13 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
virgin honey, and in one of these I put a 
tube made of foundation. As I noticed this to 
disappear very soon, I put in some more 
narrow strips of foundation, which also were 
devoured very soon, and used for the same 
purpose as the bricklayer would use mortar. 
Not satisfied with this discovery I got next a 
larger quantity of strips of very old founda- 
tion, but nearly white, and 1 threw them 
in different directions among those globes, 
and I watched the bees and saw them make use 
of it, indeed I could notice that they were quite 
delighted to get material already prepared 
for them. On December the 8th I put five 
globes on that hive, and now on the 18th they 
are nearly full of pure white comb honey. I 
cannot exactly state what quantity of 
honey I shall be able to take from each hive, 
because I am troubled too much with swarm- 
ing. It is of no use whatever to give them 
ample room to store honey ; I may put on 
sections, but they will swarm, and then the 
sections are left empty. Well, I deceive 
them, I put the swarm on the place of the 
hive, and give it the sections from the latter 
also, and they go to work in right earnest. 
There is just another remark I would like to 
make in reply to Mr. “ Drone Comb,” where 
he stated he never read anything in American 
Bee Books about the metal runners, but I 
did. 1 am very well certain that Mr. A. T. 
Root, of Medina, Ohio, claims the ownership 
of that invention. I intended also to reply to 
some of the queries, but I must leave this for 
others to do or otherwise my paper will 
become too lengthy. 
Management of Bees in Boxes. 
By B. L. J. Ellery. 
Notwithstanding the much greater advan- 
tages afforded by frame over the ordinary box 
hives there will always be a very large pro- 
portion, especially of the common Black or 
Brown Bee kept in various kinds of boxes or 
packing cases, such as Dutch gin cases, 
candle boxes, kerosene cases and such like, 
because they can generally be obtained at a 
very small cost in any part of the country. 
With a notch cut in one edge for the 
entrance, and almost “ anything ” for a bottom 
board, the hive is complete. Many beekeepers 
with from 50 to 100 or more stocks use 
nothing but such hives, and in good seasons 
secure excellent returns in honey and wax if 
all goes well. It is not an uncommon thing 
to see boxes of every conceivable kind placed 
n rows and piled one over the other in the 
shelter afforded by a fence or hedge forming 
an apiary of scores of hives, the only protec- 
tion against rain or sun being pieces of tin or 
galvanized iron, some old sacks, pieces of bark 
or split palings laid on the top tiers. Bees 
seem to thrive well in these boxes and store 
rapidly in good localities and seasons. 
A casual visit to some such apiaries when 
bees are busy and all going well almost convinces 
one that the old box system is as good as any. 
But it not unfrequently happens that some 
beekeeper has lost all his bees. Something 
has gone wrong — stock after stock have left, 
others had dwindled and died, till out of 50, 
60 or 100 stocks scarcely one remains strong. 
Every year we hear of such things. It is 
accounted for by a bad season in the locality 
and starvation, or the moth has got into the 
hives; but there is no certainty as to the cause 
of the loss, owing first to the lack of acquain- 
tance with the diseases of bees and cause of 
such loss in the apiary, and secondly to the 
difficulty of examining the combs and the 
brood until it is too late and all the bees have 
left. If the bees had been in frame hives 
it would have been easy directly any dwind- 
ling and want of activity was apparent among 
them to have examined the combs and pro- 
bably have stopped the spread of disease and 
trouble among them before it had extended 
to any large number of stocks. But as box 
hives will be used by those to whom the pro- 
fit of beekeeping is most important, until they 
are no cheaper than frame hives, a few hints 
concerning the signs of disease, cause of weak- 
ness and inactivity, the best way of mani- 
pulating and examining bees in such hives 
may, perhaps, assist some beekeepers to a 
better management of their stocks and pos- 
sibly avoidance of much loss. 
An experienced beekeeper can always judge 
by watching his bees going in and out of the 
hive on a fine warm day, whether they are 
working well, and if brood is being reared ; 
for it must be remembered that as bees only 
live five or six weeks in the honey season, a 
stock must rapidly dwindle if from any cause 
no brood is being reared. If on any fine 
warm morning bees are seen busily going 
into the hive without loitering — many of 
them laden with little pellets of pollen on 
their legs at the rate of thirty or upwards per 
minute, according to the strength of the 
hive, it may be presumed all is going well ; 
the amount of bustle and activity giving one 
a very good idea of the state of the house- 
hold. Such hives may be left alone so long 
as they are moderately well sheltered from the 
direct rays of the sun (especially if the box 
be of any dark or dingy colour) and protected 
from rain. If, however, a stock is found to be 
very inactive, or going in and out listlessly in 
small numbers — few or none carrying pollen, 
or busy bringing out dead bees, or hanging 
lazily about the entrance, while a peculiar 
faint sickening odour is apparent close to the 
