December 27. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
17:1 
corderof Dublin, to Her Majesty's poultry-keeper, Mr. 
Walter’s, and to Mr Nolan of Dublin. One of the 
hens presented by Her Majesty, and named “ Bessy,” 
laid 94 eggs in 103 days. 
As all our varieties, either more or less remotely, 
are descended from parents, natives of dry and hot 
climates, the changes no less than the natural seve¬ 
rity of the atmosphere, are now very prejudicial to 
the constitutions of the gallinaceous tribes. The few 
observant and scientific men who have condescended 
to turn their attention to the physiology of poultry 
and the causes, effects, and treatment of their ma¬ 
ladies have traced many of these to derangement of 
the digestive organs, and to pulmonary, nervous, and 
febrile, affections—most of which arise from want of 
protection from rain and cold vapours. Foul-feeding 
and dirty water have their share too in producing 
the disorders of fowls; and the finer and more valu 
able varieties are the most liable to suffer from any 
of the foregoing causes of distemper. Asthma, roup, 
and diarrhoea may now prevail. For the first, Mr. 
Richardson recommends warmth and repeated doses 
of sulphur, ipecacuanha, and Cayenne pepper, mixed 
with butter; for the second, which resembles the in¬ 
fluenza in dogs, and is attended with difficulty of 
breathing, gaping, blindness, and ultimately a foul 
discharge from the nostrils, and great thirst, pellets 
of powdered gentian 1 part, powdered ginger 1 part, 
Epsom salts 1 and a Half parts, flour of sulphur a 
half part, made up with butter, and given every 
morning. The swelling of the tail-gland has been 
often mistaken for the roup ; but it is merely a boil, 
which, when ripe, should be opened. Change from 
damp to dry warm air will usually cure diarrhoea. 
Old women’s specifics are, after all, the most likely 
to be efficacious. One of their approved remedies 
for gapes, or influenza, is a pellet of pounded me and 
lard slipped down into the maw once a day; and for 
gout or rheumatism, to which old hens are subject in 
severe weather, the warmth of a chimney-corner, with 
a bed of wool in a basket, or a roll of flannel round 
the legs. 
Amongthe tribes of the gallinaceous order Guinea, 
fowls are not to be overlooked. They are in season 
from December to April, and come in when game 
has gone out, and before spring-chickens are for¬ 
ward. The plumage of the Guinea-fowl is ex¬ 
tremely pretty, being spangled with small spots of 
white over a black ground, shaded with grey and 
brown; occasionally, the black and white change 
places, making the plumage look as if covered with a 
net-work of lace. This bird is a native of Central 
Africa; rather wild in its habits, and therefore un¬ 
suited to poultry-keepers who have no run for them. 
They like to roam about in search of grubs and in¬ 
sects, and to pick blades of grass. Fattening them 
in the coop is so contrary to tlieir habits, that usually 
they pine away, if too confined. The best treatment 
for them is to feed them well in the poultry-yard with 
corn. They are especially valuable as layers, being, 
of all known birds, perhaps, the most prolific of eggs. 
At the proper time we shall have to treat of the 
rearing of these interesting birds, and tell the reader 
how to know the cock from the hen : for to distin¬ 
guish them is rather difficult. 
THE BEE-KEEPER’S CALENDAR.— Jan. 
By J. H. Payne , Esq., A uthor of “ The Bee-Keeper s 
Guide,” dc. 
Much has already been said about feeding, clean¬ 
ing floor-hoards , and securing the hives well against 
wet. Presuming, therefore, that all these things 
have been well attended to, little remains to be done 
during the present month beyond destroying the 
titmouse ( Pams major), already described, in those 
localities where they happen to abound; to see that 
the entrances of the hives are narrowed, and that 
during the time snow remains upon the ground, 
that they are wholly closed, so that not a single bee 
can escape, for the sun shining upon the snow never 
fails to bring the bees out of their hives, and, settling 
upon the snow, they are immediately chilled, and 
die; but, upon the disappearance of the snow, not 
an hour must be lost in unstopping the entrances, 
and giving the bees full liberty. This is very im¬ 
portant, for, after a confinement of ten or twelve 
days, which may sometimes be found necessary, full 
liberty must be given them, upon the melting of the 
snow, by unstopping the hives; and not only un¬ 
stopping, but seeing that the entrances are clear, 
and not filled up with dead bees, which, after a long 
confinement, will very frequently happen. Many a 
good stock has perished for want of this precaution. 
The provident apiarian will now provide himself 
with all the glasses and hives, of whatever kind he 
may fancy, either of wood or straw, that he may be 
likely to require during the ensuing season, and it is 
always better to have a few to spare than to have a 
short supply, for it is not at all an unusual thing for 
a swarm to fly away whilst sending about to procure 
a hive; when, on the contrary, bad there been a 
good supply, much time and inconvenience would 
have been saved, as well as the loss of the bees pre¬ 
vented. Many cottagers around me make their own 
hives during the winter evenings, and very praise¬ 
worthy it is; the materials to make them cost very 
little. Straw is easily obtained, brambles also to 
sew them with abounds everywhere, and the method 
of making them is very easily acquired. 
I have just learnt, from a person recently returned 
from Australia, an account of a single stock of bees, 
which he took from England with him a few years 
ago. “They have,” says he, “stocked the whole 
district, and all the farmers are getting them ; they 
work all the year round, and make a great quantity 
of honey of very excellent quality.” This person 
uses square wood boxes, and obtains his honey by 
deprivation. He is going to take out with him some 
glasses made Upon the most approved plan. 
I heard, a short time since, of a ton weight of 
honey being sent to England from Australia by one 
person, but these large importations need not alarm 
the English cottager, they will not at all affect the 
sale or the price of bis honey; for this imported 
honey must necessarily be drained, in which state it 
always fetches a very low price, whilst bis honey in 
the combs, in neat little hives or glasses, of about 
eight or ten pounds each, will, at all times, fetch in 
the London market from one to two shillings a 
pound, and sometimes even a higher price. In my 
next paper I will endeavour to tell my cottage friends 
what a cottager, residing in a village near to me, did 
with his honey a few years ago in the London 
1 market, and, I think, the success which he met with 
will induce them all to keep bees. I I lave frequently 
heard persons exclaim, when looking at a well-filled 
! glass of honey, “ I wish that I possessed a garden, and 
1 would certainly have some bees.” Now, this is not 
: indispensably necessary, for, says Dr. Bevan, “ to 
those who, residing in towns, may consider it indis¬ 
pensable to the success of an apiary that it should 
be in the immediate vicinity of good pasturage, and 
be thereby deterred from benefiting and amusing 
themselves by keeping bees, it may be satisfactory to 
