452 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ November n, i 8 8o. 
great harvest of honey at Carluke. I suppose the Carluke men 
would weigh the straw skeps along with their honey and perhaps 
their floorboards, so that would bring the yield down a little, say 
six skeps at 7 lbs. each would be 42 lbs., which deducted from 
474 would leave 432, and if they weighed the floorboards they 
would average 6 lbs. each: that would be 36 lbs., leaving a nett 
weight of honey 396 lbs. More than this can be realised from the 
bar-frames if you give them room and extract Clover honey in its 
season. I had not my extractor in time this year, else I should 
have had a better turn-out of honey. There is no mistake but 
their hives were good ; but what would their honey look beside 
good squares of honeycomb that could be sent all over the world 
without packing ? and another very important point—we can 
have our honey in the market early. I had some for sale in June. 
We can supply all the markets with honey before they would 
take theirs to the Heather, and I have no doubt that the time 
will come when they will have to give up their straw skeps for 
this reason—that they will not find a market for honey. For 
instance, in Dalbeattie we had all the people supplied with honey 
before the Pettigrewists with their straw hives could come in with 
their produce. When they did come they could not sell it, and 
were offering it at 2s. 3 cl. per quart. How does this look alongside 
3s. and 3.9. 6d. per quart, which I readily obtain ? 
After reading the article about the Carluke bee-keepers I 
looked up my book to see if I could find a yield anything like 
that recorded, and I send what I have found. Mr. Pettigrew 
will find some good hives about Dundee ; at least from what I 
hear at Kelso, I should not be surprised to see them sending in 
records of 200 lbs. out of one bar-frame hive, not saying anything 
about swarming. Mr. Steele of Dundee told me he could make 
£0 of every hive he has in his apiary—that is, £2 a year more 
than any of the Carluke men obtain. 
I will now give you the account of my hive, but I wish to say 
they were not all like this one, as I had neither honey nor swarms 
from one. The reason of this was a bad queen, but I gave the bees 
one, so expect better results next season ; the rest did very fairly. 
There was one or two at the end of the season that after working 
well did not kill their drones ; this means queenlessness, so I gave 
them queens, and the next day they drove out their drones. On 
the 16th of May I put on twenty-four sections, supers, and on the 
16th of June I had a swarm of this stock, so that I had to take off 
the supers ; there were fifteen of them, weight 1 lb. each. On the 
24th June it gave a cast or second swarm, equal to many first 
swarms, and on the 1st July it gave a third, which I returned 
after taking the queen from them ; I then put on supers to nearly 
the end of the season, when the amount of super honey was 50 lbs. 
I then turned up the box and cut out 16 lbs., and now it weighs 
54 lbs. The total weight from the old stock not including wood 
would be 120 lbs., then the swarm from the above hive worked 
very well, and before the Heather honey came in I extracted 
30 lbs. from the combs. I returned them and had them refilled 
in sixteen days ; I put on supers, and at the end of the season 
I had taken 69 lbs., and the frame that was refilled with Heather 
honey that could not be extracted with the extractor weighed 
34 lbs. ; the total for this swarm was 135 lbs. The cast or second 
swarm was only eight days behind the first, and give 61 lbs. in 
supers and 62 lbs. in stock hives, it has now 10 lbs. of honey and 
20 lbs. of sugar for the winter. Total weight of honey in the second 
swarm will be 133 lbs,, so the grand total will be—old stock, 
120 lbs. ; first swarm, 135 ; second swarm, 133 ; total, 388. This 
does not include frames or supers, only the honey that came out 
of them.— J. Thomson. 
breed well and are bad parents. Archangels, too, are excellent breeders and good 
birds for eating, and have the additional merit which Runts have not, of being 
very active, and so escaping from cats and other enemies. It is a good time of 
year for establishing whichever kind you may choose. 
Doves Unhealthy (Idem ).—The probable causes of your young Doves 
being weak in legs are either in-breeding or the parents not being supplied with 
sufficient bone-making and digestive food. Give them plenty of road grit and 
old mortar broken up. If you have bred much from the same stock procure 
some fresh birds from another strain and cross them with your own. “We have 
seldom in our own aviary had young Doves suffer in the manner you describe, 
but we once gave away a related pair, the produce of which were again in-bred, 
and the result was leg-weakness and paralysis in nearly all the young birds. 
Canaries Afflicted (Mrs. Brettingham, Colchester ).—Your hen Canaries 
certainly are in a very sad condition, and there are but little hopes of your keep¬ 
ing them alive for breeding with next season. It is a very bad sign when they 
become so ruffled in feathers, roost upon both legs, and fall off in their appetites. 
The birds have become affected over their moulting. They do better with plenty 
of room for exercise and water to bathe in over their moulting, which has a 
beneficial effect during the casting of old and the pushing out of their new 
feathers. The discoloured veins and appearance of their stomachs show signs 
of inflammation, and unless they are removed into a warmer temperature they 
will speedily die. Hold the birds over a vapour bath for three or four minutes, 
and the moisture and warmth will ease their bowels. Give to each one drop of 
castor oil, and likewise rub their stomachs and vents gently with a little of the 
oil on the end of your finger or with a small camel’s-hair brush. Supply a bread 
and milk diet, in which mix a couple of grains of magnesia. If the bird's become 
somewhat convalescent after the above treatment add to their drinking foun¬ 
tain a few drops of brandy, and keep them free from draughts. 
Bees in Winter (Busy ).—The doors of the hives should, be contracted to 
keep out mice except when snow is on the ground. In cold and severe weather 
bees do not come out; in mild winter weather they leave their hives about mid¬ 
day for exercise aud for purposes of cleanliness, and these occasional winter 
flights are good for them. If the doors of hives are kept closed all winter much 
harm is done and many lives lost by the bees struggling to get out in mild 
weather. If kept by bad weather or closed doors for many weeks together in their 
hives there are heaps of dirt and dead bees formed inside, which are disagreeable 
to creatures so sensitive of smell as bees. Your house is a good protection to 
your hives. Let the small holes in front be large enough to enable the bees to carry 
their dead out, and place some soft hay round the hives to keep the bees com¬ 
fortably warm in winter. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lafc. 51°32'40’' N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
date. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Rain. 
1 
18S0. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32° 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sun. 81 
30.109 
39.7 
36.8 
W. 
42.2 
51.0 
31.8 
88.5 
27.6 
— 
Mon. 1 
30.199 
42.4 
39.3 
N.E. 
42.8 
44.1 
40.1 
55.2 
34.3 
— 
Tues. 2 
30.189 
32.1 
30.8 
N.E. 
41.9 
43.8 
27.3 
73.2 
25.2 
— 
Wed. 3 
30.185 
37.9 
36.3 
N.E. 
40.7 
47.4 
31.7 
89.6 
28-1 
— 
Thurs. 4 
30.422 
36.4 
34.4 
N.N.E. 
40.3 
4.5.7 
30.7 
86.6 
26.1 
— 
Friday 5 
30.370 
34.5 
34.5 
N.W. 
39.6 
46.3 
30.6 
59.3 
26.9 
— 
Satur. 6 
30.388 
43.8 
43.0 
S.W. 
40.1 
51.7 
34.0 
65.4 
30.4 
— 
Means. 
80.266 
38.1 
31.4 
41.1 
47.1 
32.3 
74.0 
28.4 
— 
REMARKS. 
31st.—White frost in morning ; cold bright day and windy. 
1st —Fair, but overcast throughout. 
2nd.—Thick white frost, very cold morning, fine day, with bright sunshine in 
forenoon. 
3rd.—Cold day, with very bright sunshine and much wind ; aurora 8.25 P.M.; 
bright starlight night. 
4th.—Fine with bright sunshine ; foggy between 5 and G P.M.; clear starlight 
evening. 
5th.—Thick fog in morning; milder day ; much cloud. 
6th.—Slight fog in morning ; mild day, and fine, with sunshine from noon till 
3 p.m. 
Generally cold and dry, with high barometer.—G. J. SYMONS. 
BEES AND HEATHER. 
The report of Mr. Pettigrew, published last week, of the suc¬ 
cessful bee-keeping of Mr. Lindsay, has made some of us mid¬ 
country apiarians quite jealous. Our pasturage here is chiefly 
white Clover, and this season as soon as that was ready rain fell 
nearly every day until the Clover was over, so that a surplus with 
us, only in exceptional cases, is quite out of the question. I have 
been thinking if we could take, say, six or eight stocks to the 
Heather for a fortnight in a fair average season, and have our 
usual ten or fourteen days’ holiday with the bees, they would if the 
weather were at all favourable not only pay our holiday expenses, 
but leave a handsome profit besides. When Mr. Pettigrew finds 
time I hope he will give us his opinion about this, and also direct 
us to the nearest fields of Heather.—C. F., Leicester. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Pigeons for Table (E. C. O .).—The smaller Runts are excellent for the 
table. We say *• smaller,” because the present exhibition Runts are too large to 
COVENT GARDEN MARKET.—NOVEMBER 10. 
TrAD-E keeps very quiet. Consignments of Apples from America and Canada 
contiuue. Home-grown fruit is now beginning to fall off in supply, the bulk 
of the crop having changed hands. 
VEGETABLES. 
s. d. s. d. 
Artichokes. dozen 2 0to4 0 
Asparagus. bundle 0 0 0 0 
Beans,Kidney.... tP' fb. 0 0 0 6 
Beet, Red. dozen 10 2 0 
Broccoli. bundle 0 9 16 
Brussels Sprouts.. 1 sieve 19 2 3 
Cabbage. dozen 0 6 10 
Carrots. bunch 0 4 0 6 
Capsicums. 100 1 6 2 0 
Cauliflowers. dozen 0 0 3 6 
Celery . bundle 16 2 0 
Coieworts_doz. hunches 2 0 4 0 
Cucumbers. each 0 4 0 6 
Endive. dozen 10 2 0 
Fennel. bunch 0 3 0 0 
Garlic . ^ ft. 0 6 0 0 
Herbs . bunch o 2 0 C 
Leeks. bunch 0 3 0 4 
s. d. s. d. 
Mushrooms . dozen l otol 6 
Mustard & Cress .-. punnet 0 2 0 3 
Onions. bushel 3 6 5 9 
pickling. quart 0 0 0 0 
Parsley. doz. bunches 6 0 0 0 
Parsnips. dozen l o 2 0 
Peas . quart 0 0 0 0 
Potatoes. bushel 3 9 4 0 
Kidney. bushel 4 0 4 6 
Radishes_ doz .bunches 16 2 0 
Rhubarb. bundle 0 4 0 0 
Salsafy. bundle 10 0 0 
Scorzonera . bundle 16 0 0 
Seakale . basket 0 0 o o 
Shallots . p It. 0 8 oo 
Spinach . bushel 3 0 0 0 
Turnips. bunch 0 4 0 0 
Vegetable Marrows each 0 2 0 0 
