THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
15 
properties, as it blisters the tongue or skin 
with which it is brought in contact, and it is 
therefore to be handled with caution. Bee- 
keepers who might feel timid on this account 
should find no difficulty in getting solutions 
of any definite strength prepared for them by 
those who have the necessary instruments, and 
are familiar with the material. 
Several forms of hives were exhibited. 
The following were elected new members of 
the Club : — Mr. Whitfield Raw, “ Southern 
Cross,” Warrnambool ; Mr. N. D. O. Willis, 
Kooloomut, Nareen; Mr. H. Pennington, 
Glenira-road, Caulfield ; Mr. Jno. Martin, 
Cotham-road, Kew; Mr. Jos. Ingamels, 
Malop-street, Geelong. 
Ordinary meeting held at Manufacturers’ 
Association Rooms, the Exchange, 14th 
December, 1885. Present — Eighteen mem- 
bers ; Mr. Ellery in the chair. Mr. Grant, 
according to promise, exhibited a frame from 
a hive badly affected with foul brood, for the 
information of members not familiar with its 
appearance. He had moved all his affected 
bees into new hives with fall foundation, fed 
on phenol syrup, one part in 500 by weight 
— new brood that shewed any signs of the 
malady returning he immediately sprayed 
them with thin phenol syrup, and so far he 
reported the treatment apparently successful. 
A conversation ensued on bee forage and 
plants and trees much frequented by bees this 
season, and members were requested to report 
their observations in this direction to the 
editors of the Journal. 
The following new members were elected : — 
Mr. James J. Whitham, Dandenong ; Mr. 
Baldwin, Clarendon-street, East Melbourne ; 
Mr. P. Hotton, Heatherton. 
South Australian Beekeepers' 
Association. 
The monthly meeting of this society was held 
at the Chamber of Manufactures on Thursday, 
3rd December; Mr. J. H. Wiedenhofer in the 
chair, and there was a large attendance of 
members. The Hon. Secretary mentioned 
that he had made arrangements with the 
Royal Agricultural Society to have a show of 
beekeepers' products and appliances at the 
Autumn Show of the Society, and that a 
liberal prize-list had been published by them. 
In answer to an inquiry, it was stated that 
any member of either Society might compete 
upon paying the usual entrance-fee for his 
exhibits. Mr. Fiebig sent in a Ligurian bee 
from Kangaroo Island, the first result of his 
own bee industry at that place. Mr. Stevens 
brought in several queen cells built upon 
drone comb, and from one of which a queen 
had emerged. Mr. Fiebig reported that there 
were about a dozen colonies of black .bees 
existing upon Kangaroo Island at the back of 
Hog Bay. Several lots of “ shiny” bees 
were shown, and it was reported that nearly 
all beekeepers were losing large numbers 
through the same cause. Mr. Coleman said 
he had a colony that was badly affected with 
the “ shiny ” disease. Bees become quite 
smooth, and black and shiny. On removing 
the queen and substituting another queen, 
the sickness disappeared, and the bees reco- 
vered their strength. It was stated that 
Dzierzon called this disease the vertigo, and 
he attributed it to the bees eating poisonous 
honey. Some of the members stated that the 
disease disappeared if the colonies were well 
fed. Mr. J. H. Wiedenhofer showed heads of 
Black Russian and Californian double-flowered 
sunflower, and he strongly recommended the 
flower to beekeepers as a fertile source j of 
pollen and honey. 
A paper by Mr. E. A. Coleman, of Mount 
Barker, was read at this meeting, which is an 
important and valuable contribution from an 
experienced apiarist, keeping at least 200 
stocks. This paper will be given in full in 
our next number. 
ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS. 
By W. Abram, Manager of the Italian 
Bee Company, Parramatta, N.S.W. 
(Continued) 
Part II. — the hive. 
The old kinds of hives and bee boxes, I 
am glad to say, are rapidly falling into disuse 
since the introduction of the Bar or Frame 
Hives, and a new and better era has dawned 
for both bees and beekeepers, as instead of 
the inhuman method of destroying those busy 
but ill-used creatures, by suffocation at the 
end of their harvest season and robbing them 
of the fruit of their labours, or even the less 
cruel fashion of driving them in the autumn 
from their well-stored dwelling into an empty 
one and leaving them to face starvation as best 
they could through the cold days of winter, 
or the chance of their surviving somehow till 
spring came again. The surplus of their 
accumulated stores can now be taken from 
time to time as available with scarcely the 
loss of a single bee and little trouble or 
danger to the owner of the apiary. 
Of the many new inventions in this direc- 
tion, I shall confine my remarks for the pre- 
sent to a description of the hive which after 
long experience I consider the best and most 
suitable from every point of view. I allude 
to the Berlepsch Hive, and I may primarily 
state that the original idea of movable combs 
in a beehive, emanated from Dr. Dzierzon in 
