Jnne W, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



467 



taining about forty birds, and placed on the npper terrace for inspec- 

 tion. The nnmeronB and fashionable company was mncb pleased and 

 interested at the novel exhibition. The birds appeared to have suffered 

 bnt little from their voyage ; their plnmage was clean and bright, and 

 they seemed fnll of life and spirits, anxious to commence their home- 

 ward journey. Amongst the whole number we only saw two birds a 

 little queer. All the different varieties of the Antwerp were represented, 

 but we thought the Bines were the pi^lr of the lot. "We noticed some 

 capital broad, nicely-ronnded sliulled birds, broad in the chest, fnll 

 prominent eye, but little wattle, plenty of life and dash; in fact, 

 quite a different kind of bird to what we are in the habit of seeing 

 exhibited in England as Antwerps. All had been stamped with a 

 private mart to insure its having started in the morning from the 

 Palace, and they were well supplied with food and water. The fronts, 

 tops, and backs of the pens were moveable, so that on the signal being 

 given, the man appointed to each pen pulled these towards him, and 

 there was nothing but the two sides left standing, and every bird could 

 be liberated at the same moment. 



Shortly before twelve the sky, which had been very cloudy and 

 heavy all the morning, became brighter and clearer, the sun bnrsting 

 forth, and the birds seemed to be making good use of their eyes in 

 noting the position of the various hills and places within view. At 

 ten minutes to twelve a large bell was rung to clear away the public 

 from off that part of the terrace facing the pens. On the words " Are 

 yon ready ?" being given by the starter, each man prepared to remove 

 the fronts and tops of the pens, and on the fall of a red flag the cages 

 fell to pieces, and away went the whole lot to a capital start, not one 

 left behind. And a very pretty sight it was to see them soaring away 

 in a south-easterly direction for home, not so much as taking a round 

 or a glance at the transparent Palace, now glittering and sparkling in 

 the bright sun. One could not htljj thinking it was a far pleasanter 

 and a more humane sight than seeing princes and noblemen, with 

 their ladies admiring them, slaughtering other poor, frightened, harm- 

 less Pigeons. At the start one bird immediately singled himself out 

 and darted at once to the front in the direction of his long journey, 

 the others following, and when all had reached a great height they 

 made a slight curve, then rose to a greater altitude into a white cloud, 

 ■where they could be seen by the aid of a powerful field-glass gradually 

 breaking into smaller groups. The whole thing was over and the 

 birds out of sight within two minutes of the start, except a solitary 

 one or two. This was entirely different to what we had expected to 

 see, when we remembered our own boyish attempt to get birds to fly ; 

 the amount of whistling, clapping of hands, and stone-throwing that 

 was necessary before the bird would leave the roof or chimney-pot of 

 a house. We fully expected them to have taken a round or two before 

 finally starting, but nothing of the kind ; away they all went imme- 

 diately, as though every bird was fully aware of what it was doing, 

 and determined if possible to win the race. 



PRODUCTION OF FERTILE WORKERS— QUEEN 

 PIPING. 



A PEW days ago James Bower, Esq., of Knowle Lodge, asked 

 me to look over a stock of bees purchased by bim this spring, 

 and which he had since driven from their straw hives, and 

 placed with four of their own brood combs (worker) in a wooden 

 bar-and-frame hive. Afterwards, as I understood, he opened 

 the hive and found it without a queen, bnt with one or more 

 queen cells tenanted ; these he cut away, and gave the bees a 

 Ligurian queen, which they, I think, must have killed, though 

 Bhe had been put under a wire cage according to the approved 

 plan. 



I fonnd the hive contained very few working bees, and nearly 

 as many small drones with drone brood in all stages and eggs, 

 of coarse, in the old worker combs, no new comb having been 

 made. But no queen was there, and to make quite sure of her 

 majesty's absence, after looking very carefully over the combs 

 three times, I lifted them out and placed them on the ground, 

 two other persons scrutinising them both on taking them 

 out and returning them, and also in the meantime looking 

 amongst the bees left in the hive. 



Do you think the bees, after their queen-cells were cut away 

 and the Ligurian queen destroyed, tried to rear a queen from 

 their too-mature brood, and so only succeeded in producing a 

 fertile worker ? Or in what way do you account for the drone 

 brood and eggs in the hive when minus a queen ? 



I had four natural swarms from my one pure Ligurian stock, 

 respectively— on the 17th, 24!h, 26tb, and 29th of last month. 

 After a hive has thrown a first swarm, and the young queens 

 are heard "piping," are they at liberty, or do they only con- 

 tinue the noise while confined in their cells ?— J. Bkieeley, 

 Knoicle. 



[There ia little doubt that the hive has one or more fertile 

 workers, but we should not like to pronounce a decided opinion 

 as to the exact causes which led to their being produced. 

 "When "piping" ia heard after the issue of the first swarm, i 



may proceed from the eldest princess at liberty, or from those 

 still confined in their cells. Some people profess to be able 

 to distinguish these by the varying notes. A day or two ago 

 on examining a small artificial swarm to which a royal cell 

 had been given, we found the queen at liberty, and on return- 

 ing the comb to the hive she commenced piping very loudly. 

 There was no other royal cell in the hive.] 



QUEENS LEAVING THEIR HIVES. 



A cuKions thing happened in my apiary the other day which 

 may be worth recording. I had made an artificial swarm out 

 of an Italian hive by driving, putting the swarm, as I always 

 do, in the old stock's place. "The stock itself, full of brood but 

 empty of bees, was the next day put in place of a strong hybrid 

 Italian hive, which I removed some 40 yards ofl. To my great 

 astonishment on the third day (May 24th), a fine swarm issued 

 from the Italian stock, which should have been queenless. 

 No doubt the queen must have taken an airing and returned to 

 her old stance. The hive itself which she quitted, subse- 

 quently (on the 7th of Jane), threw off a swarm, and the Italian 

 stock did the same again on the 8th. This instance will go to 

 prove what has been doubted by some, whether queens ever 

 leave their hive when once they have become mothers. This 

 queen must have been out on the wing more than once this 

 spring, to have found her way so easily back again. She had 

 never led off a swarm, having been artificially reared only the 

 summer before. — B. & W. 



HINGES TO BAR-AND-FRAME HIVES. 

 You are mistaken in thinking that the "bar-and-frame hive " 

 which I gave to the Apiarian Society was hinged. These " tri- 

 angular bar-frames" were so arranged on the sides of the en- 

 closing "outer box," as to have an iron rod run through the 

 whole of the eight, frames. Upon this rod the frames were 

 adjusted and worked sideways, when space to lift a comb for 

 examination was required. The rod only formed the pivofe 

 which, so long as each frame was raised in succession on it, 

 kept all the other frames steady; but this rod was always 

 drawn out for the removal of the combs for separate experi- 

 ments, or the extraction of honey. This was one of the at- 

 tempts to cheapen the " bar-frame hive" for the bee-masters. 

 My first frames were made to fit into grooves, taking as s 

 guide the adjusted spaces of IJ-inch bars, and half-inch spaces 

 which had been introduced by Mr. E. Golding as the improved 

 fixed bars or rods of the Grecian hive ; but no notches or 

 hinges are admissible in the moveable " bar-and-frame hives," 

 as the bees will not always keep to the calculated spaces for 

 the combs. The power of moving the frames and combs 

 laterally must be secured, or the hive is useless for exami- 

 nation. The triangular hive, therefore, never was hinged! — 

 W. A. MUNN. 



BEE-KEEPING FOR COTTAGERS. 

 I COULD not help writing just a line in reply to your corre- 

 spondent " W. J., Sliepherdswell," at page 431, who says, "I 

 have always looked upon the practice (the use of brimstone 

 torches), with considerable qualms of conscience ; in fact, with 

 a similar feeling to that experienced when seeing an animal 

 slaughtered for food." Mr. Pettigrew takes a similar view, but 

 at present I cannot see the force of the argument, for we do 

 not kill bees to eat them, but to possess ourselves of their pro- 

 ductions, and I maintain with the late Thomas Nntt, that it is 

 quite as absurd to kill bees for their honey as it is to cut 

 down a beautiful young tree in order to gather its fruit. And, 

 again, Wildman says, " If we were to kill the hen for the egg, 

 the sheep for its fleece, or the cow for her milk, everyone wonlci 

 instantly see our impropriety, and yet this Is practised every 

 year by our impolitic slaughter of the bees." I am heartily 

 glad that the Bev. William Charles Cotton has come to the 

 rescue, and I am anxiously looking for his promised communi- 

 cation on this subject, and I think he will bear me out, that 

 until we eat the bees after killing them, the " animal slaughtered 

 for food " is not a parallel case, and I still think that the 

 sooner we discontinue the killing the goose for the golden egg 

 the better for cottagers everywhere, including — Sheeheebswell. 



EcoLESHiLL Show. — The Committee are most anxious to 

 make it an important one both for poultry and Pigeons, and if 

 it receive support we can predict for it a future second to that 



