August 23, 1877. ] 



JODENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



167 



villages which would eagerly support a cottagers' poultry 

 show. — W. 



DURHAM COUNTY POULTRY, &c, SHOW. 



The annual Show was held at West Hartlepool on the 17th 

 inst. The entries were not large, the prizes offered not being 

 such as to induce great entries, although the birds were pretty 

 well divided. First on the list were Dorkings, and the winners 

 were very good Dark Greys, and the Cochins unusually good. 

 In Polish first were very fine Black Polish, the remainder being 

 Golden. Game were very good but not numerous. Bamburghs 

 were good in all classes, bat the best pen of this variety was in 

 the chicken class, the second to them being good Buff Cochins, 

 and third White Dorkings. In Game Bantams first were a pen 

 of Piles good in every respect, and second and third Black Reds. 

 In Bantams any other, first and second Blacks, and third Silver 

 Sebrights. Bucks were uncommonly good in both classes, the 

 Aylesburys especially fine. 



Pigeons were poor, except in the Turbits, Jacobins, and Owls. 



Babbiis, Lop-eared, first a Fawn and second a Tortoiseshell. 

 Angoras, only winners good, and Himalayans moderate, as they 

 were very much faded on the feet. In the Variety class first 

 was a Silver-Grey, and Beoond a Grey-and-white Dutch. 



POULTRY — Dorkings— 1, J. White. 2, M. S. Buston. 3, W. Morrison- 

 Cochins —1, 2, and 3, G. H. Proctor. Spanish —1, E. Nicholson. 2, T. New- 

 lands. Brahma Pootras.— 1, Miss Cotes. 2, J. Hardy. Polands.— 1 and 3, J. 

 T. Proud. 2, J. Gargett. Game. — 1, J. A. Nelson. 2, G. Alderson. 3, J. Hamil- 

 ton. Hamburghs.— Golden-spangled.— 1. R. Keenleyside. 2, G. Grainger. 

 Silver-spangled.— 1. G. Alderson. 2, Mande & Scott. 3, G Grainger. Golden- 

 pencilled.— 1. G. Alderson. 2, J. P. Carver. Silver-pencilled.— -1, D. Clow. 2 

 and 3, G Alderson. Bantams.— Game— 1 and 3, J. A. Nelson. 2. F. S. Hocka- 

 day. Except Game.— 1 andS.G.Alderson. 2, J.Muir. Ant other Variety. — 

 1. R. Hawkins. 2. G. Alderson. 8, J. P. Carver. Ant Breed.— Chickens.— 1, 

 G. Alderson. 2, G. H. Procter. S. H. Cockton. Ducks.— Rouen.— 1, F. E. Gib- 

 son. 2, J. A. Nelson. 3 and vlic. Miss Robinson. Aylesbury. -1, 2, and3,F. E. 

 Gibson, vhc, W. Porter. 



PIGEONS.— Carriers.— 1, J. L. Nicholson. 2. C. F. Cockhill. Tumblers.— 

 Almond— 1 and 2, G. Alderson. Any other variety .— 1 and 2, .F.Davison. Fan- 

 tails.— 1, P. Wilson. 2. G. Alderson. Trumpkters.— 1,G. Alderson. 2, Mande 

 and Scott. Barbs.— 1. G. Alderson. 2, E. Nicholson Jacobins.— 1 and 2, G. 

 Alderson. vhc, J. Davison. Turbits.— 1 and 2, G. Alderson. vhc, Maude and 

 Scott. Owls.— 1 and 2. G. Alderson. Pouters.— I, P. Wilson.' 2, G. Alderson. 



RABBITS.— Long-eared — 1, J. S. Robinson. 2, G. H. Young. Angoras.— 1, 

 A. Richley. 2, J. S. Robinson. Himalayans.— 1 and 2,'M. Fletcher. Any 

 other Variety.— 1, J. W. & O. Moses. 



Judge. — Mr.-E. Hutton. 



PIGEON NOTES. 



No creature is so thoroughly helpless as an infant Pigeon; 

 but this is a wise dispensation of Providence, for the young 

 squab is less likely than more precocious birds to get into 

 danger during the absence of its parents in search of food for 

 themselves and young. They have just instinct enough to hold 

 up their heads and feel the bills of their parents, who at first 

 feed them in a curious manner with a soft curdy secretion, which 

 is produced in their crops at the end of the period of sitting. 

 This secretion of soft food, says Mr. Tegetmeier, cannot be 

 delayed; consequently if the young birds do not emerge from 

 the egg on the eighteenth day, the old birds desert the nest, 

 refusing to sit longer. The production of the soft food, however, 

 may be hastened a day or two. If a pair of chipped or hatching 

 eggs be placed under a pair of birds that have been sitting 

 Bixteen days, their presence will always stimulate the secretion 

 of the soft food, and the young will be duly nourished. 



The formation of this curdy secretion — true Pigeon's milk — 

 is a very remarkable fact. It seems determined altogether by 

 the process of sitting; it is produced equally in both parents, 

 though the hen sits about twenty hours and the cock only four. 

 To receive this nourishment, the young thrusts its beak into the 

 side of the mouth of the old bird, in such a position that the 

 soft food which is disgorged from the crop of the parent with a 

 sort of convulsive shudder, is received into the lower mandible 

 or jaw, which iB widely extended in order to receive it. As the 

 young advance in size the soft food lessens in quantity, and the 

 grain and seeds that constitute the nourishment of the parents 

 become mingled with it ; and when about eight or ten days old 

 the young are fed with disgorged grain and Beeds only, until 

 such tinie as they are able to fly and seek their own nourish- 

 ment. 



The proper time to kill Pigeons for the table is just before 

 they leave the nest, when they are about a month old. As soon 

 as they begin to feed themselves they begin to grow lean, and 

 their flesh loses that tenderness and delicacy of flavour which 

 belongs to young Pigeons. 



Parasites. — Pigeons are subject to five unpleasant and trouble- 

 Bome insects, which will infest their houseB and breed among 

 their plumage unless the most scrupulous cleanliness is ob- 

 served. A little snuff sprinkled over the birds and into their 

 nests will give temporary relief, but the nuisance can only be 

 thoroughly eradicated by burning the infested nests, lime- wash- 

 ing the inside of the loft, and washing the nesting places with 

 limewash or tobacco water. These vermin are fleas, lice, feather 

 lice, mites, and ticks. These parasites are a peculiar species, 

 which do not fix themselves on the human skin. The fleas are 



smaller and blacker than the common flea. They may be got 

 rid of by brushing out the nests and corners, and prevented by 

 not allowing dirt, dust, and feathers to accumulate. 



Lice usually infest sick or aelicate birds, breeding chiefly 

 about the head and neck, but also running over the whole body, 

 annoying the birds and keeping them from getting strong. 

 Butter or lard rubbed on the skin is said to kill them, but a 

 little powdered sulphur dusted in among the feathers is the 

 best remedy. Cleanliness and keeping the Pigeons in good 

 condition are the beBt preventives. 



Feather lice are elongated and flattened in form, very tough, 

 and difficult to remove from the feathers, between the fibres of 

 the veins of which they frequently swarm. They do not seem 

 to cause the bird any inconvenience ; and aB their food is the 

 down at the quill end of the feathers, it seems almost as if they 

 were intended to reduce the warmth of the bird's covering in 

 summer, for their number must be very much decreased at 

 moulting-time by the quantity cast off with the old feathers, 

 and not until spring can they increase sufficiently to thin the 

 warm under-covering of down, which in summer iB not so neces- 

 sary for the Pigeons as in the cold months of winter. Never- 

 theless, they are always decreased by attention to cleanliness ; 

 and as " cleanliness is next to godliness," and its necessity to 

 health has been insisted on by the greatest physiologists, the 

 theory cannot be maintained. 



Mites are the smallest, most common, and troublesome of 

 these pests ; the largest are not larger than grains of poppy 

 seed. They are generally black, with white streaks or spots oh 

 their bodies. They do not appear to live on the bodies of the 

 Pigeons, but inhabit the chinks in the walls, the craoks in the 

 wood, and dark corners of the nesting-places, and often con- 

 gregate in thousands in the nests, whence they issue at night 

 when the Pigeons have gone to rest, and feed till they are red, 

 instead of being black and white. Squabs Buffer more than the 

 old birds with them. The mites get into the ears of the young 

 birds and torment them much in warm weather, making them 

 lean and miserable, and retarding their growth, often causing 

 their death. A drop of oil in the ears, under the wings, and 

 where else the mites may be seen, will prevent their annoying 

 the youDg. Powdered sulphur strewn in the nests, and dusted 

 among the feathers of the old birds, is the best plan I know of. 

 As a preventive means, stop all cracks and chinks, let the wood- 

 work be planed and painted, and do not give the Pigeons hay 

 for nests ; heath and biroh twigs are the best. Washing the 

 walls, painting the woodwork so as to stop all cracks however 

 minute, and perhaps the addition of powdered sulphur in the 

 limewash, may be a good precaution. 



Ticks are the largest and most disgusting, and fortunately the 

 most rare of these parasites. They generally infest the head 

 and back of the bird, and grow as large as tares, when, the 

 feathers not being sufficient to hide them, they may be picked 

 off. Mr. Bent says they proceed from an ugly, curious flat- 

 looking fly, about the size of the common house fly, of a slaty 

 grey colour, and very flat in form. Cleanliness and flour of 

 sulphur are the only remedies. 



Diseases are generally the result of mismanagement, exposure, 

 lack of ventilation, cleanliness, exerciBe, proper accommodations, 

 or pure watsr for drinking and bathing. However, in such evils 

 as falling of the gizzard or navel, and the like, that are indi- 

 cations of a weak constitution, the birds are better killed. — 

 (American Fanciers' Journal.) 



PREPARING STOCKS FOR WINTER. 



Apabt from the heather the season for honey ia over, and the 

 sooner stocks are prepared for winter the better. The prepara- 

 tion of stocks in autumn is not the least important part of 

 apiculture. Now is the time to lay a solid foundation for success 

 another year. Toung apiarians about to engage in this work 

 will, I trust, permit me to give them three watchwords : — 

 1st, Plenty of young bees; 2nd, Plenty of food for them; and 

 3rd, Warm and comfortable houses to live in. 



Owing to unfavourable weather many of the late swarms have 

 not filled their hives with combs, and have little or no honey in 

 them. They are not worth taking for their honey. Are they 

 worth keeping ? As a few strong hives yield more profit than 

 double their number of weak hives, it is often advisable to 

 unite the beea of the weak to stronger hives, and thus make 

 sure of having some excellent stocks. Every bee-keeper muBt 

 decide for himself how many and what stocks he will keep for 

 another year; but let me say that hives not full or strong now 

 may be made stronger by artificial treatment. Vigorous and 

 constant feeding at the present time would cause the beeB to 

 commence breeding afresh, and comb-building too where neces- 

 sary. Thus weak and comparatively worthless hives may he 

 fed into pretty good stocks before the end of Septem'ber. Two 

 hatches of six combs of brood would make a hive by that time 

 strong in young bees. Part of the syrup given to promote 

 breeding and comb-building would be stored up for winter food. 

 Far more good will be accomplished by feeding now than by 



