THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
57 
for placing a feeding bottle or racks of sections 
(to be described later). A box similar in size 
to the hive will do, with strips of wood nailed 
on the lower outside edge, to prevent rain 
driving in at the joints. The sides and back 
can be cut down, to give an inclination to the 
boards fixed on it so that rain will run off the 
roof at the back, instead of dropping in front 
of the entrance. The boards should project 
at least three inches all round, and the roof 
must be made waterproof. 
12. A single hive consists of one box fitted 
with frames, division-boards, roof, Ac. A 
storifying hive is composed of two or more 
such hives placed one above another, with one 
roof over them. 
13. The more carefully the hives are made, 
and the more accurately the frames fit, the 
greater will be the ease of manipulating them. 
11. If the beekeeper wishes to make his own 
hives ho had better purchase a good one as a 
pattern, but in any case he would do better to 
rocure the frames of a liive-maker, unless he 
as special tools for making them accurately. 
15. Good hives are now so cheap that it will 
hardly pay the beekeeper to make his own. 
'The prices range from 10s. to 15s. for such a 
hive as wo have described. 
IX. — What Bees Caret into the Hive. 
1. Bees do not require to be fed daily like 
other domestic animals, but collect their own 
food. They store more than they require for 
their own use, and only require the bee- 
keeper’s assistance if he takes too much from 
them, or the season has been a bad one. They 
live upon the sweet juices of plants, which are 
converted by them into honey, the fertilising 
dust of flowers (pollen) and water. 
2. The best food for them is the nectar, 
which they find in the flowers of many plants. 
They, however, also collect the sweet juices 
which arc found on the leaves of some plants, 
and even the liquid excreted by insects, such 
as the aphis, which collects on the leaves. 
This is called honey dew. 
3. From these juices the bees make honey. 
They convert the nectar into honey by adding 
a liquid secretion (saliva) which has the pro- 
perty of changing the cane sugar of the nectar 
into the grape sugar of honey. The quality of 
the honey depends, like milk, upon the raw 
material from which it is made ; that from 
nectar being the best, whilst that from honey- 
dew is usually very dark and inferior in flavor. 
4. Sweet liquids are swallowed and carried 
into the hive by the bee in the honey sac ; 
water is also carried in the same way, whereas 
pollen is packed in hollows on the hind legs 
called pollen baskets. 
5. Bees also collect a resin-like substance 
called propolis, which they obtain from the 
buds and limbs of trees. It is used to seal up 
every crevice about the hive. 
I*. When the bees return to their hive laden , 
they disgorgo the honey into the cells. Both 
honey and pollen are stored for future use. 
Water and propolis are used at once, not 
stored in the cells, and are only collected as 
they are wanted. 
X. — Swarms and Swarmino. 
1. If, in spring, a colony has its hive full of 
comb containing brood, is crowded with bees 
and food is coming in plentifully, it makes 
preparations for sending off a swarm. Queen- 
cells will be constructed in which an impreg- 
nated egg is placed. In three days the egg 
hatches, and a grub (larva) crawls out ; this 
is fed on rich food for five days, after which it 
no longer requires feeding, and is sealed up by 
the workers in its ceB, where it spins a co- 
coon, and changes into a chrysalis. In about 
sixteen days from the time the egg was laid, 
the queen, in a perfect state, is ready to leave 
the cell. The young queen makes, with its 
jaws, a circular cut in the cell-cap, forces it 
open, and crawls out. The old queen does not 
usually wait until this takes place, but gen- 
erally, soon after the queen-cell has been 
sealed over, selects a fine day, and between 
the hours of ten o’clock in the morning and 
four in the afternoon, leaves the hive with 
part of the population. This is called swarm- 
ing. 
2. The bees which leave with the old queen 
form with her the first swarm, the hive from 
which they left being the stock. In a good 
season, if the stock be strong, other swarms 
will issue as the queens mature and hatch out. 
These are called casts or after-swarms. Casts 
have young queens, and are therefore gen- 
erally better than first swarms, provided they 
have plenty of bees. 
3. The first cast, or second swarm, usually 
leaves the hive on the ninth day after the first, 
but occasionally sooner. Sometimes third, 
fourth, and fifth swarms may be thrown off at 
intervals, generally, of one or two days. These 
usually contain so few bees that they are worth 
very little, and should be united to others. 
4. In the south of England, in favorable 
seasons, swarming begins about the end of 
April,* but is sometimes delayed until the 
middle of June. In the north and in Scotland 
swarming takes place much later, frequently 
not beginning before the end of May. 
5. Early and largo swarms are profitable ; 
late and small swarms are worth little, although 
by judicious management they can be built up 
into strong colonies before the winter. 
(To be continued.) 
Sting Preventer. — A writer in the British 
Beekeepers’ Journal saj’s: — A drop or two of a 
mixture made of an ounce of cedar oil and one 
ouuce of olive oil, rubbed on each hand, is 
very efficacious in preventing bees from sting- 
ing, and also keeps away mosquitoes and other 
insects. 
• Sec pago 41 for month* in Southern Hemisphere cor- 
responding to certain month* in the Northern. 
