THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
23 
aoon every colony was busy and happy a</aiu 
brood rearing and storing honey. As the honey 
was unsaleable, I got as much as po-8ible con- 
verted into bees by extracting the t«»p combs as 
dean as possible, and putting two or three of 
them at a time down in the centre of the brood 
chamber, taking out the outside ones and those 
already capped over and putting in top story to 
make room for them. By this means I had all 
hive* “ boiling ” over with bees, when the ti-tree 
and stringy-barks come b to bloom in the latter 
week of February ; indeed they were so populous 
that about the middle of March, noiwit hst nding 
that I extracted every week, all made pie- 
parations for swarming. Some seven hives sent 
off 'he largest swarms I ever had, and in order 
to get as much honey as possible I ext* acted 
every particle of honey from the hives ihey 
issued from, made a nuc'eus of the bees that had 
been left behind, and hived the swarms on its 
own combs. Luckily a week’s rainy weather 
set in, and all that had not swarmed tore down 
their queen-cells, and turned their energy to 
honey-gathering. The flow lasted till the end 
of May, when the cold weather put an end to 
the season. By the end of the season I had 33 
hives, and had sold tlnee tons of honey and had 
1000 lbs. put by for feeding. I had now to 
shift all my bees to their new quarters, 
(Stewarts Range), a distance of nine miles, 
roads rather rough, and as all were very heavy, 
and most had the top stories on. some trouble 
had to be gone through to pack the frames 
tight. This was done by making the required 
uumber of cleats, (four to each hive), and made 
rake-fashion to slip down at the ends of lop bars, 
a strip of perforated tin over entrance and roof, 
and bottom boards secured, completed this job. 
Now all are busy on the head-flowered white 
gums, which are in full-blossom, and all promise 
a fair return for the trouble. 
Corrrsponiirnrr. 
AN EXPERIENCE WITH A SWARM. 
No. (14. — A swarm issued on October il, and in 
accordance with your recommendation in your 
hints for September page, I adopted the following 
plan : — After the swarm was settled, I moved 
the parent hive A to another stand, hived the 
swarm in a new hive 11 with three frames of 
brood from the old hive and two frames of 
empty comb. Two days after this new hive II 
sent out a swarm, evidently led by the old 
queen, which this time was moved ami placed on 
another stand, where they are now working 
hard. Although the swarm was large, there 
appeared to he plenty of bees left in hive B. 
The plan I adopted is not only referred to by 
your editors, hut recommended by several 
writers on bee-keeping. Now t he question is — 
Is this plan a good one if it is open to such a 
result as I have had .’ The object of ray using 
this method was to prevent further swarming, of 
Course all queen cells hut one being cut out 
from hive A four days after swarming. Why 
did the old queen lead out a swarm again .' She 
laid eggs before swarming, for the bees were 
found making queen cells, in which eggs could 
he seen the day the swarm issued. Was any- 
thing done wrong or omitted in the course 1 
adopted SiGXIA. 
(Extracts. 
ARE BEES WORTH KEEPING? 
( By Chakles Dickins. ) 
In some form or other the title of this article 
will probably be crossiug the minds ot many of 
our readers at the present in prospect of starting 
bee-keeping in the forthcoming spring-season. 
This subject can be viewed from so many and so 
distinct points that, commencing with such a 
wide basis, the enumeration of a few of the 
subjects of interest may prove pleasant as well as 
profitable. Hist. — We have the man who keeps 
b' es for pleasure, eager to possess himself of a 
new race ; anxious to try any fresh invention, 
and apicultuie to such a man is a hobby. But 
this aparian is of great use to the cause, as 
money being no object, his facilities for testing 
novel ideas enable others to know if this or that 
appliance possesses any real merit. 
Secondly. — We have the experimentalist, who 
loves his bees as a study, ever striving to advance 
science and acquire some fresh knowledge con- 
cerning the natural history of the.-e most in- 
dustrious insec s, useful in a thousand w a.v s to 
man. In these ranks from age to age have 
been found men who have devoted their lives 
and fortunes to the cause, teaching us the 
anatomy of the bee, pointing out the wonderful 
adaptation of this part of the insect for certain 
work, and that part for the ad'ancement of the 
wonderful economy in nature, showing us the 
loving forethought of the great Cieator who 
fashioned all things, how ever simple or complex 
in their construction, for an all-wise purpose. 
From such men we have the habits of bees, their 
diseases and cure, the methods of collecting 
honey, and their power of transmitting pollen 
from flower to flower, insuring the fertilisation of 
blooms, providing for us a larger harvest of both 
grain or fruit than could have been obtained 
without their instrumentality. Thus true 
philanthropists have given to the world the 
results of their tedious experiments and 
laborious observations. 
Thirdly. — We have the agriculturists and 
fruitgrowers, who keep bees, not with the 
primary objeot of obtaining honey or because 
they arc particularly fond of beekeeping, but 
because they have learned from the experi- 
mentalist that no bees mean no fruit. It is now 
becoming a recognised fact that where fruit is 
cultivated to a large extent and bees are not kept 
in the vicinity, an apiary must of necessity be 
added to the garden : and profiting from the ex- 
perience of our bee masters, these apiaiies have 
