42* 



JOUKKAL OP HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



[ May 30, 136S. 



draughts, particularly through the brood combs of the hive's 

 centre ; and there was the constant liability to find pollen, 

 and more rarely, brood in the supers. Often have I taken 

 a chair and sat and watched the industrious little workers 

 dragging theii- heavy burdens to the top, and failing to force 

 a passage up through the crowd of nurses. Frequently have 

 I noticed the dead workers, grubs, drones, or wasps, drop 

 in the ascent, to be again seized upon and dragged upwards. 

 However, these were minor evils in comparison to the one 

 to which they had to yield. Although with great labour 

 they managt'l to keep their hires pretty free of dead, 

 they were unable to do so in the case of the small debris. 

 To give them all the aid in my power I had the bars 

 and slides formiug the bottom of the lower boxes fixed 

 to frames, and these again attached to the boxes with 

 screws, so that on a cold day I could slip them off for a 

 hurried clean. Unfortunately, however, the topmost boxes 

 and the shelves in the roof were beyond my control, and in 

 the debris there deposited grubs bred rapidly during 

 warmish weather and took wing as wax moths, speedilj' 

 reproducing their kind, ily indefatigable little favourites 

 did everything in their power to combat this new enemy, 

 even to the cutting out portions of their combs, but they 

 so multiplied, flitting through the hives in bands, that 

 latterly the bees became dispirited, and I was most re- 

 luctantly compelled to abandon bee-keeping in high lati- 

 tudes, under the impression that " hives with the entrance 

 at the top" have to the inexperienced only novelty te 

 recommend them. — A Kenfkewshiee Bee-keepee. 



DEIYEN BEES. 



Do the following circumstances prove that I have failed 

 in driving out a queen with her subjects ? On Monday, the 

 15th inst., I drove a swarm about noon, and placed the hive 

 in the position of tho old stock. On Tuesday the swarm all 

 left the hive, but in a few minutes retm-ned. On Wednes- 

 day, Thursday, and Friday they swarmed each day, and 

 hung upon a bush close at hand. I hived them in a fresh 

 hive (a straw one, for I have nothing else), each day, and 

 once with three pieces of comb in it made last year. Being 

 tired of this daily swarming and hiving, on Friday night I 

 united them to another swarm which I had driven on 

 "Wednesday. However, it appears that they gave their 

 new friends some of their roaming disposition, for all came 

 out together on Saturday, but after about a quarter of an 

 hour returned to their hive, on the outside of which they 

 have now been hanging for a day and a half. Now, if it is 

 probable that there is no queen among them, what am I to 

 do ?— C. H. L. 



[As the queen is sometimes one of the last to ascend, it 

 is just possible that you failed to expel her, and this would 

 account for the bees so repeatedly deserting theii- new 

 domicile and attempting, of course unavailingly, to return 

 to their old one. Instead of risking the life of the queen of 

 the second driven swarm by uniting it to the wanderers, it 

 would have been much better to have put the one last driven 

 in its old place, and shaken the errant swarm into the v.ell- 

 filled hive which tho others had just quitted. If the bees 

 are now without a queen the adoption of this course with a 

 thii-d stock is the best remedy.] 



-XATUKAL SW.LR.MS. 



Not a few of the bee-keeping fraternity, more particularly 

 beg^ners, are doubtless looking forward to and watching 

 for that uncertain thing natural swarming. Presupposing 

 that most of them have guarded against that very worst 

 enemy — damp, and that all have succeeded in getting their 

 stocks well forward, I purpose offering a few hints on the 

 subject. 



In the first place he must be a very casual observer who 

 does not notice that bees are in want of something like 

 nadering when the hives appear chokefull, and it is certainly 

 bad policy to allow the bees to provide entirely for thcm- 

 gelves at this time of the year without administering a little 

 food. Bees which have been well forward previous to a 

 period of cold weather are sure to retrograde without it, 

 whilst backward hives with a little assistance are steadily 



progressing. It is not at all times easy to know before- 

 hand the time of a swarm issuing. I have known bees swarm 

 before the hive was quite full or even a royal cell formed, 

 whilst, on the other hand, I have seen them lie out for six 

 weeks and never swarm at all. In the first case, it is 

 prudent for every bee-keeper to be on the watch, and the 

 second case, every judicious bee-keeper should prevent. I 

 would here recommend ai'tificial swarming, as no skilled 

 bee-keeper will allow in swarming-hives, and would equally 

 scout the idea of even seeing his bees become crowded in 

 storifying ones, without additional room. Seeing, then, that 

 the exact time of swarming cannot be hit upon, it is best to 

 be on the watch, and more particularly so on account of 

 bees swarming at all hours, night and day. This at first 

 sight may appear erroneous, nevertheless it is the case. 

 Although at night they do not fly to some spot contiguous to 

 their hive but cluster on the outside of the hive itself, yet 

 it is still the swarm, and if not taken away then two impor. 

 tant ends are defeated — viz., honey-gathering and breeding- 

 The question of course arises. How does breeding stop? 

 I answer. Simply because the queen is on the outside of the 

 hive with the swarms, and there remains until she dies or is 

 killed by her subjects, young queens being brought forward 

 in the ordinaiy manner. Then is it that piping is heard 

 before the issue of a fu'st swarm. 



A friend of mine, who keeps bees on the old-fashioned 

 system of "let alone and they wiU work their own work, 

 and will swarm when thoy are ready,'" had last year out of 

 six stocks ouly two swarms. He would not be advised to 

 use artificial means, or even so much as to turn up a single 

 hive in order to ascertain its state, but only went about 

 wondering what was the matter, and why there were so 

 many queens thrown out, and satisfied himself with the 

 idea that at certain times of the year bees retained a great 

 number of queens. I could relate many more similar cases, 

 but deem it unnecessary- 

 It is not a bad plan, in order to keep bees from lying out, 

 to place on the face of thoir hive a smooth board fixed close 

 to it by a mortice cut for the alighting-boai'd to pass through, 

 and so close to the hive that not a single bee can get be- 

 tween them. — A Lanakkshike Bee-keeper. 



OTJE LETTEE BOX. 



Gapes {HnmburfiJi ,.~-Give your chickens a fragment of caoiphnr about 

 the «ize ol a pea ev^-ry nitht at roostinc-ilme. Put a piece of cimphor into 

 the water ihey drink from. We real:y have no dtita on which to found 

 advice about H. Alkin's picture?. 



DlABRHtEi IN CiiicKESR (R. B.).—Give each chiclieii half i» prain of 

 opium. ihveP praicis of powdtTC'l chaik, and half » pcain of ipecicuanha in a 

 put dnily \intil ihe (U.irrhcc:!. is stopped, feed on bread sopped in ale, give 

 plenty of lettuce leaves, and free Bccera to a du<t heiip. 



Rearing Yodkg Turkevs (A Constant iiearfcr).— Turkeys requireadry 

 spot, Well exposed to the sun, but near to a bank, or t>inall covert, or hedge- 

 row. Tlicy want dust. Tlie best food is boiled epc, ants' eggs, cooked 

 chnpncd nipar, bread and niiik, tiouph mixed with milk, and rna.1e of flour 

 of equal parts ot oa(B. bdrley, and beans. Onion tops or garlic should be 

 misL-d in alt their ;ood when young. Thoy should be chopped fine. 



SuDDKN Death of Chickens (.4. J. /*.).— When chickens die suddenly 

 it ifl mostly from injudiciou-i feeding, or from accet^s to tome poisonous food. 

 Move your cbicker.H as far as you can from the spot where they die, and 

 give them bread aad strong ale. 



CLEATEas [A Canstant Header).— dehveie^ Clivers, or Goose Grass, is a 

 plant known lo botutii^ls as Galium sparine. It la one of the commonest oi 

 wetdp, growintT on moist banks. The hooky hairs upon it caui-e bleeding 

 when diawn over the toncuc. It is, ai» you say. often recommended to be 

 chopped up and tnixfd with the food (or young Turkeys. 



Teachi.sg a Starmno to Talk ( H'. C.).—U i* the common Starling 

 that talks. We have but one biilish wp-cie-i, except the rose-coloured, 

 which is a r»re vi?.iiimt to this country. By cim»»'aniiy repeating to it the 

 ' word-i or Fhort phra*i«-i» you wish it to say it will learn them, and in thesiime 

 way it may be iauj;ht to whistlo tunei*. When yuunc the bird is very easily 

 ru'ire I by Vci-din); it on raw miat cut up, ouca.siv>uaily worms, bread soaked 

 in water, and hemp accd. 



Parrot Pluck no out its Feathkrr f/rfem). — The rea^^on ol the Parrot 

 plucking out Its ■fdthers is, most prorjubly, Irritability in the skin, caused 

 by mipropcr foo.l of a greasy nature, such as meat, boccs to pick, and 

 too much hemp x-od. Let it h^ve u shvllow pan with watvr to bathe in, 

 and on a warm d i> taku a nyatning-pot with a sniull rose and give It a bath 

 Varioi'S (B., Cuupion Oijford,. —The bees whirh frequent your dewrted 

 hive ar« ecouls tvni uul by nome of your nelftbboui's stocks that are about 

 to Hwarm. 'Ihty may pr>&»ib!y herald the aJvent of a stray swirm. or Ihelr 

 viwitB imiy continue during the switrmlng ReB«<m. ceasing only when it is 

 entirely over, I'uy TBylor'w *' Bci-kceper's Manual." Use Payne's im- 

 proved c>tugc4iive fur ordlnaT},and the Woodbury frame*hivcfor8cionti(ic 

 bt:e-kccping. 



Transfkrrkd Bkks (A Bfffinner).— Tout hire appears to be going on 

 well. A glai«s may be I'Ut on at once. 



