October 12, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



33? 



only eating grasB or grain, there would be no difficulty in giving 

 poison to animals at the same place which naturally eat animal 

 food only,.as do cats, weasels, &c] 



THE PECTOPLUME. 



Pboeably few have had the pleasure of examining this machine 

 in the Agricultural Hall, Philadelphia, at the Centennial Exhi- 

 bition. 



It is the production of one of our genuine Yankee inventors, 

 and, like many other useful inventions, was the result of a desire 

 to lighten and shorten the monotonous hand-work on the farm. 



The pectoplume, or feather-picker, is designed to pick or 

 pluok the feathers from poultry of all kinds in preparing them 

 for market. In addition to thia it sorts the feathers, putting the 

 quill feathers in one repository and the soft downy feathers in 

 another. 



In appearance the pectoplume somewhat resembles a large- 

 sized sewing machine with the cover on it. The table is about 

 2J feet wide and 4 long, and about the height of an ordinary 

 table. In the centre of this is the machinery, which is operated 

 by a treadle and fly-wheel underneath, the same as a sewing 

 machine. The machinery consists of a wheel about 1 foot in 

 diameter, and perhaps 2 inches thick on the outer edge; this 

 edge or rim is provided with fingers, or "pickers," of india- 

 rubber, so arranged and operated by mechanism, that as they 

 come above the Bnrface of the picker-table they clasp and pinch 

 whatever comes in their way, and as they pass below on the 

 opposite side open again, releasing the feathers. The light 

 feathers are blown by a current of air over a sliding lip (whioh 

 can be raised or lowered by the operator) into a shoot or spout, 

 under which may be placed a box, baBket, or bag to receive 

 them. The heavy or qnill featherB falling into a V-shaped 

 trough before reaching this lip are picked up by an automatic 

 hand and bunched, a bit of wire twisted around them, and 

 thrown out into a basket or box placed behind the machine. 



In operating it the person seats himself in front with his foot 

 upon the treadle; getting the machine in motion he takes the 

 fowl by the legs, laying it on the upper or picker-table, so that 

 the rubber " pickers " just touch the fowl, turning the fowl side- 

 ways and spreading the legs, so that the fingers reach all parts 

 of the fowl. The birds are dry-picked of course. 



Mr. Obed Hopkins, the inventor, says he can with foot power 

 pick a fowl clean in one minute ; by horse or steam he considers 

 it possible to pick two hundred fowls per hour. The work is 

 rather too heavy for one person, and cannot be kept up any 

 length of time ; but with one to operate the treadle and another 

 to manipulate the fowl a hundred birds can be dressed in a very 

 short time. — H. Oaks. — {Pet-Stock Bulletin.) 



STRAW SEEPS versus BAR HIVES. 



So much has lately appeared in the Journal of Horticulture 

 •in favour of straw skeps and the whole system of bee manage- 

 ment, that a tyro would be led to infer that all that has been 

 done during the last century to advance the science of apicul- 

 ture has been a move in the wrong direction; and although all 

 the scientific apiarians in Europe and America have adopted 

 some modification of the bar or bar-and-frame hive, it has at 

 length been discovered that a large straw skep with fixed combs, 

 made doubly secure by transverse sticks, and the ultimate de- 

 struction of the bees by sulphur (which is in the majority of 

 instances involved in this mode of management), to obtain their 

 treasures, is the ne plus ultra of bee-keeping where large 

 harvests of honey and wax are to be secured. A few remarks 

 upon the conservative system may possibly be acceptable to 

 some of your readers, showing that excellent results may be 

 obtained with modern improved hives, notwithstanding Mr. 

 Pettigrew's wholesale condemnation of moveable bars, which 

 are the greatest improvement ever effected in apiculture, and 

 which will never be abandoned by any who have once tried 

 them, if they only possess sufficient skill and knowledge to avail 

 themselves of the advantages they possess. 



In consequence of what waB written by " A Renfrewshire 

 Bee-keepee," I was induced to give the Stewarton system a 

 trial, and the result has been most satisfactory. One hive this 

 season has yielded me 144 lbs. of perfectly pure virgin honey- 

 comb, and the stock from which it was taken weighed 60 lbs. 

 nett — (i.e., exclusive of the hive), after the supers had been 

 removed. 



In 1875, the worst honey season known in this district for 

 twenty years, this colony gave me about 30 lbs. of very fine 

 honey, and had sufficient left for a winter supply. The bees 

 wintered in two Stewarton boxes, each 7 incheB deep ; and it 

 may be remarked, as bearing upon a controversy held in this 

 Journal some years ago, that they selected the upper storey for 

 their winter residence. Towards the end of May, 1876, two 

 supers, respectively 4 and 5 inches deep, were put over the 

 stock, and the two outer slides withdrawn. The bees, soon took 

 possession of the supers, but as honey was not very abundant 



did not progress very rapidly, and, as the hive did not seem 

 crowded, I was unwilling to give them additional accommo- 

 dation below. The result was that a large swarm issued forth 

 on Trinity Sunday, at about 10 a.m. The swarm was hived in 

 a large skep, and as soon as the bees were settled was carried 

 down into a cellar, leBt one of the numerous decoy hives the 

 tenants of which had died in the winter should tempt the bees to 

 decamp. After midday I overhauled all the combs in the stock 

 (see the use of moveable bars), and excised all the royal cells. 

 The swarm was then returned to the parent hive. A third stock 

 box furnished only with a little guide comb was placed under 

 the colony, and a third super added at the top. The bees now 

 set to work vigorously, so that a fourth super was soon required. 

 On the 11th of July, finding that the three lower supers were 

 perfectly sealed, they were removed, and contained G8 lbs. of 

 pure virgin honeycomb. Two supers were added at the top, and 

 upon the 26th of July the two lower superB were removed, per- 

 fectly completed, and containing 41 lbs. of virgin honeycomb. 

 The two remaining supers were taken off upon the 6th of August, 

 and contained 35 lbs. of virgin honeycomb. All this large 

 amount — 144 lbs. — of wax and honey was made and collected by 

 the bees fairly and honestly from the fields, without the slight- 

 est assistance, except that the two first supers were furnished 

 with pieces of guide comb about an inch in depth, and the sub- 

 sequent supers were merely supplied with Btrips of plain sheet 

 wax about three-quarters of an inch deep to secure straight 

 combs. The whole of the honey in seven compartments was 

 stored in perfectly pure virgin comb, and not a single cell in the 

 whole pile contained the slightest trace of brood or pollen. 



Contrast this with a Pettigrew hive. In one case you have 

 144 lbs. of the purest honey in seven separate boxes, each box 

 containing seven combs, each comb fixed upon a separate bar. 

 Any one of these boxes, or any individual comb, can at anytime 

 be utilised without the least mess and without any appreciable 

 amount of trouble, or can be kept as it is for months if required. 

 All has been taken, almost without the loss of a single bee. 

 Take the Pettigrew hive, and you have a large receptacle filled 

 with a most heterogeneous mixture. The outer combs may 

 contain pure honey ; but even these must be broken up to get 

 them out of the skep, and all the central part of the hive is a 

 mixture of brood, pollen, and discoloured comb. Mr. Pettigrew 

 justly observes bar frames can never help bees, but Beems to 

 have failed to discern that they may and do moat materially 

 help bee-masterB. 



All my Stewarton stock boxes contain four frames in the 

 centre, and the hive which produced the harvest I have alluded 

 to was and is tenanted by pure Italian bees. — J. E. Beiscoe, 

 Albrighton. 



BEES SWARMING WITHOUT A QUEEN. 

 In the American Prairie Farmer are given one or two alleged 

 instances of bees swarming without a queen. They appear cir- 

 cumstantial in their details, yet who can believe the thing 

 possible? There are many instances, no doubt, when a swarm 

 rises without a queen, which perhaps may have turned back im- 

 mediately after leaving the hive, or been lost in the confusion 

 whioh always more or less attends swarming, but that a swarm 

 should iaeue and settle so as to be hived without a queen is 

 not poBaible. In one of the instances mentioned the queen is 

 said to have been found in a bar-framed hive quietly walking 

 about the combs some time after the issue of the swarm ; but 

 this fact, if fact it be, would only prove either that there were 

 two queens in the hive, or that the swarm had gone off with a 

 fertile worker. Instances of the former have been noticed in 

 this Journal, so well authenticated as to leave no doubt of the 

 fact. Are there any known instances of the latter, or can any 

 of our apiarian friends mention any instances of apparent 

 swarming without a queen 1 I mean instances when a bond-fide 

 swarm has gone off or been hived without its queen ? — B. & W. 



COLOURING COMBS AND CELL LIDS. 



I am obliged to your correspondent " J. P. J." for his friendly 

 criticisms on my remarks on this subjeot. I am always pleased 

 with such fair and temperate criticism. I failed to explain how 

 or by what means bees temper the colour of the lids of brood 

 cells to correspond with the colour of the combs. This is of 

 course done by UBing old materials, and I am unable to conceive 

 any other mode of doing it. " J. P. J." and myself are of the 

 Bame opinion and agree here. 



He advances a step farther than I have ever gone when he 

 says, " My experience has been that bees never cap brood cells 

 with new wax ; but as the edges of the cells are of extra thick- 

 ness, and contain sufficient material to form caps, they simply 

 draw out the edges and so cover over the cells." This is a very 

 nice point, which I think our friend will find somewhat difficult 

 to prove or maintain. Shall I be excused if I aak him to give 

 us the details of his experience on this question? All finished 

 cells have rimB round their mouths which strengthen them 



