4 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
this case take out one of the full combs 
and scratch or bruise the cappings so that 
honey just oozes out a little. This may be 
clone by lightly scratching over the cells with 
stiff brush or hair comb, or, indeed, by 
rubbing them over with the flat side of a 
knife. A very little disturbance breaks or 
bruises the capping, and lets the imprisoned 
honey ooze out. Now part the combs in the 
middle of the cluster and insert this comb. 
The bees will soon set to work and remove it 
to the outer combs, and it the same time use 
it freely, giving a great stimulus to the queen 
and bees, the former at once fills the comb 
just emptied of honey with eggs, and breed- 
ing commences with vigour. 
If there are no such full combs the bees 
must be fed with either honey or syrup. In 
either case it must be thin, that is, about 
lflb. of white sugar to a pint of water, well 
boiled with a tablespoonful of vinegar. This 
should be fed with a feeder that will deliver 
it slowly to the bees. It makes a wonderful 
difference if we help bees a little just at this 
time. Don’t add more frames till those the 
bees have wintered on are teeming with bees, 
for the closer we pack them until near 
swarming time the stronger they get. When 
the frames are running over with bees the 
dummy can be moved out and one or two 
more frames added, but do not give too 
much extra room at a time. 
If hives are found queenless new queens 
should be given if possible ; if not, the stocks 
must be united to another having a queen. 
A weak stock, with a queen, is better than a 
strong one for this purpose. 
Of course during the winter months every- 
thing in the way of frames and hives have 
been got ready for the spring, all old hives 
cleaned, scalded and repainted. If not, lose 
no time in doing this, for you will find no 
time when swarming commences. 
When looking over stocks examine care- 
fully for any signs of disease, and when 
present make arrangements for putting bees 
and queen into a clean new' hive, with clean 
combs, or better, frames of foundations. As 
soon as breeding is fairly under way, and 
honey coming in, all dirt or dust on bottom 
boards should be removed, and it is well to 
get new mats to cover the frames, for often 
the old ones get mildewed and dirty, and 
perhaps eaten through by the bees. After 
doing this much, the less we disturb our bees 
the better so long as we see they want no 
food and have their increasing demand for 
comb room supplied. To those interested in 
experimenting this would be a good season 
to try Simmins’ new swarming system, which 
may easily be done in an ordinary Langs- 
troth hive, where the bees have been 
crowded on four or five frames, with a 
dummy, during the winter. This is the 
w r ay : — If the frames are on the left side of 
the hive arrange that the entrance be on the 
extreme right of the hive, as far from the 
cluster as possible. Now, as soon as the 
bees want room, give them a frame or two 
of comb, until they have, say, seven brood 
frames ; after they have got possession of 
these fill up to the right hand side of the 
hive with frames supplied with starters 
only. Now, as soon as the bees increase 
they will w'ant more room, and begin to 
build comb in the outside frames, but when 
they have nearly filled these frames with 
comb remove them and put in fresh frames 
with starters, never allowing the frames to 
remain until they are quite filled. The 
frames taken out should now be placed over 
the brood nest in a body box placed above 
the brood chamber. Mr. Simmins states 
that the bees at once commence to store 
honey in the combs placed above, and if the 
bees are kept comb building between the 
entrance and the old brood nest on the left 
of the hive, they will have no inclination to 
swarm . 
Although with the end of August we may 
count the winter as over, and bees will be 
busy on fine days, and pollen bearers be 
seen coming home laden with the produce of 
wattles, willows, and early flowering shrubs 
and flowers, still August and the early part 
of September is often a trying time in the 
southern part of Australia for bees, by 
reason of promises of spring and warmth 
being rapidly succeeded by cold streaks and 
squally weather, often resulting in heavy 
losses to stocks that are wakened to activity 
by a warm day or two. 
THE EXHIBITION. 
There are signs of beekeepers being pretty 
well represented in the Exhibition, although 
a blunder has been made in allotting space 
to apicultural applicants. It appears that 
several applications were made by individual 
beekeepers some time ago. Somewhat re- 
cently the Victorian Beekeepers’ Association 
applied for space near an outer wall for 
exhibiting bees at work ; this was granted, 
but when the early applicants came to look 
for their space they were informed that none 
had been allotted to them personally, as it 
was thought they would exhibit in the space 
allotted to the Association, so that several of 
the Victorian exhibitors will be crowded into 
the narrow space given to the Association. 
There will be several exhibitors in the 
Victorian Court, and there is already a. 
