will not advertise, we have not the gift of 

 clairvoyance. We cannot insert anonymous criticisms. 



Water for Fowls— Promoting Laying [Sainhiirgh .—The best thing 

 to put in fowl's drink, in order to prevent contagion, or infection, is 

 camphor. It is also a perfect euro for gapes. Sulphate of iron, and a few 

 dropn of sulphuric acid, are both good things to put in water. All forcing to 

 lay is bad, and buying eggs at a large price. Meat, hempseed, and tallow- 

 chandler's greaves, are the things most commonly given to Induce laying. 



Eaum roR Poultry {E. O. JT.).— We know what barm is, and can eosily 

 believe it has valuable properties for poultry. Wo should^ however, rather 

 clasb it .'imonc remedies than foods. After trying everything, we can find 

 nothing so valuable as ground oats mixed with now milk for fattening every 

 kind of poultry save Ducks and Geeao. 



CoNFiKED Spack FOR PoiiLTRY (5»&scri^cr). —Put a heap of bricklaycrs 

 rubbish in one corner of the space (50 by 44 feet), tlirow as much road sand 

 over the place and under the trees as you can. Let the tloor of your poultry- 

 house be 1 or 5 inches above the lovcl of the pen, and it should be gravel or 

 drv earth. You will have no difficulty in keeping Cocbiiif, or Brahma 

 Po'olras, or Spanish, and they (six hens and a cock) will do well. 



Gold Fian ( }V. A. (?.).— The white paraaiticiil fungusand blindness, one 

 of Its effects, are the bancs of Gold Pibh. The best preventive wo know is 

 having the bottom of the tank covered with clean drift sand, which ia 

 sharper than pit sand. A cure, when the parasite appears, is said to be 

 effected by placing the fish for a few minutoa in water having common salt 

 dissolved in it at the rate of 4 ozs. to the gallon. Wo occasionally allow 

 pieces of moat floated by being attached to small blocks of wood to be 

 placed in the tank. The fish come and nibble the meat, and thifl is much 

 better than allowing them to gorge finely shredded pieces. 



LONDON MAEKETS.— Januauy 0. 

 POULTRY. 



Among the cnorraous masscB of poultry tliat arrived in Loudon between 

 the Irfth and 25th December a proper ecloction ii neccsaary at market, tUat 

 the different quuUtiea may bo produced when mo«t wanlcd. It rarely 

 happcnn that the mnrltet in so fully sujjplied lliat a demand Is found for the 

 lower cluHSca of goods at full price, and that a calesman can accomplish that 

 rare luxury of '* a clear shop." Failing this, a certain quantity must always 

 remain for sale after ChristmaH-day haa passed, and this year has been no 

 exccjitlon. Thia rendern It almost impoahible to make any quotation for 

 the week following Christmas. A few freah and good IhlngH make large 

 priccH, but they are no guide for general aales. 



