September 15, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



217 



not only reduces the charge for carriage very considerably, but, 

 .what is of far more consequence, enables birds to reach their 

 destination much earlier than they could possibly do if they 

 had to be dragged out at some intermediate station to be re- 

 booked and await the arrival of the next train — frequently 

 some hours. It is true the booking of parcels is generally 

 •done by lads who, either not knowing or not caring to ascertain 

 to what places they can book through, despatch them to the 

 next principal station, and leave them to reach their destina- 

 tion as best they may. This I have experienced over and over 

 again, and it must stand to sense that if parcels can be booked 

 through one way, say from Derby to Newcastle, it is only 

 rational to expect to have them booked through from New- 

 castle to Derby. I am well aware that railway people are 

 anything but obliging, but I think committees and secretaries 

 of exhibitions of all kinds should do their utmost to enforce 

 justice. 



Another suggestion I would make is that Belgian and Lizard 

 Canaries, usually shown in open wire cages, should be so placed 

 in the exhibition-room as to be free from all draughts. They 

 are naturally more delicate than the other varieties of the 

 Canary, and, in order the better to protect them, a screen of 

 calioo or bunting, or any other material, might be advan- 

 tageously erected. Belgians, generally placed first on the list, 

 should during arbitration reverse their position, or be judged 

 last, for this reason — they are birds which bear travelling but 

 badly, and if judged shortly after beiDg unpacked are fre- 

 quently "rough" and unsteady. This arrangement would at 

 any rate give them a little more time to compose themselves, 

 and better display those peculiar characteristics which are so 

 marked in the Belgian Canary, and on which their relative 

 positions must depend. 



A little more attention on the part of committees and secre- 

 taries generally would do much to encourage fanciers to send 

 for exhibition specimens which they have hitherto deemed too 

 valuable, and so tend to raise up more fanciers and exhibitors 

 of that beautiful bird, the Canary, the keeping of which is a 

 recreation that, if innocently pursued, is one of the most in- 

 teresting and instructive. — James N. Haeeison, The Lawn, 

 Belper, Derbyshire. 



altogether disappointed, we returned our aspirant after regal 

 honours to the home from which two days previously she had 

 been rather unceremoniously removed, and on the next day to 

 our great delight we saw her sally forth on what proved to be her 

 wedding trip, and after a fifteen-minutes anxious watch saw 

 her return safely, bearing unmistakeable evidence that the 

 object for which she had undertaken the journey had been ac- 

 complished. So far this is my experience, but should any 

 other of your correspondents have tested the American state- 

 ment, I shall be very glad to hear their opinion on the 

 matter. — A Stewaeton Apiaeian. 



THE NEW METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE 

 FERTILISATION OF THE QUEEN BEE. 



Some time ago there appeared in the columns of your valu- 

 able paper two or three communications, the purport of which 

 was to give further enlightenment to the bee-master on the 

 yery important matter of queen-impregnation. This remark- 

 able discovery hails from Yankeeland, and is quite equal to any 

 of the big talk we are accustomed to hear almost any day 

 from the same quarter. It has now for a long series of years 

 been regarded as a settled fact amongst apiarians that the young 

 queen not only leaves the hive, but that the contact is actually 

 when she is on the wing ; but according to our American 

 cousins this may be accomplished by a different method, the 

 modus operandi being to place the young princess along with a 

 number of males in a small box or glass globe in which they 

 are able to fly, not forgetting the necessary supplies, to shut them 

 up, and in the course of forty-eight hours at the longest fecun- 

 dation will have been secured. 



At first when I read this new method I looked upon it with 

 the gravest suspicion, and had very strong doubts regarding the 

 practicability of a thing so far from the natural instincts of our 

 little favourites, but which if true would be a valuable addition 

 to apiarian science. A friend and myself, therefore, resolved to 

 make the experiment and see if such could really be accom- 

 plished. Accordingly on a fine day about the beginning of the 

 month (August), we opened a hive and removed from it a 

 beautiful young Ligurian queen a number of days old, and 

 which we were very anxious should meet with a pure mate, 

 placed her in a box (certainly not smaller than those recom- 

 mended), in company with a number of the opposite sex, shut 

 them np, and allowed them to remain in this condition for 

 twenty-four hours, at which time we had a survey and found 

 her ladyship fine and lively, but the most of the drones dead, 

 as we supposed from dashing themselves against the sides of 

 the box, certainly not from any exhaustive cause. A fresh 

 lot was added and allowed to remain for the same length of 

 time with a like result. This, now, being all that was necessary 

 and more than sufficient for us, we both pronounced it nothing 

 short of Yankee bunkum. Chagrined, disheartened, yet not 



I have had my attention directed to two or three communi- 

 cations which appeared in the Journal regarding a "New Mode 

 of Controlling the Fertilisation of the Queen Bee," a discovery 

 stated to have been made by Mrs. E. S. Tupper, of Iowa, U.S., 

 and corroborated, it appears, by others. If this were an 

 established fact it would completely overthrow the whole views 

 aud findings of our best and most eminent bee-writers, and the 

 discovery would be welcomed by practical apiarians as an in- 

 estimable boon, not only as jespects the rearing and propaga- 

 ting of different varieties of the honey bee, but also in securing 

 the fecundation of queens reared at seasons of the year when 

 weather influences render such an event out of doors extremely 

 hazardous and uncertain, if not impracticable. 



From my own experience, however, on this subject, which 

 extends over a considerable number of years, I never had any 

 reason to doubt that the fecundation of the queen bee took 

 place only in the open air. Indeed, there is no fact, I think, 

 better attested in the natural history of^the bee than this ; and 

 that although, in the language of Dr. Bevan, the queen were 

 confined " amid a seraglio of males," yet a barren or abnormal 

 queen she would ever remain. But we are told that by adopt- 

 ing either of the following methods we can control the fertilisa- 

 tion of the queen bee : — 



1st, " Put the queen with the selected drones, and some 

 honeycomb containing honey, in a box having a sliding cover 

 and plenty of small gimlet holes through the top and sides for 

 ventilation ; remove the honey-board, and place the box on 

 the frames, so that the queen and her companions may be 

 kept warm ; put on the cap, and leave them two or three 

 days, and at the end of that time your queen will be purely 

 fertilised." 



2nd, " On the fifth day after the queen is hatched, or earlier 

 if you choose (says Mr. Thomas in describing Mrs. Tupper's 

 method), catch the queen and confine her with four or five 

 select drones in a wire cage, with honey in the comb or in a 

 sponge, and place the cage on the top of the nucleus or stock 

 from which she has been taken, and let her remain from twenty- 

 four to thirty-six hours, covering her up with the cap so that 

 it will be quite dark. She will be fertilised, and commence to 

 lay soon alter being liberated." 



3rd, Mr. Dax, of Giios, Hungary, confines along with the 

 queen about one hundred bees. " The glazed box," he says, 

 " is then darkened, and between the hours of eleven and three 

 a drone is added, when you may watch their intercourse. If 

 this does not occur on the first day, which, however, is gene- 

 rally the ease, before three o'clock, it will take place the next 

 day about the same time." 



A Mr. Moore, of Ohio, however, has stated even a simpler 

 process still. He has succeeded, he says, in getting queens 

 fertilised " by confining them with a few drones under a wine- 

 glass or tumbler placed in the sun ; also by confining them in 

 a ."amp chimney, with the upper end stopped by a cork, and 

 the lower end fitted into the feeding hole on the top of the 

 hive, egress in this direction being prevented by means of 

 wire cloth." 



Mr. Woodbury, I observe, iu alluding to the Hungarian 

 method, thinks it a very feasible one, and far the most likely 

 of aDy that has yet been devised to secure the end desired ; 

 but I must confess I am very sceptical as to any one of the 

 plans succeediug. Let us consider the matter. In what re- 

 spect do the circumstances in which the virgin queen is placed 

 in the Hungarian method differ from those in which we experi- 

 mental apiarians find her in our various operations a hundred 

 times ? Is it by reason of the queen being alone in company 

 with the males that success attends the experiment ? I fear 

 not. I have more than once confined drones along with a 

 queen under glass, and have witnessed nothing but mutual 

 indifference and repugnance to each other; and intelligent 

 apiarians are familiar with the case recorded by Huber, of his 



