170 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 1. 
Section 5.—(Any other variety.) 
310. Second prize, Mr. George Curzon, Weston Underwood, (Booted 
Bantams.) Age, two j'ears. 
Class 9.-ANY OTHER DISTINCT BREED. 
312. Second prize, Miss Fanny Hurt, Alderwasley, Belper. (White 
Silk Fowls.) Age, six months. 
Class 10.—TURKEYS. 
320. First prize, Mr. E. W. Wilmot, Hulme Walfield, Congleton. 
(Wild American.) Age, eighteen months. 321. Second prize, Mr. S. 
Stone, C(dlingwood, Burton-on-Trent. (American.) 323. Third prize, 
Miss E. Steele Perkins, Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. (White.) 
Age, cock, one-and-a-half years ; hens, two-and-a-half years. 
(The whole class commended.) 
Class 11.—GEESE. 
338. First prize, Mrs. Shcrwin, Bramcote Hall. Age, six months. 339. 
Second prize, Mr. John Faulkner, Bretby. 337. Third prize, Mr. Spencer 
Stone, Collingwood, Burton-on-Trent. (Toulouse.) 
Class 12.—DUCKS. Section 1.—(Aylesbury.) 
I 347* First prize, Bliss Darwin, Breadsall Priory. Age, four months. 
350. Second prize, BIr. James Sutton, Shardlow Hall. Age, five months 
j and four daj's. 
Section 2.—(Rouen.) 
353. First prize, BIr. J. Lathbury, Wetmoor Hall, Burton-on-Trcnt. 
Section 3.—(Any other variety.) 
3d. First prize, Mr. T. S. Tunaley, Tamworth. (Java.) 357. Second 
prize, BIr. J. Spencer Stone, Collingwood, Burton-on-Trent. (White 
Call Ducks.) 363. Third prize, Bliss E. Steele Perkins, Coldfield, near 
Birmingham. (Black Labrador.) Age, two about six months; one 
about seven months. 
Class 13.—GUINEA FOWL. 
367 . First prize, BIr. John R. Rodbard, Aldwick Court, Wrington, 
near Bristol. 
UNITING AND FEEDING BEES. 
I wish to keep through the winter four stocks of bees, if 
there is any prospect of doing so with reasonable expense, 
of which, according to the present appearances, there is a 
I poor prospect, unless the food I have been giving is not so 
j beneficial to them as that recommended by Mr. Payne, and 
j others, viz.:—one pound of loaf-sugar, a quarter-of-a-pint- 
of water, and four pounds of honey. What I have been 
{ using, is one pound of crushed loaf-sugar, half-a-pint of 
strong ale, and a table spoonful of white wine, boiled in the 
i usual way, which they take very freely, and is what I have 
been in the habit of using for ten years. I feed all at night, 
at the top, in caps of Taylor’s boxes, three inches deep, and 
eleven inches square, turned upside down, and filled with 
empty combs. I pour the syrup into them, and find the 
bees take it better out of them than they do from tin or 
zinc feeders. It has all been consumed by tbe following 
morning, so that there has been no loss by robbers. The 
puzzle to me is, why they have consumed so much during 
the time, about a month, while I have been feeding; and if 1 
am to continue feeding till they come to the weight recom¬ 
mended to keep them through the winter, namely, twenty 
pounds each, I am afraid it will be a ruinous affair. 
I must say this is the worst season I ever experienced for 
bees, as the accounts are all bad in this part (Cheshire's. 
Those who had early swarms find that scarcely any of them 
can possibly stand through the winter, and many are dead 
already. 
No. 1 and 2 of my stocks are in square straw bar-hives, 
which I had from Mr. Payne, in the spring, which hives I 
have a very good opinion of. The swarms wore put in each 
on the 0th of June ; they are strong, and have worked very 
well; have filled the hives down to the floor-boards with 
combs, and are worked beautifully and even on every bar. 
On September 12th, I added a stock to No. 1, by stupi- 
fying them with Racodium cellars, in the usual way. They 
united and agreed perfectly. On the 16th of September, 
they weighed, aftor deducting the hive and floor-board, only 
nine pounds one ounce, for bees, comb, and honey; so that 
if four-and-a-half pounds is allowed for the bees, there was 
only four pounds nine ounces for combs and honey. I 
commenced feeding them with the above syrup, gave them 
four-and-a-half pounds, and to my great surprise, on weighing 
; them on the 21st of October, I found they have only three 
pounds ten ounces. So they are fifteen ounces lighter than 
| they were before they were fed. 
No. 2, I added a stock to on the 12th of September, 
weighed them on the 16th, and found that they had only 
one pound one ounce for combs and honey, after deducting 
as above. I gave them four-and-a-lialf pounds of syrup, 
and they weighed, on the 21st of October, one pound six 
ounces. So they had gained five ounces. 
No. 3, are in one of Taylor’s square boxes, eleven inches 
square, and nine inches deep inside. They are a swarm of 
1852 ; did not swarm this season ; put a stock to them on 
the 12th of September; weighed them on the 16th of 
October, and they had three pounds four ounces, after de¬ 
ducting as above. Gave them four-and-a-half pounds of 
syrup, and they weighed, on the 21st, three pounds fourteen 
ounces. So they had gained ten ounces. 
No. 4, are in Taylor’s box, as above, a swarm of 1851. 
They swarmed on the 6th of June. I weighed them on the 
16th of September. They weighed eight pounds one ounce, 
after deducting as above ; gave them three pounds of syrup, 
and they weighed, on the 21st of October, seven pounds 
eight ounces. So they had lost nine ounces. 
I should be glad to know if any of the subscribers to 
The Cottage Gardener have tried King’s patent hives, 
and whether they answer the purpose he states in his 
pamphlet, of uniting the old stock to a swarm taken from it 
the summer before, and putting it under the old stock in 
another box till the autumn, then taking the old stock off, 
cutting out the combs, and letting the bees return to the 
box the swarm is in ; if they would work through the box 
the swarm is put in peaceably through the summer, and 
unite well with them in the under box when they are turned 
out of their own ? If all this is effected, it would save 
much trouble and loss of bees, in either drumming or 
fumigating; for after ten years of practice in fumigating, I 
scarcely ever miss a season, with the greatest care, but I 
have a loss by over smoking. This year, out of six, I had 
a loss in two. In one I had seven ounces, and in the other 
eleven ounces, dead; in the other four I lost scarcely one. 
I find there is a great difficulty in being quite correct in the 
process; it is scarcely ever resorted to in this part—all go to 
the brimstone pit! I find there is a great difficulty in 
getting the bees from between the combs, but I hope to 
succeed better now, by using shallower hives.— H. Hood. 
[Use no more strong ale and wine for feeding, but sugar, 
water, and honey, in the manner already recommended. 
Four-pounds-and-a-half is a great deal too much to allow 
for the weight of bees in a hive at this season of the year;— 
certainly by one-half, if not more. 
The reason of their increasing so little in weight, in pro¬ 
portion to the quantity of food given, may arise from two 
causes; first, upon close inspection, it may be discovered 
that since giving the food, comb-making has been going on, 
which will account for it; or, perhaps, some brood may have 
been hatched off; and it is not improbable but the stimu¬ 
lating nature of the food given may have had something to 
do in the matter. 
King’s patent hive we have never seen in operation.— 
J. H. P ] 
HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
ACHILLEA ROSEA. 
This, the rose-coloured Milfoil, is so called by Waldstein 
and Kitaibel, two botanical writers upon Hungarian plants, 
of which country this beautiful plant is a native. 
This plant is closely allied to our indigenous species 
called A. millefolium, and more especially to its red variety, 
but it is altogether a larger growing plant, and its flowers 
much larger, and of a deeper dark rose colour. These 
points render it a most desirable plant for our flower- 
borders. Its leaves are all bi or tripinnatifid, or many and 
finely cut. Its flowers are produced in compact spreading 
heads in June, and more or less to November. Of course, 
the decaying flower-stems should at all times be cut away 
as soon as their bloom is over, and the successional stems 
neatly tied up. This plant generally rises from two to 
three feet in height, therefore, mailing a good plant for a 
second row in the bed or border, or a back or centre row, 
where tbe beds are small, or the borders narrow, and is in¬ 
tended to be filled with dwarfish plants. 
