November 3, lt70. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



361 



they have signally failed, and no wonder ; for if the season 

 happens to be cold or wet, or both, the beea that have been 

 prematurely aroused into a state of activity must necessarily 

 go out of their habitation for an airing, and in consequence, 

 great numbers, being unable to return, will perish. A bee 

 coming from a greatly heated atmosphere into the open air, 

 where the temperature is many degrees lower, is very easily 

 ohilled, and, if it should be able to find its way back to its 

 dwelling, injurious results to it may follow from the sudden 

 transitions through which it has passed. 



Granting, however, that all goes on well, is it desirable to 

 possess a swarm before what is considered the honey-gathering 

 season has set in ? If the flowers are few in number it cannot 

 store up much food, or if they are washed much by cold rains 

 it may not even prove self-supporting. Some people, as much 

 distinguished for their ignorance of apiarian science as for 

 anything else, boast of their superior husbandry when they 

 happen to get a cast a few days or weeks earlier than their 

 neighbours. They think it a great thing to have a swarm 

 before the 1st of June, and that the old adage, irrespective of 

 place and weather, holds good, " a swarm in May is worth a 

 stack of hay ;" but excepting on rare occasions, when seasons 

 were unusually forward, I have never found very early swarms 

 prove of much value. When summer is somewhat advanced 

 they are apt to throw virgin swarms which do little good, and 

 then in autumn, when the bee-master wishes to take their 

 honey, he finds that a large proportion has been consumed by 

 brood, and that the combs are anything but beautiful. These 

 remarks apply chiefly to those who follow the system of their 

 forefathers, and use only straw hives. But whatever be the 

 material or form of hive employed, I do not think much benefit 

 can accrue from the possession of too early casts. The date 

 at which we should endeavour to have them cannot be fixed ; 

 this depends upon both the locality and the season, and it may 

 happen to be either in May, June, or July. 



For my part I never wish to see a swarm on the wing until 

 the clover is coming into full flower, aud the temperature rises 

 to 62° or above it. In the district where I reside this happens 

 to be generally about the end of June or beginning of July. 

 The greatest produce duriog the last twenty years has been 

 yielded by swarms that came off in July. Several of my neigh- 

 bours this year had casts about the beginning of June, but the 

 beat of them had scarcely an ounce of honey stored up on the 

 15th of July. The weather was most unfavourable, and vast 

 numbers of these tenants of empty houses perished from sheer 

 starvation. With their numbers half diminished they began 

 the labour of true honey-gathering on the 17th, but none of 

 them prospered so well as swarms that did not emanate till 

 about the 20th. 



To prevent several of my stocks from swarming in June I 

 gave them additional room, and supplied them with just as 

 much food as was needed to save them from dying of hunger. 

 When any young drones were ejected I knew it to be a signal 

 of their supplies becoming exhausted, and forthwith they were 

 furnished with from half a pound to a pound of either honey 

 or syrup. When, therefore, summer proper and the honey 

 season commenced, about the 17th of July, these stocks were 

 all vigorous, and a few days afterwards were able to throw 

 large swarms. These casts enjoying fine weather, and finding 

 the fields covered with clover, filled their habitations completely 

 in less than a month, and I need not add that their combs, 

 onlv a small portion of them having been used for brood, pre- 

 sented a very attractive appearance. I do not, then, think 

 that it is wise to have stocks more forward than the season, or 

 to hasten swarming before the clover has come into flower and 

 the weather promiB63 to be favourable. It may be different in 

 other localities. I speak only with reference to my own, where, 

 on an average of years, it is sufficiently early to have swarmB 

 by the 20th of June.— R. S. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Plymouth Poultry Show. — We were wrongly informed that Mr. 

 Hewitt is to be the Judge at this Exhibition. He was applied to, buthad 

 a previous engagement. 



Weight of Light Brahma and White Cochin Pullets for Exhibi- 

 tion i Cheltenham). — You must have patience. Your pullets have not done 

 growing because they have began to lay. When this infliction, which 

 many would pardon, is over, and its successor a little broodiness comes, 

 your pullets will furnish and put on weight. Up to six months, if they 

 are to be expected to take a prize, yonr chickens should weigh a pound 

 for each month, Brahmas rather heavier than White Cochins. You will 

 obtain weight by persevering. In all probability you already have tbo 

 necessary scaffolding. Filling ia easy work. Good ground oats mis ed 



with milk, table scraps, a little maize twice per week, an occasional 

 lettuce, and any other gastronomic attention you can pay, will produce 

 weight. 



Silver- bpangled Hamburghs' Earlobes (Idem).— We fear the red 

 earlobe of the Silver-spangled Hamburghs is hereditary. Good birds 

 sometimes have the earlobe red during the moulting season, and some 

 never have it white till they are twelve months old. 



Breeding Pencilled Hamburghs (W. S. D. C.).— We believe you may 

 safely breed from the cocks you name. Pencilled tails are always accom- 

 panied by pencilled hackles. Cock chickens are always pencilled when 

 young, and as they lose the chicken feathers the pencilling disappears. 

 To obtain the rich deep colour yon want you must choose hens that are 

 very much the colour of the shining top of gingei bread. These are 

 always very heavily pencilled, and they will give yon the colours you 

 want in both sexes. It is almost impossible to breed exhibition cocks 

 and pallets from the same parents. A good cock Bhould not be light- 

 coloured. His tail should be black, edged with rich bronze, but only 

 edged. Never breed from a cock with a faint, washed-out hackle (we 

 have seen them almost yellow), nor from mossy nor poorly-spangled 

 hens. No amount of pedigree would induce us to breed from a defective 

 bird. 



Dorking Chickens Weak-legged (Constant Reader).— Your fowls 

 have outgrown their strength, and their bodies are too heavy for their 

 legs. That is why they rett on tbeir knees. They are at the gawky age. 

 They will never be better to eat than they are now. if they are in good 

 flesh, but often when they make so much growth they do not put on 

 flesh. If they have flesh, you may either kill and eat them at once, or 

 you may shut them up in a place where exercise is impossible, and feed 

 them three times per day on ground oats and milh uutil they have fattened. 

 There is nothing in the weakness to make them unfit for food, but we 

 should not advise such for stock. 



Game Bantams not Hatching True to Colour— Colour of Duck- 

 wing and Brown Red Game Bantams (ff. J. H).— There can be no 

 doubt the eggs have been mixed, or another cock has had access to the 

 hen, or more likely still, the egg has thrown back to some other strain 

 which has teen used in making the birds. The description yoa give of 

 the chicken is exactly that of a Pile. It is, therefore, likely some of 

 that breed exists in your birds ; you need not be surprised, as a strain 

 will lie ignored for many years, and then suddenly show itself in force. 

 The ordinary Duckwiug's breast should be salmon-coloured, the hackle 

 striped, and the back and body grey. The hen of a Brown Red should be 

 nearly black with a golden-striped hackle. We should not pronounce 

 hastily on the birds. 



Black Rose-combed Bantams with Pale Combs (Dcla).— The combs 

 will become redder as the season goes on and as the birds get older, pro- 

 vided they be kept in condition. It will be the same with the earlobes. 

 Give them some cooked meat and some hard-boiled eggs chopped fine. 



Brahmas' Legs Diseabed (T. F. A.). — The disorder of which you com- 

 plain, and which has been cal'ed " poultry elephantiasis," is of recent 

 introduction, and is, we believe, incurable. It does not of necessity 

 helona to the Cochins, although they are most subject to it If we owe 

 it to them, it was many years in showing itself, and must be the result 

 of interbreeding and consequent disease. We do not believe it to be 

 hereditary. We have only succeeded in some instances in treating it 

 successfully. It was in the early stage, and we kept the legs constantly 

 moist with compound sulphur ointment. Lettuces that have gone to 

 seed are good food for fowls in this state. We have this disorder in 

 Brahmas, Cochins, Creve-Cosurs, and Pheasants. It is very common for 

 the centre toe of a Brahma cock to be crooked, and it is not very im- 

 portant that it should be scaDtily feathered. The feathering is on the 

 leg, that is essential. Neither of the defects or shortcomings you men- 

 tion should discourage you from exhibiting. 



DoRErNG Cock's Foot Swelled (Michael Dorking).— Tf the swelling 

 on the cock's foot is hard enough to bear cutting, cut it by all means, but 

 you should not make it bleed. Nothing is so difficult of cure as a sore 

 on the foot of a Dorking cock, on account of the weight of the bird. We 

 have known iodine beneficially used, but while it is applied the foot 

 must be kept wrapped up. We should think the hen is kept too fat. 



Chickens Crop-bound (F. T.).— There is no doubt of the healthiness 

 of your chickens ; they have grown up in spite of your feeding, and not 

 because of it. We cannot imagine anything worse. Your fowls are 

 suffering from being crop-bound. That generally arises from food. 

 Flour (not meal) mixed close will clog a crop. Dry grass eaten from the 

 lack of green meat will form a ball in the crop (like the " casting" of a 

 deer), and in either case the bird will be crop-bound. The treatment of 

 the disorder is twofold: First pour hot (not boiling) water down the 

 throat and most gently manipulate the crop till the hard mass becomes 

 soft and impressionable. Then continue the hot water till the crop is 

 relieved, either by vomiting or otherwise emptying the crop. After the 

 softening of the crop, give two table-spoonfuls of castor oil. When this 

 has been taken, feed for some days on oatmeal mixed almost liquid, and 

 ascertain by feeling that the crop is emptied after every meal. If this 

 fails the only resource is to open the crop and take out the contents. It 

 is an easy process. Pick off the feathers in a straight line down the 

 breast, measuring from the head. With the thumb and finger squeeze 

 the obnoxious body to the front till the bared skin protrudes, cut it 

 Btraight with a lancet or sharp knife till the contents of the crop come 

 out. Then have a very soft sponge and a glass syringe at hand, send 

 some warm water down from the crop to the gizzard, and then with 

 plenty of water thoroughly wash out the crop. To u-e your own words, 

 it will " stink fearfully." When this part of the operation is over, take a 

 stout needle threaded with coarse thread well covered with grease. 

 Recollect you have to sew up the crop first, and afterwards the skin. If 

 you get nervous or tired of the job you will probably sew-up skin and 

 crop together, and the bird will die. To open the crop sufficiently will 

 not require an opening of more than 2 inches in length. Five sutures 

 will be sufficient ; these should be thoroughly saturated with grease, and 

 the lips of the wound should be brought close together. Then the skin 

 should be sewed the same. The bird, fed during a week on gruel, aud 

 another week on slack meal, will at the end of a fortnight know nothing 

 of the operation. Where such cases occur often the feeding is at fault. 



Game Moulting with Difficulty (A. H. H.).— There is something 



