32 
THE AUSTRALIAN - BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
travel through the colony, visit the various 
districts, have personal interviews with the 
most prominent beekeepers in each locality, 
convene a public meeting, deliver a lecture on 
successful beekeeping on modern principles, 
take, after concluding the discourse, down 
names of those who are willing to form a local 
committee for the establishment of a branch 
association, and also try to get in every place 
subscribers for the Australian Bee Journal. 
Now, gentlemen, I am very well certain that 
if such a plan could be adopted, there is not 
the least doubt there would be a general rising 
in Victoria towards the one great object we 
have in view. If, at every lecture, either a 
charge was made, or a collection taken up to 
defray expenses, I do not think the association 
would finely incur any great risk. — I remain, 
gentlemen, yours very truly, 
H. NAVEAU. 
Hamilton, 11th Feb., 18S6. 
[To the Editor of the Beekeepei s’ 
Journal.) 
Dear Sir, — There are a few words I would 
like you to put in the Journal on bee flowers. 
I am a keeper of bees, and I find that one of 
the best flowers in this part (the Goulbourn 
district) is the box thorn hedge plant, it keeps 
in blossom so long. It is crowded with bees, 
and I find that they make a lot of honey out 
of it. The pumpkin and the melon tribe I find 
very good, and they also keep in bloom a long 
time. The borage and mignonette thrive well 
in this district (Kyabram,) and are capital bee 
plants. I find also the rosemary a grand plant 
for bees on account of its blooming early, and 
it gets covered with bees. 
There are a few questions that I wish to 
ask. Is the common white box tree which is 
so plentiful through the Goulburn district 
included among the Eucalyptus tribe p Also, 
is there much honey to be found in its 
blossom ? Also, could you inform me are there 
any seed of the basswood tree and the figwort 
to be obtained in this country, if so, where ? 
Further, with the two-storey hive should the 
top frames be put down on the bottom ones, or 
is there a space to be left between? — Yours, 
&c„ 
DAVID RATCLIFFE. 
STANDARD HIVES. — HYBRID BEES. 
[To the Editor of the Beekeepers' 
Journal.) 
Dear Silt, — I see that at the meeting of 
the Victorian Beekeepers’ Association the 
question of adopting a standard size for frames 
and hives was discussed, and although the 
members were not unanimous, the majority 
advocated the American favourite, the Lang- 
stroth. A writer in your first number, sign- 
ing himself “ Drone Comb,’' is strongly in 
favour of the British Bee Association’s 
Standard. Now, having some experience of 
bar and frame hives during the last thirty 
years, I have come to the conclusion that, 
except in climates where there are long and 
severe winters, and bees are kept prisoners for 
months, it matters very little what sized frame 
is used for thriving stocks — strong colonies 
will do well on the largest frames used, while 
weak ones struggle on best with small frames 
where the brood can be kept close and the 
bees not get too much spread. I am not quite 
sure of the wisdom of advocating one partic- 
ular size, because it is certainly not proved 
yet that one size is better than another. There 
is one point, however, that cannot be too 
strongly insisted upon, and that is, that every 
beekeeper should have but one size in his 
apiary, andshouldstick to it, and he should have 
a sample or template for his hives and frames, 
so that all he gets made should be as precisely 
alike and interchangeable as possible. For 
keeping bees in the bush, or any good honey 
country, I should prefer the large frame, such 
as the Langstroth or Quinby ; but for poorer 
districts or town beekeeping, I think the 
smaller frame, such as the old Woodbury, or 
the new British Standard, is better. 
An experienced English beekeeper has 
stated that there is scarely a pure common 
bee (black or brown German) to be found in 
England now — they have all got some Italian 
blood in them. In several stocks that I 
have got from various parts of the colony I 
found the bees marked with two marks of 
orange-yellow colour on the first abdominal 
segments, observing that it was a bee of 
hybrid race. A few days ago, on the side of 
one of our mountains, I saw black bees swarm- 
ing on white and red Dutch clover. Now, as 
as it is asserted that black bees do not visit 
red clover because their tongues are not long 
enough to reach the honey at the bottom of 
the deep floret, I thought I had now established 
the fact that they did do so, and I called the 
attention of a friend to the numbers of black 
bees feeding on the large red Dutch clover. 
To be quite sure, I caught two or three, and 
examined them, when lo! on each bee was a 
pair of orange marks on the back of the first 
abdominal segment, accounting at once for its 
long tongue. These bees, I believe, were 
wild, and hived in trees, as we were a long 
way from where any bees were kept. It 
appears likely, therefore, that all our bees 
will gradually become hybridized with the 
Ligurian bee. 
SIGMA. 
