May 30, 1SG5. ] 



JOTJKNAL OF HOUTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAJKDENEE. 



423 



being well filled with good birds, and if the ianeier be one 

 who gives his mind to the cause, he will soon cast on one 

 side mongrel stock for first-class blood. My object is to in- 

 crease the lo¥0 for birds. As a breeder I have had much 

 practice, and have with my pen publicly, and more espe- 

 cially privately, done what I could to further and encourage 

 the study of birds, as to which fact many gentlemen 

 (amateur breeders) can bear me out. 



The remarks on the Belgian birds, and the classification 

 of some of them, savours so much of what I have before had 

 to contend with, that I could not prevent a smile on seeing 

 a signatm-e at the foot of an article in the same Number of 

 your Journal, and thinking of past remarks respecting the 

 Belgian birds, the kinds exhibited at every All-England 

 show. As to the erect Belgian, or the Dutch birds, I 

 like to see them, and would ever be willing for classes to be 

 set apart solely for them. It would not do for marked or 

 ticked Belgians to be classed with variegated Belgians, for 

 the all-important reason that the marked or ticked birds are 

 mostly bred from clear birds, and possessed of pure Belgian 

 properties, fully equal in blood to the clear birds. The va- 

 riegated Belgians are not so good in true Belgian form, and 

 how is it possible to correctly judge a straight bird (or one 

 not possessed with good back and shoulders), evenly va- 

 riegated, with one only slightly ticked or marked in feather, 

 and first-class in other respects ? And, again, it would 

 never do to have yellows and buffs judged together in one 

 class. Tou say, "Would it not be better to have one 

 standard for the best marked pied Belgians ? " What ad- 

 vantage, I ask, can there be in throwing several classes into 

 one whUst we Jiave such choice specimens entered in each 

 class ? And while contracting the Belgian classes, you ad- 

 vocate new classes for Goldfinch Mul^s — namely, dividing 

 them into clear and pied classes. I ask you how many clear 

 Jonque or yellow Goldfinch Mules would be likely to be 

 brought forward ? I know, perhaps you do, there would not 

 be such difficulty in finding two or three, or perhaps more, 

 clear mealy Mules, but the two classes would be miserably 

 weak. I venture to say that to the clear Jonque Mule class 

 there would be said, " No entry." 



In conclusion, my hints about cats apply generally, and 

 not to your pussy, which may have received a superior 

 education. I say, again, cats are not to be trusted with 

 birds. It is against their nature not to catch and kill 

 them. Tour cat is one amongst hundreds for her merciful 

 kindness towards the feathered tribe. — Geo. J. Baknesby, 

 Derby. 



[We are glad to receive Mr. Barnesby's explanation, and 

 also to hear him speak so well of the erect Belgian or Dutch 

 Canaries, but as they were not included in his book we could 

 only draw attention to the omission ; but Mr. Barnesby's 

 reasons for not classing ticked or marked birds with va- 

 riegated, do not seem satisfactory. If, as his argument 

 seems to imply, the one are straight and the other hunch- 

 backed, it is an additional reason why the classification 

 should be based on form, not on colour, as in this case it 

 seems to us a difference without a distinction. In Pieds the 

 preference would be given to the best and most evenly- 

 marked bh-d without reference to the ground colour. It is 

 only when two are so nearly equal that Jonque would take 

 the precedence of mealy. Clear Mules cannot compete in 

 the class for pieds, they ai'e certainly out of place there, but 

 are too valuable to be passed over, though they may be few 

 and far between. 



As regards the cats, if only stray cats are met, then, of 

 course, every care must be taken to guard the birds from 

 them ; but the assertion made was too sweeping. It is 

 snrprising how soon cats may be instructed to live in peace 

 with all domestic pets, and hundreds of such cats may be 

 found among the bird dealers in London.] 



DESTEOTING THE QUEE^^ OP A SWAEM. 



To-DAT I had a swarm of bees from a stock which had 

 been supered with a shallow straw hive containing several 

 small combs, commenced by the bees last year. 



I wished to prevent swarming, and for that purpose I stood 

 at the entrance of the hive as soon as the swarm began to 

 issue, and seized the queen as she came out. I confined her 



for a few minutes, but fearing that destroying her would 

 only defer swarming until another princess was raised, I set 

 her at liberty, and after flying about for several minutes, 

 she joined her subjects which had clustered on a neighbour- 

 ing tree. The swarm was then hived in the usual manner. 



I should like to know what would have been the probable 

 result had I destroyed her majesty. I know the swarm 

 would have returned, but would the bees have taken to the 

 super, or would the next young queen have led them off 

 again ?— S. E. B. 



[We think you were right in not attempting to thwart 

 the disposition to swarm. Had you destroyed the old queen 

 the swarm would probably have issued again a few days 

 later under a young one.] 



HIVES WITH ENTEANCES AT THE TOP. 

 I WAS not a little amused to find at page 352 that Mr. 

 Henry Sfcuttle (G. Williams at page 277, his previous com- 

 munication on this subject) wandered from his description of 

 " Hives with entrances at the top " to have a hit at bees* 

 enemies, " the very greatest their inexperienced masters" 

 in general, including your Renfrewshire correspondent in 

 particular. I most decidedly take exception to figure in 

 such company, having always a great repugnance to the 

 black list of the enemies of our little favourites, even al- 

 though your correspondent be polite enough to add "myself 

 included." Had he been a more careful — probably an older 

 — reriderof this periodical, he might have saved his criticism, 

 seeing that my stock being reduced to beat-outs arose from 

 no blunder in practice, but solely from their being contami- 

 nated by foul brood imported from Devonshire ; on the 

 contrary, my apiary has, with this exception, been on the 

 whole a most prosperous one. He, too, was most unhappy 

 in quoting your " Eeufrewshii'e correspondent" as a sample 

 of the " inexperienced," when, singularly enough, that 

 correspondent was the very one who years ago drew atten- 

 tion in these columns to all the advantages of " end com- 

 munications to supers," the first discovery on which Mr, 

 Stuttle plumes himself, and, still more singular, was long 

 before familiar with moveable bars, and had them employed 

 in "hives with entrances at the top," his second discovery, 

 possibly about the time Gordon Gumming was firing away 

 with the old rifie. 



Although jiractice does not invariably make perfect, still 

 it often familiarises one with many odd things, and amongst 

 the rest I may be permitted to describe how I came to 

 work and discard hives with entrances at the top. 



What induced me first to take a special interest in the 

 honey bee was a number of years ago opening up a couple of 

 the many stocks of bees which from time to time had estab- 

 lished themselves in the roof of our house ; each colony oc- 

 cupied the vacant space between the "couples" or beams 

 forming the roof, their combs being attached to the inner 

 side of the " sarking," or boards to which the slates are 

 nailed externally, from where they were carried down to 

 the lath and plaster, a depth of about 10 inches. To compel 

 the bees to extend their combs out into the boxes I had 

 prepared and set up to fit the square cut out of the lath and 

 plaster, I had the spaces below the combs boarded off level 

 with the bottom of the boxes ; their ends fitting into the 

 spaces were, of course, quite open, and top and bottom 

 fitted with bars and slides for i?upering and nadiring, with 

 glass fronts and thermometer for observation. The plan 

 succeeded so well that the very first season I took from 

 these two hives half a hundredweight of beautiful honey. 

 The following season to prevent swarming I had to go oa 

 nadiring, tiU latterly I had one of the colonies occupying 

 four roomy breeding-boxes, it consequently followed that the 

 bees wrought exclusively through the original entrance at 

 the top, as I could not cut up the ceibng for every fresh 

 box added ; besides, from the level of the roof each additional 

 one was brought further from it. 



I had ample opportunities of watching all their proceedings 

 through the glass fronts, and saw plainly the disadvantages 

 of the entrances at the top, they were very much oppressed 

 with heat, aud I did not feel disposed to open a space below 

 to communicate with the upper entrance, knowing fuU well 

 the dislike of the " Sanitary" bee " Commissioners " to aU 



