110 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
building snow-white comb, and using no pro- 
polis, they are accused of being over l'ond of 
swarming, which, of course, is a great ob- 
jection with those keeping bees for profit. 
However, a change of climate may possibly 
alter this propensity, and it is fully worth 
while seeing how the crosses with Italians or 
Cyprians will do for Australian climates. 
Tiie Carniolan is very like the black bee, 
with a lot of silver down on it. 
Among the now numerous convenient in- 
ventions for beekeepers, the Alley drone trap, 
or swarm arrester, is likely to prove of the 
greatest value to those who don’t care about 
losing swarms. This arrangement is a little 
movable porch to go in front of the hive on 
the entrance. It is closed with zinc, per- 
forated with oblong holes large enough for the 
worker bee to get through quite easily, but 
too small for drones or laying queens to get 
through. The porch has an upper storey, 
which can be entered from the lower one 
through two cones of fine wire net, with 
holes in their apex large enough for queens 
and drones to get through easily. When once 
in the upper storey they are caged, for, 
although they could go back the way they 
came, they never do, because the way out is 
on the top of a cone or pyramid, and bees 
seldom or never enter an opening situated at 
the end of a cone or tube. Now if one of these 
“ traps ’’ is on a hive when a swarm issues, all 
the bees get through the zinc front, but the 
queen cannot, and she crawls up through one 
of the cones into the upper storey of the trap, 
and is thus caged ; the bees soon find she is 
not out, and cluster around the cage, from 
whence the swarm is easily taken. Mr. 
Honney, of Adelaide, writing to us his ex- 
perience of these useful little arrangements, 
says: — “Do you use the Allej’ drone trap P 
It is a capital invention. I keep one on each 
of my pure Italian colonies during swarming 
time, and can then go to business without any 
fear of loss of swarms. If the bees swarm, the 
queen goes into the trap and remains there 
with the swarm hanging about the hive till 
I come home in the evening, when matters are 
easily arranged.” 
Mr. Alley himself says : — ‘‘ You can go to 
church on Sundays in swarming time without 
thinking of your swarms all prayer time.” 
PROCEEDINGS of BEEKEEPERS’ 
ASSOCIATIONS. 
Victorian Beekeepers Club. 
The eleventh meeting of the Club was held on 
Monday, 11th September, at 8 p.m>, at the 
rooms of the Victorian Public Service Associa- 
tion, Melbourne Athenaeum. Fifteen members 
present ; Mr. Ellery in the chair. There were 
numerous exhibits of beekeeping appliances, 
racks, frames, hives, &c., and specimens of 
new or little known bee flowers. 
Frames with combs from hives showing 
signs of disease were brought by some 
members with the view of eliciting informa- 
tion. 
The following papers were then read by 
the Chairman : — 
QUIETING BEES WITH CARBOLIC VAPOUR, 
Rees, like human beings, are quieter when 
full of food than when empty, so that all 
methods of quieting bees aim at inducing them 
to gorge themselves without otherwise injur- 
ing or unduly alarming them. Anything that 
alarms the bees or produces commotion in the 
hive will induce gorging, if they have any 
honey ; if they have not, you cannot quiet 
them except momentarily, unless you give 
them the means of gorging by sprinkling 
syrup or honey and water over them. Drum- 
ming or bumping the hive, puffing tobacco or 
any kind of smoke among the combs all do 
well for this purpose ; but tobacco smoke, 
unless sparingly used, makes the bees very 
giddy for a long time. It is usual, there- 
fore, to use only the smoke of rags or decayed 
wood, which is most conveniently obtained 
by aid of a bellows smoker, of which there are 
various forms. Notwithstanding the utility 
of a bellows smoker, every beekeeper has ex- 
perienced the annoyance of time lost in getting 
up a fire in his smoker when in a hurry, no 
rags or rotten wood to be found, or if found, 
perhaps not dry ; or no matches at hand ; or, 
worse than all, ir. the middle of some manipu- 
lation, the bees get very vicious, and you find 
the fire has gone out Lately some apiarists 
in England have made experiments with dif- 
ferent, cold vapours such as crude carbolic 
acid, creosote, ammonia, &c., and apparently 
have met with great success. I have tried 
some of these methods, and am glad to 
say with very marked advantages. I 
have here a bellows smoker, with a little 
chamber for forming the vapour. Into this 
chamber I put a little sponge, on which is 
placed thirty to sixty drops of a mixture of 
creosote and common oil of tar (one part of 
creosote to ten of the black oil of tar.) When 
this is closed up, and the bellows worked, the 
air passes through and gets impregnated with 
the tarry vapour. By gently blowing this 
vapour on to the tops and between the frames, 
the bees run down quickly and fill them- 
selves. A very little seems to do all that is 
required, and indeed very little should be used. 
1 find that, by lifting one corner of the mat 
