54 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
first-mentionecl breeds he charges 10s, and for one of the 
last Cs fid. On the other hand, the prize list of the Bir¬ 
mingham and Midland Counties exhibition of poultry for 
December next places the Aylesbury first, and the Rouen 
second, and names no other sort. 
Yet the Labrador duck deserves some notice. From Mr. 
Dixon's invaluable work we learn the particulars respecting 
this variety. The Zoological Society received it from Buenos 
Ayres under this name; but in the south of England it bears 
the name of the Black Indiau duck, which Mr. Dixon be¬ 
lieves to be tire true title, as all our tame importations are 
from the East. “The feet, legs, and entire plumage should 
be black—a few white feathers will occasionally appear; but 
I have had some birds,” says Mr. Dixon, “ that were imma¬ 
culate, and such should be the model of the breeder. The 
bill also is black, with a slight under-tinge of green. Not 
only the neck and back, but the larger feathers of the tail 
and wings, are gilt with metallic green; the female also 
exhibits slight traces of the same decoration.’' It appears 
also—and this is a very curious distinction indeed, that the 
eggs which they lay at the beginning of the season are black, 
and that this discoloration, which gradually fades away, is 
occasioned by an oily matter, which does not enter into the 
entire shell, but may be scraped off with the nail. Their 
wild flavour causes them to be much esteemed; and as they 
are as easily reared as any other ducks, there seems every 
reason to suppose they will become general favourites, from 
their extreme beauty. 
Ducklings. —It is to be remembered, that ducklings de¬ 
signed for the table should not have access to more water 
than may suffice for drink and for toilet purposes. Meal of 
any kind, with or without potatoes, is the best substance for 
fattening them. The gross matter on which they would 
feed, if permitted to do so, would impart a strong and offen¬ 
sive flavour to the flesh. Ducks are pre-eminently suited to 
the circumstances of the cottager who has a garden, from 
their great hardihood of constitution, and the facility with 
which they can be supported where garbage of any kind 
abounds ; yet, though they will eat garbage of any kind, and 
find a feast in a dead rat three-parts decayed, their flesh would 
be detestably offensive if fed during preparation for the table 
on any rank food. Under other circumstances, let them 
follow their instincts, and eat any filth they have a fancy 
for; there is no just reason for restraining the drake and 
laying ducks from the indulgence of then- natural appetites, 
whether it be for eating dirty food, and all the snails and 
worms the garden produces, dabbling in puddles, or swim¬ 
ming in muddy ponds. 
Green Food for Poultry.— Since the commencement of 
spring weather, more particularly, the poultry in our yard 
eat fresh greens of a.ll sorts with avidity, and in great quan¬ 
tities. They run to it with eagerness, though they have 
abundance; this shews that such food is natural, and, there¬ 
fore, no doubt beneficial to them. 
BEE-KEEPER'S CALENDAR.— May. 
By J. II. Payne, Esq., Author of “ The Bee-keeper's Guide," 
Ac. 
Delightful, shining May! with what pleasure are we all 
looking forward to its arrival as the harbinger of summer, 
but especially to him who after a long confinement of six 
months to a sick room is its approach doubly welcome. 
Its sweet, balmy days will invite the convalescent to a fre¬ 
quent ramble in the fields without the risk of danger from 
pinching winds. And who has made so vast an altera¬ 
tion between January and May,—and who is it that speaks 
lrom the woods and from the fields “ Aiise, and come away ! 
for, lo ! the whiter is past, the rain is over and gone, the 
flowers appeal’ on the earth, the time of the singing of birds 
is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land,” 
but He who “ spake, and it was done,—who commanded, and 
it stood fast! ” Our little favourites, too, by this time will 
have commenced in good earnest all their operations; the 
by-gone winter to them has been a favourable one, and many 
stocks that are now alive and prosperous would have been 
dead long ago had it been a mild one. 
I think I need not remind my apiarian friends that the 
time has now fully arrived for supplying boxes, glasses, and 
small hives, to those stocks which are not intended for 
[AriUL 25. 
swarming; for the manner of doing it I must refer to The 
Cottage Gardener, vol. ii., p. 41. Those persons, also, who 
are now about to commence bee-keeping (which I hope are 
not a few) must be preparing to make their purchases im¬ 
mediately, for the first May swarms are the only ones they 
should begin with ; and such swarms, if properly managed, 
will by the end of July more than repay their proprietors the 
amount given for them, besides the possession of an excel¬ 
lent stock for another year; indeed, I never purchased one 
that did not. (See The Cottage Gardener, vol. ii., p. 104.) 
Fumigation. —Much has been said and written to me 
lately upon the subject of fumigation, yet this is a process 
that I am not at all partial to; and, as far as my experience 
has gone, it is one which I have never yet had occasion to 
resort to in a single instance, for even in the most difficult 
operations I have always found a puff (and that a very little 
one) of tobacco-smoke to be all-sufficient. As I have said 
before, gentleness is the best protection; still, if by any little 
accident the bees should become irritated, a slight puff of 
tobacco-smoke quiets them at once. One reason for my not 
being partial to fumigation is, that I could never see the 
necessity for it; and another reason is, that all the bees 
which I have seen thus treated are sluggish and inactive for 
some days after the operation, besides many of them having 
been killed. Now, this in the early spring, or in the midst 
of the honey-gathering season, is certainly of great conse¬ 
quence, especially when we are told that a prosperous colony 
of bees will in a single day of the latter season collect from 
four to six pounds of honey. 
Taylor’s Improved Amateurs Bar-Hive. —I understand 
that a new edition of Taylor's Bee-Keeper's Manual will very 
shortly appeal’, in which mention will be made of the latest 
improvements in this hive; and I beg to say, in reply to the 
very many applications that I have had respecting it, that it 
is now made and sold, with the latest improvements, by 
Messrs. Neighbour and Son, 127, High Ilolborri, London, 
and by Mr. Baxter, cabinet maker, Bury St. Edmunds. 
Feeding. —An important circumstance connected with this 
subject has offered itself to my notice very recently, namely, 
that of giving bees food in a solid state. By this means very 
great trouble and inconvenience will be avoided, both to the 
bees as well as to their proprietors, for the former null be in 
no danger of drowning, and will also have a supply of food 
that they appear to like better than any that has ever before 
been given to them; whilst the latter will be spared the 
trouble of preparing those compounds usually recommended, 
many of which I have always considered to be very injurious 
to the bees, and more especially so when given in large 
quantities in the autumn. After many experiments by my¬ 
self and some apiarian friends, it is found that of all other 
solids barley-svyar has the decided preference with the bees ; 
they will take it before anything else that is offered to them, 
and the rapidity with which they dissolve it is quite 
surprising; it may be given either at the top of a hive, 
where there is an opening, by tying half a dozen sticks 
together and covering them with a box or small hive, or 
even with a flower-pot, or at the bottom, as in the common 
straw hive, by pushing a few sticks in at the entrance, for, 
unlike liquid food, it does not attract robbers nor cause 
fighting, although given in the day time. One of my friends 
supposes it to be the lemon flavour in the barley-sugar that 
is so pleasing to the bees, but I have within the last few 
days had some made without lemon, and when both kinds 
are offered to them at the same time the preference is given 
to the latter; I have tried the same also in liquid food, the 
lemon-flavoured is rejected for that without it. Another [ 
friend suggests it to be its deliquescent nature (that is, it be¬ 
comes moist when exposed to the air), combined with its 
highly purified state, which in all probability is the true 
reason, for here are no crystals to contend with, nor any 
disposition to form crystals, of which both loaf-sugar and 
sugar-candy consist; and honey, even when crystalized, is 
useless to the bees, and is cast out of the hive by thorn. It 
is certainly most convenient to be able to push a few sticks 
of barley-sugar under a weak hive, and to know that by so 
doing they are made secure from want for a time. The idea 
of expense may be a consideration with some persons at first 
seeing barley-sugar recommended for this purpose, but upon 
inquiry it will be found that it may be purchased for less 
than a shilling a pound, and it may be made for sixpence, 
