158 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ J0URNA1 
A Queensland Apiabt.— When travelling 
among the Eedbank Plains farms— writes onr 
Agricultural Reporter 1 — I discovered an apiary 
of which I had not previously heard. It is 
called the Melbonum Apiary (freely trans- 
lated, flood Honey Apiary). It is run by Mr. 
James Jones, a young man, the son of one of 1 
the oldest farmers of the plains. It is 
pleasant to find that lie is well acquainted 
with all the modern discoveries that make I 
beekeeping a science. He has only been 
interested in the matter for the past three 
years, but he has built up an apiary of over 
sixty hives, the queens of which he is fast 
turning into Italians from pure blood obtained 
from Mr. B. G'ribb’s bee farm. I noticed the 
extractor, foundation machine, bar-frames, 
and all the numerous sundries of the modern 
beekeeper. The colonies looked to be most of 
them strong, and were busily at work. The 
honey is sold locally and to Ipswich residents. 
It is marketed both in sections and in glass 
)ars. At first I thought the locality a bad 
one for honey gathering, for it is some dis- 
tance from the forest trees, but I was told the 
bees were gathering honey from somewhere. 
Knowing that it could not be from forest trees, 
as there are none of them in flower I looked 
keenly about, and at last found that the bees 
were working upon the wild mint, which is a 
weed now taking possession of the cultivated 
fields to the detriment of the butter and 
milk produced from cows that graze upon it ; 
also I noticed them very busy upon a pink- : 
colored pea-like flower of another common 
weed locally known as wild indigo ; the honey 
from this latter plant I should judge to be 
very good. It is thus evident that the bee- 
keeper upon open cultivated downs may some- 
times be better situated than his neighbor 
among the ti-tree and euealypts. Another I 
point is self-evident— namely, that the farmer 
who thinks he can by keeping bees upon the 
old-fashioned box-hive system compete with 
the apiarist who works with the modern 
appliances and gives care and thought to his 
business will, now that the honey market 
is overstocked, be woefully disappointed. — 
From Queenslander. 
South Australian Bee News. — So far the 
season has not been a very good one for 
apiarists, although the profusion of flowers on 
some varities of gum trees promised well. In 
our own locality the flowers do not appear to 
secrete as much honey as they did formerly, 
and this may possibly be explained by the fact 
that the district is getting over-stocked with 
bees. Many beekeepers maintain that in most 
parts of South Australia over-stocking is 
almost an impossibility during the honey 
season, but we do not hold with this, and are 
decidedly of opinion that in the country 
immediately around Adelaide there are too 
many hives of bees for ail to give a good 
return. — From Garden and Field for February. 
Feeders. — I want to suggest another idea 
to K. L. Gterish or C. C. Miller, in regard to 
filling empty combs with syrup. Instead of 
using the machinery that friend Miller 
describes, I take an empty comb (those that 
are in wired L. frames are the best to handle) 
and immerse it with the flat side up, into a 
wash-boiler half full of syrup, or more, 
pushing the comb down with one hand until 
the syrup flows over it, and then pass the 
other hand back and forth over the comb, 
lightly touching it. This will suck the air 
out of the cel s, causing the syrup to take its 
place, until the whole side is filled or rubbed 
in ; then reverse, and fill the other side in the 
same way. After they are filled, place them 
in a comb-bucket, to drain off. You might, 
before you set them aside to drip, wipe off 
with your fingers some of the surplus. After 
you have a sufficient number, take them to the 
hive, and the bees will repack them. You 
want your syrup about blood warm, and thick. 
I make mine like friend Heddon, using 3-lbs. 
of water with 10-lbs. of sugar, adding one level 
teaspoonful of tartaric acid when boiling. 
I know, friend Root, that yon object to using 
any acid ; but have you known of any harm 
that has resulted from it? If not, why not 
use it, as it will keep syrup from sugaring 
again ? When I don’t use it I find the sugar 
all crusted on to the combs after filling the 
combs in this way. 
A Colony or Queens.— One of our stocks, 
headed by a queen, the daughter of a Cyprian, 
mated with an Italian Drone, swarmed in 
January. On opening the hive six days 
after six young queens just hatched were 
caught among the frames, and twenty-four 
queen-cells were cut out, five of which hatched 
the same evening. This is the breed for 
queen-rearing, as the bees are very gentle and 
the queens prolific. — Ed. 
A Virgin Queen two days old cannot he 
introduced to a colony of bees unless the 
colony has been queenless three or more days. 
advertisements. 
^Wchcccpcrs’ Supply (la., 
13 Fi&A3IStX.ISI ST., 
L. T. CHAMBERS, Manager. 
♦ 
“ Langs troth,” “ 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 
quantities. 
