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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



[ August 16, 1804, 



the best, were not mentioned, while the worst in the class — 

 a pair of coarse Yellows, the cock nearly without hood, took 

 first. In Owls perhaps the most unusual decisions were 

 given. Coarse rubbishy Blues won ; while good Whites, 

 and a most exquisite pair of Black-tailed "Whites, extraordi- 

 nary in head and beak, were unnoticed. In the medal class 

 for Orris, a pair of Squeakers with their nest feathers on 

 won against a splendid pair of Foreign Blues. In Any 

 other variety white Dragons took first ; but it seems from 

 Mr . Tardley's letter that on his bringing to light his pair of 

 Satinettes this had been reversed. As a climax, Mr. Hewitt, 

 observing that an exhibitor had taken first and second in 

 one class, induced the Secretary to reverse the cards "to 

 save appearances." 



Comment is unnecessary. Facts incontrovertible are 

 given ; and exhibitors must take means to prevent a repe- 

 tition of such escapades as have brought an unenviable 

 notoriety on the two northern shows. — A Fancier. 



[Our rule is not to criticise the awards of competent 

 Judges ; but where a Judge by repeated wrong decisions 

 demonstrates that he is not qualified for the office he has 

 accepted, we feel that it is our duty to denounce the error, 

 especially when a Committee persists in retaining his ser- 

 vices. Such a case is that now before us ; and having the 

 testimony of three well qualified critics, all concurring in 

 denouncing Mr. Botcherby's awards, we have no hesitation 

 in inserting this letter from one of them ; and we hope for 

 his own sake, for the sake of the Society, and for the sake 

 of exhibitors, he will henceforth decline acting as a Judge 

 of Pigeons.] 



I was glad to see a complaint from Mr. Yardley of the 

 judging, or rather misjudging, of the Pigeons at Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne Poultry and Pigeon Show. I can bear testimony 

 to the truth of Mr. Tardley's statement. — Honesty. 



"A DEVOjSTSHIKE BEE-EEEPEE" vEKsrs THE 

 " TIMES' " BEE-MASTER. 

 Subjoined are two letters which our esteemed corre- 

 spondent, Mr. Woodbury, has addressed to the Times in 

 reference to the articles which have appeared in its columns 

 from the pen of " A Bee-iiastek." We publish them with- 

 out comment, for the subject could not be in better hands. 



" TO THE EDITOE OF THE * TIMES.' 



" Sib, — As an English bee-keeper of many years' expe- 

 rience, I have been grieved at perusing the letters on the 

 subject which have recently appeared in your columns, and 

 which I cannot but think are likely to give our continental 

 neighbours and transatlantic brethren a very mean idea of 

 the skill and knowledge of British apiarians. Every one 

 has a right to expect that when a subject is mooted in the 

 Times the writers who step forward to discuss it will be at 

 least up to the age in which they live ; and it is because 

 I perceived the gentlemen whose letters have already ap- 

 peared are writing in the spirit of a bygone time that I 

 venture to point out a few of their mistakes. 



"First, with regard to bee communities remaining at 

 peace with each other. This they will do so long as both 

 are strong and tolerably prosperous, and honey continues 

 plentiful out of doors ; but as soon as honey-gathering is 

 over, innumerable spies from strong colonies try the mettle 

 of their neighbours, and should any one or more betray 

 signs of weakness, the war of Germany against Denmark is 

 enacted on a small scale, with this difference, that the in- 

 vaders take absolutely all, and utterly destroy the van- 

 quished; unless, indeed, the latter, as sometimes happens, 

 join the confederation, and assist in the plunder of their own 

 stores. Whatever virtues bees possess, therefore, honesty, 

 or even the slightest respect for meum et tuum, is certainly 

 not among them ; nor have they any other guide in this par- 

 ticular than 



'■ That good old rule, the simple plan, 

 That ihose should take who have the power, 

 Aad those should keep who can." 



"But, while pleading guilty to the sin of dishonesty 

 among my little favourites, I must absolutely acquit them 



of the charge of drunkenness, or a ' passionate liking for 

 rum and strong ale.' Neither the ono nor the other will 

 bees meddle with, unless their natural repugnance to such 

 abominations be overcome by their liberal admixture with 

 either honey or sugar in some form ; nor will they even in 

 this case accept the proffered libation so readily as if pure 

 water were used to dilute it. 



" Mr. Harbison, a sturdy citizen of the American Republic, 

 considers the queen a simple machine for laying eggs, abso- 

 lutely under the workers' control, who stimulate or repress 

 her fecundity according to circumstances. I do not go these 

 lengths, but I know Mr. Harbison to be far nearer the 

 truth than your correspondent who talks about]the queen's 

 ' giving orders,' and says that ' if you interfere with her the 

 watcher bees will sound the alarm, and a thousand stings, 

 like swords, will be unsheathed.' I am in the constant 

 habit during the season of handling queen bees, and I can 

 assure him that nothing of the kind ever takes place. The 

 note of distress from a captive queen passes totally unheeded 

 by her subjects ; and though a few stray workers may alight 

 on the bare hand that holds her prisoner, and even lick her 

 as she is held between the fingers, the sight of her captivity 

 has no effect in moving them either to anger or resentment. 

 When she is indeed gone for ever they generally fall into 

 confusion for a time, and appear to seek her, but even this 

 is not invariable. I have, moreover, another fact to commu- 

 nicate, which will probably startle many of your readers. 

 Regicide in its worst form is not unfrequently perpetrated 

 by bees. The deaths of Charles I., or Louis XVI., or even 

 that of Marie Antoinette, were indeed merciful when com- 

 pared with that inflicted by these little termagants on their 

 own mothers. Hurled in one instant from the height of 

 popularity to the depth of miseiy, the poor deposed sove- 

 reign finds herself pinioned and unable to move a limb, 

 among a dense mass of her unnatural children ; and there 

 she remains, without the possibility of escape, until death, 

 very many hours afterwards, puts an end to her misery. 

 Often have I seen the poor dried and shrivelled carcase, 

 betraying in the distorted rigidity of every limb the severity 

 of its last agony ; and all this, so far as we can discover, 

 without a cause ! The youagest and most fertile queens are 

 sometimes victims, and that even at a time when their loss 

 entails extinction on the community. Ifay ! listen young 

 and newly-married brides, I have known queens devoted to 

 this horrible and lingering death immediately on their return 

 from then - wedding excursion, and before they had expe- 

 rienced the joys of maternity. 



" Stewarton (Ayrshire) hives are octagonal, not hexagonal, 

 in form, nor is there the slightest reason for imagining that 

 the bee, which builds an hexagonal cell, would prefer a hive of 

 the same shape. So far from a cottager being able easily to 

 make the four compartments comprised in a Stewarton-hive, 

 it would puzzle many a skilled carpenter to dovetail even a 

 single octagonal box accurately together. 



" Common sugar (lump sugar is best), does not require to 

 be exposed to a heat of 300° to be available by bees. Three 

 pounds of lump sugar mixed with two pounds of pure soft 

 water, and boiled a minute or two, forms excellent bee food. 



" Pressure by a watch-key and tobacco, as remedies for a 

 bee sting, are no new discoveries. I advise any one stung 

 by a bee to take the sting out as soon and as carefully as 

 possible, leaving no part of it behind, and then let the 

 wound alone. All the so-called remedies which I have tried 

 (and their name is legion), only irrjtate and increase the 

 swelling, which otherwise would soon disappear. 



" If any one has a swarm consisting only of 5000 or 6000 

 bees let him not take the trouble of hiving it. A good 

 swarm will weigh 4 lbs., and I have known one weigh 8 lbs. 

 Now 5000 bees are computed to go to a pound, and this is 

 not too many, for a friend of mine counted and weighed 

 5020 freshly-killed bees this spring, and they only weighed 

 12i ozs. Let any one, therefore, do a simple sum in mental 

 arithmetic and say if 15,000 to 30,000 are not within the 

 mark, even allowing for the weight of honey carried off by 

 the swarm. 



" Brood in supers is not always drone-brood, nor is the 

 heat of drones necessary for the maturation of brood. If it 

 were, they would not be absent in spring, when the weather 

 is coldest, and a great quantity of brood is hatched, nor 

 would they be destroyed in autumn, when the temperature 



