1 
8 THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
practical trial in my apairy, but they have all 
been laid aside in favour of the hive described 
above. With me it is essential that nil combs 
are readily moveable at any time, whereas in 
many modern hives this important feature 
appears ty have been lost sight of or sacrificed 
for the sake of introducing some novel idea. The 
next question I propose to deal with is — Can 
more honey be obtained in a season from a 
single colony of bees that is prevented from 
swarming or from one that is allowed to swarm ? 
That is to say, is it better, where honey is the 
object, to reduce the increase of colonies to a 
minimum ? In England and in the Eastern 
States of North America swarming occurs just 
before or simultaneously with the honey season, 
consequently in those countries it would seem 
that the best results should be obtained by pre- 
venting swarming. This is just what most 
English and American books advise, but it will 
not apply to South Australia, or at any rate to 
such places as I have had experience of. Here 
in ordinary seasons bees swarm naturally in 
September, and the honey harvest does not begin 
until December some three months later. It has 
been proved that a worker bee must be about 35 
days old from the egg before she is of use as a 
honey -gatherer, and from this it iB easy to show 
that at least two months are required to enable 
a small swarm to become a strong colony. But 
as a rule they have three months in which to get 
ready for the honey harvest, so that there is 
ample time allowed them. Now, if two or more 
swarms come out of one hive, and are supplied 
with laying queens, there is no reason why each 
should not give as much honey as the original 
hive would have done if swarming had been pre- 
vented. Of course, the apiarist must see that no 
colonies are so reduced by swarming that they 
cannot protect themselves from the bee moth or 
other pest, and he must be careful to keep all 
well supplied with food. In view of the uncer- 
tainty of bee forage between tbe swarming and 
boney seasons, it is preferable to increase the 
colonies by artificial swarming rather than leave 
it to the natural instinct of the bees. It. is 
simply marvellous the rapidity wit li which a 
mere handful of bees will build themselves up 
into a large and populous colony. This is due to 
the suitability of our climate to the honey bee. 
The last question I shall refer to is whether the 
frequent handling of bees is injurious to them ? 
I remember reading an article in the Town and 
Country Journal , written by a correspondent 
who had been on a visit to an apiary near Bris- 
bane, in which it was stated that the beemaster 
condemned the frequent examination of bees, 
and pointed with pride to one of his hives that 
had not been opened during the season. This is 
perhaps taking an extreme view of the case, but 
most authorities on btekeeping advise that bees 
be disturbed as little as possible, and then only 
when it is absolutely necessary to do so. I may 
say at. ouee that I cannot agree with this, for 
my own experience has been that the more care 
and attention bees receive the better they will 
be for it, and the larger the amount of honey 
they will yield. Of course it must not be sup- 
posed that I think the bees or the beekeeper 
would gain by any aimless openingand shutting 
of the hives. But the point I wish to make is 
this, that in order to keep our bees in health, and 
to turn their energy to the best account, it is 
necessary during the honey season to make fre- 
quent examinations of the hives. It is chiefly 
owing to the facility the moveable frame hive 
gives for making these examinations that renders 
it so much superior to the common box hive, for 
it permits the beekeeper to see at once when 
anything is going wrong, and enables him to 
supply whatever is lacking. Unless bees are 
working in section boxes, I would advise that all 
hives should be inspected once a week during 
the time honey gathering is going on, always 
provided the weather is favourable. Besides the 
advantage of keeping the hives in good working 
order, it will be found that the continual hand- 
ling of the bees will tend to greatly improve their 
temper, and even cross hybrids will in time 
become quite pleasant to deal with. Some years 
ago when the Chamber of Manufactures imported 
a colony of Ligurian bees, and handed them over 
to my charge, 1 felt that it was a responsibility, 
and demanded all my care. Almost every day 
for several months I used to examine that hive, 
and made a point of never closing it without 
finding the queen, so as to be sure she was safe, 
Tbe bees began to look upon these visits as a 
matter of course, and showed no signs of dis- 
turbance when the hive was opened. Whilst 
holding a comb in my hand some of the workers 
would fly off to the fields, whilst others would 
return witli loads of pollen and honey which they 
would deposit in the cells. The queen would 
continue laying eggs, and in fact the whole work 
of the hive would go cn just the same as usual. 
During the season this hive was most fruitful in 
honey and bees, and although I have had many 
good colonies since none have giveu me a better 
return, and certainly none have ever bad any- 
thing like as much attention bestowed upon 
them. In the introduction to Quinby’s “ New 
Beekeeping,” we are told how “ a good old man 
warned Mr. Quinby against his habits of study 
and examination into everything in and about a 
beehive, and said, 1 Your bees will never do any- 
thing if you potter with them so much.’ ” This 
occurred more than fifty years ago, and the 
success which attended Air. Quinby 's efforts in 
beekeeping has certainly proved that in his case 
the old man’s advice was wrong. I believe you 
will all agree with me in saying that the more 
care and attention we give our bee-, and the 
more we potter with them, provided it is done 
in an intelligent manner, the better will be the 
results obtained, both for pleasure arid for 
profit.” 
A long discussion followed, in which it was 
stated that in this country the bees often swarm 
prematurely, and if then hived it is necessary to 
feed them for a month or more, because there is 
not sufficient honey flow, and that if this is not 
done the swarms may die of starvation. Many 
amateurs were too fond of handling their hive6, 
