INTRODUCTION OF THE ITALIAN BEE. &• 



Australia after a passage of 79 days." It does not appear, 

 however, that these stocks succeeded and propagated any more than 

 a colony which Mr. Angus Mackay, Editor of the Town and 

 Country Journal in Sydney, subsequently took to Brisbane, at 

 great expense, from America. Mr. S. McDonnell, of Sydney, im- 

 ported two colonies from America in 1880, and succeeded in raising 

 stocks from them; and, later, Mr. Abrahams (now of Beecroft). 

 a German bee-master, brought some colonies with him from Italy 

 in 1883, settled in Parramatta, and, having succeeded in rearing a 

 pure race of his queens, started an apiary for the Italian Bee- 

 farming Company, of which he is manager and Mr. McDonnell 

 Secretary." The date of the Bee Manual from which this is taken 

 is 1886. 



In 1882 Mr. C. Fullwood, Brisbane, had sent to him direct 

 from Charles Bianconini, of Bologna, twelve Italian Queens. Of 

 these five arrived alive, and of a second shipment in the following 

 year seven reached their new home safely. In these early years of 

 tlie introduction of the Italian bee into Australia, the price of 

 pure-bred tested queens, reared in the colony, was from £2 to i!3 

 each ; and I have heard that in some cases as high a figure as 

 £5 had been asked. Of late years I have seen three advertised for 

 7s. 6d. 



The inauguration of Bee-keepers' Associations for the assistance 

 of amateurs, and exchange of thought and bee-keeping ideas, fol- 

 lowed soon after the introduction of the Italian bee. These 

 Associations were based on similar lines to those established in 

 England, which are acknowledged to have given incalculable benefit 

 to the peasant classes in the rural districts, and the results have 

 been equally beneficial in this State. It was never the intentions 

 of these associations to do more than give instructions to aid people 

 to add luxuries to their own table, in the same way as poultry- 

 keeping, fruit-culture, kitchen-gardening, &c., is carried on, so as 

 to expand the earnings of wage-earners, farmers' wives and daugh- 

 ters, and such-like. 



With the pure Italian bees wliich were at that time expensive, 

 came the necessity for the improvements in hives to permit of their 

 successful and profitable management. The Langstroth simplicity 

 bar-frame hive was welcomed as the very thing for housing these 

 costly insects, and although there are many types of bar-frame 

 hives available, the Langstroth bar-framed hive still holds chief 

 place in the esteem of up-to-date bee-keepers. 



Some years ago, a disease, far more destructive to bees than 



