THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
201 
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Junk 24. 
will sustain, anil to have in good seasons a couple of glasses 
tit Lo contain seven or eight pounds of honey on each hive. 
When these glasses are tilled, it is always with pure, or 
virgin honey, without brood-combs ; and there is this benelil 
attending it, that the queen is seldom or never in the glasses, 
as she is in the “ nadir hives,” or “ side boxes,” anil other 
compartments of the different new-fangled hives; for she 
seldom visits these places, excepting to lay her eggs. Mr. 
Nutt, I believe, states that the queen never goes into the 
side boxes; but it is certain that she will go wherever there 
are brood-combs, and 1 know from experience this to be 
true. But, then, frequently the side boxes are partially 
tilled, and in steps our very uncertain climate, with its wind 
and rain, and the labour of the bees in the side boxes is at 
an end ; the poor bees have enough to do to keep the centre 
all light. 
How often this depriving system fails, unless done in 
the most skilful manner! and as often does the fumigating. 
I do not think it succeeds once in a hundred times. If too 
i many combs are taken away, the bees decline from that 
i moment; in a case of my own, the swarm deserted on a line 
day in April following. 
I like Mr. Gelieu’s plan of cutting out part of the combs 
from old stocks. This, when done with judgment, is one of 
the best modem improvements. In January, before the 
queen begins to lay, turn up the hive, and take about one- 
third or one-fourth of the old combs out, and so repeat this 
in very old stocks, until they are quite renewed. Mr. 
Cotton, who is all for humanity, talking of the weak stocks, 
says, “ feed them with a brimstone match ! ” Now, after all 
his attempts to save the bees, this is rather inconsistent. 
However, he has done a most desirable thing in trying to 
introduce bees into New Zealand, and I most heartily wish 
him success. I have not heard yet whether he has succeeded. 
One thing is certain, that in bad seasons the majority of 
the hives must be fed all the winter. The question is, 
whether it is not good policy to destroy some of the late 
swarms that have their eight or ten pounds of virgin honey, 
and prevent a most awful amount of pillage !! 
In 1814, my number of hives was twenty-six, and this 
number (being a dry, barren, unpropitious year) I found 
was too many for my country to support, notwithstanding 
all my bee-flowers. There was no honey-dew that year. 
Mr. Huber asserts, that a country of meadows is better 
than one of corn and vineyards; but there are certainly 
more bees kept in England in corn districts than in the 
grass districts. A mere grass country may be a country ol 
milk, but not one of honey. 
The colour of honey differs in the different countries 
where it is gathered. In a heath country, it is of a darker 
colour, and has a particular flavour. Honey should bo 
gathered before the weather gets cold, as it runs from the 
cells more freely ; and the combs ought to be cut, and the 
honey allowed to pass through a seive. 4 irgin honey will 
require little trouble to save and put by. All combs ought 
to be taken in warm weather, in order that it may run oil 
easily. Many persons prefer to eat the pure first year's 
honey with the comb; at all events, the virgin honey ought 
to be kept entirely by itself, as the least mixture of the old 
will spoil it. 
Here is another of the delusions about bees. borne 
writers gravely talk of a farmer paying his rent by bees ! and 
talk of his keeping 200, or even 300 hives 1 Even those 
farmers in England who keep from fifteen to twenty stocks, 
on the average of seven years, find a “ beggarly account of 
empty boxes." In nine cases out of ten, they do not pay 
sufficient attention to their bees to make them pay, and 
without the greatest attention, it is no use to keep them. 
MERITS OF GAME FOWL. 
As to the most desirable breed of poultry to keep, allow 
me to offer a few words of advice, the result of ten years 
experience. I find the game fowl, and also a breed between 
the game and India (or, as they call them here, the Hinjey ) 
to be the best birds for table : their flesh is white, tendei, 
and juicy; the birds fatten on a very small quantity of food, 
they have, moreover, the breast bone perfectly straight. 
The hens generally lay from 10 to 17 dark-coloured eggs, 
and then want to sit. The next best is the Dorking, both 
speckled and white. This breed of birds grow to a greater 
weight than the above, but, as a set-off, require a much 
larger amount of corn to fatten them. I do not know how 
it is, but with me the Dorkings prove very unprolifle, both 
as to eggs and chickens; they are, however, excellent nurses. 
The Cochin Chma comes next. These birds are certainly 
the best layers, even beating the Spanish and Monorcias. 
By some unknown reason the light birds are now all the 
fancy; but, although I have kept both the light and dark 
varieties, I never could distinguish the least difference in 
their productiveness. 1 fancy the dark birds are the 
strongest, but this may be only a matter of opinion. To 
give a slight idea of the superiority of these birds, I will 
just mention the produce I obtained from one pullet, a bird 
bred from a dark cock and light lieu, and which, when only 
five months old, commenced laying, and laid an egg every 
day for GO successive days; she then set on 15 eggs, and 
hatched out of them 13 chickens, which, when four weeks 
old, the hen cast off; began laying again, laid 42 eggs ; set, 
and the second time brought forth, out of 14 eggs, 11 
chickens, both of which broods are now living and doing 
well. 
Spanish and Monorcias are both excellent birds for laying, 
but for table are very indifferent, partaking in form and 
nature something after the Alderney cow, which, although 
excellent for the dairy, is very poor for the butcher. The 
common dunghill fowl is very prolific, but is very small and 
ill shaped. I would strongly recommend all persons de¬ 
sirous of keeping poultry to try the Cochin China, leaving 
colour entirely as a matter of fancy. As regards the legs 
being feathered, I find some have feathers and others none, 
although bred from feather-legged birds. The dark birds 
lay the largest eggs, and also the darkest coloured.— 
W. M. J. 
THE DOMESTIC PIGEON. 
ON LAYING AND INCUBATION. 
( Continued from page 130.) 
We find some females, which from disease, or some 
defect, cannot lay. The egg remaining in their body a much 
longer time than it naturally ought to do, gets hard, and the 
shell becomes gravelly. A kind of fleshy substance, no 
doubt occasioned by the inflammation of the part where the 
egg is formed, sticks to the egg, which it embraces on both 
sides, and holds it like roots to the intestines, to which it 
adheres so closely that the egg cannot release itself. The 
female attacked with this complaint is no longer fit for 
breeding; she remains a sufferer for a long time, and at 
last is found dead in a retired corner. This disease is pro¬ 
duced by inflammation, which has lessened the opening of 
the passage or neck of the matrix. 
Some amateurs, on discovering this disorder by feeling 
for it, have attempted to cure it by means of an operation, 
but the pain they cause the suffering animsl rarely saves its 
life, and the bird always remains a sufferer, and no longer 
fit for breeding. It would, therefore, be much better to 
relinquish it altogether. 
It may happen, although but rarely, that a female, after 
having laid one egg, remains seventy-two hours, and even 
more, before laying the other. As soon as we perceive such 
delay, we must watch her attentively, and if the interval 
exceeds seventy-two hours, we must no longer trust to 
nature, but resort to remedies, which we must administer 
with judgment, and in time. These remedies consist in 
making her swallow, by placing in her beak small balls of 
butter or soap, and then by opening the orifice of the fun¬ 
dament with the finger which has previously been rubbed 
with butter, afterwards give it one or two injections with 
good olive oil, by means of a very small syringe. Some 
persons make females attacked with this disorder lay, by 
forcing the egg from them. We will now describe the 
manner in which they hold them. Whilst with one hand 
they gently open the fundament of the bird, with the other 
they press on its abdomen, between the egg and the breast¬ 
bone, and by gradually increasing the pressure, force out the 
egg. But by resorting to this method, the egg almost 
always breaks in the inside, and the bird is wounded for hie. 
Other females lay nothing but soft eggs; that is, eggs 
I 
