S9S 



JOURNAL OF HOETICtJLTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEK. 



[Mayie.IBSS. 



brotherhood. I know it will be done by him, at all events, 

 in a good and proper spirit. Although I have som«what 

 condemned his practice of placing an empty super over one 

 that is being filled, yet he seems to have found it to answer. 

 On the other hand, he objects to the mode of practice which 

 I have followed with so much success — that of raising 

 partially filled supers on ekes placed between them and the 

 stock. This is a fair subject for future experiment, and I 

 hope to be able to try his plan as well as my own. An 

 " Amateue," who details his experience at page 277, seems 

 to have been very successful, and to have weighty reasons 

 for upholding bis friend's system. It is possible that there 

 is, after all, no very great difference in the results likely to 

 be obtained from following either of the two modes of 

 management. — S. Bevan Fox, Exeter. 



DEATH OF A QUEEN. 



On the 4th of AprU I put some pieces of honeycomb 

 before my hives for the bees to clean. In the afternoon I 

 discovered feeding upon the comb a queen bee, but in a very 

 weak condition, with one wing torn. I brought her into 

 the house and succeeded in reviving her. Having six stocks 

 I was quite at a loss as to which of them the queen 

 belonged to, but as evening was approaching I went out in 

 perplexity to inspect the hives. Mv doubts were speedily 

 at an end, for there was extreme noise and excitement in 

 a strong stock in a bar-frams hive. I brought out the queen 

 immediately and put her at the entrance of the hive, into 

 which she crawled slowly, being still weak. In half an hour 

 the hive was perfectly quiet. I made sure the stock would 

 now be all right as it was very strong in bees, but the queen 

 was about four years old. On the 26th of April Mr. Carr, 

 of Newton Heath, being on a visit to us, inspected all my 

 stocks, and found in this one drone brood in all stages of 

 development in worker cells, but no queen, and it appeared 

 very evident that these eggs were laid bj' worker bees. 

 This being the case Mr. Carr joined to the stock some bees 

 and their queen, the remains of a colony the majority of 

 which had died of dysentery in the spring. Two combs con- 

 taining brood were cut out and put into the hive after the 

 bees had been successfully joined. The next day we found 

 a small dead queen thrown out, which had the appearance of 

 having been defunct some time, leading one to suppose that 

 the bees would not part with the body of their beloved 

 queen till they had received a fertile successor. We 

 examined the hive afterwards and saw the beautiful queen 

 quite at home, running about on the combs, and I expect to 

 have a large super filled with honey from this stock during 

 the summer. Your readers will perceive how necessary it is 

 to have every stock examined in the spring. In this case if 

 it had not been done the bees wouM gradually have died 

 away, and probably by July there would not have been one 

 left, although the hive in April contained plenty of honey, 

 and was very strong in bees. — J. M. W. 



[The old queen was doubtless expelled from the hive ; and 

 aa you state her age at about four years there is a fair pro- 

 bability of her having become unfitted for her maternal 

 duties, although we have known the same thing happen to 

 queens that were by no means superannuated. The oc- 

 cnrrence of fertile workers is so rare that tlie hypothesis of 

 their existence may generally be altogether set aside. In 

 this case there certainly were none, but a young queen was 

 reared after the expulsion of her predecessor, and which, 

 remaining a, virgin owing to the non-existence of drones so 

 early in the season, must, perforce, have become a drone- 

 breeder. She was doubtless imprisoned and killed on the 

 advent of the fertile queen, her body presenting the usual 

 dried and shrivelled appearance consequent upon the treat- 

 ment she had been subjected to during her incarceration. 

 "All's well that ends well," and in your case there is for- 

 tunately nothing to be regretted; but you made a great 

 mistake and ran a very great risk of losing the whole by 

 not removing the drone-breeder, of whoso existence the 

 presence of drone brood afforded jirima facie evidence, and 

 who should have been sought for until found. Very recently 

 our esteemed correspondent "J. E. B.," under exactly 

 similar circumstances, having, in deference to a caution which 

 we gave him on this very point, exhausted his patience in 



the vAiavailing endeavour to discover a drone-breeder, added 

 to a drone-breeding stock the fertile queen and workers 

 of a weak colony, and had the mortification of finding the 

 new sovereign oast out dead the next morning.] 



HONEY FLAVOUEED BY ONIONS. 

 " A Man of Kent" may safely conclude that the smel' 

 emanating from his hives is produced by the bees resorting 

 to the wild garlic. The reason why I conclude it to be so is 

 this : In accompanying my honey for disposal to Messrs. 

 Fortnum and Mason's in 1859 I was struck by the ap- 

 pearance of a good-looking lot of honeycomb, but its 

 beauty was all that it had to boast of, for it smalt and 

 tasted most villainously of onions. The foreman of the honey 

 department informed me that it was sent to them from 

 Essex, and that it had been produced in the neighbourhood of 

 a field of onions that were grown for seed. It was contem- 

 plated to run it off, throw it away, and melt down the combs, 

 as in any other shape it was perfectly unsaleable. — Upwards 

 AND Onwards. 



OUE LETTEE BOX. 



Coloured Platf.s of Fowls— Brown Reds not Coming Tri'E {Parttet). 



—The best drawings of fowia are those in the " Poultry Book." They are 



bv Harrison Weir, and coloured. They are In his best style, and well worth 



fVa'iiing. We know the coloured etchings you speak of, and recollect the 



time when they came up. They are all by H. Atken, a printseller, who 



lite ! at the corner of Vere Street, close to the Church ; he was famous for 



ihem. He has been gone for many years. The last time we saw any of 



I them was a short time since ; they were in a phop window in Holywell 



I Strf;»t. An advertisement would ^et them at once. Brown Reds do not 



I aUravs throw pure, as iilmost all the strains are mixed with Black Reds, 



which iirc used for colour. 



I Cochin Hen with Enlargrd Crop {Uhoracum). —yonv hen has been 



' RufterlnB- from much Internal fever, and probably la so still. This induces 



I her to di'ink continually, and has caused distension and displacement of the 



crop. It is Romtimes incurable. The treatment is to shut up the bird, to 



puree with castor oil, and to give water sparingly. If it be mixed with 



vinfcar so much the bettor. The water may be given three or four times 



per day, but not allowed to remain by her. 



Dorking Cock Disagreeing with a Creve C(edr Hen (Beta). — It is 

 unquestionable that fowls are subject to likes and dislikes, and no doubt in 

 this instance the cock has an antipathy to the ben in question. Such being 

 the base we advise you to withdraw her. A daily beating is antagonistic to 

 condition, and may account for her not laying. Put her with the Cochin 

 cock. 



Cock's Comb Frosted (TT. R. P,),—Ii\ib the comb with strong camphor 

 ointment frequently. 



Indian Corn as Food por Poultry (Chanticleer),— JnAlan corn is a 

 good occasional food for adult poultry. It la not good for chickens— in fact, 

 not good enough. We do not consider Pigeons injurious to a garden. 



Docks (Constant itcarfer),— They will not injure the Perch nor any other 

 kind of flab in a pond. 



DiARRuoiA IN Pigeons— Keepino their Eoob (TT. H. Tr.).— Feed your 

 Pigeonn un small old beans. Give as a corrective three or four pieces of old 

 mortar or chalk, about the eize of peas, every day till the looseness is cured. 

 Pigeons* eggs are bo^t set as ^oon after being laid a* convenient. It la 

 reported that they will keep good for hatching about a fortnight, but I have 

 nevLT tried thcra.— B. P. B. 



PiGKo** Pairs {Miss King).—lt is one of the popular errors to suppose 

 that the two Pigeons in a ne?t are always cock and hen— they are quite as 

 often two of one sex. There is nothing singular in Doves having two hens 

 in a nest, but is it certain that the Doves are Ring Doves (Columba palumba 

 torquaUi), which is our largest native Dove or Wood Pigeon, of a grayish 

 blue colour, with a while ring round its neck? H they are an account of 

 their bri'cding in confinement would he interesting. I suspect, however, 

 that the Doves are Collared Turtles (Columba risoria), the laughing Dove, 

 or common cage Dove, of a light fawn colour, with a blauk ring round the 

 nfick, aa these are Hometimes improperly called King Doves.- B. P. B. 



German Paste for Biros {li. F.).— Take 1 lb, of wheat Hour or of peasa- 

 me^il. 2 07.9.. of fre.-'h butter, 4 o/,s. of brown sugar, three egga boiled hard 

 and chopped very small ; put the flour or meal, with the hutter, chopped 

 eggs, and wugar, into a wide saucepan over a slow fire, and koop wtirrlng It 

 to prevent ilM burninir. When It gets dry continue stirring It until It hecoine, 

 crumbly. When crumbly puh a pint of cracked hcmpseed Into the mixtures 

 and mix well together. If burnt it Is injurloua to the birds. It will bC 

 good for months if kept In a dry cool place. 



LONDON MARKETS.— Mat 15. 

 POULTRY. 



We have no difference to quote since last week. The supply Is very small 

 and the demand bad. 





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