92 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
so irritates the poor bees that sometimes he 
has to flee for his life. The hives being set 
close together — touching each other in fact — 
your reader can easily imagine the confusion 
that ensues. Sometimes the bees take to rob- 
bing ; but the fellow has no idea of the cause of 
his difficulties, thinking they get up a fight 
from pure “ cussedness” — and yet our young 
bees are as gentle as flies I asked the man 
who sold me my two swarms how much honey 
he gathered from them all. He answered that 
sometimes he got a little and sometimes none 
at all. One or two arrohas, or at most a 
hundredweight, is considered good luck, even 
when you are the unhappy owner of forty of 
these hives, as was the case with my man. 
This would be at most 2-J- pounds per hive. 
And yet these ignoramuses laugh innocently 
at us, good-naturedly, for keeping our bees in 
such a new-fangled way. Per contra the sul- 
phur pit is unknown here, a fact which speaks 
in their favour. 
Formerly the nectar was more abundant 
than at present, many having given up in 
disgust, as well they may. If we can get the 
people to use modern methods, we may have 
great hopes for the future, for, as you must be 
aware, our honey is only rivalled by that of 
Mount Hymettus; and your George Armstrong 
tells us, in his History of Minorca, published 
in 1750, w hen he was Military Gov. ruor of 
the Island, that owing to the great abundance 
of aromatic herbs, our honey is unsurpassed 
Considerable quantities of the nectar were 
at that time exported to England via 
Gibraltar. 
Now as to our race of bees. I am informed 
it is unknown in England; but they must be 
of a superior kind, for they work and breed 
tremendously, and not only do they wear the 
three classic gold bands, but when ventilating 
they put out a fourth and thicker line on their 
posteriors, which occasionally resembles a 
triangle in shape. And they wear grey jackets 
that are golden in the sun, when seen through 
a magnifying glass. 
I regret I am unable to ascertain whether 
our bees really gather pollen from Clematis 
Vitalba, it having ceased to bloom. But as in 
November and December I knew of no flowers 
then blossoming bearing white pollen, 1 con- 
cluded it came from Vitalba, which they 
visited extensively. Shull look into the matter 
next season. 
Our almond trees are again in blossom, and 
a pretty sight it is to see in winter, mid-winter 
trees in full bloom with not a green leaf visible. 
I can only compare it to our trees in America 
after a snowstorm. The crop will be short, 
owing to a succession of gales from the north. 
I see that the Rev Mr. Stroud writes from 
Africa that he has hives with three and four 
queens working harmoniously. How is this 
to be understood P 
In looking over my populous hive, I found 
the inner blanket, which was thickly enamelled 
with propolis, pretty bad ly eaten up. Is it the 
bees P Also a place on it near the entrance 
quite mouldy like. Did the bees want ventila- 
tion ? I have since found the wool thus 
gnawed from the blanket under the hive 
entrance, together with two or three large 
larvae, and therefore conclude the bees did it 
to get rid of their enemy, the moth-worm. — 
P. C Andrews, Minorca , in British Bee 
Journal. 
The Koiiler Process. 
As we are often asked for an explanation of 
this method, we give it concisely below. It is 
a method of procuring the fecundation of young 
queens by selected drones, and, therefore, of 
breeding any race of bees — as Italians, or 
Syrians, for instance — pure, and was first 
practised by Herr Kohler, a noted German 
apiarist, whose name it bears: — When a young 
queen is hatched out in a nucleus-box (or in 
any other hive) pure drones of her own race 
are selected and confined with her in the same 
box for two or three days. Then on the after- 
noon of a fine day, when all other drones in 
the apiary have gone to rest, and the queen is 
judged ready to take her wedding flight, the 
hive is opened. As might be expected, the 
queen and her companions immediately avail 
themselves of their liberty and a pure breed is 
secured. Should the first tour prove unsuc- 
cessful, the hive is again shut up and not opened 
until the following afternoon. The closed hive 
should be removed to a dark and cool room, 
while the bees are under confinement, and 
removed to its accustomed stand before the 
bees are set at liberty. Feeding with a little 
warm syrup before the flight takes place will 
expedite the process. Baron von Berlepsch, 
writing of this method in the year 1867 — when 
it was first introduced — says : “I have tested 
the discovery at six different times, and on 
every occasion it has proved successful.” With 
ourselves it has rarely failed. Sufficient venti- 
lation must be afforded to the hive while the 
bees are confined, or serious consequences may 
ensue. Since the Baron’s time, most promi- 
nent apiarists have proved and approved this 
method . — British Bee Journal, 27th May, 1886. 
Smoking Swarms. 
On more than one occasion we have known 
swarms to be destroyed by injecting smoke. 
1'he novice, anxious to see “how the swarm is 
getting on,” armed with his smoker, in fear of 
stings, injects puff after puff into the newly- 
hived swarm, on the second or third day’s 
