166 



JOUKNAL OF HOETICITLTJJRE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEK. 



[ February 31, IKS. 



says he buys from a man new-laid eggs at 8s. per 100, and, 

 of coarse, the man must get a good profit, as be buys them 

 of farmer's wives. In your No. 202, " C. S. J.," says again, 

 that he is in a position to supply a few hundred new-laid 

 eggs weekly (very likely), and that since my reply he has 

 been in London, and coxild obtain no higher offer than 5s. 

 per 100 for fresh-laid eggs. 



Now, how does " C. S. J." know that such eggs are new 

 laid when he buys them second-hand ? And how could a 

 respectable London salesman assure his customers that the 

 eggs from " C. S. J." are really new laid ? 



London tradesmen are too wide-awake to give the price 

 of new-laid eggs for such as do not come direct from a well- 

 known and respectable breeder. 



Any poultry-breeder consigning regularly to an honour- 

 able Leadenball saleman will always obtain fair returns ; or 

 I can, if it were necessary, give my authority, that even in 

 the height of summer new-laid eggs bring 8s. per 100 in 

 Leadenhall Market. 



No person is ignorant of the fact, that a manufacturer 

 will comru.ind a far higher pi-ice for his goods in the regular 

 course of trade, than a person can obtain for the same 

 goods if he is not an accredited agent to the manufacturer, 

 but simply buys bai-gains. On my part this subject is 

 closed. — G. K. Geyelin, C.E., Lcnidon. 



TUEKETS AT EXHIBITIONS. 



We have observed your announcement of the Bath and 

 West of England Poultiy Show, in June next, and its sche- 

 dule has been published, in which we notice a liberal in- 

 crease of prizes in some of the classes — alas ! not in ours. 

 In this, as in too many instances, though we pay the same 

 entrance fee, the poorest prizes are allotted to us. May we 

 ask is this consistent with the complaint so often made of 

 us, that we are "so hard to rear?" Or are we mistaken in 

 our notion, that articles are more valued by the difficulty 

 in procuring them ? But the information we would most 

 earnestly solicit in this : Have the Committee of the above- 

 named Show made a further extension of their generosity 

 in the increased size of our pens ? 



The undersigned writers of this have but a philanthropic 

 motive in this inquiry, inasmuch as for their comfort their 

 owner has determined upon not exposing them at Hereford, 

 to the imprisonment their revered ancestors endured at 

 Bristol. For ourselves, fond as we may be of display, we 

 are not prepared to annihilate our beautiful fan.'; in the 

 niggardly space we are likely to meet with at Hereford. 

 Though our career is still youthful, we have as yet held our 

 laurels against every competitor, and may, therefore, justly 

 subscribe ourselves — Fiest Peize Turkeys. 



patience being thoroughly exhausted, I fumigated the hive 

 (then very light), searched for till I found and examined 

 the venerable monarch, and destroyed her, adding her few 

 remaining subjcL-ts to another colony. 



This early impression was not easily effaced. Tour fa- 

 cetious neighbour Punch somewhere witt03' remarks that, 

 "there are two things a young man r.irely forgets — his 

 first love and his first cigar ;" and in like manner the 



I young bee-keeper does not readily forget his first hive 

 and the lessons it taught him. I ever afterwards kept 

 a shai'p look-out as to the age and breeding capability 

 of every queen I possessed. My apiary being wrought at 

 fii-st exclusively on the natm-al-swarming principle, I took 

 eare at the end of the season to preserve at the head of my 



I stock -hives only such young queens as promised well, and 

 subsequently, when the depriving system was combined with 

 it, placed my picked queens at the head of the depriving- 



I hives. Latterly, since I have eschewed natural swarming 

 altogether, I procure young and vigorous queens after 



1 this fashion : As the seas;'n draws to a close I make a tour 

 of inspection through the cottagers' apiai-ies in the sur- 

 rounding district. They as a rule invai-iably dispose of their 

 prime swarms at the end of the season, as out of them 

 they can generally realise most money, or, failing a pur- 

 chaser, most run honey, consequently their queens are ne- 

 cessarily one year old. I generally purchase a few second 



! or thh-d hives whose population speak well for the fertility 



I of their queens, or any prime swarms of whose success the 

 cottager is not unnaturally proud, and such as I feel confi- 

 dent will irradiate the countenance of our blind parish 

 honey-dealer when it comes within his gi'asp. The teeming 

 population I then for a consideration bespeak, and save 

 them from his ready brimstone match. On their being 

 brought home I drive the stock whose qneen I wish to 



, dethrone into a hive of like dimensions, cage the queen, and 

 feed liberally at dusk. I destroy the old queen, and place 



' the box containing her subjects beneath their own hive, 



I into which the stranger bees and their queen have been 

 previously settled, then gently draw the slides of the lower 



I box ; a few puffs tobacco smoke to both, and the mor n ing 



] light invariably reveals a most ijacifie union. In all my 

 experience I never found a queen suffer by such a procedure, 

 or, when the queens were on a par, and neither removed, 

 did I ever find the stock subsequently queenless. Would 

 that I knew as almost infallible a mode of introducing queens 

 singlv. — A Eenfkevtshiee Bee-keepee. 



YOU>'G AJS'D TIGOEOUS* QUEEJS^S. 



I HAVE much pleasure in acceding to the polite request of 

 Mr. Edward Fairbrother at page 62. 



The importance of having young and vigorous queens at 

 the head of stocks can hardly fail to arrest the attention of 

 even the comparative novice in bee-keeping, while the api- 

 arian of enlarged experience must have been struck at the 

 great diversity that exists in the breeding powers of queens. 

 The preservation of those singularly prolific mothers fre- 

 quently met with should be the care of all ; but to such as 

 keep their bees on the depriving or non-swarming principle 

 it ia indeed " the great desideratum." 



My attention was eai-ly attracted to this point, so eai-ly 

 indeed iis the very commencement of my apiarian career. 

 The first hive I could claim as my own exclusive property 

 was a weighty prime swarm of that season with a queen, 

 therefore one year old at least. Against the coming summer 

 various were the domiciles prepared for all expected probable 

 and improbable swarms. Anxious was the expectation and 

 vigilant the watching ; but no swarm emerged either that 

 good season or in the two favourable ones that followed. I 

 recollect my hopes were all along buoyed up by the yearly- 

 increasing number of drones, being then unsophisticated 

 enough to look upon the unusual preponderance of the male 

 element as an augury of ultimate great success, instead of 

 an indication of the worn-out condition of my aged queen. 

 The last season the drones exceeded all bounds ; and my 



Oim LETTEB BOX. 



Me. DouGLis — Uniicr tlip hciding of "A Timid Exbibitoe,*' I think 

 Mr. Douglas has forc"ttcn himself when he says he has not dealt in poultry 



; for two years. In uiy former letter I usked a very plain question; and 



, Bcain 1 aHk unoihcr, ^Vho cuiuiLtl the fim-prize pen of Game Bantams at 

 the show heltl at Uelle Vue near M;mch'-3ter last December, and ^old them 



1 for a eood profii at the same pl<ice ? Whv, Mr. D<inglas, one of llie Jadgea, 



\ who has not dealt in ponllry for two years! and if 1 unnuke not he had the 

 boldneiit* to claim them before ilie Show was opened. Factsapeak for tbem- 

 Bi'lvt's; and apam lit me coules-s Ibat 1 am a timid exhibitor, particularly 

 Ro when 1 hear of a dealer thui^ acting bting u jadge of my produce against 

 thove he lias <old.— A Tiuiu E.\hibitor, 



Uknr sot Laying (CocAiH-CAiHfl).— Ecgs have been nnnsnally scarce. 

 If your hens are old that will be the reason. You can only expect winter- 

 laying trom puUet*. We have no doubt the peveru we-ither has much to 

 do wiih it. A change to warm day* would make a great difference. 



Washing White Fowi,s[tfHOicfra/0- — Wtieh the birds with soap and water. 

 Use a Bponge, and wipe the feathers straight down, as It Is only the outside 

 that is dirty. Put them in an open basket before the fire with some soft 

 straw, and let them ttay till dry. It is never sate to put other birds with 

 Goldi:n rhea»<ants, but if you dt wc advise the Bantams. 



EcGs Dkseetkd roE a Time — Crooeku Tail [Subscriber]. — In hot 

 weather we ebould not ihink ihc eggs had suffered ac u!t by being deserted 

 for !our buor?, but the lempcraiure has been unfavourable for bucb an acci- 



[ dent. Yuu will easily atccrtaln by breaking one of the eggs whether they 

 are spoiled, and it will bo ihe i.afe?t plan. I( you object lo that jou may 

 watch the progress of hatchins by holdinc the egg bc'ore a strong light. 

 The twist of a cock's tail wi 1 probably descend to .nomc of his progeny, but 

 not to all. It is alwajTH bad pohcy to breed Jrom such an one. 



Excj:seiv£ DKVi;i.orM»:,NT of brASK^ii Cock's I'ack {Country PouHnj 

 Fanctcr).— yft think you may trust to the bird for all you require. A more 

 humane method is to fa(<t«D the cycltds up and down with strips of titrong 

 plat(.ttr. Even ibis ca(i»es thK bird n^uch mifcry. 



L* FLfcCHK Fowl {D. P. P.}. — The rcfersnce is to our own Joarnal. 

 (Co(7iin).— Li Fluche fowls can be bought of Mr B-tily. 113, Mount Street. 



' We published very (uti accounts of them and drawings two years mjto. They 

 are mHrvellous layers, and very gY>od table fowU, but they do nut sit. 



A Falsk AL*aM (Jonn» Jackson). — Wo are happy to bu able lo relieve 

 your fears by informing yon thai the bc-e whi h accompanied your letter is 

 not ft queen, but » worker whose abdomin !■ much distended, probably by 



! dys'-nteiy. Moreover, if your Ugurijn «U)ck be pure It could scarcely have 

 proceeded from it, tuicu It if< certainly vi the cotnmon bUok species. 



