404 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ November 15, 1864. 



year mil be to get swanns so as to start a lot of frame-hives 

 or boxes. 



Please also say if it is wise in the spring to disturb the 

 bees to clean the floor-boards, and when is it the right time. 

 I have partly closed the entrances to my hives by means of 

 wedges. Do you consider this wise, as it stops ventilation ? 

 About a month ago my hives weighed from 20 to 30 lbs. 

 each, and they seem strong. About what time should you 

 resort to feeding, as I want early swarms ? — J. A. 



[Common straw hives require no ventilation, and the less 

 they are meddled with during winter the better. If the 

 coats, carpets, &c, have been long in their places, take ad- 

 vantage of the first fine mild day to remove them, and clear 

 out all vermin, such as spiders, moths, earwigs, &e. After 

 shaking and beating (the coverings, not the hives), replace 

 them and make all snug for the winter. The latter end of 

 February or early in March, according to the season, repeat 

 the operation, and if yon can with little disturbance sub- 

 stitute clean floor-boards for the dirty ones, so much the 

 better. A few ounces of food given at regular intervals by 

 means of an inverted bottle, two or three days apart at this 

 season, will be of use in stimulating the breeding powers of 

 the queens. Entrances should be contracted during winter, 

 but even this must in some degree be regulated by circum- 

 stances, a populous colony requiring more air, and, there- 

 fore, a larger doorway than a weak one.] 



HOW TO KECTIFY IREEGUIAELY-BUILT 

 COMBS. 



I find the following passage in a recent letter from one 

 of my most valued apiarian correspondents. 



" Some of the writers in The Journal of Hobticultube 

 complain of their combs on bars being crooked, and fixed 

 transversely. 



"If you found a Woodbury frame-hive in this condition, 

 and wished to inspect the middle combs, but found it im- 

 possible to move the frames, how would you proceed to make 

 the inspection ? "Would you begin by taking out the side 

 bars first, and polish each bar straight in succession ? or 

 would you begin at the place where you wish to make the 

 inspection, and pull up the frames, nolens volens, having first 

 inserted a knife between the bars, so as to separate the 

 combs ? 



" I make a supposition with the view to an answer in the 

 Journal for the benefit of novices." 



In the case supposed by my correspondent, I should com- 

 mence by extracting a side comb (that which happened to 

 be the straightest, for choice), and rectify whatever irregu- 

 larity might exist m each comb one by one, partially or even 

 entirely detaching from their bars such combs as might 

 require it, and after straightening them, temporarily sup- 

 port those which had been either partially or wholly detached 

 by means of wire, &c. All these temporary supports may 

 usually be removed the next day ; but it may not be amiss 

 to state that all operations of this kind must now be de- 

 ferred till spring is pretty far advanced (say April), and 

 should on no account be attempted either late in autumn, 

 or during winter. — A Devonshire Bee-keepeb. 



YAEIATION IN LIGUEIAN BEES. 



Will you give me your opinion upon the enclosed speci- 

 mens of bees ? No. 1 is from a hive which breeds all alike, 

 with the exception that about one in a hundred is darker 

 than the rest. No. 2 is from the hive referred to in page 342 

 of The Joubnal of Horticultttee, and which breeds all 

 varieties. No. 3 breeds all alike ; but all are darker than 

 the original stock, unless the few in No. 2, which are most 

 brilliantly marked. 



I should esteem it a favour if you would let me know 

 whether any are pure or not, and whether, as I am told, 

 pure-breeding queens can be obtained from the egg of a 

 hybridised one, if impregnated with an Italian drone, or 

 if, when they are once impure, they remain so. — A. N. B. 



[The colour fades so much in dead Ligurians, that the 

 specimens accompanying your letter are really of little use 



in helping us to decide the question submitted to us. Ne- 

 vertheless, you are welcome to our opinion as far as it goes. 

 No. 1 we should consider pure, as there is some degree of 

 variation even in the purest stocks, and the only test we 

 admit in our own apiary is an entire absence of common 

 bees. This rule condemns No. 2 as hybridised, and would 

 clear No. 3 from suspicion, if (which we rather doubt), the 

 bees are really "all alike." We see no reason why an 

 isolated black stain should not in the course of time be bred 

 out of Ligurians, if you can but avoid a relapse, just in the 

 same way as the Ligurian strain becomes bred out of the 

 common bee in a few generations. The difficulty would be 

 in avoiding a repetition of the dark taint.] 



JOINING LIGUEIAN QUEENS AND BEES 

 TO ENGLISH OB BLACK BEES. 



In uniting queens there is always a risk, and I cannot find 

 out the mystery why the bees will not accept a queen that 

 is given to them, and after they reject her, if she is given 

 to another stock they receive her joyfully. Again : the same 

 stock that rejected the first queen will gladly accept another 

 queen, if given to them almost immediately afterwards. A 

 short time since I had a case that illustrates the point. 



Having imported direct several of the most pure, beauti- 

 ful, fertile Ligurian queens to be found on the continent, I 

 placed one over a stock for some hours that had its queen 

 removed two days before. I then admitted one bee at a time 

 and they behaved very well, until half a dozen had been 

 admitted, when they seized and attacked the queen, and I 

 could not separate them without taking the queen up in my 

 fingers and actually pulling the bees from her. This took 

 place four times, when seeing that the bees would not accept 

 her, I put her over another stock, and when I admitted the 

 bees they received her joyfully. 



I then gave the stock that had rejected the queen another 

 of the imported Ligurian queens, and they received her in a 

 friendly way and conducted her in triumph into the hive. 



Since I sent you the account of joining bees on the 14th 

 of October, I have joined five more lots of bees, and everyone 

 successfully. They were driven on the 31st of October, but I 

 do not recommend driving bees so late in the season, but 

 the farmer had neglected them, and would not feed them. 

 The bees in some of the stocks would not leave the combs, so 

 we had to cut the combs out and brush the bees with a 

 feather into the empty hive. I did not hastily discard pepper- 

 mint scent until I found it from practice useless. — William 

 Caeb, Clayton Bridge Apiai-y. 



OUE LETTEB.BOX. 



Cochin-China Fowts (E. C.).— We imagine yonr birds are Silver Cinna- 

 mons—the body a sort of French creamy 'white, and the hackle darker. 

 They will breed good chickens with a buff cock, and are an esteemed 

 variety. Another class is ordinary Cinnamon, and is coloured exactly like 

 the spice after which it is named. 



Moulting of Spanish Pullets (Cochin). — "We have known them when 

 hatched in January to change their feathers the same autumn almost 

 entirely, but not regularly to moult. The cocks do, and we have some now 

 naked-necked. 



Best-paying Fowls (One who Wishes to Make his Kens Pay).— Buff or 

 Partridge-coloured Cochin Pullets, and an adult Dorking cock, will supply 

 eggs in the winter, and produce good table chickens. The Pullets snould 

 be bought every year, and their predecessors parted witb. 



Food for Skylarks (G. R. i?.).— Bread and cheese is a first-class food 

 for Skylarks. A little whole hempseed, groats, or cooked meat finely 

 minced may be added occasionally with benefit. I^arks should always have 

 a green turf to peck at, and the bottom of the cage be thickly covered with 

 clean dry sand for them to dust in. Hempseed is best given whole, but 

 is not a necessity, and must be used sparingly. The meat must not be 

 a alted. 



German Paste ( Idem).— Take two table-spoonfuls of lard free from salt, 

 beat it in a saucepan till it is nearly boiling, add four table- spoonfuls of 

 treacle, keeping the saucepan near the fire but not putting it ou again, and 

 stirring the treacle well in gradually. Keeping it still near the fire just to 

 keep warm, stir in peasmeal till it becomes a stiff crumbly mass; a little 

 mawseed to be added. About 3£ pints of peasmeal go to the above quantity. 

 — B. P. B. 



Squirrels in Confinement.— In yonr impression of the 25th of October, 

 yonr correspondent, Mr. Hunter, states that Squirrels neither jumped nor ate 

 acorns. This, I think, is unusual, as I have long kept some of these pretty 

 animals, and I have now two, who daily spring and leap, and freeiy eat 

 acorns, which, indeed are their principal meal. They live in a cage with 

 some wild Rabbits, several varieties of Doves, and a pair of Golden Phea- 

 sants,— George H, Brooks. „„ 



