82 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
A Word from Sweet Home 
A piary. 
The long-established Sweet Home Apiary of 
the pioneer beemaster of Queensland, Mr- 
J. Carroll, is prettily situated upon one of 
those wooded hills between Rosalie and 
One-tree-hill Range. There is a road which 
leads from Milton, round by Ithaca Creek, 
and coming out by the Toowong Cemetery, 
which is one of the prettiest roads for an 
afternoon or moonlight ride possible, and it is 
on this road that Mr. Carroll’s apiary has now 
been established for over twenty years. From 
this spot hives of bees have been sent to every 
corner of Australia, and Mr. Carroll’s name 
has become a household word among bee- 
keepers. 
Riding by the other day, I saw the “ veteran ” 
busy in the garden planting a Moreton Bay 
fig. To dismount and settle down to a chat 
did not take long. Mr. Carroll informed me 
that he had not, during this past year, gone 
so extensively into the pursuit as he used to 
do; nevertheless, he had sold a great many 
hives and a large amount of honey, for the 
season had been a good one for honey. He 
stated that some Victorian beekeepers, who 
had visited him last week, were dumfoundered 
at the immense quantity of honey that he 
showed them in one of his hives. “ That one 
there,” he said to me, “ with the three stories 
on. It is useless your stating in print how 
much I have taken from those bees, because 
no one will believe it ; but you can look for 
yourself, and you will find' that top box as 
well as the middle one full of almost finished 
sections, and yet, I assure you, I have taken 
as much again from them. I will now,” he 
continued, “ give you such some advice which 
you can give to the many new beekeepers 
there now are. First, tell them that this 
constant disturbing, hunting to see the queen, 
and taking out the frames, is radically wrong 
if you want to produce surplus honey. That 
hive you have just looked at, I have never 
disturbed the bottom box or chamber for 
three years past. That one there (pointing to 
another box,) small as the brood chamber is — 
only eight frames— I have never looked at 
for four years, and yet, you see, it is three 
stories high, and has yielded almost as much 
honey as the other. I keep certain hives for 
increase and queen rearing, and, of course, 
they are disturbed ; but the amateur, who 
wants honey, to go and tiddlywink every day 
with the brood chamber is fatal to honey 
gathering.” 
The next little bit of experience gathered 
by the veteran, during twenty years beekeep- 
ing in hot Queensland, is the necessity of 
shading the hives “ And,” he added, “ there 
is no shade equal to that of living trees. You 
will observe all my best honey gathering 
hives are under trees, and, besides that, you 
can see what cool and efficient artificial roofs 
I put over every hive.” This is good advice, 
for it is apparent to any one that the heat of 
an unshaded hive must be intense, and the 
bees cannot and will not work in it, and so 
they come outside and remain in idle clusters 
in order to lessen the temperature and the 
crowd inside, and so prevent their comb from 
collapsing. In the house I saw piles of sec- 
tions filled with pure honey, and some beautiful 
bell-glasses also filled with virgin comb and 
clear honey, these latter being sold as orna- 
ments to the dining table. — Queenslander, 
27th March. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
( To the Editor of the Beekeepers' 
Journal.) 
Sin, — In his letter for April, Mr. Fullwood 
says that he has read the reason for my pre- 
ferring the Berlepsch or Dzierzon style of hive. 
Now I beg to inform the kind readers (as well 
as Mr. Fullwood) that I never mentioned any 
reason for preferring the Dzierzon hive, hut 
clearly showed the great difference between 
the two and my preference for the Berlepsch 
hive. Mr. Fullwood seems to have the impres- 
sion that the two hives are much alike, as he 
says further on that my kind of hive “has been 
used in all the colonies, and mostly abandoned.” 
If he alludes to the Dzierzon hive, he may be 
right ; but he is absolutely wrong should he 
mean the Berlepsch hive, as having been 
abandoned. It is only a little over four years 
since my start here, and it is about two years 
since my style of hive was made public. Is it 
possible that my hive would have been used 
and abandoned, when nobody knew about it F 
Or is it possible for a person that has read an 
article or two about this hive, to form a judg- 
ment and condemn it, because he has a diffet- 
ent hive in use? I am happy to say that my 
hives find more friends the more they get 
known ; even many of those that had the 
Langstroth hive first, now work with the 
Berlepsch, some with over a hundred stocks, 
and the preference increases the longer they 
use it. 
Mr. Fullwood also finds the facts that bees 
in their natural state are usually found in 
trees — where of necessity the height is greater 
than the width— not conclusive to his mind, 
for frequently hees build in caves, under 
shelves of rock, &c. But as every one knows 
what a rarity it is to find colonies of bees 
