214 THE AFIARY. 



frame hives, having- ample space and ventilation, as Wfell 

 as tiie means of supplying- water to their inmates during 

 the voyage ; there was, also, a sufficient store of honey 

 to last until the following March. The bees arrived at 

 Melbourne, where they were released after an imprison- 

 ment of seventy-nine days, and have since rapidly mul- 

 tiplied, the climate and pasturage of Australia greatly 

 favouring th6 increase of this superior variety of the bee. 



Mr. Wilson was so well pleased with the careful 

 manner in which these stocks were fitted out for their 

 voyage across the seas, that he subsequently instructed 

 us to prepare him three more hives, which were sent 

 out in a sailing vessel. Owing to the mismanagement 

 of the water supply during the voyage, only one stock 

 survived in this instance. Mr. Wilson informs us that 

 one of these hives contained 1 36 lbs. of honey, on the 

 25th of December, 1864 (Midsummer in Australia). 



Upwards of twenty years ago, we sent a Nutt's hive 

 stocked with bees to New Zealand. We then adopted 

 tiie plan of fixing the hive in a meat safe, so that the 

 bees could fly about a little, and also cleanse the hive 

 of their dead, for bees are very attentive to sanitary 

 arrangements ; they always remove the dead ones from 

 their midst, and do not void excrement within the hive. 



When bees are shut up in their hives too long, even 

 with adequate ventilation, they are apt to be attacked by 

 a disease called by apiarians dysentery. Sometimes, 

 when confined by the unfavourableness of the weather 



