04 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 8, 18G0. 
about twenty-four inches high, and four iuches broad. They I 
are fed upon barley and wheat mixed, for hard food; for soft 
food, they have oats ground, barley-flour and Indian meal for a j 
ohange. 
Now, the Spanish during the last week or two have looked 
most seedy ; about their breasts their feathers are off, and they 
are quite “ penny ” as they say here—that is, their feathers are 
full of blood ; one hen has broken her skin, and there is a hole | 
right into her crop. I have sown it up and put her by herself, 
she is such a pitiful-looking object. 
The Dorkings, although fed on the same food and using the 
same roosts, have nothing at all the matter with them. 
At first, I thought their dust-bath must have had some large l 
cinders in it, and that these cut their leathers; but after sifting it j 
all over and giving them it perfectly small—in fact, dust, I find j 
no improvement in them. 
I have once seen a similar case, also a Black Spanish bird, he 
had lost all his breast-feathers and his breastbone was so 
greatly inflamed that his owner destroyed him out of com¬ 
passion ; mine, however, are not inflamed.—F. I’. W., Chesterfield. 
[There would be nothing remarkable in the state of your 
Spanish fowls if it were the moulting season, as they are then 
very bare, more so than any other breed, aud the growing 
feather is always full of blood during its formation. 
In a certain state of body—for instance, when suffering from 
internal fever, fowls peck each other, and especially like to eat 
the bleeding end of the young feather. When a place is raw, 
they will then eat till they make a hole, and we have no doubt 
that that in the hen was caused by her fellows eating her. As 
Spanish are layers only, they are sometimes stimulated when they 
are thought to be remiss or dilatory in laying, by being fed with 
a few pieces of raw meat, which are withheld when they begin 
to lay. If this has been your case, that is the cause of their 
cannibalism—they are finding for themselves that which you 
taught them to like. But if meat has not been given, have they 
been over-fed and tempted to eat ? If they have, that may again 
account for the propensity, as it has induced a diseased and 
heated state of body. Your remedy will be to purge freely with 
castor oil, to feed moderately oil oatmeal or ground oats, giving 
no whole corn, but feeding liberally with green food, as lettuce. ; 
We are strongly opposed to asphalte floors ; but as it may not 
suit you to do away with them now, wo advise you to cover them 
with loose gravel at least three inches deep. The perches should 
be circular—that is, a pole sawn in half, and placed with the 
round part uppermost. You speak of barley flour in their food. 
This is bad feeding. They do not want flour, but the whole of 
the grain ground up together, and nothing taken from it. Oats 
prepared in this way are the food used in Sussex ; and to that 
may, in some measure, the success of that county in rearing and 
fattening fowls be attributed.] 
LIGURIAN QUEENS—M. HERMANN’S 
“ ORIGINALS.” 
Soon after the appearance of young bees in the spring, I be¬ 
came aware of the fact that those bred by two out of my four 
Ligurian queens were of a darker colour, and much more nearly 
resembling the ordinary species thou were produced in the other i 
two metamorphosed stocks. As the two queens referred to were 
the first I received from M. Hermann, and I had never doubted 
that their progeny was the true type of the Ligurian bee, I paid 
at first but little attention to the difference, and contented my¬ 
self with admiring the bright yellow colour of the young bees 
which were gradually appearing in the two stocks that had been 
Ligurianised late in the autumn. 
As time advanced and the juvenile part of the population 
became more numerous, the difference grew more and more ap¬ 
parent, uutil at length I am reluctantly compelled to acknowledge 
that the distinction between these varieties of Ligurian bees is 
much more decidedly marked than the difference which exists 
between the darker of the two and the common bee ; and that, 
in fact, two out of the four Ligurian queens, which I have pro¬ 
cured with so much trouble and expense from M. Hermann, are 
mere worthless hybrids. 
It will be at once perceived that this unwelcome and most un¬ 
looked-for discovery diminishes by one-half my resources for the 
artificial multiplication of Ligurian queens, as 1 cannot lend 
myself to the dissemination of what 1 believe to be spurious, and 
have, therefore, only two queens to breed from instead of four. 
Yesterday (1st May) I caught the first drone entering one of 
my pure Ligurian stocks, and found to my amazement that it 
was of the ordinary species 1 In consequence of this discovery I 
examined the bees and every comb in both liivos, and satisfied 
myself that this unwelcome stranger was a straggler from some 
other colony. Not only was there no other drone in either stock, 
but in only one of them could I find a few drone eggs. During the 
examination I carefully inspected the queens. Both of them have 
one ragged wing, and one is slightly darker thau the other ; a 
similar degree of difference is, I think, traceable in the colour of 
their offspring. They are fine queens, especially the darker one; 
but I am still of opinion that I have seen common ones of equal 
size. 
By making this examination I have satisfied myself that my 
attempt at queen-rearing must be deferred for some weeks, and 
that when it is made I should omit no precaution that may tend 
to insure impregnation by Italian drones. 
I perceive that M. Hermann in the last Cottage Gardener, 
refers to one of my former communications. Whether he intends 
to differ from, or agree with, me, is not very apparent; but I have 
little difficulty in indorsing as much of his letter as I can under¬ 
stand. He is, undoubtedly, a thorough bee-master, although 
more than one-half the queens he lias sent have proved valueless 
to —A Devonshire Bee-keeper. 
ESTABLISHING A LIGURIAN STOCK. 
I have to-day been reading, in The Cottage Gardener of 
the 24th inst., some extracts from M. Hermann’s book on the 
Italian Bee, and the plans for establishing colonies of it; with 
the remarks made thereon by “ A Devonshire Bee-keeper.” 
One of the plans mentioned for forming an Italian stock is to 
remove the Italian queen with one-tliird of the combs and bees 
from its own hive into another, then to put this hive on the stand 
heretofore occupied by a strong colony of the common bees (at a 
time when a large proportion of bees are abroad), to a considerable 
distance, so that the bees on returning will enter the new home 
provided for them, with the sovereign of foreign race. 
Cannot this plan be adopted with the Italian queens about to 
he sent out by “A Devonshire Bee-keeper?” Could not. 
the queen and the few bees sent along with her be placed in a 
perforated box, this put in an empty hive, and this hive placed 
during a fine day on the stand occupied by a populous community 
of common bees, and thus get the requisite number of bees? 
Of course, removing the old hive of black bees a considerable 
distance quite away. 
If this plan should succeed, it would be much easier to accom ¬ 
plish than by driving common bees and then searching for the 
queen amongst her irascible subjects. The last operation, to 
1 hose without bee-dresses and rot used to it, is a rather formid¬ 
able undertaking with liability to a mishap. If the above plan 
should succeed, how long do you think it would be necessary to 
confine the Ligurian queen and bees before allowing the junction 
with common bees? 
The season here is so backward and cold, that the bees have 
not been able to collect pollen, Ac., this season, on more than 
three or four days up to this date. The first day they carried 
was April 7th, and then not much for want of flowers. To-day 
(April 27th), has been the best day though cold, as the sallows 
are now in bloom, which are a great help to the bees, as flowers 
are exceedingly scarce yet. 
The first blooms of the lesser celandine {Ranunculus Jicaria), 
are just coming out (April 27th).—A. T. 
[If “A. T.” will refer to page 297, Yol. XXII., he will find 
that his plan was attempted with the first foreign queen I received, 
and proved a failure. If tried earlier in the season, it may 
possibly have a better chance of succeeding; but it will, I 
believe, be found necessary to trust the Italian sovereign at once 
to the mercy of the strangers without the intervention of a per¬ 
forated box.—A Devonshire Bee-keeper.] 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Drinking Fountains tor Poultry (Mr. R. Ecorclt).— Apply to Mr. 
Bally, It:!, Mount Street, Grosrenor Square, W. 
Hens’ Nostrils Discharging (A Constant Reader).—It this srises from 
j a catarrh, or cold, green food and genial weather will speedily effect a 
I cure. If it arises from roup we must refer you to our reply to another 
correspondent last week. XVe cannot tell what will make a Blackbird sing. 
: We certainly should not feed him exclusively on fig dust. More suitable 
; food and warm weather ought to remove his silence. 
