232 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 8. 
of an old queen, with worn-out wings, going out with the 
lirst or best swarm. She does not always go out with the 
first swarm, but very frequently. I never saw the working 
bees kill a queen. They will prevent her from coming into 
a strange hive if they do not want her, but they will not 
attack her offensively; so that what some writers assert, that 
the queens only kill each other, may be true. I have found 
dead queens often on the ground near a hive after swarm¬ 
ing ; but I never observed a worker carry oft’ a dead queen 
as they do a brother worker. A poor labourer of my own, 
in describing a swarm which went off and returned to the 
hive, said, “Yesterday, sir, that hive swarmed and went 
back; about an hour after, I found a small cluster of bees 
on the ground, and in the midst of them was a queen, and 
the bees did worship her." She could not fly. 
DEONE, 
As well described by Butler, is “ a gross, stingless bee, 
that spendeth Ills time in gluttony and idleness, living on 
the sweat of others’ brows. In the heat of the day, he 
fleeth abroad, aloft and about, and that with no small noise, 
as though he would do some great act." In fact, he is like 
the “ Bond-street lounger ” of the great metropolis among 
Englishmen; he does not condescend to make his appear¬ 
ance until the afternoon, and malms a great swell for a 
short time. They have not the power to gather honey in 
the fields, and it is only in the hive that they feed. I have 
my doubts whether they are not of more use than many of 
the modern writers assert; they certainly increase the heat 
of the hive ; and in swarming time, a considerable number 
of them go with a swarm, and they enter into the spirit of 
the new colony, for they may be seen the very next day 
going in and out. 
The drones never rest on a flower, nor go in search of food, 
and seldom fly above 100 to 200 yards from the hive, except 
when they follow a young queen in the crowd at swarming 
time. I never observed a drone settle in my life, except 
from complete exhaustion and fatigue, when by himself. 
I have watched them most narrowly for many seasons, 
during the warm weather in July, when they are in their 
“hey-day." One singular fact is, that the working-bees 
seem not to molest them at certain times, when they are 
* put into a strange hive early in the season, although, if a 
strange working-bee should attempt to enter, they imme¬ 
diately attack it. 
Having brought my remarks nearly to a conclusion, let 
me ask—Who is there that does not admire the wonderful 
instinct of bees; the astonishing mechanism of the combs, 
so beautifully described by various naturalists; the insects’ 
never-ending perseverance; their discrimination ; their sa¬ 
gacity? Well, indeed, might Virgil exclaim in liis enthu¬ 
siasm, that they had “ partem divinte mentis ” (a portion of 
the divine mind). 
The study of the insect tribe is a fund of entertainment 
to a contemplative mind; and even this small portion of 
animated nature, in the history of the bees, the wasps, the 
hornets, and the wild bees, ought to impart to us some 
idea of the stupendous attributes of that Great Being who, 
in His infinite wisdom, formed them all. Well might the 
venerable Mr. Kirby exclaim, in his “ History of the Wild 
Bees of England,” “ Can we consider this curious history 
without adoring that Divine Wisdom which teaches these 
diminutive creatures to provide in so wonderful a manner 
for the security and sustenance of their young ? Who is it 
that instructs them to bore a fistular passage, either under¬ 
ground, or in the trunk of a tree, for the reception of their 
nests ? Wliat ride do they take with them to the shrub 
from which they borrow their materials to assist them in 
meting out then- work, by which they cut some pieces into 
portions of an ellipse, others into ovals, others into accu¬ 
rate circles, and to suit the dimensions of the several pieces 
of each figure so exactly to each other? Where is the archi¬ 
tect who can carry impressed upon the tablet of his me¬ 
mory the entire idea of the edifice he means to erect, and 
without rule, square, plumb-line, or compass, can cut out 
all his materials in their exact dimensions, without making 
a single mistake, or a single false stroke ? Yet, this is what 
these little insects invariably do, and thus teach us how 
much more wonderful and certain instinct is than all the 
efforts of our boasted reason, which, after many painful 
processes, interrupted by numerous errors and failures, and 
by a long train of deductions, cannot arrive at that expert¬ 
ness and certainty which these creatures manifest sponta¬ 
neously, working at all times with unerring precision. 
What is this instinct but the teaching of the Almighty, the 
manifestation of His eternal wisdom infinitely diversified, 
sustaining, directing, impelling all things, and making all ! 
things work together for the good of the whole, which, like . 
its great emblem and instrument, the light, acts everywhere ■ 
and upon all, and while, it guides the planets in their | 
courses, directs the minutest animalcule to do those things 
that are necessary to its preservation and the continuance 
of its kind." 
CROSS-BRED POULTRY. 
Though I am a great admirer of the pure Cochin-China 
fowl, I am very much disposed to think, that by crossing 
the breed with our own domestic or barn-door fowl, we should 
acquire a more generally useful, as well as a more profitable 
kind of bird. Those who are desirous of obtaining prizes, 
and are fond of distinctions of that sort, must, and will be 
very particular as to the purity of the blood, but for those 
who breed for the spit, I recommend a good collection of 
common hens with cocks of the finest and largest Cochin- 
China breed, in proportionate numbers; say a dozen hens 
to each cock. I find the chickens more healthy and stronger 
than the purer breed, and altogether more generally useful 
I have my fancy birds also, but we cannot eat our pets. In 
the collections I have seen, I have found most of the 
young chickens almost free of any plumage—I mean of six 
weeks or two months old. Now this, I was told, is a proof of 
their good breeding, but I consider it as no recommendation. 
Fowls are bred as food; and as they ought to be ready for 
the spit at throe months old, I do not think it any recom¬ 
mendation when they only want trussing and skewering 
before they are put down to the fire to roast; they do not look 
wholesome. But I very strongly suspect that this deficiency 
of plumage is no proof of the purity of blood, — on the 
contrary, a proof of complaint in the blood caused by over¬ 
feeding, for the gentleman who showed me his stock, stated 
that animal food was given to his birds. Now, I have known 
parrots, jays, magpies, and even cuckoos, in a domestic 
state, fed on animal food, as bare of all plumage as possible, 
so as to rentier them the most hideous and disgusting 
objects in the world. I have a very fine Cochin-China male 
bird, bought at the sale spoken of in my last communication 
(page 173), and he is so ragged in liis plumage as entirely 
to spoil his appearance. I attribute this to the animal food 
he has had given him since he was hatched. In other 
respects, he is a magnificent fellow ; and while speaking of 
him, I must relate something that tells greatly to his advan¬ 
tage. I had a hen with five young chickens which were 
nearly fledged, which had been kept for a few days only in 
the same yard with him. Thinking the chickens old enough 
to take care of themselves, I turned the lien into the general 
poultry-yard ; and the young ones, on being separated from 
their mother, at first complained most bitterly, but they soon 
found a substitute in their gallant friend, who kindly nestled 
and adopted them at once as his own. It was amusing to 
see him bending his long legs, and lowering his short wings, 
to cover his adopted family, whilst his silly-looking affections 
contrasted so oddly with his usual hectoring insolence. I 
must not omit to render illustrious, by means of your 
popular Journal, my favourite hen, Betsey. The name of 
Betsey has become popular among Cochin-China fowls, 
as having been adopted by our gracious Queen for one of 
her pets; and we all now, as loyal subjects ought to do, 
keep our Betseys. My Betsey is as handsome a Betsey 
as anybody’s Betsey. Her colour and her shape are perfect, 
and she presents me with a beautiful egg daily, and this 
egg is a perfect curiosity as to colour. It is a fine salmon 
colour, inclining to chocolate at the small end. Her eggs 
are held sacred, and never applied to any other purpose 
than the increase of her descendants. I have several of 
her chickens, which promise to be great beauties. 
I see, on turning over the leaves of your last volume 
(vol. vii. page 389), you ask in what manner greaves are best 
used for feeding poultry. Though it is some weeks since 
the question was asked, it may not be too late to inform you 
that I have pieces of the cake boiled into soup, which I 
