September 14, 1878. ] 



JOURNAL. OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



249 



Selling Classes — Single Birds.— Price not to exceed £3.-1, R. White. 2, H. 

 Crosby. Price not to exceed 30s — 1, J. Brown. 2, R. White. 



RABBITS.— Lop-eared.— Buck or Doe.—l, H. B. Smith. 2, T. & E. J. Fell. 

 Angora. -1, P. Dingle. 2. T. & E. J. Fell. Himalayan— Buck or Doe.—l, J. G. 

 Meadowcroft. 2, J. Wright. Dhtch.— Buck or Doc— I and 2, J. G. Meadow- 

 croft. Silver-grey.— Buck or Doe.—l, J. G. Mea lowcroft. 2, T. & E. J. Fell. 

 An* other Variety.— Buck or Doe.—l, H. & A. Pimlott. 2, J. Wright. 



Judges. — Poultry : Mr. R. Teebay. Pigeons and Babbits : 

 Mr. T. Ridpath. 



PARASITES IN BIRD CAGES. 

 In order to protect onr Canary birds from the little red para- 

 site various means are employed, principal among which is the 

 Persian insect powder, although I have never found this article 

 of much use. I have now discovered another excellent remedy, 

 which, if rightly applied, banishes the insects forthwith. This 

 is a tea made from quassia. It is made by pouring one pint of 

 boiling water over oae-half ounce of quassia. With this tea the 

 walls of the cages, nesting places, roosts, &c, should be tho- 

 roughly washed, letting the liquid run into all the cracks, how- 

 ever small. If this is done often no insects will ever appear. 

 — W. G. Todd.— {Pet Stock Bulletin.) 



FEEDING-UP RESCUED BEES. 



A correspondent writes as follows — "I have two heavy 

 etraw hives filled with worker combs by swarms of this year, 

 and I wish to drive theBe bees, extract the honey, add the combs 

 to a partially-filled frame hive, return the driven bees to their 

 straw hives, and so feed -them as to induce them to refill their 

 dwelling with worker combs. Can I be certain of attaining this 

 latter purpose at this time of year by gentle continuous feeding?" 

 To this letter I purpose to append a few thoughts which have 

 been floating in my mind for some days, which may be sugges- 

 tive to many bee-keepers, as well as to our correspondent in par- 

 ticular, at this time of year. 



First an answer to tbe direct question mnst be given in the 

 negative. Bees will not confine their attention at this time of 

 year to the building of worker combs so as to fill an empty hive 

 with them, because, come what will, they never breed in autumn 

 aa they do in spring and summer time unless fed with great 

 continuity and liberality. Gentle continuous feeding will induce 

 the queen to breed moderately, and the bees will supply her 

 waata with sufficient worker comb, and no more. If the supply 

 of food be liberal they will lengthen out their cells all round the 

 centre breeding nest and seal it np ; if very liberally fed they 

 will breed drone comb quite as often as worker comb, and treat 

 it in the same manner. 



If our correspondent would add in each case to the two hives 

 he is anxious to feed-up one or more lots of bees saved from 

 among the surrounding cottage apiaries, the inoreased popula- 

 tion thereby gained would induce a larger building of worker 

 comb, as the queen would find so much more opportunity for 

 laying in the increased Bpace that would be heated by the 

 presence of so many more bees, for more comb would be 

 covered by them ; but with merely the returned population of 

 his two hives but little brood could come to maturity now 

 that the nights are longer and colder. Anyhow, let him be 

 careful, by narrowed entrances and proper shelter and warm 

 covering, to maintain as high a temperature as possible within 

 the hives. 



It is to be hoped that many bee-keepers will be induoed to 

 follow his jxample as to the plundering of the swarms of this 

 year. Indeed, it is only swarms of the current year that are at 

 any time worth taking np ; and be it remembered that these 

 always have the old queens, which in not a few cases are all but 

 superannuated. Old hives, heavy as they weigh, contain at leaat 

 as much brood and pollen and dirt as they do honey, and the 

 latter must needs become deteriorated in value during the pro- 

 cess of extraction from the more or less blackened combs. Two- 

 thirds of waste must in most cases be allowed in calculating 

 profits with old hives. I prefer to let such remain from year to 

 year till the combs become too old and contracted for profitable 

 use. 



By all means " add the worker combs to a partially-filled 

 frame hive." I have been doing this very thing last week to a 

 swarm of this spring in a Woodbury hive, from which I had 

 taken several beautiful combs filled with honey. The combs 

 were taken from a common straw skep, cut to shape and fitted 

 into the frames with a few cross pieces of thin lath tacked over 

 the comb to the frame sides. These will be removed in due 

 time. For all Mr. Pettigrew's deprecatory observations touching 

 thesa bar-frame hives, nobody who has given them a fair trial 

 and has used them efficiently will be found to give them np, so 

 easy is it to examine every comb and to adjust the combs to the 

 wants of the hive and the aims of the bee-master. They are 

 simplicity itself, and give the most perfect command of the 

 apiary to an intelligent person. My Woodburies have narrow 

 strips of wood, unfastened instead of secured top-boards. By 

 removing these one after the other, only ao much of the hive is 

 exposed to view as is to be dealt with. A few whiffs of smoke 



dislodge or quiet the exposed bees, which, however, are gene- 

 rally too astonished at the sudden invasion of light to move at 

 all in any irritated manner. To remove a comb when properly 

 made or adjusted within the frame is an easy matter, so also is 

 it to replace it. 



I cannot conclude without asking our correspondent why ha 

 does not make up all his hives as bar-frame hives, and give his 

 beea to them instead of returning them to hia straw skeps. 

 There are plenty of valuable empty worker combs to be had for 

 the asking among country bee-keepers. The adjustment of 

 these in bar-frame hives would be far more profitable and satis- 

 factory in every way than trying to fill hia straw hivea this 

 autumn. — B. & W. 



COMPLETING UNFINISHED SUPERS. 



Tour correspondent " O. B.'s " remarka in page 225 have the 

 direct tendency to mislead the young bee-keeper, the very thing 

 he sets forth to avoid. 



I am not aware that the common practice in large apiaries of 

 transferring an uncompleted auper from a newly swarmed to an 

 unawarmed atock haa aa yet been called in question, and the bee- 

 keeper would be young indeed who did not see the propriety of 

 adopting it. 



Tour correspondent's stipulation of the transfer taking place 

 " during the honey harvest " is beBide the mark, as Mr. Petti- 

 grew distinctly recommends, at page 19, hia artificial super 

 manufacture to be begun " at the end of the season." 



Of administering feeding for the completion of supers at 

 either period, my experience is simply nil; but the novice might 

 be reminded that, however readily beeB may step into the labours 

 of their predecessors and complete the work in their unbroken 

 combs during the honey flow at the end of the seaBon when 

 thieving is rife, the odour and leakage inseparable from the all- 

 round-bleeding borders of each comb propoaed to be inserted 

 into the artificial supers, the robbers, " scenting the carrion 

 from afar," would most probably vie with the inmates of the 

 hive on which they were placed to appropriate the treasure 

 trovei At all events I do think Mr. Hunter'a detailed ex- 

 perience is more in keeping with the common practice of bees 

 than Mr. Pettigrew'a questionable theory. 



In my remarks in last week's issue on " The Stewarton Hive 

 and System," my atrongeat colony atocked with firat croaa 

 Italians, by a typographical error ia converted into "first-class ' 

 Italians. — A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper, 



DO BEES GATHER HONEY OR MAKE IT? 



Prof. Riley, the entomologist, at a recent housekeepers' con- 

 vention in St. Louis, stated that bees do not extract honey ready 

 made from flowers, but make it. The nectar lying in the flowers, 

 says the Professor, could never be manufactured into honey, no 

 matter how manipulated by man; but it ib taken np by the 

 bees and paased through a state of semi-digestion and excretion, 

 resulting in honey, yet Btill retaining in part the flavour or per- 

 fume of the flowers from which the nectar has been extracted, 

 by which we determine one kind of honey from another. Thia 

 view haa since been corroborated by a chemist and botanist of 

 Louisiana, who described the ohangea undergone by nectar in 

 its elaboration into honey in the bee's stomach. At the same 

 meeting Prof. Riley intimated in reply to the query, Do bees 

 injure fruit? that they do, but only in seaaona of aevere 

 drought and when urged by neceaaity. The fact, however, ia 

 no derogation to the usefulness of the insect, for its utility as a 

 polleniser more than counterbalances all its depredations upon 

 fruit. 



DUNDEE BEE AND HONEY EXHIBITION. 



Following the example of the Manchester Great Show in 

 1872, the Dundee authorities held a show of honey in connection 

 with their horticultural exhibition on the 7th, 8th, and 9th 

 inat. The Exhibition was held under the auspices of the East 

 of Scotland Bee-keepera' Society, and it occupied one corner of 

 the large Artillery Hall. In all there were 140 lots shown. For 

 the largest and best harvest of super honey the produce of one 

 hive this season, Mr. William Raitt, Liff, Secretary to the So- 

 ciety, carried off the first prize. The supers were five in num- 

 ber and weighed 103 lbs. of fine clean honey. The observatory 

 hives, within which a swarm of Ligurian bees and their queen 

 were to be seen, were objects of great interest to the many 

 visitors which frequented this part of the Show. A great many 

 specimens of bar-frames were filled with comb honey, and these 

 with run honey in glass jars, and different forms of wax, con- 

 stituted; the exhibition. Subjoined is the prize list : — 



Larg'Bt and Best Harvest of Snper Honey, the produce of one hive.— 1, W. 

 Raitt, Liff, 1031 lbs; 2, Robert Cowan, Brechin, 71Hba.; 3, John Lorrimer, 

 Broughty Ferry, 59 lbs. 



Heaviest and Best Single Snper, the produce of one Hiva. — 1, R. Steele, 

 Fowlis, 491 lbs. ; 2, Mrs. D:ck. Kerriemuir, 41 lba.; 3, D.Robertson, Fettercairn. 



Be&t Super in Wood, or Wood and Glasa.— 1, James Glen, Arbroath ; 2, W. 

 Raitt, Liff; 3, J. Stratchan, Farnell. 



