81 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 27, 1S63. 



vermin — indeed a lousy fowl ia unknown on the premises. 

 M. de Sora permits the males and female to mingle freely at all 

 seasons, and after a fair trial of all the various breeds, has 

 cleared hiB establishment of every Shanghai, Cochin-China, or 

 other outlandish fowl, breeding only from old-fashioned barn- 

 yard chanticleers, and the feminines of the same species. He 

 contends that the extra size of the body and eggs pertaining to 

 these foreign breeds can only be produced and sustained by extra 

 food, while for capon-raising the flesh is neither so delicate nor 

 juicy as that of the native breed. The manure produced in this 

 French establishment is no small item, and since it forms the 

 very best fertiliser for many descriptions of plants, it is eagerly 

 sought for at very high prices by the market-gardeners in the 

 vicinity. The proprietor estimates the yield of this year at about 

 100 cords. He employs nearly 100 persons in different depart- 

 ments, three-fourths of whom, however, are females. The sale 

 of eggs during the past winter has averaged about 40,000 dozen 

 per week, at the rate of six dozsn for four francB, bringing the 

 actual sales up to 250,000 dols. per annum. The expenses of 

 M. de Sora's henery, including wages, interest, and a fair margin 

 for repairs &c, arc nearly 75,000 dols., leaving a balance in his 

 favour of 175,000 dols. pec year. — {Scottish Farmer.) 



MULE BIRDS. 



"Willi the undernoted crosses give beautiful-plumaged birds ? — 

 Goldfinch and Bullfinch, Chaffinch and Buff Canary, Chaffinch 

 and Yellow Canary, Goldfinch and Yellow Canary, and Gold- 

 finch and Buff Canary. Should a Bullfinch cock and Goldfinch 

 hen be put together, or the reverse, and so of the others ? What 

 is the best way to proceed ? Should they be wild or tame, and 

 kept in the house or outside ? — T. S. 



[The crosses mentioned will give beautiful-plumaged birds, 

 with the exception of the Chaffinch and Buff Canary, which 

 would throw out dull colours. In each case the Goldfinch and 

 Chaffinch should be the male bird, and should be tame ; if 

 possible, brought up from the nest. The birds would do best in 

 the house ; and, provided they are to be turned into an aviary, 

 they must be well paired previously. But we would recommend 

 that they be put in separate breeding-cages.] 



DESERTION OE HIVES, AND ITS CAUSES. 



I HAVE perused with much pleasure Mr. Lowe's interesting 

 article on bees deserting their hives, and can confirm his obser- 

 vation of the fact that when colonies of the Italians and the 

 common species are in close proximity, a certain degree of 

 intermingling is the result. I am disposed to attribute this 

 oircumstance to individual bees mistaking their hives, and either 

 by eluding or bribing the sentinels, obtaining a recognised status 

 in the colony to which they have in the first place accidentally 

 introduced themselves. With regard, however, to the common 

 stock in which 20 per cent, of the Italian race were discovered, 

 we muBt I think attribute the intermixture to a far different 

 cause. I Bhall indeed be surprised if desertion have anything to 

 do with it, and have little doubt that it is really a case of 

 hybridisation, the black queen having been impregnated by a 

 Ligurian drone, and a mixed progeny being the natural result. 



I had myself an amusing case of desertion this autumn. A 

 second swarm with a few combs and about a couple of ounces of 

 honey having been presented to me, I transferred the bees from 

 their straw hive into a box partially furnished with combs. 

 Although they appeared at the time to acquiesce in the change, 

 they resented the interference by quitting their new domicile a 

 few hours afterwards, and my garden accordingly presented the 

 unwonted spectacle of bees swarming late in October. The 

 queen having probably dropped from weakness in some obscure 

 corner, the bees refused to cluster, and it was not until I had 

 presented them with two other queens that they adopted one 

 and permitted me to hive them — a woefully diminished cluster- 

 in the box which they had quitted in dudgeon a couple of hours 

 previously. The loss of the queen was otherwise of little 

 importance, since deposed sovereigns were at that time nearly as 

 plentiful with me as they were on the Continent in the memorable 

 year 1848. 



The tendency to fraternise with strangers which is occasionally 

 manifested by bees relieved me from a difficulty last summer. 

 A very strong stock sent from a distance reached me in a most 



deplorable condition. Owing to want of ventilation, resulting 

 from bad packing, every comb was smashed, multitudes of the 

 bees were dead, and the remainder in a most lamentable state — 

 few, indeed, being able to use their wings. Utterly at a loss 

 what to do with the survivors, I opened the hive iu my garden, 

 luckily in the immediate neighbourhood of a small box contain- 

 ing a queen and a few hundred bees. In one minute the difficulty 

 was solved. The few bees that could fly betook themselves at 

 once to this little community, and stood with vibrating wings on 

 the alighting-board. This hint was enough. I propped the 

 chaotic hive in front of the small colony, and a living stream 

 forthwith resulted, which had the doubly beneficial effect of 

 strengthening the community to which they migrated and pre- 

 serving themselves from destruction. 



I am glad to learn that Mr. Lowe is about to investigate for 

 himself the wonderful phenomenon of parthenogenesis in the 

 honey bee, and shall be happy to assist him by every means in 

 my power. Although he declares that several might be urged, 

 I am not myself aware of a single loophole that has not already 

 been most thoroughly explored and effectually stopped. Having, 

 I believe, investigated this subject more thoroughly than any 

 other Englishman, I may be permitted to indorse the conclusion 

 of Dzierzon, who declared so recently as March last, " To me at 

 leaBt is this proof a strictly mathematical one, and so convinced 

 am I of the truth of parthenogenesis in bees — namely, in drone- 

 production — that, to speak like Briining, I would lay down my 

 life for this conviction." — A Devonshire Bee- keeper. 



FEEDING IMPRISONED BEES. 



I HAVE put rather a weak stock of bees into a chamber, and 

 am feeding them with the "inverted bottle" at the top. The 

 hive, which is one of Neighbour's, is shut up close, so that the 

 bees are confined, except that they have access to a glass bell on 

 the top. At times in warmer weather, when the glass in the 

 hive is at 60° or higher, they seem to grow very angry, and swarm 

 into the bell. Will this close confinement hurt or smother the 

 bees, and when will be the beBt time to put the hive out of doors 

 again? I have known a hive of bees tied up ra a sheet and 

 hung up in a room all the winter. Why are mine so restlesB ? 

 — B.B. 



[We do not wonder at your bees becoming " very angry " under 

 such circumstances. Feeding bees whilst in confinement is most 

 injurious to them, and we should not be surprised to learn that 

 yours are dead ere this. If they still survive, by all means give 

 them their liberty without delay, and if feeding be imperatively 

 necessary, keep a full bottle at the top of the hive. You will 

 find they will appropriate its contents during mild days, and 

 leave them untouched in cold weather.] 



PROFITLESS BEES. 



It is now many years sinco I began to keep bees, and I 

 remember a very respectable seedsman telling me I could keep 

 bees if I would feed them, but tbey would not keep themselves. 

 I have kept them on the old plan in skeps on the Podolian 

 plan, and these last four years on Payne's plan as in your 

 "Bee-book for the Many." My bees are always bo light in 

 autumn, that I have to do as the seedsman said — feed them. I 

 never saw stronger colonies than I always have, nor can any be 

 healthier. They are not infested with insects or other enemies, 

 and I seriously tell you I have spent upwards of £20 on bees, 

 and during the course of my bee-keeping never had one ounce of 

 honey from my bees. I never could induce any one hive to 

 adopt either a glass or wood super. I keep them in a roomy bee- 

 house of wood, where they are always quite dry, with a south-east 

 aspect ; they never fight or attack each other ; the house will hold 

 two rows of four one above another. I am quite in the country 

 — all green fields and gardens around, with no manufactories of 

 any kind for a mile and half. I feed them in the autumn 

 with syrup, and in the spring with barleysugar. They are always 

 strong, numerous, courageous, and healthy. 



Can you tell me a plan to manage them so that I can treat my 

 wife as the German Albert Brauu, and how best to work them so 

 aB to keep always and only three hives through the winter ? If 

 so, you will greatly oblige, as I am now becoming tired of so profit- 

 less a pursuit.-^T. 



[Many amusiug and edifying bee-stories have unquestionably 

 appeared in our columns during the past four years, but none 





