6i6 Journal of AgricuUure. [lo Oct.. 1910. 



issue. They are the labour-saving devices of bee-keeping on a large scale. 

 There are some fair-sized apiaries in which the whole outfit, apart from 

 hives, consists of extractor, honey knives, and smoker. 



Bee culture combines well with almost any rural industry, provided 

 the man has the natural aptitude and inclination for it and the surround- 

 ings are at all suitable. I am convinced that, w^ith the advent of closer 

 settlement, e.s])ecially irrigation settlement, in bee-keeping will be found a 

 way of augmenting the settler's income. There are also njany dwellers 

 ot cities who, for health reasons, would prefer country life but have not 

 the means to employ paid labour, nor the physical strength to engage in 

 heavy manual labour. To such, bee culture offers country life in combina- 

 tion with a profitable and interesting occupation. That bees are not more 

 generally kept in Victoria is largely due to the absence of facilities for 

 obtaining knowledge and instruction. The prospects of the industry were 

 never better than they are now. With the ruling prices, and even lower 

 ones, bee-keej)ing is now more profitable than it was years ago. We have 

 a demand for honey from abroad now, and we cannot supply it, although 

 there are vast tracts of suitable country in the Eastern part of Victoria 

 yet untouched by bee-keeping. Even the much objected to Eucalyptus 

 flavour seems likely to be of assistance in opening up outside markets, as 

 some of the inquiries which iiave lately come to hand are for honey with 

 that flavour. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF GOOD COMBS IN THE 

 PRODUCTION OF HONEY. 



A'. Bciiliuc, President, Victorian Apiarists' Association, 



In ttie j)ioduct!on of honey as a special business, or as a profitable side 

 issue of other rural occupations, the frame hive is now in general 

 use. The advantages it offers over the common box hive are, however, not 

 availed of by a large number of bee-keepers to anything like the fullest 

 extent, and the be.st po.ssible return is therefore not obtained. 



To get the maximum yield of honey it is essential to have a good 

 strain of bees, good management and good combs. The importance of 

 the latter is often quite ignored by otherwise up-to-date bee-keepers. Per- 

 fect combs for the brood chamber, as well as for extracting, cannot be 

 obtained profitably from starters, but only from full sheets of foundation 

 in properly wired frames and drawn out by the bees in the super of the 

 hive when conditions are favourable. 



It is admitted that good combs can be obtained from starters in limited 

 numbers under certain conditions, but these conditions rarely exist for a 

 sufficient length of time in our variable climate. The building of the 

 combs by the bees requires so much supervision and attention by the bee- 

 keeper, that they are really more expensive than combs from full sheets 

 of foundation, notwithstanding that the first cost of the latter is about 

 eight times that of one-inch starters. 



One of our largest apiarists, when asked whether he used full sheets 

 or starters, replied "that he could not afford to use starters.'" The average 

 bee-keeper who uses starters gets a considerable amount of drone comb 

 built in his frames. As drones are consumers, instead of producers, he 

 oa:asionally cuts it out, compelling the l)ees to build it in again, which 



