122 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
difficult to find the full combs, as they must 
all be disturbed to be assured of its contents, 
and the bees shaken or brushed off into the 
hive. After two or more frames have been 
removed and clear of bees, they are taken to 
a closed room. There, with a sharp knife, the 
cappings are shaved off, and two or four 
frames placed in the extractor, top downwards; 
then the work is set into motion — first slow, 
but gradually quicker. When most of the 
honey of the outside cells is extracted, the 
frames are turned and treated in the same 
manner, the motion continued longer and 
quicker at the last to get all honey out, then 
the frames are turned once more and the rest 
extracted. In this manner, with care, very 
young combs can be extracted without break- 
ing, though older combs are better. When 
the motion is too quick the weight of the 
honey of the inner side breaks the foundation 
and forces its way out, or when the comb has 
no support on the netting around the basket 
it breaks. Some honey is so tough that it 
will not extract at all. The uncapping knife 
should be dipped into lukewarm water, when 
it will slip between cappings and honey. The 
weight of the two opposite combs should be as 
near the same as possible. 
As long as only frames full of honey are 
taken for extracting, and those with brood left 
undisturbed, the bees will always have a 
quantity of honey in those frames, which they 
would require should bad weather suddenly 
set in. But sometimes, and in good honey 
seasons, they fill even the front frames with 
honey, only using a few hundred or thousand 
of cells for brood. In such case the front 
frames should be taken out, empty ones placed 
instead, and these with brood placed near the 
door to be extracted as soon as the brood is 
hatched. 
The process of taking the honey with an 
extractor is far superior to the old mode of 
squeezing it out of the comb. Excepting a 
few small bits of wax nothing is mixed with 
it, and that wax ascends to the top in a 
short time. As our extractors hold nearly a 
hundred pounds of honey, and if it remains 
during the night, it will be settled next morn- 
ing, and ready to be tapped off into suitable 
vessels at once. Extracted honey is the pure 
nectar of the flowers ; nothing can equal it, 
and only our little bees are provided by 
Nature to gather such a delicious article. 
May consumers be cautious to procure it in 
its real purity, and they will find that it is a 
much more tasteful, wholesome, and neverthe- 
less economical diet, than mixtures of glucose, 
&c. May also every beekeeper make it his 
duty to offer a real good article ! W. Abram, 
Manager Italian Bee Company, Parramatta, 
N.S.W. 6th January, 1887. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Improving our Bees. 
( To the Editors of the Australian Beekeepers’ 
Journal.) 
Gentlemen, — There appears to be a wise 
provision that, under thoroughly natural 
conditions, the pairing of animals for the pro- 
pagation of their species takes place in such 
a way as to avoid what is known as in- 
and-in breeding, and that the degeneracy and 
deterioration of a race, which inevitably follows 
too close relationship in propagation, rather 
comes from artifical causes than from natural 
ones. As it is with other animal life generally, 
so it is with the honey bee, and queens 
fertilised by drones from their own hives 
deteriorate both in good qualities and hardi- 
ness. It is a rule, however, that queens mate 
far away from their hives, and the chances of 
meeting with drones from other hives, or even 
other apiaries are much increased in this way; 
therefore, Nature provides against in-and-in 
breeding and a consequent degeneration of our 
races of bees. 
In this direction the wise beemaster can do 
much to improve his breed of bees, in the same 
manner as stock or flock owners do : namely, 
getting new blood or new stock of improved 
kind. There are now many beemasters who 
devote their energies to importing and rearing 
queens of improved varieties of bees, for sale. la 
this way, most of the proved kinds of bees 
have found their way to Australia, and 
the well-known Ligurian or Italian bee, as well 
as the Cyprian, are now fairly established. 
To improve our stock, then, the obvious plan 
is to procure queens, or queens and stocks of 
some varieties of the well-proved Italian or 
Mediterranean bee. The Italian bees combine 
the most good qualities, and with them profit- 
able breeding can be effected. Wherever they 
have been introduced they have improved the 
then existing race. Black queens mated by 
Italian drones, brought about an improvement 
and new energy and hardiness. This should 
be reason enough to go in for the Italians, j 
The questions now arise, Is the common 
black bee capable of improvement P and, Is 
there a better race, and which is it P To find 
that out, I shall name the principal good 
qualities of the honey bee. These are: they 
breed fast, but not many drones ; they swarm, 
but not so often as to send out small swarms 
and thus weaken the old hive too much ; their 
greatest desire is to gather honey ; they defend 
their home against against enemies ; they can 
be handled by the use of a little smoke with- 
out their becoming vicious. As long as a hive 
of bees has these qualities, it has the most good 
