234 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Januaby 10, 1860. 
mean, however, to disparage the shortfaced birds; but while 
fanciers are improving the head and beat, I think they ought not 
to overlook regularity of feather.”] 
TASMANIAN POULTBY SOCIETY’S ANNUAL SHOW. 
The Annual Show of this excellent Society took place (Wed¬ 
nesday, July 27), at the Town Hall, Macquarie Street, granted 
for the purpose by the Mayor and Aldermen, an arrangement 
which succeeded in giving an impetus to the Committee, as well 
as attracting a large number of visitors. His Excellency, Lady 
Young, &c., were among the earliest visitors; and during the 
afternoon the Rev. Mr. Binney, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Chapman, 
M.P., Colonel Broughton, Mr. Nairn, Colonel Hungerford, his 
worship the Mayor, and a number of other gentlemen with their 
ladies and members of families inspected the Exhibition. All 
available space, even to the steps of the large hall, was occupied 
with pens, of which there were nearly 150, including the sixty 
pens belonging to the Society. So great was the competition, 
that we understand at least twenty pens could not be received 
for w r ant of room. Several new features were introduced on this 
occasion in the shape of sweepstakes for silver cups, subscribed 
by members without interfering with the funds. The cups 
which were imported, were finely wrought specimens of artistic 
skill, and were much admired. They were competed for by 
Spanish fowls ; and Mr. Pope, the most successful breeder of 
Spanish fowls in the district, won the seven-guinea cup. A 
medal for Spanish, and one for Gamg, (manufactured by Mr. 
Wimbush, were also given), the latter being a gift by the manu¬ 
facturer. There were five entries for this sweepstakes, and eleven 
entries for the Spanish. 
The Show was decidedly the best ever witnessed in Tasmania— 
the Governor and other gentlemen frequently expressed their 
opinion to that effect. The Game and Spanish were unquestion¬ 
ably superior—and there was a good show of Polands, Hamburgh*, 
and birds of that class. The Dorkings, which have not hitherto 
attracted much attention, also showed remarkably well. The 
Rabbits were good. Also the Pigeons, among which we noticed 
Mr. P. Allen’s Almonds, vei’y handsome and very desirable for 
connoisseurs. The Canaries, Goldfinches, and other cage birds, 
sent by Messrs. Hissey, Jenkins, &c., commanded much praise. A 
fancy cage,manufactured by Mr Anderson, tinware man, of Argyle 
Street, was a prominent object of attention, and met with a 
purchaser before it was placed. Upon the whole, the Exhibition 
was highly successful and encouraging; and it was repeated in 
the evening, when the Hall was brilliantly lighted with gas. A 
great many visitors attended, and the attractions were enhanced 
by the performances of “ Hewlin’s Band.” 
J udges of the Show. — Spanish and other Fowls .- Messrs. 
John Patterson, W. Purkiss, Anderson, Begg, and W. Thomas.— 
Game: Messrs. J. Eddington and W. Nicholls. — Rabbits and 
Pigeons: Messrs. G. Padman, and R. L. Hood. 
MY ROOF BEES. 
The home of your correspondent is an old-fashioned mansion, 
in the pavilion-roof of which my little favourites, the honey bees, 
have for an unknown number of years taken up their abode, at 
various exposures from chilly north to sunuy south ; attracted, 
perhaps, by the store of sweets obtainable every summer from an 
avenue of old limes—the said limes resounding during the blos¬ 
soming season, “ from early morn till dewy eve,” with the hum, 
as it were, of ten thousand hives. In the days of the writer’s 
boyhood it was a great pleasiwe for him to sit beneath their shade, 
charmed into stillness, listening to this sweet music, or watching 
struggling combatants as they fell—the ground being strewed all 
around with the bodies of the slain—wasp, worker, and humble 
bee; many locked in that mortal embrace which death itself 
could not separate. 
In those days, that abominable insect—the wasp, had no 
quarter, either when engaged in these unequal battles, or feeding, 
vulture like, on the dead. Indeed, it was a frequent nightly 
amusement, with the aid of a supply of brimstone, attacking 
them in their citadels, pouncing upon their queen, placing her 
beside her sister monarchs on a long brass pin, and at the season’s 
end exhibiting the trophies of my fights with as much gusto as 
an Indian warrior his scalps. 
Reaping no benefit from my lodgers but the occasional plea¬ 
sure of hearing,—on a fine summer’s afternoon between the 
hours of four and five, when the sun shone hottest on them,— 
the hubbub of a departing colony to enrich a neighbour, or 
settle undiscovered in the woods. More rarely they took a cir¬ 
cling flight, and came back to occupy a spare compartment in 
the roof. I recollect four years ago some workers in a hay 
field picking up pieces of comb underneath an elm, and on look¬ 
ing up discovered a swarm fairly established, with a large comb 
wrought on an out-spreading branch not two inches in diameter. 
They were hived and removed to the garden, but owing to the 
blustery weather that succeeded, as it had been prior to their 
discovery, they dwindled away. 
A few years ago I put myself to some expense in liaviug two 
hives (north aspect) opened from the inside, and found they 
occupied the space (ten inches) betwixt the lath and beams 
their combs being attached to the latter. The one was of con¬ 
siderable antiquity, judging from the inky blackness of the combs, 
and being in the lowest angular division were circumscribed for 
room, and, consequently, must have hived regularly. For this 
swarm I constructed a box with a window in front, and without 
a back, so as to allow the combs to be continued out into it; and 
as recommended in a work I had beside me, placed bars in the top 
of the box one inch and one-eighth broad, and half an inch 
between. It never occurred to me till the box was about com¬ 
pleted, Would the bars at that size and distance apart be opposite 
the combs in a hive where the architects had established them¬ 
selves without human intervention ? On fitting it in I found they 
tallied to a nicety—setting at rest, in my mind, at least, a disputed 
point with some apiarians. 
I may here mention a curious instance of the sagacity and 
united efforts of these truly wonderful insects. Foreseeing a diffi¬ 
culty in removing the box when filled, by the combs in the roof 
being wrought out continuously into it, to try an experiment I 
cut a bar the breadth of a comb, and the depth of the box, into 
the back of which I placed it, jamming it as tightly as I could 
immediately before a central comb, which they were busily ex¬ 
tending forward, never thinking but that on reaching this upright 
bar they would come round and start it afresh in the box. You 
may judge of my surprise on returning after a couple of days’ 
absence to find my little friends gathered, en masse, on the combs 
opposite the top of the obstructing-bar, packed as close as pos¬ 
sible, “shoulder to shoulder,” like our gallant highlanders in 
the hour of need, shoving away, might and main, the top of 
the bar already a long way off the plumb, inwards from the 
roof. As the resistance was always lessening, it would 
speedily have fallen to the bottom; but so struck was I with 
their ingenuity, that I could not resist instantly removing it. 
Their labours were then carried on uninterruptedly till the month 
of September, when I severed the combs at the juncture with a 
long-bladed knife, and found the box to weigh 28 lbs. nett, of 
beautifully pure comb, which I partly ascribed to the very cool 
situation. The other hive was a remarkably strong swarm of 
only the preceding season, with nearly the depth of the roof 
before them to work in. I, therefore, boarded off the space about 
twenty inches below the combs, and into it fitted two frames of 
moveable guider-bars, the one above the other. Opposite the 
upper tier I placed a box without a back, as in the other hive, so 
as to leave them no alternative but to continue their works, either 
down on the bars, or out into the box. They did both simul¬ 
taneously, I observed through the window in the box, and the 
glass frame opposite the bars. The greater part of the bottom 
of this box was filled with perforated zinc to keep down breeding. 
On removing it- in September, with 30 lbs. of comb, I found all 
above the zinc perfectly white ; the after part, to which it did not 
extend, discoloured from brood; shewing, I think, the benefit of 
judicious ventilation, though this has sometimes been doubted. 
I often observed the queen perambulating all over the combs in 
this box. The guider-bars I afterwards took out, with, I should 
think, nearly as much honey a3 the box; but, as it was not 
weighed, I cannot give the exact amount. 
At a subsequent period, owing to some repairs, I had an oppor¬ 
tunity of inspecting some of the deserted spaces (south aspect), 
and found the foundations of old combs extending in stretches 
five to six feet in length. 
My roof bees still prosper, their work being chiefly transferred 
from the rough Memel beams on which they started, to the 
shallow bar-hives and bell-glasses of the present day. 
In bringing these remarks to a conclusion, extending to a length 
not at first contemplated, I may remark, that being but a recent 
subscriber, I do not know if they are of a nature to interest your 
readers; but may by-and-by send you some sketches of hives 
used by—A Ren frewshike Bee-keepee. 
