THE 
JOURNAL. 
Vol. II.— No. 6.] 
NOVEMBER 10, 1887. 
[Price 6d. 
Editorial. 
REPORTS WANTED. 
Ode readers are reminded that, we are very 
desirous of obtaining reports from the country 
on the progress of apiaries, the prospects of 
the season in different localities, accounts of 
honey-yield from various plants, of how bees 
are doing, and indeed any news, incidents, or 
gossip about bees and beekeepers, however 
brief or simple, will be welcome and will be 
made use of in the number following. We 
want to know whether increase by swarming 
has been as great in various localities as it lias 
been in particular ones — whether any loss is 
occurring from disease, if there have been 
good yields of honey in particular places, and 
whether such yields have come from cum 
trees, clover, or whence. We must ask our 
readers and their beekeeping friends to be a 
little communicative and supply us with bee 
news from the country. 
reappearance of disease which apparently 
vanished during the flush of the harvest. 
Robbing and attendant fighting are difficult 
troubles to cope with when once started at the 
cessation of a honey-flow, but as it is usually 
induced by some carelessness on the part of 
the beekeeper, it is in most instances more 
easily prevented than cured. Leaving pieces 
of honeycomb or spilling honey or syrup 
about the hives or using leaky outside feeders 
are common ways in which robbing is first 
brought about. Opening hives in the middle 
of a warm day, when no honey is coming in, 
is also a sure incentive to robbing, and when 
once a commencement is made the whole 
apiary often joins in the havoc. Feeding 
honey instea c/ of syrup will often start rob- 
bing, and for this reason as well as many 
others we always recommend syrup for food 
and not honey. If robbing is found to have 
set in, vigorous action is necessary or many of 
our colonies soon get ruined. Various plans 
are suggest ed, all of which; appear to fail 
sometimes. 
HINTS FOR DECEMBER. 
So far the bee season, in the southern parts 
Australia at least, appears to have been pi 
mismg, and the honey-flow abundant ; but 
must be remembered that in South Austral 
Victoria lasmama, and a largo part of Ni 
south W ales, we have to look forward to 
more or less complete cessation of the harve 
during a period beginning about the end 
November or middle of December, dependii 
oil the locality and prevailing weather, uni 
the eucalypti and autumn flowers all'o 
another flow which sometimes commences 
early as January, but whose richness depen 
greatly on the season aud state of weatln 
fln W LT' h , a good honey-flow begins 
tall off that the beekeepers' chief trouble coi 
mences— cross bees, robbing, fighting, wei 
colonies getting demoralised, loss of queen 
Contracting the entrance so that only one or 
two bees can enter at a time is recommended, 
but if it be warm weather this interferes 
seriously with ventilation, in which case the 
whole entrance may be covered up with wire 
net with the necessary bee-way cut out. This 
will limit the entrance without interfering 
much with the supply of air to the hive. An- 
other way is to lean a sheet of glass against 
the hive in front of the entrance so that the 
bees cannot go straight in or out, hut must 
pass out right or left of the glass, and then 
stop up one side way so that the bees can only 
get in or out at one side : this is often rapidly 
effective. A piece of calico tacked from alight- 
ing board to front of hive so as to hide the 
entrance, and damped with a little carbolic 
acid and water has also been found thoroughly 
successful by many beekeepers. Throwing a 
wet sheet over a hive and keeping it on till 
