THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 25, 1860. 
185 
or three hundred feet in length. He expects next spring or 
summer to have about 6000 samples of the choicest American 
and European breeds of hens and cocks .—(American Paper.) 
RABBIT-KEEPING—HIMALAYAS—ANTWERPS. 
I am pleased to see the subject of Rabbit-keeping taken up 
with such spirit in your valuable paper. 
When travelling on the Continent, and seeing the quantities of 
Rabbits being prepared for shipment to England, 1 have often 
felt surprised that a country with every facility for breeding the 
same should be dependant for a supply from another country. 
I am a great lover of Rabbit’s flesh, and have often spoken of 
this subject to my country friends: when the reply has been, 
“ Rabbits are the most unprofitable of all live stock.” 
In some cases I have induced them to try the experiment, 
and without one case of failure. I agree with “ R. S. S.” in his 
mode of feeding and breeding in large courts ; and it will tend 
to induce many persons to keep them. Whereas, in hutches 
they would be objectionable on account of the unpleasant smell 
emitted, besides the nuisance of constantly cleaning out. 
There are two or three varieties which I should like to see 
introduced. I am pleased to think the Himalayan are being 
cultivated. They are one of the best kinds to keep. I fear the 
description you gave to one of your correspondents may pre¬ 
judice them. You stated they are small; but I have found 
these the best for table use, profit, or amusement. I have two 
does which I weighed this morning, one 8 lbs., the other 7 lbs. 
These cannot be called small Rabbits. 
Mr. Woolf, in his ■writings in the “ Proceedings of the Zoolo¬ 
gical Society, 1859,” states they are the handsomest and most 
interesting of the species. He states their skins have realised 
very high prices at Leipsic fair, when ermine was in fashion at 
Berlin, and to which the above are converted in imitation. 
The other variety I prefer is a blue or slate-coloured Rabbit, 
with upright ears, and very large, often weighing 14 lbs. when 
full grown. I have seen them on the Continent, but never here. 
I think they are called Antwerps. I have a friend in Belgium 
to whom I intend writing, and commissioning to buy me a few. 
—Louis Doubois. 
BEE FEEDING. 
This unparalleled bad honey season has caused me, as well as 
other apiarians, to take extra care for the lives of their bees. It 
is not the fault of “ my peoples ” if they have not provided 
themselves with sufficient store and to spare, for they have 
struggled hard to gain an independence, even to the sacrifice of 
many of their lives. 
I once had the pleasure of being introduced to your late 
amiable correspondent’s (J. H. Payne, Esq.) apiary by himself. 
Hives of high and low degree were there, and I distinctly re¬ 
member, amongst other advice, his condemnation of beer and 
brown sugar as bee food. It may interest you when I say that 
I called on Mrs. Payne the last time I was at Bury St. Edmund’s, 
about two years ago. She had left her residence in the Hatter’s 
Street, where the apiary was, in the centre of the town ; but she 
informed me that “ all her poor bees were dead—they missed 
the kind care of their late master, who was good to everything.” 
The artificial food I always recommended is from Mr. Payne’s 
original receipt—viz., 1 lb. of loaf sugar, £ lb. of honey, and 
i pint of water to be dissolved in a stewpan over a slowish fire. 
"Providentially almost for my bees, I had a good store of 
honey by me this autumn, and the reason why is curious. Last 
year I sent you word that London was overflowing with thin, 
light-coloured honey (one lot smelling villainously of onions!) 
the shade that Cockaigne prefers, and, of course, the dealers wero 
compelled to be fastidious. The man of the honey department 
at Messrs. Eortnum & Mason’s turned his face at once on my 
sample of lime honey, which was very good, though slightly dark- 
coloured, accountable to a honey dew which the bees gathered 
from the beech trees when the lime trees w r ere in blossom. 
Messrs. Fortnum & Mason purchased my early samples, and so, 
with a never-mind-it-does-not-the-least-signify air, I brought 
home again 40 lbs. of honey in supers ; for, to tell the truth, I 
was too proud to offer it again after having been once refused, 
and got terribly quizzed by the rector at taking it to so fine a 
market; but the fortuitous circumstance has enabled me to 
add, in lieu of the ilb. as above, A lb., and less sugar to my bee 
food, and the benefit of that despised honey to the bees now, and 
for my prospects in the future, I hope I shall be enabled to let 
you know. 
I have found it necessary to supply my four hives with 80 lbs. 
of food this autumn, 40 lbs. were given at the beginning of 
August, and 40 lbs. at the end of October. I send you a mental 
and bodily description of a contrivance of my own by which I 
administered it. 
Procure an empty fig-drum having a depth of—say 6£ inches, 
take out the bottom and refix it an inch and a half higher up, 
filling any cavities that may remain with hot glue around it or 
up the original closing at the side. Cotton wadding forced in 
firmly with the blade of a shut knife is also not a bad substitute. 
Around the circumference at the bottom of the drum cut three 
arched spaces, rising an inch at their apex, and leave between 
each about three inches of the original base as supporters. At 
opposing diameters inside fix two uprights 4i inches deep, and 
four-eighths by three-eighths of an inch in substance, with small 
screws from the outside. Then cut a circular piece from the lid 
of a papered hat-box, about one-eighth of an inch smaller in 
circumference than the inside of the drum, and form two opposite 
grooves to relieve themselves well of the uprights. Tin tack two 
thin strips of deal parallel an inch apart across to prevent 
warping. Tack on the opposite or under side, at right angles, 
four pieces of a cork cut three-eighths of an inch thick ; and with 
a bare bodkin or knitting-needle red hot pierce a quantity of 
holes over its whole surface, forming one central hole half an 
inch in diameter, and secure therein a strip of bended zinc 
three-quarters of an inch deep, to answer for a handle, vice versa, 
to the corks which are beneath, in order to allow the bees to 
clear out all the food through their agency, and the central tube 
when the self-acting floats have reached the bottom. It effectually 
secures the bees from death by immersion in its progress down¬ 
ward, and it is a rare sight to watch them at a midnight feast of 
this kind. It is gluttony perfectly typified, though really to be 
understood in the opposite sense as regards our little friends. 
My hives are made of straw throughout, with flat tops, after 
the model of Mr. Payne’s cottage-hives, but larger, being 
16 inches outside diameter by 11 inches deep, and each hive 
containing fully as many as three times more bees than are 
usually found in common-sized hives. They have central holes 
in their tops 4 inches in diameter, and thin plaited straw 
fastened over them with three or four cast wall nails. I have 
four-eighths-of-an-inch adapting-boards 14 inches square, with 
central holes corresponding to those in the hives, and fitted with 
moveable deal fillets about an inch deep. When I find occasion 
to feed in autumn I proceed as follows :—I cut a strip of thick 
cotton wadding about 2 feet 6 inches long by 2 inches broad, 
and encircle it upon the top of the hive, then quietly and 
quickly ply up the piece of plaited straw, immediately lay 
on the adapting-board, and slip the fillet down upon the top 
of the hive, being very particular to see that no part of it 
remains above the surface of the adapting-board ; the fillet 
refuses the bee3 admittance under the board, for the central 
parts of straw hives are generally become sunken a little, more 
or less. Place the feeder upon the adapting-board over the 
orifice, and a large bell propagating-glass over the feeder; 
then, with a goose’s wing—which should always be at hand in all 
bee operations—waft off those that may be running about the 
board, and cover the glass with an overall-hive, and surmount 
that with a large milkpan, which weighs the overall-hive upon 
the adapting-board, which presses the cotton wadding into the 
irregularities on the surface of the stock-hive, defying earwigs, 
woodlice and all other insect depredators. In the course of half 
an hour listen at the outside of the hive, and you will hear a 
sound as of a resounding sea. 
I apply my depriving-glasses and supers during the honey¬ 
gathering time on the above adapting-board plan; and my over- 
all-hives are made 13 inches in diameter, 1 foot deep, flat at top, 
quite level at the bottom, and minus the bee-entrance. My 
feeder holds 8 lbs. of food. I supply it to the hives about 
six P.M. in August, five p.m. in October, and by nine next morn¬ 
ing my bees have generally stored the food, and mostly forsaken 
the feeder about eleven A.M. I then spread a piece of matting 
before the hive, remove the pan, overall-hive and glass, and 
feeder ; and when no more food is to be given the feeder is 
placed on the matting. I take off the adapter and cotton wad¬ 
ding, waft off the bees from the top of the hive, secure the piece 
of plaited straw instanter over the hole, and replace the milkpan 
on the stock-hive. With the wing I then move off what bees 
