THE AUSTRALIAN BEE KEEKERS’ JOURNAL. 
182 
Preparations for wintering are desirable 
even in our mild climate. By tlie end of 
March or beginning of April, all those stocks 
that have not enough stores to curry them well 
through must be fed, and stocks very short of 
provisions should be fed at once ; from 10 to 
20-lbs of stores, according to the size of the 
colony, will generally be found sufficient, as 
some little food is gathered throughout the 
winter, except in our bleakest localities. 
Where stocks are found too light by the 
beginning of April, arrangements should be 
made to enable the bees to stow away from 15 
to 20-lbs. of honey from healthy hives, or of 
thick syrup made with 21 to 3-lbs. of white 
sugar to every pint of water.* Give it in 
feeders from which the bees can take as 
rapidly as possible — feeding in driblets at the 
end of Autumn is injurious. 
March is the month for much sowing and 
planting for bee forage. Clover, both white 
and alsike, should be sown in March or April 
while the ground is still warm. Borage, sun- 
flower, cornflower, and, indeed, almost every ; 
useful bee plant might be sown now, and, 
such as require it, transplanted in the early 
Spring. Early forage can be secured in this 
way. 
Those- who have room in their ground and 
do a little planting for their bees should get a 
few plants of the red, pink and white flowering 
gums — Eucalyptus ficifolia and E. caUophylla. 
They will commence fbweringin a year or two, 
and "not only yield abundance of honey and a 
great delight to the bees, but pretty trees with 
abundance of beautiful flowers as well. 
THE HONEY MARKET. 
Comb-honet in sections, or bell glasses, is in 
great demand, and commands good prices, 
from tenpenee to fifteenpence a pound, whole- 
sale. Run, or extracted honey in bulk, is still 
a drug; but good, clear extracted, in tasteful 
packages, nicely got up would, we believe, 
soon command a market at remunerative 
prices. Grocers sell the roughest and least 
tempting parcels, chiefly in pickle bottles, 
with brown paper pasted over, readily at 8d. 
to Is. per pound. While in bulk, wholesale, 
it does not command 3d. per pound. Picked 
comb-honey from box-hives, is hawked, and 
sold freely at from Is. 3d. to Is. Cd. perpound. 
As a. rule, good comb-honey lias been scarce 
in the Melbourne market this season so far. 
It is time beekeepers took a lesson from our 
American friends, in putting up this extracted 
honey for the market ; indeed, we need only 
go to Adelaide to learn a lesson in this respect, 
where selected extracted honey is done up in 
pretty and tasteful glass packages and meets 
with ready sale at remunerative prices. Large 
quantities of coarse and unsaleable kinds are 
-A tablespoon ful o! good vinegar, or Roz. tartaric acid 
to cadi 8-Ihs. of sugar wliilo boiling, prevents crystallize- 
ti'on 
now being used for the making of hop beer 
and such like beverages in some parts of the 
colony, for which it is certainly better than 
sugar, and generally imparts a very pleasant 
flavor to the beverage. 
We are sorry to find that coarse, thick, bush 
honey is being thinned down by addition of 
water to such an extent as to bring about 
fermentation, and we have seen several bottles 
of this kind within the last week or two which 
have been bought in the suburbs of Melbourne 
at a shilling for a pickle bottle full that had 
become partially acid from the formation of 
vinegar. 
FOUL BROOD IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 
Next to bad seasons the greatest difficulty 
beekeepers have to contend with in Australia 
is, undoubtedly, foul brood, and every year it 
seems to get a stronger hold. It is no wonder, 
therefore, that our South Australian friends 
— who are not only the most advanced in the 
industry, but really have a larger amount of 
capital invested in it, we believe, than any 
other colony — have taken alarm , and a large 
section of them moved parliament to legisla- 
tion, xvith the view of arresting the spread of 
the pestilence, which already threatens to 
reduce apiculture to a difficult and profitless 
undertaking. We have already spoken of the 
action taken in getting the “ Foul Brood Pre- 
vention Bill ” passed into law, and of the 
opposition it had engendered, especially 
among box-hive beekeepers. From our 
correspondent in South Australia, we have 
received a pamphlet issued by the South 
Australian Beekeepers’ Association, on Foul 
Brood and its 'Treatment, as well as some ex- 
tracts on the same subject. The leaflet from 
the Association on foul brood is as follows : — 
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
Practical Instruction foe Beekeepers. 
Leaflet No 1. 
FOUL BROOD. 
Foul Brood is an infectious germ disease 
affecting the brood, caused by a minute 
organism termed Bacillus Alvei. It is the 
most serious difficulty in the way of successful 
beekeeping in South Australia, and, unless 
stamped out when discovered in an apiary, 
will certainly spread from hive to hive. 
It exists in all parts of the colony where 
bees are kept, and beekeepers must be pre- 
pared to cope with it. 
In a hive affected with this scourge the caps 
of the sealed brood appear indented, and 
sometimes pierced or partly removed, and the 
cells contain a putrid, sticky, coffee-colored 
substance (all that remains of the larva), 
emitting, in bad cases, a most disagreeable 
stench. 
