THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 9, 1860. 
will greedily consume lettuce, cabbage, turnip-tops, and almost 
all garden refuse, and cannot possibly be kept in good health 
without a supply of such food. They are very fond of the grass 
mown by a machine, provided it is quite fresh and recently cut. 
I should advise your subscriber to let his birds have one feed 
each day of boiied rice mixed with barley flour, this they will 
relish much better than hard corn; but by all means let them 
have barley by them to eat a little now and then, but not to be 
dependant upon it. 
I have had Peahens lay as many as fifteen eggs in confine- 
ment: these should be placed under large Cochin hens, and not i 
be entrusted to the natural mother. If the young are fed for 
some time upon eggs boiled hard, curd, and a few crumbs of 
dry bread, they will be easily reared. A supply of water is 
always necessary—they are great drinkers. ! 
Your subscriber must not be alarmed because his Peacock’s 
tail does not grow as fast as his vegetable marrows. The tail is , 
never perfect until about the end of January, and in old birds J 
even later. They are six months in deshabille. 
There are four kinds of Pea Powl—the Black-winged, the 
Brown-winged, the Pied, and the White. No birds differ more 
in disposition than Peacocks : some are quiet, respectable, stay-at- ; 
home, affectionate birds ; others marauding, screaming, frantic 
vagabonds. 
They ought to have a warm, comfortable roost, with perches 
as high as possible. My roosts are roofed with glass. If you 
have any regard for your birds keep them warm ; they are . 
Indians by extraction.—R. B., RadcUffe-on-Treat. 
CHINCHILLA RABBITS—RABBIT-KEEPING. 
If “Jemima Wilhelmina,” who, I see by your paper of s 
October 2nd, wants some Chinchilla Rabbits, will refer to 
No. 623 of The Poultry Chronicle , she will see some advertised | 
for sale ; also Himalayans. Both of the above kinds I have kept 
and found thorn the most profitable, both for table purposes and 
for sale. I am surprised that Rabbit-keeping in England has 
been so long neglected, when the keeping of poultry has been quite 
a rage. In France, Poland, Prussia, and Asia, no farm-house 
or poultry-yard of any pretensions is without a rabbitry. 
In France, I know several persons who make handsome 
incomes by Rabbit-keeping. 
I attribute the reason of Rabbit-keeping being neglected, is 
the want of a good work on the subject. There are several, but 
not one is of any use. Now, in France there are about six 
standard works on Rabbit-keeping alone. There is one by 
M. Despony, “ Le Lapin Domestique,” in which there is some 
first-rate information, if translated. I regret I am not a French 
scholar to do so. I am sorry I am not well up in literature to 
write a few articles in your valuable paper on the subject, which 
I am sure would be well received by your readers, as the taste 
for the keeping of Rabbits is increasing very much, judging from 
the number of queries you have every week.—M. J., Surrey. 
[If you will send us a series of articles upon Rabbit-keeping, 
you will greatly oblige us, and we will take care that the literary 
part is attended to. We are making arrangements for more 
information concerning Rabbits.—E ds. C. G.] 
STICKS IN BEE-HIYES. 
Your correspondent “ILK. J.,” Hampstead, seems to have 
misinterpreted my meaning in a previous communication under I 
tinsheading. The expression “ common straw hive” I supposed , 
would be sufficient to convey to most apiarians the idea of the 
usual bell-shapecl hive in common use, the material being 
obviously foreign to the subject. I may mention for his infor- : 
mation that such hives generally average fourteen inches diameter 
by ten deep—the size of the two unfortunate hives therein referred 
to ; also that hives of wood are frequently furnished with supports 
—the best of the class, the Stewarton, being always so provided, 
although only six inches deep. Without depreciating the 
treatises of the two justly reputed apiarians quoted by your 
correspondent, the “Young Bee-keeper” would do well to 
bear in mind that, generally speaking, authors, in these rapid- 
book-getting-up days on more subjects than bees, are apt to 
re-echo in their own phraseology the seemingly feasible theories j 
of preceding writers without bringing them to the test of actual j 
experiment, and that his best teacher is that stern old dame : 
Experience. When he finds any contrariety exists between her 
and the rules laid down by his author, the latter must bend to 
the former, not the former to the latter. From careful obser¬ 
vation through the windows of those of my hives furnished with 
a cross stick, I cannot say that the bees seemed at all annoyed at 
its presence; on the contrary, from their introduction readily 
availed themselves of the support it afforded their clustering 
mass pendant from the combless centre of the hive, and I have 
no doubt but at such a time they could be conveyed a distance- 
with much less disturbance in consequence. Comb-building 
subsequently progressed favourably—the bees taking full advan¬ 
tage of the communication thus opened from side to side of the 
hive, and indeed paced along it, seeming to appreciate the con¬ 
venience with as much apparent pleasure as southern tourists are 
at this moment doing the steamer paddle-box gangway when 
exploring our Scottish lochs and rivers. So much for the 
annoyance objection. 
As to the other—the impossibility of extracting the combs, I 
do not anticipate any difficulty, but a decided advantage, after 
the plan I have devised, which permit me to describe. In hives 
of ordinary depth one support will suffice, which should be of 
wood half inch square, in length barely the diameter of the hive, 
so that it can be moved up and down without actually touching 
the sides; to be secured in its place from the outside with stout 
brass screws, which should be rather below the centre, and at 
right angles with the entrance. In a common cottage hive, after 
the screws have been removed and the combs separated with a 
comb-knife, the stick will afford a catch in lifting them out. 
Suppose, however, an improved hive so fitted set aside for plun¬ 
dering, the top, whether in a piece or consisting of a frame of 
bars and slides, secured in its position with screws, the inmates 
once expelled, the apiarian, after withdrawing the screws and 
severing any slight end attachments, can easily raise the top 
bearing the entire contents and place them reversed on a table 
before him, and then select and appropriate as much of the 
sealed tops of the combs (containing the finest honey) as he 
thinks fit, leaving always at least two combs entire to preserve 
the support in its position. The lower portion of those cut, in 
which the brood pollen and unsealed honey are deposited, remain 
fixed thereto: and then, with the top replaced as before, the 
bees reintroduced will speedily fill up the blanks. 
A still more secure plan I have adopted in some hives is, 
instead of the support being kept in position as above ex¬ 
plained, to secure it by upright pieces of wood of similar square 
fitted to each end, and secured above by a notch cut out of the 
outer side of each end bar, forming, as it were, a frame. In 
this case the whole upper portion of combs can be removed; 
and the bottom part, usually serviceable only for the melting-pot, 
retained to good account in the hive. 
By some such simple device the apiarian can handle his hires 
with freedom, and move them to any distance without hazarding 
their total destruction, with, I should think, very little annoyance 
to either the bee or the bee-master.—A Young Bee-keeper. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
SlLVER-SPANGLED HaMBURGIIS AT PORTSEA POULTRY SHOW.—“ I beg 
to correct a mistake in the prize list of the Silver-spangled Hamburgh Class 
at Portsea Poultry Show. My address is, Jas, Newick, Hinton St. George, 
near Ilmineter.” 
Sr anish Chickens at the Portsea Show It was at the Ports¬ 
mouth Poultry Show that my Spanish chickens were commended, where I 
did not send them. You have put at the Crystal Palace, which is a mistake.” 
—John R. Rodbard. 
Devizes Poultry Show- (£.).—If you refer to the list which we publish 
weekly, you will see that the entries close on the 13 th of the present month . 
Why postpone entering until the last day ? It is founded on no good reason. 
Feeding Bees (A. B .).—We do not know how better to reply to your' 
inquiry than by referring you to our number for August 28th. page'336. 
Of course, the quantity of food requisite depends upon the weight of your 
stocks, and it should be given at once, for feeding by driblets is very un- 
ndvisable at this season. It may assist you to recollect that a common 
straw hive usually weighs when empty from five to six pounds, an ordinary 
swarm about four pounds, the wax of a full hive of the current year nearly 
two pounds, of the preceding year about three pounds, and the farina not 
less than one pound, making altogether about fifteen pounds. To make 
the stock secure for the winter, there ought to be another fifteen pounds in 
honey, or some substitute for it, or a total of thirty pounds gross. 
Hon by eor Feeding Bees.. Messrs. Neighbour & Son, have written 
to us as fol.ows : “ \\ e had but little conception when addressing you on 
this subject a few weeks ago, of the demand that would be made upon us 
for the honey we were enabled to part with, at 45s. per cwt. Will you 
kindly intimate to your numerous apiarian friends, through The Cottage 
Gardener, that the honey referred to is entirely disposed of? The lowest 
price we now have suitable for the purpose is 52*., and that we have hut 
lew cwts. remaining.” 
