THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
109 
than in the States, owing to the dryness and 
equable temperature. The climate of the 
former is colder, but less changeable than that 
of the States. Captain Hetherington’s greatest 
difficulty was in wintering. He moved all 
hia hives into cellars, but his losses during 
the spring had been great. He had lost as 
many as ninety per cent, some years and could 
not ascertain the cause. He had a house built 
partly above and partly below ground, which 
was ventilated by a pipe running a long dis- 
tance under ground, the air inside the build- 
ing being warmed to the temperature of the 
earth. That gentleman’s apiaries were in New 
York State and occupied a very cold region ; in 
fact, they existed in a snow belt which ex- 
tended for about fifty miles north and south. 
The district seemed always to be visited with 
a larger quantity of snow than was experi- 
enced either north or south of it for many 
thousands of miles. Melons would not thrive 
in that belt, though they come to perfection 
both north and south of it. In Iowa and 
Illinois bees can be wintered out of doors. 
The Rev. Mr. Raynor said he thought the 
meeting was deeply indebted to Mr. Cowan for 
the very lucid and interesting description of 
apiculture as carried on across the Atlantic 
with which he had favored them that evening, 
and he (Mr, Raynor) wished to express on be- 
half of his brethren their heartfelt thanks to 
the Chairman. He was glad to know that, with 
the exception of pasturage, beekeepers here 
were in everyway equal to their co-workers in 
America. 
The Hon. and Rev. Henry ISligh seconded 
the motion, which, upon the suggestion of Mr. 
Garratt, was formulated thus : — 
“ That this meeting expresses its best 
thanks to Mr. Cowan for his kind and lucid 
description of American Apiculture in the 
United States and Canada, and also desires 
to record its sense of the kindness and hospi- 
tality shown to him as the representative of 
British Beekeepers by American and Canadian 
beekeepers.” 
Extracts from jfordgii journals. 
DIVIDING BEES. 
I*' we wish to increase our stock of bees by 
dividing we must begin preparations early in 
the season, by forming nuclei for queen-rear- 
ing, in order to have a supply of queens to in- 
troduce to our extra divisions. In starting 
®*ciei for queen-rearing early in the season we 
think it better t-> sacrifice full colonics for the 
purpose, rather than to draw from a large 
number of colonies, as it tends to weaken 
them so as to be quite a while in gathering up 
to their former strength. And by this method 
we have the advantage of having our queen- 
cell built in full colonies, by simply taking 
away the queen. To make dividing a success 
colonies should be very strong and almost 
ready to swarm. Combs should be well filled 
with hatching brood, as the young bees are 
our main dependence in making divisions, as 
a large number of the old bees will go back to 
the old stand from which we have made our 
divisions. The manner in which to divide 
consists in taking as many parts from one 
colony as we think proper. Prom one strong 
colony we can take from one to five or more. 
But we think it best not to get our stocks too 
weak, and would make but one division from 
each colony at a time, and always supplying 
the queenless half with a young laying queen. 
By this method our colonies will soon become 
strong again, and hence we make the second 
division, and so on. By this means we keep 
colonies strong enough to store a considerable 
amount of surplus honey, and at the same 
time increase very rapidly. 
The great drawback in dividing is that we 
do not get the bees evenly divided as to age. 
The old bees will leave the new colony just 
formed, and go hack to the old stand, and in 
order to get enough bees in the new colony we 
must take frames from the old stand, with 
adhering bees, and shake them into the new 
colony, and those bees that remain are all 
young bees. Hence we get all the old bees at 
the old stand and all the young bees at the 
new stand, and our new colony will not com- 
mence work for several days on account of the 
old bees, or working force, being all at the old 
stand. This is not the case in swarming, as 
all classes and all ages come out with the 
swarm. This is why we prefer first swarms, 
and have written so much on the care of them. 
Second swarms do not come with so much 
regularity as first swarms, and we think divid- 
ing preferable to second swarms. — Queens- 
lander. 
Original Contributions. 
AN INTERESTING ADVENTURE WITH 
A YOUNG QUEEN. 
A stock of Italian hoes had swarmed the last 
day of September, and all hut one queen cell was 
cut out, On the 19th October it was noticed 
that the bees were clustering outside as if 
preparing for swarruingagain. On examining 
the hive (which had a super with frames for 
extracting, and a queen-excluding zinc honey- 
board) no queen could he found, and neither 
brood or eggs could be seen. It was concluded 
that the young queen whose cell was still 
there and cleanly opened had hatched and 
been lost when out tor mating. The super 
and frames were removed to a shed about a 
hundred yards away from the hive and 
arrangements made to introduce a new queen 
at once. It was noticed that a good many 
bees were Hying to the super and thinking 
robbing was commencing, the frames were 
taken out to lie put out of the way in the bee- 
