THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
6. As carbolic acid is a poison, great care 
is required in its use, and should any of the 
solution come into contact with the hands, 
they should be immediately rinsed in clean 
water. Should there be any cuts or cracks on 
the skin still greater care must be taken. 
7. During great heat, causing much per- 
spiration, and in very windy weather, when the 
bees are blown about and the smoke driven 
away, they should be left alone. 
8. Bees do not like bad smells ; dust or dirt 
and dark colors irritate them. Human breath 
is also offensive to them. Persons dressed 
in dark clothes and having dark hair, are 
more liable to attack than those having light 
hair and wearing light-colored garments. 
9. Beginners who have not yet got used to 
stings should provide themselves with a veil 
to protect the face. This can be made of 
coarse black net, one yard by eighteen inches. 
Fasten the ends together, run a hem round 
the top, insert an elastic, and draw it up until 
it tits round the crown of a hat. The rim 
of the hat keeps the veil from the face, and 
the lower end can be tucked under the coat 
about the neck. 
V. — The Different Bees found in a 
Colony. 
1. The bee is a sociable insect, and cannot 
live long by itself. Many bees live together 
and form a society called a colony. In the 
colony is found one large bee which may be 
recognised by her form, size and color, being 
longer and of more slender structure, with 
comparatively shorter wings than the others. 
This is the queen ; she is the only fully de- 
veloped female who lays all the eggs, and is 
the mother of all the bees in the colony. She 
passes through various changes from tiie time 
the egg is laid to leaving the cell as a full- 
grown insect in from fifteen to seventeen days, 
and can live five years, although she usually 
serves the beekeeper only for two or three 
years. 
2. The other bees are the workers ; upon 
them devolves all the work of collecting and 
defending their stores, building comb and 
feeding and protecting the brood. They are 
females, but are undeveloped as far as regards 
their reproductive organs. They mature in 
about twenty-one days from the day the egg 
is laid, and fly out for collecting in from eight 
to fourteen days. Those hatched in the 
autumn generally livo through the winter, 
but during tiro summer when they have much 
work to do, they usually live from six to eight 
weeks. 
3. During the swarming season there appear 
male bees. These are called drones, and are 
recognised by the noise they make when 
flying. They are more bulky than the queens 
and huger than the workers ; have no stings 
and do no work. At the end of the swarming 
season, when their services for impregnating 
the queen are no longer needed, they are 
27 
driven forth by the workers. In queenless 
hives they remain sometimes until the 
following spring. 
4. Sometimes what are known as fertile 
workers are found in queenless colonies — no 
longer having the requisite means of pro- 
ducing a queen, but from theeggs they lay only 
drones proceed. 
(To be continued .) 
♦ 
A RETROSPECT OF BRITISH 
APICULTURE. 
From British Bee Journal, Of A January, 1887. 
We have passed the threshold of another 
year, but before we commence the activities 
and duties of that on which wq have entered, 
it is desirable to cast a retrospective glance on 
the progress of apiculture during the year 
1886. 
In looking back, then, on the year that has 
just passed, our mind is chiefly attracted to 
the numerous Shows which have been held in 
various parts of the United Kingdom. 
!\ e are pleased to be able to note these 
visible indications of the growing interest 
taken in apiculture by agricultural and horti- 
cultural societies, and by the public gener- 
ally. Wherever a meeting of a society for 
the promotion of agriculture, horticulture, or 
floriculture is now held, the beekeepers are 
invited to take their part in adding an 
attraction, and in giving a zest to the Show. 
The claim of apiculture to be allied to agri- 
culture is now generally recognised. This 
has been notably the case during the p ist 
year. The bee department at the Royal 
Agricultural Show, held at Norwich, was no 
unimportant auxiliary to the attractions of 
that exhibition. The visit to the department 
by their Royal Highnesses the Prince and 
Princess of Wales, their daughters, and suite, 
will cause it to be borne in remembrance by 
beekeepers. On that occasion the number of 
exhibitors was very large, and the exhibits 
were of a very diversified character, and the 
most improved methods of bee-culture were 
brought before the notice of British agricul- 
turists in a very practical form. Again, when 
the Royal Horticultural Society renewed its 
provincial Shows by holding one at Liverpool, 
the Council of the British Beekeepers’ Asso- 
ciation rendered material assistance towards 
the arrangement of a department for bees, 
hives, honey, Ac. The Royal Counties’ 
Society, which had held its meeting in iNSo at 
Southampton, this year held it on Southsea 
Common, on which occasion it was accom- 
panied by that enterprising Association, the 
Hants and Isle of Wight B.K.A. ; and as this 
was the first occasion when a Bee Show had 
been held in Southsea, this Association made 
the best of the opportunity thus presented. 
The meeting of the Lincolnshire Agricultural 
Society, held at Lincoln, was also an oppor- 
