THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
21 
but I may perhaps be able next month to send 
you a few scraps. 
In the first place, then, I may as well say 
that Daylesford is not by any means the best 
place in Victoria for beekeeping. Being situ- 
ated some four or five miles north of the 
summit of the coast range, and at a level of 
about 2000 feet above the sea, it is subject to 
cold, squally winds from the southward, which 
sweep over the range, and have a chilling 
effect on the bees, and prevents them from 
leaving the hive in search of food, and my 
experience this season tells me that it has pre- 
vented swarming to a very considerable 
extent, as I know of a good many beekeepers 
in a small way who have not had a single 
swarm this season. Of course the people I 
speak of adhere to the old style of gin case, 
candle box, or even sometimes a kerosene 
case. The case is somewhat different with 
those who are using the Langstroth Hive, 
which was first introduced into this district by 
Mr. T. J. Loukes, who obtained them from 
Bagnall Bros., New Zealand, some fifteen 
months ago. Mr. Loukes may be called out- 
leading apiarist. He has some forty or fifty 
hives, of which about twenty are Langstroth, 
made after the pattern obtained from New 
Zealand. He has had frame hives for several 
years which he made from a description in 
some work on bees he had obtained from 
America. The frames were 12 inches square. 
He is now discarding those, and intends using 
nothing but the Langstroth. He informs me 
that so far as the season has gone there is a 
good deal of honey coming in, which is also 
my own experience. 
With regard to the diseases among bees in 
this locality, foul brood is the principal. Some 
twelve years ago it carried off nearly all the bees 
in the district, whether in hives or in the forest 
in a wild state. However, I have only seen 
one hive affected with it this season, although 
I have heard of several hives being badly 
affected at Dry Diggings, about five miles from 
Daylesford. 
There are several outlying places such as 
Hepburn, Franklinford, Yandoit, &c., where I 
am informed that bees are kept somewhat 
extensively, but as 1 have not had an oppor- 
tunity of obtaining any information from these 
localities lately, 1 will reserve any remarks 
till a future time. 
Wishing the A ustralian Beekeepers' Journal 
every success, — I am, &c., J. M. H. 
Daylesford, 23rd December, 1885. 
(Zb the Editor of the Bee Journal .) 
Dear Sir, — A good friend kindly sent me 
the first, number of your Bee Journal. I wish 
it every success and trust that it will be the 
means of promoting the pleasant, fascinating 
and profitable hobby of beekeeping. I have 
been a beekeeper in a small way for some 
years past, and on the whole have been toler- 
ably successful, for I am a busy man and have 
not the time to look after them as they should 
be attended to. The first year was one of 
experiment. Like all other enthusiasts, I read 
witli greediness all the bee literature upon 
which I could lay hands, and did not in the 
multitude of counsel find wisdom, hut rather 
confusion I made hives of various kinds, and 
tried many recommended courses of action. 
At length, by successes and more failures and 
dear-bought experience, I gained a certain 
amount of wisdom, and consequently con- 
ducted my bee operations more easily, satis- 
factorily and profitably. 
I decided upon a form of hive, size of 
frames, section boxes, &c. To this I have ever 
since adhered most religiously, and it would 
take the combined strength of many Bee 
Associations to persuade me to alter any part 
by a single inch, I am so thoroughly con- 
vinced of their simplicity, ease of construction, 
and suitability to the locality and surround- 
ings. Standard Hives and Standard Frames 
are good subjects for discussion at meetings 
of Bee Clubs ; but you will never get 
the whole company of beekeepers convinced 
that one particular hive is better lhan 
all others — we all have our special likings, 
and lean towards that style of construction 
which we have found best adapted to our 
own locality, and with which we have been 
most successful. There is, however, one 
principle of fundamental importance, an axiom 
of unusual application in beekeeping — that is 
— that everything, hives, frames, covers, floor 
boards, &c., &c., should be made to pattern. 
Everything should be interchangeable, 
whether the apiary be large or small. 
Having after mature consideration decided 
upon size and form of hive, I at once cut up 
and demolished a previous very varied con- 
struction, and now all goes on like clockwork. 
If I have a weak hive, I can take a frame of 
brood or a frame of honey from a populous 
hive and strengthen the weak. I can transfer 
a whole colony from one hive to another 
clean hive, taking away- any old or diseased 
comb in a quarter of an hour, or I can divide 
a strong colony into two to prevent swarm- 
ing, or I can place one hive over another 
with a zinc queen separator between, thus 
getting combs of pure honey- for the extractor. 
There are so many advantages in having 
everything in an apiary interchangeable 
that I can’t stop to enumerate. 
One object of your Bee Journal should be 
to provide bee culture, amongst farmers, 
gardeners, cottagers and others, by' showing 
them that bees can be profitably managed in 
