November 22, 1864. ' 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENED. 



423 



queens, and are generally well-conditioned, promising a 

 healthy generation. A very old stock should be rejected, 

 even if it swarmed the year before and contained a yearling 

 queen, for the obvious reason that the bees, having been 

 bred in the old contracted cells, will be found of small size 

 and insignificant in numbers. If you take your hive away 

 to get a swarm placed into it, always purchase the first or 

 prime swarm, and see that it is given you. Do not be put 

 off with a second or late swarm. Choose a stock to com- 

 mence with as you would choose a wife — get the best you 

 can find. If you obtain one in the old box-hive invert it, 

 and secure the bees by a cloth tacked securely over the bot- 

 tom. Take it home when the air is cool, attend to it regu- 

 larly, obey the directions as given, and then congratulate 

 yourself on having started right. In the purchase of bees 

 there are many things it is well to observe. Remember if 

 stock-hives are to be procnred, ascertain the age of the 

 queen. To select a young, healthful mother seems to be a 

 forward step towards a vigorous progeny — (Flanders' New 

 Bee-booh, American.) 



BEES NOT CARNIVOROUS! 



So all the efforts of my inventive genius are vain ! and all 

 my bright visions of fame and profit at an end ! Bees will 

 not eat meat after all. I suppose that point is now settled, 

 although when the subject was first broached, the diffident 

 uncertainty of our great apiarian oracle "A Devonshire Bee- 

 keepee," obliged one to reconsider conclusions long fore- 

 gone. That bee-covered "turkey drumstick," which "Ruby" 

 describes, had certainly an awkward look about it. Its ap- 

 pearance indicated a decided gustative attraction for the 

 occupants of the hive in which it was placed. " Seeing," 

 they say, "is believing," and; when "Ruby" was assured, 

 and that by a lady, that bees for many generations (apian 

 I mean), had been invigorated to bear up under the rigour 

 of many long and dreary winters by the virtue of a morsel 

 of meat, I do not quite see how he could be guilty of such 

 ungallant incredulity, as to reject the testimony of his fair 

 informant, corroborated, as it seemed, by the evidence of his 

 own observation ; and I think, further, that " Ruby " was 

 quite right in publishing in your pages a fact which, if 

 verified, would prove of the utmost value to your apiarian 

 readers. The experiment has now been repeated, and, as 

 many of us expected, signally and universally failed. Had 

 it been otherwise, what a " wonderful success " my "patent 

 bee food " might have obtained ! However, if I thus lose all 

 hope of profit by invention, I shall relish my honey as here- 

 tofore, and not allow disgust to mingle with my amber sweet, 

 by thinking of dead flesh whilst eating my bread and honey. 



Alas ! how many of our cherished ideas must be consigned 

 to the "limbo" of crude notions! But never mind, we are 

 still going on with our education, and if we mount up to real 

 knowledge on the footsteps of our own proved ignorance, all 

 the better for us. It will make us less confident, more diffi- 

 dent, and call forth our observing faculties, by the process 

 of individual mental cross-examination. I do not know, after 

 all, whether meat-feeding would be an improvement upon the 

 usual methods — certainly not upon the Woodbury inverted 

 bottle-feeder, for honey or syrup, which I consider by far 

 the simplest and most efficient mode of supplying the wants 

 of an impoverished hive yet invented. I thought certainly, 

 had it not been for some of these celebrated modern notions, 

 being recently exploded, of making some o? my poorer hives 

 participators of the approaching Christmas festivities, by 

 inviting them to an early dinner (weather, of course, per- 

 mitting), of roast turkey and a little Scotch ale, the latter 

 "mulled" or plain as they might prefer, but I shall now 

 leave them to their undisturbed hybernation amidst the 

 more genial fare of their own selection, and indulge in the 

 retrospective fancy of my projected Ruby-Cumminic apian 

 feast. — Ruby Blush. 



I state this as a fact. I have tried my bees with meat, 

 and they will not eat it. One day I gave them a mutton 

 chop a little warm, and watched them to see if that would 

 entice them to eat it ; but they only had a lick or two and 

 then left it. I allowed it to remain all day and night, and 

 then I took it away. I might as well have given them a 



stone. Do you think "Ruby" was in love with the lady 

 he speaks of? If so, she might have emptied the teapot 

 under the hive, so that it was only a lot of tea leaves that 

 he saw, and not bees. Ladies are sure to be up to some of 

 their tricks if they have a not-required lover. — P. R. L. 



FOOD OF BEES— STANDS FOR HIVES. 



I promised in my last letter to give the opinion of a friend, 

 an old and successful bee-keeper, as to their carnivorous 

 propensities. He says, decidedly bees will eat the flesh and 

 even the bones of birds, chickens, &c, if they are driven to 

 it by hunger, but that while they have anything else to eat, 

 they will not touch flesh. If this be true, as seems likely, 

 the evidence of" R. S." in this week's paper, would not decide 

 the point. Is it not possible that bees, like men, may by 

 long use become fond of food which was at first unnatural 

 and distasteful ? 



Have any of your correspondents noticed the great par- 

 tiality of bees for an early, and in my opinion, very charm- 

 ing spring annual, the Limnanthes grandiflora ? 



Now, that I think of it, I would mention another thing in 

 this rambling letter. I often hear the question, What are 

 the best stands for single hives ? Taylor, I think, in his 

 manual, mentions the danger of wooden posts decaying under 

 ground. But I have never read or heard of the simple and 

 ornamental plan I have for some years adopted for my few 

 exposed hives, a Neighbour's cottage-hive among the number 

 —viz., a common white drain -pipe, of either six or nine-inch 

 diameter. They are about 4 feet long, and may be sunk in 

 the ground to the required depth, without any danger of 

 rotting or shaking. I nail pieces of wood at right angles on 

 the bottom of the floor-board so as to fit well within the pipe, 

 and this keeps all steady. — A. W. B. 



[The employment of a drain-pipe for a hive-pedestal was 

 first suggested by our esteemed correspondent " A Ren- 

 frewshire Bee-keeper," in page 128 of the first volume of 

 our New Series. There can be no doubt of its forming an 

 excellent and enduring support either for hive -ranges or for 

 single stocks.] 



ADDENDA. 



COOKS, COOKEEY, AND WILTSHIRE BACON. 



"Do you think you could prevail upon 'Wiltshire 

 Rector' to give us a slight addendum to his recent ex- 

 cellent article on cooks, bacon, &c. ? He says the grand 

 secret for success in making bacon, is the letting off the 

 brine; but he does not tell us the exact how and when, to 

 do this. Then I want to know how he recommends its 

 being cooked, for I can scarcely ever get it twice alike 

 at different hands — sometimes quite flat and nearly raw, 

 sometimes frizzled and curled into fantastic forms, and a 

 mere shadow of its former self; in fact, all ways, but very 

 rarely sent up in an enjoyable and wholesome manner. It 

 is like boiling a potato, simple enough, and yet how few can 

 do it ! Can ' Wiltshire Rector " tell us a good way of 

 smoking bacon to get it mild ? — W. H. B." 



I most willingly comply with "W. H. B.'s" wishes, and 

 will answer his questions to the best of my knowledge and 

 ability. First. As to the letting off the brine. I manage it 

 in this way. In one corner of the wooden tray before de- 

 scribed, is a circular hole an inch in diameter. The tray is 

 set upon blocks with a gentle slope towards the hole. A 

 pan is put on the ground, and from first to last of the whole 

 month of the curing every drop of brine runs off towards the 

 hole, thence down into the pan. Secondly. As to the cooking. 

 I have the slices cut very thin, as thin, indeed, as possible; 

 they are just popped into a fryingpan, turned the moment 

 the heat is seen to be through them, and then they remain 

 on the other side a still shorter time. This is a nice ope- 

 ration, dependant for its success upon the cook's care and 

 good judgment. Usually we suffer frightfully for a week 

 at least, when we have a new cook, and even then periodi- 

 cally, when that functionary is careless or out of humour. 

 The cooking of bacon is so nice an operation that it reminds 

 me of an anecdote concerning a certain lover of pears, who 

 was found with his watch in his hand, one eye upon it, and 



