William Bernhardt Tegetmeier

William Bernhardt Tegetmeier Fellow of the Zoological Society of London FZS (4 November 1816 – 19 November 1912) was an English naturalist, Beekeeping beekeeper, journalist, and author of several textbooks and popular books on poultry and pigeons. He was a founding member of the Savage Club, as well as a correspondent and friend of Charles Darwin. Quotes Bees, Hives, and Honey (1865) The Worker bee working bees constitute by far the larger proportion of the inhabitants of the Beehive hive; they vary considerably in number at different periods of the year, in consequent of their being short lived, and breeding being arrested during the depth of winter. In spring they become exceedingly numerous; so that, in May or June, a good colony will give off a swarm of more than 20,000 bees, and retain a sufficiency of workers to rear the brood and feed the young grubs that remain behind. This number may appear incredible; as as 300 bees weigh only one ounce, and a good swarm often weighs above five Pound (mass) pounds, the statement admits an easy proof. Bees, Hives, and Honey W. Allan & Company London 1865 https://books.google.com/books?id=jaFbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA4 4 (39 pages) This treatise, small as it is, could hardly be regarded as complete, without directions for the manufacture of Mead mead, a drink so much in fashion, that Elizabeth I Queen Elizabeth had some made yearly for her own especial benefit. Charles Butler (beekeeper) Butler, an old and quaint bee author, who printed his work entitled "The Feminine Monarchie, or the History of Bees The Feminin Monarchie," with a phonetic alphabet of his own invention, gives the exact recipe for making mead, as used by "our renowned Queen Elizabeth of happy memory;" but the taste of our race has become more refined and we should now fail to appreciate the mead brewed with Bay leaf bay and sweet-briar leaves as relished by the virgin queen ... p. 33 The Poultry Book (1867) The first, and by no means the least important, consideration of every prospective poultry keeper is the situation and construction of the poultry houses and yards. It is trued that poultry may be kept almost anywhere; good specimens of Cochin (chicken) Cochins have been reared in an attic, and many very fine ones have never known there was any world beyond a small back yard in the street of a county town. These, however, are extreme cases; and success under such disadvantageous conditions can only be achieved by constant attention, extreme cleanliness, and great judgment in supplying artificially those requirements of the birds which the place of confinement does not afford.The best of all soils on which to establish a poultry yard is gravel, or sand resting on chalk or a substratum of gravel. If the soil is clayey, or from other causes of wet, the whole should be well drained. This is essential to success, as a wet soil is more inductive than any other circumstance of cramp, Trichomonas gallinae roup, and other diseases. The Poultry Book: Comprising the Breeding and Management of Profitable and Ornamental Poultry new, greatly enlarged London George Routledge & Sons 1873 https://books.google.com/books?id=EGpnG2DR6-gC&pg=PA1 1 (356 pages; 1st edition 1867) (Gastroenteritis in mammals and birds can cause abdominal cramping.) Brahma chicken Brahmas and Cochin chicken Cochins possess one great recommendation as sitters, in the soft and abundant supply of downy feathers that so specially distinguish these varieties; for under no other hens do the eggs appear to maintain a higher or more constant temperature. p. 19 Pigeons (1868) The structure and habits of the family or group of pigeons are so peculiar and so strikingly distinct from those of any other birds, that they demand special attention. The pigeons were formerly classed by the majority of naturalists along with the Galliformes gallinaceous birds, the true poultry, and by others with the passerine or Old World sparrow sparrow-like birds; but more accurate observation has rendered evident the fact that they form a perfectly distinct family, distinguished from all other birds by the singular manner in which their young are nourished. Unlike the true gallinaceae—which are hatched in a very perfect state and able to follow the parent hen within a few hours after birth—the young pigeons are born in a most immature and helpless condition, and are fed with a curdy secretion, produced in the crops of the parents, the "soft food" of the pigeon-fancier. This is expressly produces at the period of hatching, for the support of the callow young. William Bernhard Tegetmeier, Pigeons: Their Structure, Varieties, Habits, and Management George Routledge & Sons London https://books.google.com/books?id=v-gDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA3 3 (190 pages; illustrations by Harrison Weir) Having described the breed known as the Carrier, and the varieties allied to it, we have now to consider the different kinds of Homing pigeons, or those that are remarkable for their powers of flight and their attachment to the home in which they have been reared and first flown. There are numerous varieties that exhibit this peculiarity, such as the Dragon, the ordinary flying Tumbler pigeons Tumbler, and the Skinnum, or mongrel race, between these two breeds. Among the pure breeds that can be flown good distances may be mentioned that called the Old German Owl pigeon Owl pigeon. But the varieties in which this homing faculty is developed to the highest degree are unquestionably the different races of Belgian birds, which are termed in England by the general name of Antwerps, and in Belgium are known as Antwerp Smerle Smerles, Cumulets, Demi Bees, &c. p. 82 External links Category:1816 births Category:1912 deaths Category:Journalists from England Category:Naturalists from England Category:Non-fiction authors from England Category:University College London alumni Category:Victorian writers