62 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
ing several honey-sacs, if a hee finds the first 
one it searches is empty, it does not wait to 
search the others. Bees often get the honey 
by biting holes in the blossom and sucking it 
out of the side. Whole fields of red clover 
have been examined in which every flower was 
thus bitten. The biting is done by bumble- 
bees, and then hive-bees suck .through the 
holes. Bees are very successful in thus biting 
holes, always hitting the spot outside just over 
the honey-sac. In all such cases the plant is 
not fertilised. 
The facts are that plants are very thoroughly 
fertilised by insects. A gentleman marked 
310 plants which were incapable of self-fertili- 
sation, and carefully put pollen on the stigma 
of each day after day ; he left an equal number 
to the insects. His produced 11,237 seeds, 
and the bees 10,886, a difference of but one in 
35, and this difference is fully made up by the 
fact that he worked during a cold spell with 
continued rain when the bees did not. Of 
white clover, 10 heads unprotected gave nearly 
ten times as many seeds as 10 heads covered 
with gauze ; 20 heads covered produced only 
one poor seed, and 20 heads open gave 2290 
seeds. Of red clover, 100 heads covered gave 
nothing, and 100 heads open produced 2720 
seeds. Insects will abundantly cross-fertilise 
plants growing one-third to one-half mile 
apart. 
In the United States, hive-bees never suck 
red clover. In England they only suck it 
through holes made by bumble-bees. The 
clover cannot be fertilised by the hive-bee — it 
is too small — but it is cross-fertilised by the 
bumble-bee. Hence one gentleman has made 
this statement : The safety of England de- 
pends rn the number of cats she keeps. He 
proves his proposition thus : Without the aid 
of bumble-bees the red clover could not be 
fertilised. Bumble-bees make their nests on 
the ground, where they are the prey of mice. 
Cats destroy the mice and give the bees a 
chance to live. Hence he reasons, no eats, 
many mice ; many mice, no bumble-bees ; no 
bees, no clover ; no clover, no cattle ; no cattle, 
no beef ; and without beef where would the 
the Englishman be ? — Prof. W. W. Cooke. 
♦- 
An apiarist in Prance claims that he has 
made experiments which prove that only from 
six to eight pounds of honey are used by the 
bees to produce a pound of comb. 
During the year 1S86, 11,000 pounds of 
beeswax were shipped from California by sea 
to Europe ; 41,000 pounds overland by rail, 
mostly to New York, and 3,000 pounds via 
Panama to New York. 
Bee Pasture. — Lucerne, or as it is called in 
America, Alfafa, and alsike clover form good 
bee pasture and produce excellent honey. 
Farmers who keep bees should remember this : 
these plants will feed bees and cattle too. 
Honey Beer. — The Canadian See Journal 
gives the following receipt : — Boil two hand- 
fuls of hops in five gallons of water for fifteen 
minutes, then strain into an open vessel, let it 
cool down to 100 deg. Fahr. : and mix four 
pounds of honey with it, and add one or two 
small cupfuls of hop yeast ; cover up, and let 
it work for 24 or 36 hours. Skim off as often 
as scum rises ; roast half a cupful of yellow 
sugar till it becomes brown, then dissolve it 
in water: add this to the beer to give color. 
Draw off' into bottles or casks, and cork well, 
In two or three days it will be ready for use. 
This will make a delicious cooling drink for 
harvest time. 
(Siuenes an& IRepltes. 
EEPLIES. 
No. 3. — J. S., Upper Yarra, asks how he 
can make a frame hive out of a packing case ? 
H. Naveau replies : — “ It is very easy, hut the 
best way would be to buy the frames and then 
get boxes according to the size. Kerosene 
cases are the nearest to the measure of the 
Langstrotli hive lengthways, and crossways 
they just resemble the dimensions of the brood- 
room in the Berlepsh hive.” 
No. 4. — J. Simpson, Otway, asks what is the 
best food for bees and the way to give it them ? 
I find, the best food for bees is candy made 
from moist sugar, and put it just under the 
quilt. I make it from 2^d. sugar. I put 4 lb. 
sugar in a white enamelled stew pan, and about 
a half pint water with it. I boil it in a gentle 
heat until the sugar begins to stick to the 
sides of the pan. Now I take it from the fire 
and put about a good handful of flour into it 
and keep stirring it in quickly until it is just 
right to pour out into a thin pan, which has 
been rubbed with grease or butter. Before it 
is quite set I run a knife through in parallel 
lines so that I can break in tablets when cold. 
The flour answers for pollen and the bees like 
it far better with flour in it than without it. 
H. Naveau. 
iV'chcccpcrs - Slip In €a., 
18 FLANKLIN ST., 
L. T. CHAMBERS, Manager. 
“ Langstroth,” “Heddon,” “Alley,” or any 
other style of Hive in stock or made to order. 
Foundation Honey Extractors, Solar Ex- 
tractors, Section Boxes, and all the requisites 
of the Apiary. 
Bees, Queens, Brood, Eggs, supplied in any 
quantities. 
