42 



JOURNAi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ July 13,"1876. 



little. June 9th they weighed 19}lba; beea began to increase in 

 numbers ; June 12th, so fall of bees that I put on a four-bar-frame 

 super, 6 inches square inside measure, and they took to it at 

 once. On the 16tti I put an eke under in the morning, and took 

 off the super at noon with three bars partly full of comb, and 

 some honey. At night I drove out the bees, and took 15 lbs. of 

 honey. It is all spoke for at Is. per pound. I transferred the 

 bees into a 16-inch square (10J inches deep inside measure) ten- 

 bar-frame hive, bars 1 inch wide, with the outside bars a little 

 wider, three holes at top for supers and two for feeding. I tied 

 what little comb in the bars I could get with very little brood in. 

 In putting the bees in I was stung once. June 28th, a good 

 swarm placed in the place of the old stock, 16 inches wide, 

 13 inches deep, weight 8i lbs., weight of board 7 lbs. ; June 12th, 

 weight of hive, &c, 33 J lbs. ; June 20th, weight of hive, &e., 

 45 lbs. ; 22nd, a queen bee out dead, it may have come from 

 No. 2 hive close by, as they were piping for the third swarm. 



Hive No. 2, sugw fed bees that I saved from the sulphur pit, 

 November lBt, 1875, three young bees out dead (white ones), 

 weight of hive, bees, &c, and a 7-lb. floor board, 25 lbs.; 

 covered up for the winter, the hive about half full of comb, a 

 large hive for this part of the country. March 1st, 1876, weight 

 of hive, &e., 22 lbs., received 1 lb. of sugar, and to May 8th 3 lbs. 

 more sugar, and they began to build comb ; weight of hive, &c, 

 21 lbs. 23rd, two more pounds of sugar ; weight, &c, 23 lbs. 

 I gave 1 lb. more sugar on the 9th of June ; weight of hive, &c, 

 35 lbs., and quite full of bees. I took an artificial swarm out at 

 night of 51bs., both stock hive and swarm doing well. June 12th 

 the stock had increased to 33 lbs. again ; June 16th began to 

 pipe, so I was only just in time to take an artificial swarm ; 19th 

 a false swarm. The queen was the last out of the hive ; I caught 

 her, took her 10 yards off, but she escaped from me, and I was 

 just back to see her go in the hive ; all the bees returned in a 

 few minutes; a good cast nest day, 9.5 a.m.; weight before 

 37 lbs. At night I cut a queen cell out, but let her escape into 

 the hive. They are still piping up to-day (June 23rd), but it 

 pours with rain.— J. M. 



OUE LETTER BOX. 



Preserves Eggs f<?. Brown ; J. Winning). — Pat them in layers alte 

 nately with common salt in a bos, and keep in a cold dry place. 



Adding Bees to Swabms (B. 8.).— Do not tarn oat your bees now from 

 the old skeps unU ss yon join them the one to the other. You might do this 

 with advantage, making a fair stock of one of them ; but you might seriously 

 interfere with the success of the swarms by attempting to increase their 

 population by adding 'he bees of the old skeps to them now. This is better 

 done in September. Remember that the comb in swarms is very soft and 

 delicate, and any movement of them might bring the whole mass down and 

 ruin the hive. 



Weak Htves, Cross Sticks, &c. (F. J.). — Very weak hives can be safely 

 treated as "B. & W." suggests; also you can bring the old hive back to a place 

 pretty near the old pl*ce. But twenty-four hours is too short a time; twice 

 or thrice that time would be better. If you move the hives apart in the 

 first instance 30 yards it will do, but hide as much as you can. It is not of 

 much importance what the width of the bars is provided you measure 

 1 inch and 7-16th from centre to centre of each frame, bat you may allow one- 

 fourth or three- eighths of an inch between each bar. Bos hives 16 to 

 18 inches square t-houid certainly have cross sticks if over 10 inches in depth ; 

 but we would put them near the base of the hive so as to be easily removeable 

 — say 1 inch fi\<m the bottom. Wire will not do. It is a pity you did not put 

 a cross piece of wood with guide eomb in your glasses. 



Preserving Natural History Specimens {Agnes). — A book esactly 

 suited to your need is " Notes on Collecting and Preserving Natural History 

 Objects." It is published by Messrs. Hardwicke & Bogue, and includes 

 zoology, botany, and geology. 



Taming a Young Fox (M.E.P.). — We have kept foses ia oar time and 

 had them perfectly tame. We always chained them to a very large tree, and 

 they made a kennel under the roots. Where that cannot be they must have 

 a kennel something like a dog's, bat they are never so sweet as when they lie 

 on earth. They should have a lone; chain, and the amount of liberty may be 

 very much increased by having at the ead of the chain a ring running 

 on an iron rod fixed in the ground by an upright at each end. It helps to 

 tame everything to keep it well fed. The best food is the offal of poultry, or 

 Rabbits, or Pigeons. Any kind of meat will do if these are missing. You 

 should not feed till the fox comes for the food, hut this should not bB the 

 result of starvation, but of liking. Never put the food where you cannot 

 see it taken, and you always have the means of correction by withholding 

 food. 



Artificial Swarming (Rev. S. A. Brenan). — You did well to swarm your 

 bees on the 19th of June, but on discovering foul brood in the old hive shortly 

 afterwards you should not have turned all the bees out of it on the 26th of 

 June. You should have waited till the 7th of July, for then the brood would 

 have been hatched and a young queen reared. If the old hive had not a 

 queen in the cell eight days old at the time you took your artificial swarm, 

 your turn-out op second swarm is now without a queen. The queeu of a hive 

 goes with the first swarm, and it takes fourteen days to rear another from the 

 egg to perfection. If your second Bwarm is working satisfactorily and build- 

 ing worker comb you may conclude that it haB a queen which was hatched 

 within eight days of the time of swarming. The time to super hives ia when 

 they become full of combs and bees. Neither of your Bwarms will fill their 

 hives for a month. 



Feeding Bees — Weight op Stock f Jane). — Either your muslin or your 

 syrup has been too thin. In feeding bees from the top with a bottle a piece 

 of cotton cloth is tied over its mouth before it is inverted, and placed over 

 the aperture. Or better still, a piece of perforated vuloanite (made and sold 

 for the purpose of feeding) is placed over the aperture, and the bottle is placed 



inverted on it. Many bee-keepers like top-feeding, and find the bottle and 

 vuloanite answer very well. An 18-inch stock hive with a good population 

 should weigh about 40 lbs. in September to be safe for the winter and early 

 .spring months. Stocks of this kind consume absut 15 lbs. each of food from 

 September to March. In open winters beea fly much about, and therefore 

 consume more than they do in cold and stormy winters. 



Bees Clustering outside Htves (J. D,, Leeds.).— We consider that to 

 let bees cluster outside a hive and in large masses below the board in July 

 is not good for either the bee-master or the bees, and when this clustering is 

 permitted to go on for weeks a great loss is sustained. 



Zebea Grass Parrakeets and Grass Seeds (G. H. P.).—Ia a state of 

 natural freedom on the plains of South Australia, Zebra Grass Parrakeets live 

 almost entirely on the ground feeding on the seeds of grasses. In answer to 

 your question *' whether grass seeds may be given and what kinds ?" we reply 

 by stating that you should select the smaller sjrts in preference to others, 

 some of which are so coarse as to be suitable only for cattle. We could name 

 upwards of thirty kinds of grass seeds, among which are those known as the 

 vern*l v b ent, panic, galangale, sedge, feather, hair, rope, reed, meadow, dogstail, 

 foxtail, catstail, cocksfoot, couch (known as squitch or twitch), and many others, 

 amongst which Joanary and millet are considered as two kinds in the genera 

 of grasses. But it would be unwise to give the Parrakeets indiscriminately 

 any coarse kinds of grass seeds. In their native climate no doubt they have 

 many varieties to choose from, and their instinct may lead them to be some- 

 what epicurean in their appetites. We cannot inform yoa what kinds of gras3 

 seeds they prefer. Our experience has convinced us that Zebra Parrakeets 

 can enjoy good health on a canary and millet seed diet. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Cahden Square, London. 



Lat. 51° 32' 43" N. ; Long. 0° 8' 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 feet. 



Date. 



9 A.M. 



In the Da?. 







, 0. 



Hygrome- 



fi 



°r^ 



Shade Tem- 



Radiation 



.9 



1876. 



&&i 



ter. 



P 

 ■a^. 





perature. 



Temperature. 



a 



July. 



Bar 



ter i 



and 



Le 



„ 1 







In 



On 







Dry. j Wet. 



0° 



Eh 



Mas. 



Min. 



sun. 



grass 







Inches. 



deg. , deg. 





deg. 



deg 



deg. 



deg. 





In. 



We. 5 



29.97 ) 



64-7 60.5 



. s.w. 



64.0 



73.7 



59.8 



114 9 



55.0 





Th. e 



S 1.022 



61.6 ! 59.0 



s.w. 



64 5 



75.6 



56 9 



117.2 



63 1 



0.175 



Fri. 7 



29.813 



66.2 ; 60.0 



s.w. 



64.7 



77.3 



60.6 



125.2 



58.0 





Sat. 8 



"9.739 



69.0 1 62.6 



s.w. 



65.4 



76.2 



59.9 



128.0 



57 3 



0.020 



Sun. 9 



31.031 



64.0 57 2 



N W. 



64.3 



77.6 



54.5 



129.0 



548 





Mo. 10 



30 030 



62.7 



539 



w. 



64.9 



71.5 



52.1 



125 2 



48.6 







Tu. 11 



30.219 



62.0 



523 



w. 



64.2 



68.2 



50.4 



131.3 



46.2 



— 



Means. 



29.976 



61.7 



57.9 





61.6 



74.3 



56.3 



121.4 



532 



0.19 5 



KE MAKES. 

 5th.— Cloudy all day; a slight gleam of sun in middle, and slight shower 



about 10 p.m. 

 6th.— Cloudy, with occasional sunshine ; rain at night. 

 7th. — Fine morning, but rather dull after, especially about 5 p.m. 

 8th.— Dull morning and" early afternoon, shower at mid-day; fine evening 



and night. 

 9th. — Dull morning, fine afternoon and evening, though the latter was 

 rather cool. 

 10th. — Fine bright fresh day throughout ; cold at night, in fact the coldest 



during the week. 

 11th. — Another comparatively cool day, but very pleasant, though rather over- 

 cast and rain-like at timss, and even cooler than yesterday. 

 A fine warm week; westerly wind, but very little rain. — G. J. Symons. 



COTENT GARDEN MARKET.— July 12. 

 Prices remain the same ; a fair supply and moderate demand. 



Apples \ sieve 



Apricots bos 1 6 



Cherries lb. 6 



Chestnuts bushel 



Currants J sieve 



Black do. 



Figs dozen 9 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 



Gooseberries quart 3 



Grapes, hothouse.. . . lb. 2 



Lemons ^ 100 6 



Melons , each 2 



s. d. s. d. 

 1 6 to 5 







Mulberries lb. 



Nectarines dozen G 



Oranges 1^100 6 



Peaches dozen 6 



Pears, kitchen.. .. dozen 



deseort dozen 



Pine Apples lb. 2 



Pluma... k sieve 



Quinoes bushel 



Raspberries lb. 



StrawberrieB lb. 



Walnuts bushel 



d. b. d. 

 OtoO 

 21 

 12 

 SO 











6 











1 



2 



ditto. 



vegetables. 



Artichokes dozen 4 



Asparagus ^103 1 6 



French bundle 



Beans, Kidney ^100 6 



Beet, Red dozen 1 6 



Broccoli bundle 9 



Brussels Sprouts £ sieve 



Cabbage dozen 1 



Carrots bunch 4 



Capsicums ** 100 1 6 



Cauliflower dozen 1 



Celery bundle 1 6 



Colewort3.. doz.bunches 2 



Cucumbers eaoh 4 



Endive dozen 1 



Fennel bunch 3 



Garlic lb. 6 



Herbs bunch 8 



Horseradish. ... bundle 4 



Lettuce dozen n 6 



French Cabbage .... 1 



d. B. d. 

 Oto 6 

 6 6 

 

 6 16 

 

 6 

 



Leeks bunch 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustard & Cress punnet 

 Onions bushel 



pickling qu*rt 



Parsley .... doz. bunches 



Parsnips dozen 



Peas quart 



Potatnes bushel 



Kidney do. 



New lb. 



Radishes,, doz. bunches 



Rbubarb bundle 



Salsafy bundle 



Scorzonera bundle 



Seakale basket 



Sha'lots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes dozen 



Turnips bunoh 



Vegetable Marrows 



B. d. s. 

 4 toO 



10 2 



2 " 



2 5 



o 



2 4 



' 





