1S2 



JOURNAL OF HOBTTCULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



[ August 29, 1S72. 



completely supersede the other ; arid so mneh is this the case, 

 that whereas in a radius of a couple or so of miles from here 

 there are probably a hundred or two of Pigeon-fanciers large 

 and small, there are, I believe, but a very few who attempt to 

 fly a kit of Tumblers unmixed with the other kinds. And here, 

 I believe, is the foundation of the grievance. The habit of 

 rambling, and of rapid moderately low flying, which the homing 

 birds have when the two kinds are flown together, entirely 

 spoils the Tumblers' style, and prevents their tumbling, and 

 these bad habits in a generation or two, without any regard 

 being paid to the principle of selection of good tumbling birds, 

 would hopelessly ruin a strain of birds as Tumblers, although 

 they may still retain the size, shape, and general appearance. 

 But this is not all i there is abundant proof in the coarseness of 

 numbers of our Beards and Baldheads of crosses with the 

 Skinnum ; some of them, although not so very coarse, have a 

 suspicious little ring of wattle round the eye, which speaks of a 

 distant relationship enough to destroy the tumbling. The 

 Boilers, although some of them are nearly as long in the beak 

 as a Skinnum, are entirely innocent of wattle, either on the beak 

 or eye ; this point I consider a great criterion of the purity of 

 Tumbler blood. 



I intend myself having a foundation of the right sort, the 

 clean-legged kind, to carry out a rigid system of selection, keep- 

 ing nothing but good performers, and there is little doubt but 

 by careful training, and breeding from the best birds, that 

 they can be brought to the same high state of perfection as the 

 Birmingham Boilers, without the objectionably coarse shape 

 and feathered legs. — W. Toeb. 



MY APIAEY IN 1872. 



I am somewhat surprised at the account given by " B. & "W." 

 page 105, of the honey season in his locality (Somersetshire). I 

 nave rather a different experience to relate, though my prospects 

 early in the year seemed very poor indeed. Last summer was 

 about the worst for bees I have ever known. I should hardly, 

 perhaps, have saved a single hive through the winter if I had 

 not supplied them all most liberally with food both in the 

 autumn and this spring. As it was, two hives perished from 

 the combined effects of cold and starvation, and one stock had 

 the misfortune of losing its queen in March, but this I saved by 

 giving a suitable brood comb early in April, from which a queen 

 was raised; but as there were no drones at the time, I had to 

 destroy her, and supply another brood comb, from which a fine 

 and prolific queen was raised. This is now a good stock. 



After these losses I commenced the season with but four 

 stocks, one of them, from the loss of its queen, being in a very 

 unprosperous condition. 



One stock, which I shaU designate as No. 1, in April was weak 

 in bees, I therefore supplied it with a full sealed worker comb 

 from No. 3. In the course of a few weeks this hive became ex- 

 tremely populous. Towards the end of May, having previously 

 abstracted a brood comb for raising an artificial queen, I 

 removed five of the frames, with the queen and the bees adher- 

 ing, into another box, giving them five frames of empty combs, 

 and shifting the hive to about 2 feet to the right on the same 

 stand. The majority of the bees returned to the hive on the 

 original stand containing the other five combs of brood, &c, 

 together also with five frames of empty combs. The hive which 

 retained its queen, though deprived of half its brood combs and 

 the largest proportion of its bees, rapidly increased in popula- 

 tion, so that after three or four weeks it became so populous 

 that I fully anticipated that it would send forth a swarm. 

 Accordingly, about the middle of June a very large super was 

 given, in which the bees at once commenced work, and that so 

 vigorously that I had to raise it on another box several inches 

 in depth, the combs being worked down continuously. This 

 super, though not perfectly filled, most probably contains 

 between 50 lbs. and 60 lbs. of honey. It has not been yet taken 

 off. 



From No. 3, my strongest colony in April, two or three full 

 brood combs were removed for the purpose of strengthening 

 No. 1, and supplying a brood comb for the raising of an arti- 

 ficial queen in No. 2. This deprivation, owing probably to the 

 substitution of empty combs for the full ones abstracted, seemed 

 rather to conduce to the strength of the population than other- 

 wise, so that about the middle of May a large, square, box super 

 was put on, in which the bees immediately clustered in an 

 enormous mass, comb-building and honey-storing progressing 

 with great rapidity. I soon had to raise this super on a second, 

 and subsequently to add a beU-glass above all. The first very 

 heavy thunderstorm we had, with the unsettled weather which 

 followed, checked the operations in the supers for a time, but 

 the bees soon returned to their former industry. After the 

 second great storm the secretion of honey seemed almost at a 

 standstill. This super I have removed, but as it has not yet 

 been weighed I cannot say what the weight of its contents may 

 be, but it is something very considerable, as it was a matter of 



very great difficulty to lift it from the stock and carry it a few 

 yards. 



No. 4 was in a small flat-topped straw hive, and never showed 

 much signs of a very abundant population until it sent forth a 

 large swarm, which settled up in a high tree from which it could 

 not be taken, so that it was lost. 



Beginning with four stocks, I have increased them to eight 

 artificially, and also obtained a large harvest of honey. "While 

 raising queens in these artificial swarms, honey was so abun- 

 dant that almost every available cell was filled and sealed over. 

 Neither of the super-filling stocks made any attempt to swarm ; 

 and only one colony, which had previously exhibited no signs of 

 being populous enough to do so, sent forth a swarm. 



I never remember to have seen white clover so abundant in 

 this neighbourhood as it has been the present season.- Like 

 " B. & W.'s " district, the honey-gathering season here usually 

 terminates about the end of July. 



Notwithstanding that as regards the honey season my experi- 

 ence differs from that of "B. & W.," I can endorse his state- 

 ment as to the extraordinary fertility of the queens, of which 

 evidence has been given in the early part of my observations. 

 From the artificial swarm made from No. 1 in the manner pre- 

 viously described, comb after comb of sealed and other brood 

 has been removed for the purpose of queen-rearing, or for 

 strengthening other artificial colonies which might require the 

 aid of such addition, yet in spite of all this the hive is stUl a 

 strong and prosperous one, with plenty of stores for the coming 

 winter. 



In conclusion, I may also express a hope that reports of the 

 honey season in various localities may be sent for comparison. — 

 S. Betas Fox, Exeter. 



TAKING HONEY. 

 Those persons who haTe their glasses filled with honey will 

 now be preparing to take them off ; but let it be done with great 

 caution. 'Weigh the hives, and if it can be satisfactorily proved 

 that they will contain 20 lbs. of honey each when the glasses 

 are removed, aB wiE be weU ; but if not, let the glass or box 

 remain upon the stock hive until the bees have emptied it of its 

 honey ; as soon as this is ascertained, let it be removed. 



[This advice of Mr. Payne's wiB answer many inquiries.] 



BEE-KEEPING NEAE HADDINGTON. 



Though not in a position to give much information as re- 

 gards my own apiary, yet Bving in the neighbourhood of some 

 bee-keepers who are not to be surpassed for their skiB in the 

 manipulation and thorough knowledge of these interesting- 

 creatures, perhaps I may be excused for noticing some of their 

 doings. 



At the present time there wiB be nearly three hundred hives 

 standing within a space of about three acres. One person has 

 eighty, and another a hundred hives. The owner of the eighty- 

 started with forty-eight hives in the best possible condition in 

 the spring, had his'first swarm on the 31st of May, and con- 

 tinued getting them throughout June and into JiBy. From 

 these forty-eight stock hives, sometimes joining two or three 

 hives together, he increased his stock at the end of the swarm- 

 ing season to eighty hives, which have been sent away to the 

 heather. 



Here the season has been cold and late, and wherever a 

 scarcity of honey existed in the hive, and the bees were not fed, 

 the deaths have been numerous ; but those which were able to 

 puB through improved rapidly when the turnip seed and clover 

 came in. 



Out of so large a stock, of course there must be a number of 

 fine tops or supers of honey, and it is nearly all taken from the 

 bees in the comb in this locaBty. The owner of the eighty 

 hives has some very fine ones, and if we have fine weather from 

 this time (middle of August) there wiB be a large quantity from 

 the heather. My neighbour's bee hives stand in two rows, one- 

 6 feet in front of the other, and 2 feet between each hive. 

 ■Where so many are standing so near, and aB equaBy good, there- 

 are times when a number of swarms come off together. One 

 day this season, after a week of duB and cold weather, ten 

 swarms came off and went together, alighting on an old espa- 

 Ber apple tree. Four of the queens he caught before they 

 got among the heap. Nothing daunted, he set te work and 

 separated'them, with a queen at the head of ten stocks, and the 

 bees so equallv divided that there was not, perhaps, an ounce of 

 bees more in the one than the other, and no fighting took place. 

 I thought at the time, and still do, that it was a great feat, and 

 one which few bee-keepers would have accomplished so suc- 

 cessfully. 



Of course, the barbarous mode of killing the bees with sul- 

 phur is not practised here. It is probable that this bee-keeper 

 will reduce his stock for the winter to fifty by adding the bees 



