524 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



t December 14, 1876. 



out with honest pride the premier winner. "Why should the 

 bee farmer be deprived of a similar pleasure ? The bees will de- 

 fend their store. How are they to begot rid of? Not bytheehort 

 shrift of the brimstone pit, we live in more humane times. 

 Capital punishment is becoming rare. In return for their earnest 

 toil the hard sentence goes forth, " That they be drummed forth 

 the (waxen) kingdom and banished to some Siberian chilly stock, 

 their beloved queeen there slain, and they fed on sugar and 

 water all the days of their natural lives," to obtain the requisite 

 number of pints of that mixture known as run honey; then 

 follows the breaking, and bruising, and squeezing, which in 

 mercy I will draw a veil over. 



Straw hives retain a place in the more shaded nooks of my 

 apiary solely for swarming purposes, stand related to Stewartons, 

 somewhat after the fashion Brindley put it with regard to 

 rivers, " their use being to feed (honey) canals." On the twenty- 

 fourth day after emergence of prime swarm, the contents of the 

 straw hives are cut up and fitted into frames of Stewarton 

 colonies. How helpless fixism leaves the straw hives, and to 

 utilise his empty brood comb at the autumnal demolition of his 

 stocks, those combs got up at Buch an expeiadittJre of store and 

 labour to his industrious workers are good for nothing but crush- 

 ing up for the melting pot. The subject might be onlarged 

 upon, but reBpect must be had for your valuable space. 



The finest run honey such as the bee-master would like to see 

 gracing his table is only obtainable from supers, run contents of 

 stock boxes and breeding skeps is best utilised for bee feeding. — 

 A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper. 



MOVEABLE versus FIXED COMB. 



A VISIT TO THE APIAEY OE THE RENFREWSHIRE BEE-KEEPER. 



I have just read with pleasure the interesting article from 

 your correspondent " A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper " on move- 

 able versus fixed combs, and have a rather vivid recollection of 

 a visit on the 6th of October, 1875, to his apiary, where I saw 

 his competitive test hives, and can vouch for the lightness of 

 the straw and solidity of the octagon hive, and I Bhall not readily 

 attempt a similar trial unveiled. 



Having been struck with the difference caused me all the 

 more readily to accept an invitation to visit his apiary during 

 the working season, which I did on the 1st of August, 1876, 

 accompanied by a brother bee-keeper and a keen entomological 

 friend. We were then introduced to a phase of apiculture of 

 which we had previously no conception. Mr. Pettigrew talks 

 of large hives : what would he think of seeing these octagon 

 colonies towering to an altitude of close on 4 feet from their 

 boards ? — outgrown their covers, drawn back on floor boards to 

 give abundance of alighting room, the freest egress and ingress, 

 with ample ventilation afforded by three entrances in every 

 case ; the supers carefully covered round with woollen cloth, the 

 several colonies shaded from the hot sunshine with archangel 

 mats ; the entire apiary stocked with Italians, purs-bred im- 

 ported queens at the head of the swarming Btocka, and their 

 daughters mated with black drones at the head of the strong, 

 non-swarmers, the first-cross offspring being a large powerful 

 insect. I need not go into a description of the purity and high 

 finiBh of the fine super specimens harvested or of the glasses in 

 process. 



A source of special interest was a large mahogany rotating 

 nnicomb observatory of original design. From the thermometer 

 in the centre down to the minuteBt detail great ingenuity had 

 been exercised to make it in every way practical and complete. 

 It was stocked with pure-bred Italians, and was decidedly the 

 finest thing of the kind we had ever seen. We watched with 

 interest the movements of an exceedingly handsome picked- 

 queen, had pointed out to us how the workers did not object to 

 pure air from below, keeping every perforation in zinc open, 

 while to avoid a draught they had as carefully propolised up 

 every crevice on the top. We traced the pollen-laden worker 

 from the entrance to the cell, in which she deposited her load 

 and departed for more ; noted the numerous small orifices in 

 many of the all-but-sealed honey cells, and were taught how the 

 workers previously extracted before sealing up. There was left 

 undisturbed a half-thickness of comb owing to its attachment 

 to glass, affording a good opportunity of inspecting its central 

 backbone and the sectional waxen divisions of each attenuated 

 honey cell, with the markedly different Bhades of the Beveral de- 

 posits. "We could see in the outermost the honey-gatherer squirt 

 her load, come in direct from the field ; and found our Renfrew- 

 shire friend as sceptical of the "twice-swallowing and disgorging 

 theory" as is your excellent contributor "B. & W." — putting 

 it, in a word, that " seeing is believing." — R. J. Bennett, Vice- 

 President, Caledonian Apiarian Society. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Pigeons (A. L.). — Tour blacfc-and-white Pigeons seem to be Swallows. 

 Belgian Canaby (67. B. T.).— So much hempseed -with sugar, particularly 

 the latter, would tend to do your Belgian cock Canary more barm than good ; 



n fact, sugar is injurious to all kinds of Canaries, and we advise vou to dis- 

 continue the use of it. Let a small piece of salt, fixed betwixt the wires, 

 take the place of the sugar. Continue the hempseed sparingly during the 

 winter months, for as the bird has been so liberally treated it would be further 

 impaired were you to entirely take away the hempseed. Your Canary may 

 possibly regain its musical powers after the turn of Christmas or as spring 

 approaches, more espeoially if it has the company of a hen bird placed in a 

 separate cage a short distance apart. Mix with the Canary seed some lettuce 

 and cress seeds, and treat the bird occasionally with a small piece of biscuit 

 over which half a dozen drops of sherry have bBen poured. In early spring 

 some young fresh dandelion roots will benefit its health. — G. J. B. 



Stewaiiton Hrra (J. H. Elridge). — " Renfeewshibe Bee-keeper >' 

 writes :— " Mr. James Allan, cabinet-maker, Stewarton, Ayrshire, makes my 

 hives, and will doubtless furnish estimate cost and carriage on application. 

 The Stewarton breeding and honey boxes measure 14 by 14 inches, and are 

 7 inches deep for former and 4 for latter. For a beginner two 9-inch-deep boxes 

 might do well for stocks' breeding Bpace. Like all light-wooded hives they 

 must have external protection. Mine stand in octagon covers 18 by 18 inches 

 inside measure, body and top both moveable, the latter covered with thin 

 zinc, with ornamental vase on the top, and well painted atone colour. These 

 rest on mahogany boards made from old dining-table tops. Woodbury hives 

 are of square form, and having crown boards are not well adapted for stori- 

 fying in the Stewarton. Communication can be given or shut off by means 

 of the slides without disturbing the boxes. My bees have a little heather 

 honey from some hills half to a mile distant. Independence of spring feed- 

 ing is due to the weight of Burplus store left in autumn of such strong 

 non-swarining colonies." 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Camoen Square, London. 



Lat. 51= 32' 40" N. ; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 



Date. 



9 A.m. 



In the Day. 





1876. 



Barome- 

 ter at 82" 

 and Sea 

 Level. 



Hygrome- 



a . 



o-» . 



Shade Tem- 



Radiation 



a 



ter. 



i 



rs-s 



perature. 



Temper 



ature. 



« 



Dec. 





1 







In 



On 







Dry. 



Wet. 



Oo 



H 



Max. 



Min. 



sun. 



grasa 







Inches. 



deg. 



deg. 





deg. 



deg. 



deg; 



deg. 



deg. 



In. 



We. 6 



29.059 



44.8 



44.0 



S.W. 



46.3 



52.5 



44.0 



70.8 



89 3 



0.090 



Th. 7 



29.157 



47.0 



46 3 



s. 



45.5 



51.7 



44.6 



51.1 



39 7 



0.310 



Fri. 8 



29.512 



47.4 



46.3 



N. 



46.6 



48.8 



46.1 



651 



44.6 





Sat. 9 



30.130 



36.8 



36.3 



W. 



45.0 



47.4 



34.4 



68.8 



30.3 





Sun. 10 



S0.18S 



43.0 



41.8 



w. 



43.0 



46 8 



36.2 



488 



34.2 







Mo. 11 



30.130 



43.0 



41.0 



s.s.w. 



43 8 



46.4 



41.0 



47.8 



39.8 







Tu. 12 



29.730 



43.2 



41.8 



s. 



44.0 



47.0 



42.5 



47.0 



S9.0 



0.262 



Means. 



29.701 



43.5 



42.5 





44.9 



48.7 



41.3 



55.6 



38.1 



0.632 



REMARKS. 

 6th. — Fine morning and pleasant day, though sometimes rather cloudy. 

 7th. — Rainy morning, and showers at times all day, sometimes heavy ones. 

 8th.— Fair but rather dark morning; rain before 10 a.m., and showery all 



the reBt of the day. 

 9th. — Slight frost in the morning"; a fine pleasant day, rather less so at 

 night. 

 10th. — Fair but hazy early, and rather dull all day. 

 11th. — Very foggy, dull, and dart all the fore part of the day, and slight rain 



towards night. 

 12th. — Fair but hazy and dark early, better before 10 A.M.; rain commenced 

 before 11, slightly at first, but all the remainder of the day was rainy; 

 but fine at night. 

 A gloomy week, and somewhat colder than the previous one. — G. J. Svhons- 



COYENT GARDEN MARKET.— Decembee 13. 

 Business remains quiet in both fruit and vegetables, and trade is 

 restricted owing to the almost continuous wet weather which has lately 

 prevailed. 



FRUIT. 



Apples $ sieve 



s. d. s. d. 

 6 to 5 



Apricots dozen 



Chestnuts bushel 



Currants i sieve 



Black £ do. 



Figs dozen 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 1 



Gooseberries quart 



Grapes, hothouse. . . . lb. 2 



Lemons ^100 6 



Melons each 1 



















s. d. s. d. 



Nectarines dozen OtoO 



Oranges w 10i) 8 12 



Peaches dozen 



Pears, kitchen..,, dozen 10 3 



dessert dozen 2-0 9 



PineApples lb. 16 4 



Plums J seive 



Quinces bushel 



Raspberries lb. 



strawberries lb. 



Walnuts bushel 5 8 0> 



ditto ^100 16 2 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokes dozen 



Asparagus ^100 



French bundle 



Beans. Kidney ^100 1 



Beet, Red dozen 1 



Brocooli bundle 



Brussels Sprouts. ,J sieve 8 



Cabbage dozen 1 



Carrots bunch 



Capsicums ^1 1 



Cauliflower dozen 3 



Celery bundle 1 



Coleworts.. doz. bunches 2 



Cucumbers each 



Endive dozen 1 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish bundle 4 



Lettuce dozen 



OtoO 

 



Leeks bnnch 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustard & Cress punnet 

 Onions bushel 



pickling quart 



Parsley..., doz. bunches 



Parsnips dozen 



Peas quart 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Radishes., doz. buncheB 



Rhubarb bundle 



salsify bundle 



Scorzonera bundle 



Seakale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes j sieve 



Turnips bunch 



Vegetable Marrows 



i, d. 5. d, 

 4to0 

 2 



