64 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
standing place exactly, will unite with their 
oldqeeen, and thus form a new swarm similar 
to a natural one. A young fertile queen or 
sealed queen cell may be given to the parent 
hive. All this shows how profitable it is to 
rear some queens before artificial increase is 
started. An artificial swarm, if properly 
made, is just as good as a natural one, and 
very often excels it in honey-producing.’’ 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. A. E. Bonney had never increased bis 
stocks by natural swarming, but had almost 
invariably used the nucleus system. During 
the past season from four hives he had in- 
creased to about 25 full colonies, 12 nucleus 
hives, and 50 nucleus boxes. His plan was 
called the nucleus system, and was as follows : 
Take a comb of hatching brood— bees, queen, 
and all — from a strong colony, and hang this 
comb in an empty hive with a comb of honey 
on each side ; close this hive with a screen and 
keep it closed for three days. The gaps in the 
strong colony should be filled with frames of 
foundation. The nucleus hive can soon be 
strengthened by adding combs of hatching 
brood. 
Mr. Fiebig stated that by dividing a colony 
and giving a queen, within three days the 
colony would gain in number at once, whilst 
by leaving the hive without a queen, the colony 
would decrease continually for three weeks, 
until the new queen was hatched and began 
to lay. The loss during the 18 days would be 
of the natural increase of about 2000 per day 
by the queen, and by the deaths. 
In answer to a question as to whether it is ad- 
visable to divide strong colonies at the present 
time, it was considered to be worth while to 
increase the colonies by nuclei, but not to 
weaken strong colonies by dividing now, the 
reason for this advice being that there are 
indications in many localities that the honey 
harvest will last all through the winter. 
Inanswer tootherquestions, several members 
stated that they had seen foul brood in their 
hives, but had overcome it by burning all the 
old combs, cleaning the hives with phenol and 
carbolic acid, and giving them clean comb 
foundation. The strength of salicylic acid 
used by one for washing the hives, &c., was 
one part of 75 parts of wrnter. The same 
strength of salicylic acid (dissolved in alcohol) 
was used for mixing with the feed — one in 200 
is strong enough. Simply transferring on to 
clean comb foundation without feeding was 
frequently successful. 
Mr. Bonney mentioned that most of the old 
box hives amongst the hills have foul brood this 
year. It was very serious, and it was neces- 
sary first to destroy all comb and all brood, 
saving the mature bees and queen, and giving 
new frames with full sheets of foundation, 
after boiling the old hives in a solution of 
carbolic acid in the proportion of one to 200. 
It was mentioned that Messrs. Coleman and 
May had been curing foul brood by fuming six- 
teen grains of salicylic acid at the entrance of 
each hive, using a spirit-lamp and a special 
contrivance. Some of the members, however, 
had failed to cure the disease by this method. 
At the meeting of the Beekeepers’ Society 
on 4th March, Mr. A. E. Bonney read a paper 
upon “ Queen Rearing,” of which the follow- 
ing abstract gives the whole gist : — 
Queen rearing is the highest branch of 
apiculture, and should only be undertaken by 
those who have acquired a thorough and 
practical knowledge of bees and beekeeping. 
It is also the most interesting and instructive. 
The importance of having a good queen in each 
colony of bees is well known by experienced 
beekeepers. A strong healthy colony of bees 
in this favoured country will give a good 
account of itself, no matter what description 
of hive it may be in. Now, in order to get 
this strong colony a young prolific queen is 
indispensable. In a recent number of an 
American bee journal the question was asked, 
how to rear the best queens ? The reply was, 
“ Get Alley’s book,” which I think was about 
the best answer that could be given. His 
system is far in advance of any other with 
which I am acquainted. I have brought in a 
complete outfit of the necessary appliances for 
rearing queen bees according to Alley’s system, 
and by their aid will endeavour to explain the 
system. All these appliances are of simple 
construction, but require to be accurately and 
well made. The little nucleus boxes have to 
be exposed to the extreme heat of summer, 
and it is therefore essential that they are 
made of wood at least seven-eighths of an 
inch thick. Two or three persons who have 
tried these miniature hives complain that the 
bees will not stay in them. I have had no 
trouble in this way. By keeping them sup- 
plied at all times with uncapped brood and 
abundance of honey or sugar syrup, they will 
not show any inclination to leave. Since the 
gumtrees have come into bloom near my 
apiary, several of these little colonies have 
become too crowded, and have sent out 
natural swarms. Many persons advocate 
getting queens by natural swarming as the 
best plan, but one serious objection to this is 
that by so doing we encourage the swarming 
propensity of our bees. Excessive swarming 
has ruined many an apiary in South Australia, 
and the efforts of all queen breeders should be 
directed towards modifying this objectionable 
propensity as much as possible. In selecting 
a queen to breed from, choose one that keeps 
her hive full of quiet, hard-working bees, 
