OetobBr 18, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



317 



the breast and underneath the tail. Wash the head and neck 

 lastly, and when you find the dirt well extracted from the 

 feathers rinse off in clean warm water, and dry with a soft cloth. 

 Afterwards place the apparently prostrate bird in the drying 

 cage, and in about fifteen or twenty minutes you will find the 

 bird attempting to perch and shake and regulate its feathers. 

 Let the water be about blood heat, and be careful the bird is not 

 placed too close to the fire to dry. But even with all the above 

 operations and precautions you may not at once get rid of the 

 vermin, for around the very nail in the wall whereon the cage 

 may hang the insects will secrete themselves, and this will 

 show the necessity of further perseverance before the vermin 

 are exterminated. Plenty of grit sand and bithing are neces- 

 sary, and if your bird habituates itself to splash about in its 

 drinking fountain it must be taught otherwise. No doubt you 

 have noticed that when you have replenished the water foun- 

 tain daily, the bird will take its bath such as it is. Instead 

 of replacing the fountain open the cage door and hang on the 

 entrance a proper kind of bathing vessel. The same may be 

 purchased at a bird shop in London. The bird will thus 

 gradually learn to drink and splaBh therein. After the regular 

 bath is taken away replace the fountain." 



The bird which was apparently approaching its end has now 

 recovered its song, and is healthy and happy. — J. W. 



THE USE OF PERFORATED ZINC IN 

 SUPERING. 



This zinc is made in sheets 6 feet long and a yard wide, and 

 can be bought in this shape at a much cheaner rate than that 

 charged for smaller quantities. The perforations are 5-24 ths of 

 an inch in diameter, which size permits the workers to pass to 

 and from the supers, but excludes the drones and queens. I 

 have this year employed it in seventeen hives, and in no in- 

 stance was a super disfigured either by brood or pollen. I be- 

 lieve that this has not been invariably the case, as in the "British 

 Bee-keeperB' Journal " for September Mr. Abbntt writes: "In 

 some instances the comb (j e.,the comb of sectional supers) has 

 been filled with brood in most regular order, and in others some 

 of the cells have had pollen deposited in them. This argues 

 either that queens and bees differ in size respectively, and that 

 one pattern of zinc will not suit all equally well, or that the bees 

 and then- queens are very wilful, for in the two sets of sections 

 received from our honourable friend at Haverhill there was not 

 a Bpeck or blemish of either brood or pollen." Perhaps I may 

 be permitted to suggest that one or more perforations in the 

 zinc employed in the former case proved faulty in regard to size, 

 and so admitted the queen and pollen-laden bees. I found a 

 piece of zinc in this state, having four holes ragged and elong- 

 ated, which would certainly have given a passage to a small 

 queen if I bad used it. At the Alexandra Show last year I saw 

 the zinc was employed in some cases simply by laying a sheet 

 cut the same size as the top of the hive upon the frames, the 

 supers being placed upon it. 



My method of using it is as follows :— I fix the sheet of zinc 

 to a frame formed of quarter-inch wood 1 inch broad, and having 

 a piece running across it parallel to the bars of the frames to 

 Bupport the zmc m the middle. I remove the quilt, and the 

 framework occupies its place. Over each half of the sheet a set 

 pi sectional Bupers can be placed. I only place one set at first, 

 Keeping the opposite side covered with a piece of carpet until 

 the first super has been commenced, then a second super is 

 given. When one super is finished I take out with a penknife 

 two slits of wood from its top and place a second super over. 

 Ihe bees soon ascend if honey is being colleoted, and as soon as 

 the upper one is well under weigh I withdraw the lower one, the 

 npper one taking its place, and so on to the end of the season. 

 lhe framework upon which the zinc rests allows the space of a 

 quarter of an inch above the frame bars, and thus gives free 

 entrance from any part of the hive to the supers. Two acci- 

 dents occurred to me this season in connection with the use of 

 the perforated zmc. On May 14th a stock which was unusually 

 powerful, and which was bringing in honev from frnit trees, 

 seemed ready to enter a super. I was much engaged at the 

 time, and p aced a set of sections upon the quilt, giving access 

 to it through the central feeding hole. This super remained so 

 lor about a week, the bees building several sections of comb, 

 wnen 1 substituted the zinc and framework for the quilt and 

 placed the super in its proper position at one side of the top of 

 tne nive. Ihe super was rapidly filled and another at its side. 

 J. wo ot tiers were entered above them, and according to mv 

 usual plan I proceeded to remove the lower supers. I then found 

 that the bees refused to vacate the first super, and upon exami- 

 nation i found that her majesty was located tberein and that 

 the lour central sections were full of brood and eggs. I first 

 ascertained that all was worker comb (I did not wish to have a 

 heap of dead drones on the zinc), and I then determined that 

 during the glut of honey which had set in I would prevent the 

 queen from again entering the hive, detaining her a prisoner in 

 the super. That particular hive gave me the greatest produce 



of honey of all the hives in my apiary excepting one. When 

 the harvest began to fail I released the royal captive, having 

 first examined the stock hive, which, as I expected, was stored 

 with honey from side to side. Several combs were extracted, to 

 be employed in hives to receive driven bees this month. Empty 

 combs were put in their places. Gentle feeding commenced, 

 and now that hive has a teeming population and plenty of stores 

 for winter consumption. 



The other hive alluded to above contains the queen which 

 headed the colony in the straw skep last year, and which pro- 

 duced 131J lbs. of surplus honey shown at the Alexandra Show. 

 This queen having proved to be so valuable, and beiDg likewise 

 a young one, I determined should not be prevented for want of 

 room from producing as numerous a colony as care and her 

 " natural abilities " could compass. I think I stated last autumn 

 that I had transferred her and the bees and combs to a bar-frame 

 hive, having room in it for sixteen frames. I constructed this 

 hive with a particular purpose. During the winter the eight 

 central frames only were tenanted by the bees, wooden partitions 

 of a quarter-of-an-inch stuff parting off the four outer frames 

 at either end from the central ones. I spared no pains to induce 

 the queen to lay eggs early, and the month of April showed me 

 that in spite of the un propitious spring the eight central frames 

 were covered with bees and full of brood in all stages. I then 

 gave two more frames to the brood nest by moving the two par- 

 titions back and exposing a frame at each end respectively. 

 These frames were provided with clean old worker comb. The 

 honey harvest commenced. The hive was full of bees, and now 

 I carried out my design. A Lee's Crystal Palace super was first 

 given over zinc at the top, covering the ten frames. This was 

 entered, and when well begun I moved the wooden paititions, 

 this time not only placing them respectively a frame back, but 

 substituting for them two sheets of perforated zinc. The frames 

 exposed were guided with wax midribs, and could be reached 

 only through the zinc perforations. I believe that the bees 

 would have swarmed that day, but that the extra collateral 

 space prevented them from doing so. Strips of half-inch wood 

 resting on the rebatei shut off the passage to the Bide spaces 

 from above. I found that the bees Btill increased, and that a 

 glut of honey had set in ; I therefore removed the wooden parti- 

 tions altogether, and although the harvest ended so suddenly 

 and prematurely, I found the whole of the six frames, three at 

 each end of the hive, stored and sealed, not a speck of pollen 

 and not a trace of brood visible on them. Weight 31 lbs., a 

 Lee's super 22 lbs., and a set of sectionals over the Lee's 184 lbs. ; 

 total of virgin honey, 71* lbs. I was quite contented with this 

 considering the season, and I think I have learnt a new method 

 of employing the zinc, together with the use of the dummies 

 or wooden partitions. 



Many interesting experiments have been made by some of our 

 leading bee masters during the past season similar in some 

 respects to the one I proposed to myself and carried out, but all 

 differ somewhat from the method I have attempted to describe. 

 My desire was to give to the bees, at the same time that super 

 room was being slowly augmented, gradually enlarged collateral 

 space, and I believe that in a good honey season the results I 

 obtained could be more than doubled in value by removing the 

 frames from the sides one by one as they are completed and 

 replacing them by others with deep sheets of midribs. My 

 letter has been spun out to such a length that I cannot ask for 

 more space to give your readerB my experience — my first year's 

 experience of Ligurians ; this I shall hope to do on a future 

 occasion. — P. H. Phillips, Offley Lodge, near HitcJiin. 



BEES IN THE YEAR 1877. 



The bee season of 1S77 will long be remembered by apiarians 

 as being one of the worst experienced for a considerable number 

 of years— for over two decades at least. In looking back over its 

 course I can scarcely find one redeeming point from its opening 

 to its close. Its disastrous history may be read in the mortality 

 of hundreds of hives" throughout the country; indeed, in the 

 utter ruin and extinction of whole apiaries. I do not know if 

 matters are so bad in the south, in the more genial climate of 

 England, where comparatively better weather apparently pre- 

 vailed ; but in Scotland, more especially in the eastern, central, 

 and northern portions of the country, the havoc produced in 

 many apiaries is unprecedented. 



My own experience of the present bee season may, perhaps, 

 in some measure represent that of many other bee-keepers. 

 The autumn of 1876 found our hives generally well stored with 

 provisions and amply populated. The wintering was extremely 

 favourable. No lengthened confinement occurred to injure 

 health or diminish unduly the population of the strong and 

 healthy stocks. The opening spring accordingly found hives 

 generally in splendid condition. Breeding, too, commenced 

 very early, and everything promised well so far. February and 

 March, however, were cold and backward, and scarcely a pollen 

 load was seen to enter many hives for days together. April was 

 not much better. Breeding evidently became completely 



