THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 4, 1859. 
After a very close run, the seven-guinea cup (a really beautiful 
one), was gained by Mr. Peters, of Birmingham. The competitor 
who pressed him so heavily being Mr. C'hune, of Coalbrookdale. 
Many of the highest families in the county of Salop were 
among the visitors ; and the superior manner in which every de¬ 
partment of the Show was conducted was universally admitted. 
One great drawback to the Bridgnorth Poultry Exhibition 
hitherto, we are pleased to hear, will shortly be obviated 
altogether, by the town possessing railway communication. As 
at present, however, the poultry have to travel fully ten miles by 
ordinary roads, it has.naturally tended to limit the number of 
entries considerably. We trust before another Meeting the fresh 
arrangements will be completed, and we shall then have but very 
little doubt that the Show itself, equally with the numbers 
visiting it, will be thereby greatly augmented. 
Mr. Edward Hewitt, of Eden Cottage, Spark Brook, officiated 
as the Judge on this occasion. 
TAIL OP SILVER-SPANGLED HAMBURGH 
COCK-EAR-LOBES OF GAME PULLETS. 
In your “ Poultry Book for the Many,” you state “ that in 
the tail of the Silver-spangled Hamburgh cock white appears, 
though black should decidedly preponderate.” Is this still held 
to in judging poultry at Exhibitions ? I have this year bred 
several cockerels, all whose tail-feathers are a pure white with 
large black spangle on the extremity, which I considered to be 
more perfect than where the hackle-feathers were splashed with 
black ; and in showing my poultry to a friend lately, he pointed 
out the above statement in your book, which is the cause of my 
troubling you with this communication. 
I have also bred some Game fowls this season, and in some of 
the pullets I notice a whitish tinge about the centre of the ear¬ 
lobes. Is this a serious objection, if any, to their success as 
exhibition birds? ”—J. Young. 
[The tail of a Spangled Hamburgh cock should be entirely 
white, save the spangle at the extremity, which should be a 
bright black. This is perfection. Splashed feathers are a great 
defect. Your friend, probably, confounded Pencilled and 
Spangled Hamburghs. In the tail of the former black should, 
undoubtedly, preponderate, as the foundation colour of the 
feathers, but they should be hedged on both sides with a dull 
silver white. A similar mistake is made in “ The Poultry Book 
for the Many,” but the woodcut there is right. 
White, or partially white, ear-lobes in Game pullets are not 
desirable, but they do not by any means form a serious objection. 
Indeed, they can hardly be considered in that light.] 
B. & W.’s NEW APIARY. 
There can be no doubt, as Mr. Fox says, that “where it can 
be safely Lit to the hee3 to throw off their swarms naturally 
. . . . it i3 best to do so.” Unfortunately, however, there 
is so much risk of swarms flying away unperceived, that I have 
for many years managed my apiary in such a manner as to anti¬ 
cipate as much as possible all natural swarming. Reviewing the 
successes and failures of my experience, I see no reason to alter 
my practice, or to check my strong recommendation of artificial 
swarming to all clever and skilful bee-keepers. My successes 
have been great in the shape of plenty of beautiful honey, and a 
very great interest in the carrying out of my experiments. Nor 
has this season (1859) been an exception. It is with much 
pleasure, therefore, that I respond to Mr. Fox’s appeal, aud 
record the doings of my bees. The following figures will re¬ 
present the positions of my hives in the bee-house (looking at 
them from the inside), as well as the order, in which the several 
colonies were established. There are two rows of hives, one 
III. I. Y. 
VI. IV. II. 
over the other at a distance of two feet. 
No. I. is the artificial swarm of May 5th. It has given me 
(1) a box (super) containing 13 lbs. nett, of perfectly pure honey¬ 
comb ; (2) a small glass containing about 1 lb.; (3) a box 
(nadir) containing 13|lbs. nett of pure comb, besides some 
little comb worked in a small super which I shall put by for 
another year. Here are 27 a lbs. from No. I. The original box is 
now extremely full of bees and honey, but it is the most inactive 
of my hives at this moment. It employs the fewest bees of 
any pollen-gathering, at which all the other five are busy in pro¬ 
portion to their strength. 
No. II., of May 9th, is in fine condition as to wealth, activity, 
and population. It has yielded me a small super and a glass, 
the former containing lbs., and the latter 2\ lbs.. In all 8 lbs; 
of finest honeycomb, besides working some comb in a second 
super. 
No. III., of May 17th, was, for a long while, very scant of 
bees, and at one time was despaired of It has, however, gradually 
made progress, and now promises as well as any of my stocks. 
It is full of honey, comb, and bees, but has not yielded any 
surplus comb. 
No. IV., of May 27th (which is of kin to No. II.), was not 
much more populous than the last swarm, and laboured under 
the further disadvantage of having a very young (artificial)'*. 
queen, who did not commence laying at once. Consequently this 
swarm has not quite filled its box, but it has plenty of honey. 
ceiled up, and is sufficiently strong in population to promise well 
for another year. 
No. V., of May 30th, has well filled a large box, and given me 
about 6 lbs. in a fish-globe. 
No. VI. was a compound swarm made up of the populations 
of two hives that had given forth natural swarms. My servant 
by some mistake brought home these stocks instead of the two 
out of which I had severally driven III. and V. This stock, 
therefore, has a young queen hatched this year in the ordinary way. 
The box is well filled with honey and comb, and is very populous, l; 
and hard at work gathering in pollen ; as are all my hives, in | 
proportion to their strength, excepting only No. I., whose queen 
may well rest after her summer labours. 
From the above account it will be seen that I have obtained 
41 lbs. of first-rate honeycomb from my new artificially-formed 
apiary, besides some ten or twelve pounds of dark honey run 
from the combs of the old hives, out of which I drove my 
swarms. The original hives, four in number, cost me £3, that is 
an average of 10s. per swarm , and they have yielded me 
£2 11s. 3 d. worth of honey, at Is. 3d. per pound, and at least 
10s. worth of inferior but good honey, at Is. per pound, which 
is the market price for common honey in my neighbourhood. I 
say nothing of the wax obtained. Thus my bees, from the four 
parent hives have cost me nothing, I may say, this year. They 
have more than paid the expenses of their purchase. 
From the above facts, comparing this with my former com¬ 
munication of June 21st, Mr. Fox will be able to form his own 
judgment as to the advantage of driving swarms over the old 
plan of waiting for their natural issue. The following advan- J 
tages will not be denied :— 
1. In a season not favourable to swarming, I have stocked my 
apiary with certainty and with perfect success early in the year. 
2 I have done so at my own convenience , without being de¬ 
pendent on the bees’ pleasure. 
3. By purchasing old hives, and making them swarm twice, I 
have obtained an extra quantity of honey, aud a good quantity 
of wax for household purposes. 
4. I have by this plan secured several young and vigorous j 
queens. 
To counterbalance these advantages, it may be objected that I 
my swarms were, in general, small, and would probably have > 
failed in a less prosperous honey season. To this I reply that | 
the old hives out of which I forced these swarms were in an un¬ 
usually weak condition, owing, in part, to their having been 
procured out of very neglected apiaries, and, in part, to the ex¬ 
tremely unpropitious weather we had in April and May, when 
many hives perished altogether in this and other neighbourhoods, 
from cold and starvation. Indeed, if it had not been for the 
second honey season which we had in July, this year (1859) 
would probably have been remembered as one of the most dis¬ 
astrous bee seasons on record. 
I shall be very much obliged by having Mr. Fox’s and “A 
Devonshire Bee-keeper’s” candid opinions as to the facts I 
have here recorded, and as to the merits or demerits of my mode 
of managing bees. 
I should add before I close, that this is by no means a superior 
honey county.—B. & W. 
?i 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Large Produce of Eggs. — H r. Douglas lias misunderstood us. We 
spoke not of a Pheasant hen, but a hen Pheasant. Their season for laying 
is April. J 
