February 14, 1S65. ] 



JOUEXAL OF HOETICTJLTUEE AST) COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



141 



A HOilE FOE BIEDS. 

 Can any of vouv readers inform lae what I am to do to 

 induce Bullfinches to come and stay in my garden? I have 

 read in the pages of " Cornhill." that if proper arrange- 

 ments are made to suit the habits of birds, they will come 

 and take up their abode with you. In addition to the Bull- 

 finches, I should like to have a few Thrushes, and Peggy- 

 whitethroats, as occasionally they do pay me a visit. "What 

 sort of meat should I provide ? Could I make places that 

 suit them to build in, guarding them against the predatory 

 incursions of cats, &c.? I take the precaution now of placing 

 food for them, but the Sparrows take the lion's share. The 

 Sparrow is an impudent bird, he comes occasionally before 

 the Thrush when he is regaling himself, stretches out his 

 neok, and stands bolt upright, as much as to say, I am as 

 big as you. I keep in an old ivy a covey of Spari'ows, num- 

 bering something Uke three score ; but I should prefer a 

 more melodious note than theirs, if by any means I could 

 induce songsters to stay with me. Probably some of your 

 many readers can suggest a means which, whether success- 

 ful or not, I shall be glad of. — Attatette. 



SWAEMIXG TEESUS KOX-SWAEilES'G. 



"J. E. B." and "A Eenfreuvshiee Bee-keepek " have 

 taken up the subject of the advantages derived from swarm- 

 ing and non-swarming hives ; and in looking over my note- 

 book for 1S64 I find the following facts relative to two hives, 

 the one swarming and the other not, which may be a little 

 interesting to some of your readers. 



K"o. 1 I will name the non-swarming hive, and Xo. 2 the 

 swarming one. 



_ On the 25th of February I examined my hives, and found 

 No. 1 seemingly dead, but it resuscitated : bees saved, about 

 1 lb. Itso. 2 was in good order, about three parts full of comb, 

 and bees about 2i lbs. Both haves fed, but there was no breed- 

 ing till the 1st of April. They then continued to make a steady 

 improvement tOl May 17th, when Xo. 2 swarmed. The 

 weather getting cold, they remained inactive till July 1st. 

 A second swarm came off Xo. 2 on ilay 2Sth, and it was 

 hived; and both swarms had to be kept alive bv feeding 

 till the 1st of July. 



Weighed hives on the morning of July 6th. 'So. 1 weighed 

 25 lbs. gross ; Xo. 2, 20 lbs. 1st swarm IS lbs., 2nd swarm 

 12 lbs. Weighed them again on the evening of the Sth : 

 J<o. 1 weighed 54 lbs. makuig the enormous weight of 29 lbs. 

 in three days. jS"o. 2 weighed 22 lbs.; 1st swarm 22 lbs., 

 2nd swarm 14 lbs. I pass on now to July 29th, when So. 1 

 weighed upwards of 100 lbs. Xo. 2, 30 lbs.; 1st swai-m, 341b3., 

 2nd swarm 18 lbs. Honey taken from iSTo. 1, First-class 

 honeycomb, 34 lbs. ; second-class, 26 lbs. ; total, 60 lbs. No 

 honey irom Xo. 2. 



August 2nd took them to the heather. The whole of them 

 had by this time come back in weight a few pounds, as is 

 alvays the case when the honey-gathering ceases. 



I pass on to September 13th, when the hives were brought 

 home. I may mention that from August 29th to Septem- 

 ber 13th they had decreased in weight from 5 to 12 lbs. By 

 this time No. 1 weighed 90 lbs. Jfo. 2 weighed 68 lbs.; 

 1st swarm 68 lbs., 2nd swarm 48 lbs. Honey taken : — No. 1, 

 41 lbs. first-class comb. No. 2, IS lbs. ; 1st swarm 18 lbs., 

 2nd swarm 13 lbs. : total, 49 lbs., leaving three good stocks 

 averaging 45 lbs. gross weight ; whereas in No. 1 one stock 

 is left at 50. Total honev taken from No. 1 :— July 29th, 

 60 lbs. ; September 13th, 41 lbs. ; total, 101 lbs. From the 

 foregoing it will be seen that No. 1 exceeds No. 2 by 52 lbs. 

 of honey, notwithstanding the unfavourable circumstance 

 it was placed in at the beginning, although No. 2 has the 

 advantage of having two stocks more, and their extra weight 

 will in some measure make up for their deficiency of honey. 



It will be seen that in some cases the swarming hives 

 kave the preference — that is, where there is a long continu- 

 ance of fine and honey-making weather; but without a 

 remove, and placed in a locality such as ours, in general 

 there is little if anything to be had from swarming hives ; 

 and as means are always taken to insure a succession of 

 stocks, no one will for a moment hesitate to say that the 

 depriving system is the best, not to speak of the superior 

 honeycomb. And further, it is to be remarked that there is 



little danger of queens getting aged and effect through non- 

 swarming ; often are they dethroned in the first year, and 

 seldom do they survive longer than the second, not from 

 age, but because young queens are brought forward and a 

 new princess installed. This can only be proven by taking 

 care every spring or autumn to become acquainted with 

 every queen in the apiary. This every apiarian should do, 

 marking their several appearances so that he may be able to 

 trace them_ to the end. The oldest queens axe always to be 

 found in hives that have swarmed. I have known hives 

 nine years old that never twarmed doing well, although I 

 make it a rule to have combs no older than two seasons. 

 Such a length of time without any casualty occuring proves 

 that queens are dethroned. — A Laxakkshibe Bee-keepee. 



BEE-KEEPIjS'G- I^" DEYON.— jS-q. XXII. 



A GENIAL DAT IIY LAST GLIMPSE OP FOTJl EEOOD. 



"Wedniisdat, the Sth inst., may certainly be deemed the 

 Si-st spring-like day we have had. Although the sun 

 remained veiled in clouds, the calmy western breeze was 

 mild and genial, and the temperature so high that my bees, 

 long close prisoners during the late frosts and more recent 

 rains, availed themselves of it to the fullest extent, filling 

 the air with their most sweet music. Few sights and 

 sounds are more congenial to the eye and ear of the 

 enthusiastic apiarian than those which present themselves 

 on a day like this, and I accordingly spent several hours in 

 i my garden delightedly watching, tending, and assisting my 

 I little pets to the utmost of my power. 



How busy they all appear, and how beautiful are the 

 ! Ligurians ! Beauty is, we are told, only skin deep, but 

 assuredly it is not to be despised. Look for instance at these 

 two hives standing side by side, and compare for one moment 

 the golden, glittering Italians with their modest dark brown, 

 not to say black, British brethren, and declaxe if it be 

 possible not to concede the pas to the brOliant foreigners, 

 whose lithe and agile movements seem to accord so well 

 with the splendour and firefly-like radiancy of their attire. 



The first question which intuitively suggests itself to 

 the apiarian is whether pollen is being collected — pollen 

 deemed especially the food of the nurslings, but probably 

 no less essential to adults. Let us watch and wait. We have 

 not long to exercise our patience — there it is, and plenty of 

 it, not carried in in minute quantities by stray individuals, 

 but fuU loads by several at a time. What is the source 

 from whence it is derived ? So far as we can see, the laurus- 

 tinus is the favoured flower ; there may be a few loads of 

 snowdrop or crocus pollen, but the laurustinus is undoubtedly 

 in the ascendant. 



Halloa ! whence spring all these yellow-jackets gleaming 

 like crocuses in a garden border among the ordinary black 

 population of the hive ? True that in October last I 

 exchanged the black mother of this colony for a yellow queen 

 but I had no idea she would so early have commenced her 

 business in a hive only partially furnished with combs as 

 to produce numbers of young bees by the 7th of February. 



Thus much, then, was ascertained by observation of the 

 liives' exteriors. Next came the all-important question of 

 the supply of food. A Salter's balance speedily decided that 

 most stocks were very light, and at this no one need be 

 surprised. Where the multiplication of colonies is pns'aed 

 to the uttermost we may bid farewell to the honey har- 

 vest, and this was so much my case last year that my bees 

 have been dependant upon artificial food for their winter 

 support. In " our Journal " of December 13th I related 

 how I had lost a good stock from the unexampled rapidity 

 with which its artificial supply had become exhausted. This 

 is the only loss I have sustained out of a total of twenty 

 stocks, but having no fancy for its repetition, I at once set 

 to work to take advantage of the fine day by supplementing 

 in the readiest manner the fast dwindling contents of the 

 store cells. And this is the way I accomplished it :— Taking 

 an empty comb, I laid it on its side and slowly poured syrup 

 into it from a jug held some 18 inches above it. When the 

 minute stream, by falling from this height and being dfrected 

 to all parts of the comb, had filled it on one side as completely 

 as possible, I placed it in an upright position, in which, having 

 been allowed to drain, it was at once substituted for an. 



