108 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL 
coating of sugar. And here the bees on which 
he is operating are compelled to feed. He 
places the sweets out of reach of their tongues 
through the screen. As they get hungry, and 
still more hungry, they strain their tongues 
and run them out just a 1-i-t-t-l-e further till 
they reach the sugar. When they get so they 
can feed upon the sugar easily at this depth, 
the plate containing the sweet is dropped a 
trifle lower — perhaps the thickness of a sheet 
of tissue paper. In this way the professor will 
lengthen their tongues, and he will continue to 
breed these bees and stretch the tongues of each 
generation until a variety of bees will exist 
with abnormally long tongues adapted to the 
red clover blossoms. 
Among the many more ingenious things Prof. 
M'Lain is now experimenting on is the pro- 
duction of larger bees. He is arranging for 
this result by artificially enlarging the cell in 
which the queen bee is formed. He thinks he 
can continue this for a few generations, 
until we have bees as large as June bugs, if not 
rivalling in size the humming bird. It' the pro- 
fessor is fully bent on doing this, we are going 
to see him about, leaving out the stingers, for if 
one of his old sockdoilgers should hit a fellow 
behind the ear he would think he was struck 
with a red-hot cannon ball . — Aurora Blade. 
QUERIES AND REPLIES. 
Replies to Queries. 
No 18 —The best time to put on supers is 
when the brood chamber is pretty full of bees, 
but not earlier. If, when the hive cover is 
lifted, the bees well up over every frame, then 
they should be put on without further delay 
unless you wish to encourage swarming, in 
which case they should not be put. on at all. 
Giving extra room, by supering, often prevents 
swarming. 
Dees readily take to the last season’s sections 
if they are clean and free from moth or other 
invaders 
No. 20. — The stocks E S. refers to are in a 
bad way. Either the stocks which have no 
eggs or brood must be qucenless, or the queens 
are old and exhausted or diseased. In any case 
the following is the best course to pursue : — 
See which stock has the most prolific queen, 
which can be seen now by the amount of 
brood present. Select this stock as your 
“ mainstay,” and unite all the others whose 
bees do not cover two frames at least to 
this one, observing the ordinary rules for 
uniting, that is, gradually approaching all the 
hives one to another, till they are close 
together, and then seaiching for the queen (if 
there is any) in each of the weak hives, and 
remove them. Now open out the frames of 
the hive which has been selected as the best, 
and insert the frames from the weak hives 
alternately with them, giving them all a good 
smoking before uniting and afterwards, also if 
there is any tendency to fight, which there is 
little chance of, unless the bees have been 
unduly disturbed. 
Queries. 
Query No. 21. — In front of several of my 
stocks there are large numbers of dead bees ; 
some are seen fluttering on the ground in front 
of the hives, and trembling ; they ultimately 
die, and many dead or trembling bees are 
brought out from the hive and thrown out. 
The bees have much diminished in the hives. 
What is this disease, and what is the best 
remedy to use ? — Philomel. 
Artificial Pollen . — -After the late severe 
winter, natural pollen cannot be expected 
to be very plentiful. In the olden times 
if bees could not get pollen from the 
flowers, then they had to go without. 
If, however, we can assist Nature without 
endeavouring to set aside Nature’s laws, then 
it seems only right to do so. A gentleman, 
who lived near a windmill, found that his 
bees were constantly visiting the mill and 
returning again to their hives. After watch- 
ing them for some time he paid a visit to the 
mill, and there he discovered his bees flounder, 
ing about in the flour and carrying it away. 
He found that the reason was that natural 
pollen was scarce. As we do not all reside 
in the neighbourhood of windmills, and for 
various other reasons, it is desirable to give 
the bees flour nearer home. It has been dis- 
covered that the best kind of flour to give 
bees is pea-flour. Get a large pan with a few 
shavings at the bottom, then sprinkle the 
pea-flour amongst the shavings and place it 
in the neighbourhood of the hive ; the bees 
may be a little while finding it out ; so to 
draw their attention to it, point it out to them 
by means of their noses, i e., put some sweet 
syrup in a piece of comb and put it in the 
pan ; if you have a small quantity of honey 
to spare, so much the better. When you 
hive once commenced, do not leave it off till 
there is plenty of natural pollen. I have 
mentioned in a previous article how to supply 
bees with water. Give them water at once. 
— Walter Ciiitty, Gardeners' Chronicle, 
April, 1880. 
