June 27, 1865. 



JOTJENAL OF HOETICULTUEK AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



497 



The pedigree was doubtful, as she exhibited the distinc- 

 tive ugliness of every known species of fowl. She might be 

 " a rum one to look at, but she was a good one to go." She 

 brought out one brood of Ducks, one clutch of Guinea fowl, 

 and one hatch of chickens in the year, besides laying eggs 

 in the intervals of business. Duckers always buy a steady 

 old Dame Partlett, who has been used to the line. They 

 allow themselves to be handled with impunity, and sit 

 closely when young hens are giddy, and break the eggs. 

 When the hen is bought at a price varying from five shillings 

 at Christmas, to half-a-crown in June, she is taken home, 

 and deposited on her future nest under an inverted basket, 

 whilst the ducker goes to purchase the necessary eggs 

 Their price is usually the same with that of the hen under 

 which they are to be put. Duckers never answer advertise- 

 ments in the paper, and part with a golden portrait of Her 

 Majesty for a sitting of eggs. The nest is made by putting 

 straw on the ground, on which is placed a piece of damp sack- 

 ing to receive the eggs. Duckers say that if the eggs are 

 dry, the ducklings cannot chip out ; therefore during the 

 period of incubation the eggs are sprinkled daily with cold or 

 lukewarm water whenever the hen gets off to feed. When 

 tie eggs are duly deposited, the hen is placed on them, and 

 covered as before. AH the eggs are warranted to quicken, 

 so on the third day they are individually examined by the 

 light of a candle. Those which have not quickened are re- 

 couped by the vendor, and the fresh eggs carefully placed 

 with the others. The basket is then removed, because the 

 hen is by that time habituated to her nest, which she wlU 

 not leave more than once a-day for the purpose of feeding 

 and dusting herself. The eggs require the heat of the hen 

 for about thirty days, and on the day before that she feels 

 them to be coming out, she will not leave the nest even to 

 feed. 



When the ducklings are hatched, they are removed from 

 the nest and placed in flannel by the fire. Poultry books 

 recommend peppercorns to be forced down their throats, 

 which is as natural and sensible a practice as that adopted 

 by those nurses who take great care that the infant should 

 make its fii'st extraneous meal off an oyster, or the brain of 

 a hare. That is a fact, aud I have often been disturbed at 

 dinner by an applicant requesting the latter delicacy upon 

 the ground aforesaid. * 



The ducklings never see their foster-mother after they are 

 removed from her, through fear that she might kill them by 

 treading on them. She is forthwith sold, and for about a 

 week they are fed in the house upon bread crumbs and 

 chopped egg. At the end of that time they are taken out 

 of doors, and placed two or three broods together in a pen 

 under cover, whence they emerge once a-day to bathe them- 

 selves. If let out oftener, they walk the fat off. 



It takes about eight weeks to fatten them ready for market. 

 If kept longer, they become stubbly, as their wing feathers 

 are developed and they fetch a lower price. Their food is 

 barley meal mixed with brewers' grains, pollard, and greaves. 

 Chopped lettuce and young onions are given when practi- 

 cable. A bullock's liver when unfit for mai-ket, a dropped 

 calf or diseased cow is a boiuie ioiiche, to which but few Ducks 

 attain, although it brings them on rapidly. 



The success of the ducker depends on the goodness of the 

 eggs. He can generally rear those which come out of the 

 shell, unless the fever intervenes and carries off all his stock. 

 When saleable they are despatched on Mondays or Fridays 

 to a salesman in Newgate Market, who next week returns 

 an invoice, with a P. 0. for the amount. The earliest 

 Ducks fetch 7s. 6d. a-piece. In August they realise 2s. Gd., 

 after which they cease to be sent. This branch of industry 

 supports hundreds of persons, and assists thousands in pro- 

 curing those articles which theii- wages would not ftirnish. 

 Depend upon it, the duckers know their own business best, 

 and that it is more profitable for them to rear ducklings as 

 above-mentioned during the season than to be bothered 

 ■vvith hens during all the year. — {Once a Week.) 



SPONTANEOUS UNION OF STTAEMS. 



Peristit me to join you in expressing a hope that Mr. 

 Stuttle will tell us something more about his hive of bees 

 with three swarms in it. For his information I will repeat 



what occurred in this neighbourhood from the amalgama- 

 tion of two first swarms. In a fine May, some years ago, 

 a man had two hives, which swarmed at the same time 

 and settled on the same bush. He. chancing to have a very 

 large hive, shook them into it. The season was a remark- 

 ably fine one, and in eight days from the time of swarming 

 the combs gave way and broke down with the weight of the 

 honey, destroying thousands of bees, and the man was com- 

 pelled to drive the remainder into an empty hive ; but fi'om 

 the full one he took 60 lbs. of run clear honey, all collected 

 in little more than a week ! 



If Mr. Stuttle's hive is so full as he describes it I would 

 recommend him to raise it at least a foot, and see how long 

 in this fine weather his three swarms will be in filling it. 

 — T. G. 



PEEVENTING EXCESSIVE SWAEMING, &c. 



Aftek a long silence I am tempted to make a few notes 

 upon sundry apiarian matters which have come under dis- 

 cussion in your pages of late, and I will begin ■vvith the 

 subject which heads this paper. I quite agree with the 

 remarks of the Editor (May 30, page 423), as to the inutility 

 of destroying the queens of swarms with a view to prevent 

 swarming; at the same time it is very vexatious to see a 

 fine stock throw off swarm after swarm, some of which may 

 be lost, and most of them he worthless, not to speak of the 

 impoverishment of the stock itself. The tendency of my 

 own bees to swarm excessively this year has set my inven- 

 tion at work, and I suggest for imitation the very simple 

 plan, which I have successfully adopted, of putting the swarm 

 in the stock's place. Here, of course, is no prevention of 

 swarming, but it does prevent all "excessive" swarming. 

 I would, in fact, advise the apiarian to be beforehand with 

 his bees, and to make them swarm artificially by driving as 

 soon as he is aware of the existence of sealed royal cells in 

 his hives, otherwise he may chance to lose his swarms. Some- 

 times you cannot prevent swarming. 



" B. B.'s" Dilemma. — The above remarks lead me to 

 notice the case of " B. B.," with whom I can sympathise, 

 having myself lately experienced a similar dilemma. In my 

 own case the queen of the swarm, which took possession of 

 a hollow tree, was a pure Italian of my own rearing. I did 

 not allow " the errant swarm to remain in the domicile it 

 had chosen until the autumn." The tree (a quarter of a mile 

 off) was first carefully examined, then pieces of the wood 

 were sawn off tiU the cavity was fuUy exposed to view. In 

 two of the pieces sawn off large clusters of bees were found 

 and brought home, but, the queen not being among them, 

 they were soon all off again. Not to be baffled, I proceeded 

 myself to the tree and smoked them out early the following 

 morning. A bee-dress and gloves, a common hive, and an 

 unlimited supply of matches and brown paper, soon enabled 

 me to bring off my valuable queen and swarns. Holding 

 the hive in such a manner that the bees could pass unin- 

 terruptedly from the tree into it, I put the brown paper into 

 the cavity under the bees, and soon had the pleasure of 

 seeing the queen and her subjects march up. In due time 

 the hive was enveloped in a cloth, and carried away. To 

 make sture of her I put her in a new box in my bee-house, in 

 place of the old stock, where she is doing wonders in a veiy 

 contented spirit. 



BU-ing of Natural Swarms. — This I prefer doing in the way 

 indicated at page 439, first into a common straw hive, and 

 then into the permanent box ; but I find it better to transfer 

 them at once, or as soon as possible, not waiting till evening. 

 I like all these operations to be done in broad daylight, when 

 the bees are active and expectant of locomotion. — B. & W. 



BEES PEESISTING- IN SWAEMING. 

 Arcittt a week aso aU my bees were in a state of great 

 commotion. They are in a south aspect at the bottom of 

 the kitchen garden fully exposed to the sun. I had pre- 

 viously obtained two swarms from the same num'oer of 

 stocks", and had placed a bee-glass over one of the hives to 

 prevent its swarming again, and a piece of comb inside as a 

 guide ; but they neglected that, and began building from 

 the bottom. However, they seemed all right and very busy ; 



