THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 27.] 
hens, and goose's eggs under turkeys, that are manifesting 
a strong desire to sit during July and August. The turkey- 
hen is a very assiduous nurse, and will sit upon the eggs of 
a goose or of any other bird as willingly as upon her own, or 
those of any other turkey. As it is, however, natural for her 
to sit at least thirty days, it is better to place the eggs of a 
goose, which require the same period of incubation ; though, 
no doubt, the turkey-lien, if she were employed to hatch 
chickens, would not be uncomfortable at finding them libe¬ 
rated from the shell ten days sooner, which would enable 
her to stretch her legs, and enjoy the self-importance of a 
step-mother so much sooner. 
The art of poultry-rearing is useful abroad as well as at 
home ; to British residents in foreign lands as well as to the 
inhabitants of the United Kingdom. 
Turkeys. —At Calcutta, turkeys are now reared in great 
abundance for the sunply of the tables of the British, at 
which these noble birds are considered almost indispensable. 
We suppose that it is very easy to rear turkeys in the warm 
climate of India, and that second, and perhaps third, broods 
of many tribes of the gallinaceous order are a matter of 
regular course among the poultry-keepers there. 
The importance of giving abundance of food to young tur¬ 
keys, and, indeed, to all the young of poultry, cannot be too 
frequently urged. “ The demands of nature for the growth of 
bone, muscle, and particularly of feather, are so great, that 
no subsequent supply of food can make up for a fast of a 
couple of hours. The feathers will still go on, and grow, and 
grow, and grow, and drain the sources of vitality still faster 
than they can be supplied, till the bird faints and expires 
from inanition. I have even fancied that I have seen a 
growth of quill and feather after death in young poultry, 
which we had failed in rearing. The possibility of such a 
circumstance is supported by the well known fact of the 
growth of hair and nails in many deceased persons. This 
constant supply of suitable food is, I believe, the great secret 
in rearing the more delicate birds, turkeys, guinea fowls, 
phesants, &c.; never to suffer the growth of the chick 
(which goes on whether it has food in its stomach or not) 
to produce exhaustion of the vital powers for want of the 
necessary aliment. Young turkeys, as soon as they once 
feel languid from this cause, refuse them food when it is at 
last offered to them (just like a man whose appetite is gone 
in consequence of having waited too long for his dinner), and 
never would eat more, were food not forced down their 
throats, by which operation they may frequently be recovered; 
but the little guinea fowls give no notice of this faintness till 
they are past all cure, and a struggle of a few minutes 
shows that they have indeed out-grown their strength, or, 
rather, that the materials for producing strength has not 
been supplied to them in a degree commensurate with their 
growth.”* 
Turkey chicks, when they are “ shooting the red," that is, 
when the feathers about the head and neck are becoming 
reddish (which change takes place when the birds are about 
| two months old) require especial care as to feeding; after 
their constitutions are once established, less attention as to 
the quality of the food is necessary, as we have already had 
occasion to remark; but this one rule should be always ob¬ 
served, never to allow young turkeys, or the young of any 
poultry, to be hungry or become thin; inattention to this 
* Dixon. 
rule is the cause of much of the mortality which prevails 
among poultry. 
Geese. —Though goslings will find much satisfaction in 
eating every sort of vegetable, even nettles if chopped up for 
them, it would be miserable economy to withhold from them 
a due allowance of meal and grain. Such large frameworks 
as them's require proportional feeding. "When they are ram¬ 
bling about on commons, care should be taken, yet, to keep 
them from dabbling in ponds or ditches. The cramp, which 
is often so fatal, may be avoided by observing this precaution 
as well as by reasonably good feeding; for the cramp may be 
occasioned by debility of stomach. 
Mr. Cobbett boasted of having the most tender, and best 
flavoured, and altogether the finest geese in England, by 
buying goslings at this season, and confining them in a pen 
well supplied witli straw. In one trough he had water, in 
the other oats. This, with lettuces starting to seed or in a 
sound state, and cabbages, were their entire food. After ten 
days he began to kill a bird or two every week until October; 
and he calculated that the oats for each bird did not cost 
more than one shilling—when oats were much dearer, too, 
than now. In short, he saved half the market price of geese 
by that simple management. The garden supplied half the 
requisite food. 
THE BEE-KEEPER’S CALENDAR— July. 
By J. H. Payne, Esq., Author of “ The Bee-keeper's 
Guide,” Ac. 
Unless June shall have proved a more favourable month 
for our little favourites than May has been, I am afraid that 
instead of receiving from them a supply of honey it must 
this year be reversed, and wc must afiord the supply, or 
we shall have no bees another season. Amongst my own 
bees I have not yet seen a drone, nor have I heard of any 
having been seen but in one apiary in this neighbourhood. 
I have heard of two attempts at swarming; the numbers 
were very small, and in both cases the bees rearmed to 
the parent hive, and, in all probability, it was poverty that 
induced them to leave it. In looking over my hives yester¬ 
day, the 10th June, I find the combs of many of them to be 
as bare of bees as they were in February, which circumstance 
I never remember having witnessed before. It is usual for 
us at this time to see our glasses filling fast, and to be 
thinking about giving additional room, but I have not yet 
even put on a glass, nor shall I for some time to come. 
Wasps. —I see that Mr. Underwood, of the Haymarket, 
advertizes his “ wasp catchers," and I am quite sure that it 
is needful for us all to use every means in our power for the 
destruction of these sad enemies to our bees, and in this 
season more especially as “ prevention is always better than 
cure,” that object is attained by capturing the queen wasp at 
this time, and, indeed, as long as they can be seen. Some 
persons recommend shooting them ; I have always found a 
garden-syringe to be a very useful thing, for if filled with 
water and discharged at them, it seldom fails to bring 
them to the ground—but it matters not by what means so 
that they are destroyed. 
Uniting Swarms.— The necessity for uniting swarms tins 
year, I think, will be apparent to every one at all acquainted 
with bee-management, and, indeed, in some cases ot return¬ 
ing swarms; but this cannot be done with any chance of 
success but in a bar-hive, and there the operator is sure to 
succeed, the manner of performing the operation will be as 
follows :—As soon as the swarm has left the parent hive, 
proceed immediately to open the hive and take out the bars 
one by one, and cutting from each comb every royal cell 
that is seen upon it and replacing the comb again in the 
hive. The cell in which the queen bee' is bom is entirely of 
a different construction from that of either the drone or the 
common bees. The cell of the latter is placed horizontally 
in the hive, and that of the queen is placed perpendicularly; 
that of the common bee is an exact hexagon, and that, of 
the queen circular; besides, the cell of the queen is always 
fixed at the sides of the combs, and generally upon those 
near the middle of the hive. This operation of removing 
the royal cells will take about five minutes, and when done, 
return the swarm immediately to the hive; the old queen 
which led it off finding by this process that there is no royal 
brood left in the hive to succeed her, will not again attempt to 
