THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
11 
member would know what is going on ; and 
if all were of my opinion, I w r ould suggest 
they should correspond with this Journal, 
and have full reports given. The Editor 
would hardly object to enlarge his paper if 
he gets SO or 50 or 100 more subscribers. 
That each colony should have its own 
Journal is very patriotic, no doubt, but 
It pleases me to hear of the continuance of 
the publication of this Journal. Fresh 
risked is half won. 
W. ABRAM, Manager, 
Italian Bee Company, Parramatta, N.S.W. 
July 4th, 1888. 
[Note. — We should be very glad to get an 
account of the Association meetings in N.S. 
Wales, and we will promise full reports if 
the secretaries will furnish notes. Perhaps 
Mr. Abram may prevail upon the Hunter 
River Association to communicate with us. — 
Ed. 
dorrcsponiitnrf. 
No. 62. — I beg to bring under tbe notice of 
your society tlie wholesale destruction of the 
bees in the forest of this and other districts, and 
would suggest the necessity of a close season to 
protect them. The bees are robbed at the 
WTong time from ignorance or indifference, and 
the industrious insects are turned adrift to 
perish. — lam, <Ssc. , James Glosteb. 
Seymour, July 3rd, 1888. 
No. 63. — Taking advantage of a warm day 
last week, I had a peep at my bees to see how 
they were getting along for food, Ac., and was 
much pleased to find that a good deal of honey 
had been gathered and sealed over during past 
few weeks. Although we are in the middle of 
winter, and all the queens laying more or less. 
Some queens having brood in three or four 
frames, most of them with brood in two 
frames, 
1 have one colony which fairly astonishes me 
by their working capabilities. They very rarely 
cease work. If it is possible to fly at all, shine 
or not they are at it. When there is not another 
bee to be seen, I have counted them running in 
60 to the minute, at 8 o’clock, when everything 
was dripping wet from fog and dew. The queen 
in the hive was raised from an imported mother, 
but without any sort of care being bestowed 
upon her. In packing a colony for a customer, 
finding one frame broken, I simply left it behind 
with the adhering bees, and these raised one 
cell, which hatched out in due course, and I 
then strengthened the hive with another card 
of brood. The bees are mixed in marking, but 
the quietest bees to handle in the yard, and. as 
I hate said, are most energetic in working. The 
original mother was a splendid queen, and I 
have often regretted parting with her, as all her 
stock proved good. I have here plenty of 
forage, so that when the sun shines warm for a 
few hours there is a merry hum comes up from 
the apiary. 
A letter from Witherswood apiary, received 
last week, informed me — “Ail hives chock full 
of honey.” As extracting ceased end of March, 
this has been gathered since. I would much 
rather have it here in section boxes, and hope 
that next season, with my shallow frames, to 
remedy this. Anyhow, the bees will get a good 
set-off for the spring, and the present honey be 
turned iuto good swarms of bees. — Yours, 
L. T. Chambers. 
“ Cornelia,” Middle Brighton, June 9th, 1888. 
©jtrarts from Jorrign jlonritals. 
OPEN VERSUS CLOSED-SIDE SECTIONS. 
From “Roots Gleanings in Bee Culture,” 
April 1st, 1S8S. 
During the past four years I have used perhaps 
15,000 open-side sections without separators. 
For six years previous to this time, I used the 
ordinary closed-side sections, so I can speak 
from experience of the merits and demerits of 
each Btyle. I started out about ten years ago 
with the double-tier wide frames, with tin 
separators. In comparing the work of colonies 
in top stories filled with these wide frames of 
sections with the work of similar colonies in 
similar top stories filled with large frames of 
comb or foundation for extracting, it was 
evident that the supers for extracting had some 
strong point in their favor. Even when both 
frames and sections were furnished alike (with 
comb or foundation), and other things being 
equal, almost two pounds could be expected in 
the large frames to one in the sections. We 
naturally look for some piactical difference in 
the conditions which could cause this difference 
in results, and we notice those three impassable 
partitions running from side to side and from 
top to bottom of the one super, caused by the 
closed sides of the sections. 
At some person’s suggestion I tried removing 
one of the central frames of sections, and placing 
in its stead a comb for extracting, thus breaking 
through those partition walls. This proved to 
be quite an improvement, I decided that bees 
like large frames better than small ones. A 
neighbor of mine was using large 2-lb. ‘‘Cali- 
fornia’’ sections without separators, and with 
only a small scrap of comb as starter. He got 
as nice comb honey, and more of it, than I did 
with my expensive separators and extra work. 
In 1882 I changed to ‘2-lb. sections and adopted 
a case to hold them, similar to the old-style 
Heddon case, only with three apartments instead 
of four. 
I believe those large sections were entered 
more promptly and filled more rapidly than the 
smaller ones ; but, not mentioning the common 
objections to large sections, our object was not 
