150 Journal of Agriculture. [10 March, 1910. 



the season, the bees being afterwards confined to a single storey. In a 

 small apiary of 27 colonies, extracting took place as late as June, even 

 the honey from the brood chamber being removed. Although 9 colonies 

 died, apparently from starvation, the others were in good order, whilst, 

 at an apiarv within a mile, where the hives had been left in what is, by 

 most bee-keepers, considered ideal condition, that is " full of honey," 

 the loss was 70 colonies out of 86. With one exception, the surviving 16 

 colonies were extremely weak. In another instance, an apiari.st extracted 

 the honev from 23 of the weaker colonies in his apiary of 88, after the 

 main honey flow, and placed them, in single stories, in the scrub country 

 some two miles distant. At the time of my visit, the 65 colonies in the 

 main apiary, which had not been extracted, had dwindled down to 7 

 weaklings, while the 23 in the scrub had built up strong enough to divide 

 each colony into two for increase. In a third case, part of an apiary 

 was moved to the scrub without extracting the honey, and there was prac- 

 tically the same rate of mortality in both lots of bees. 



From the foregoing facts the inference might be drawn that it was the 

 late gathered honev which sa\ed the bees, but the honey analyses (see 

 page 62) show that samples i, 2 and 3 were late gathered honey from 

 Eucalyptus Icucoxylon (White Ironbark) and taken from colonies which 

 had succumbed. The percentage of moisture of this honey, which was 

 found in the unsealed cells of the outside combs, is too high for safe food 

 for bees at that time of year, even apart from the presence of fermentative 

 organisms. It is well known that feeding sugar syrup, made too thin, 

 in autumn, brings disaster to bees during winter or spring. Honey 

 gathered late in the season, if the atmosphere is very humid as is the case 

 after the autumn rains, cannot be evaporated by the bees to a sufficient 

 density when stored in combs outside the cluster of bees. If contained in 

 combs not covered by bees during winter, even honey gathered previously 

 and of propter densitv will absorb moisture from the atmosphere, particu- 

 larly if the cells are not capped over. 



In Northern Europe and North America, bees are confined during 

 winter to just the number of comljs they can cover. In Australia, there 

 is supposed to be no wintering problem with 'bees. Colonies are, in the 

 majority of apiaries, left with all or most of the spare combs in the hives. 

 If these combs are empty and dry, or sealed over when containing honey, 

 there may be no other harm in this practice than a certain waste of the 

 animal heat generated by the cluster of bees. But when a late honey 

 flow occurs, and is succeeded by a severe wdnter, the honey stored in 

 combs outside the cluster absorbs an abnormal amount of moisture from 

 the atmosphere, as well as the condensed moisture due to the respiration 

 of the bees. 



The experience of several apiarists who have always shut their bees 

 down to a single storey rather earlv in autumn, and the instances I noted 

 in the Stawell district of bees coming through well when confined to a 

 few combs, seem to point to the necessity of adopting a method of pre- 

 venting the very late gathering of honey, and the deterioration of honey 

 gathered earlier, by leaving to the bees onlv as manv combs as they can 

 cover. Even if, ultimately, the mortality should be proved to be due 

 to a di.sease caused by a bacterium, it must be apparent that bees kept 

 warm, and on food of normal densitv, are likel\' to be more resistant than 

 when consuming great quantities of waterv honev to produce the amount 

 of animal heat necessary to maintain the requisite temperature of the 

 cluster in a larger space. 



