THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
57 
honey at the Technical College proved it to be a 
most perfect substance — the veritable “ delight,” 
by which honey was described by the old Hebrew 
chroniclers. Illustrations were given of the 
various kinds of hives now in use, also different 
sorts of frames, hiving wild bees in modern hives. 
The lecturer terminated his remarks with a 
grotesque description of robber bees, which were 
described as inflicted with a mania for the earn- 
ings of others, “ about equal to the excitement of 
gambling amongst the bigger animal, fnan.” — 
Mildura Cultivator. 
SOME POINTS ON BEE CULTURE. 
An American apiarist writes to the Country 
Gentleman : — 
To many it may seem strange, but quite a num- 
ber of beekeepers assert that more honey can be 
secured by removing the queen about three weeks 
previous to the close of the honey harvest. The 
theory is that stopping the production of brood 
turns the energies of the bees entirely into honey 
gathering ; besides this, no honey is used in feed- 
ing the brood. F. Cheshire says that the rearing j 
of the bee. from the egg to maturity, costs the 
colony the equivalent of four cells of honey ; and 
it is only because a bee, in a fair yield, is able to 
requite the colony with many times its cost, that a 
large population means surplus ; but if this large 
population is brought upon the stage after the 
harvest is over, it becomes a consuming instead of 
a producing population. Removal of the queen 
also prevents increase, which, in our apiaries, 
is especially desirable. When the beekeeper has 
a large number of colonies, and prefers honey to 
increase, the prevention of swarming is quite 
desirable. In some localities and seasons the 
honey flow is early and of short duration, and if 
he bees turn their energies in the direction of 
warming but little surplus is secured. 
When a queen is removed a frame of brood \ 
covered with bees is usually taken with her, and 
they are put in a small hive, where they are kept j 
until the time arrives for their return. After her 
removal, if preparations for swarming have not 
already been commenced in the old hive, queen 
cells will at once be started, and the bees thus 
endeavour to retrieve their loss. At the end of 
eight or nine days the queen cells must be cut [ 
out and the bees given a frame of eggs or unsealed 
brood, from which they can start another batch of 
cells. Just before this lot of cells hatch (in eight 
or nine days) they must be cut out and another 
Comb of brood given. This method of manage- | 
ment must be continued as long as the colony is 
left queenless, because, if hopelessly queenless, the 
bees seem to lose courage — they must have a 
queen, or the hope of one. The small hive con- 
taining the removed bees and queen is sometimes j 
placet! upon the top of the old hive, (and when 
they are returned, the bees that have learned to 
recognise the upper hive as their home will, upon 
finding it gone, gather in a cluster upon the top of 
the hive, where they will remain a short time, and 
then take up a line of march down over the front 
of the hive to the entrance, and join the parent 
colony again. % 
It will be seen that this method of removing the 
queen entails considerable labour, and is, we 
think, not advisable, unless to prevent swarming, 
as the production of brood can be greatly cur- 
tailed by contracting the brood nest, which is a 
short and simple operation, requiring very little 
work. 
The method of removing the queen that strikes 
us the most favourably is that of allowing the bees 
to swarm, then removing and destroying the old 
queen, allowing the bees to return, and then, at 
the sixth or seventh day, cutting out all the queen 
cells except one. This prevents increase, deprives 
the colony of a laying queen for about eighteen 
days, besides furnishing it with a young queen. — 
Mildura Cultivator. 
ITALIAN BEES. 
Putting on Sections — Symptoms of Foul 
Brood. 
Written for the American Bee Journal 
By G. M. Doolittle. 
A subscriber to the American Bee Journal 
wishes me to give a description of the Italian bee. 
While this would seem almost unnecessary at this 
late day, yet I will try to comply with the request 
in a sort of a general way. 
This Vice belongs to one of the yellow varieties, 
to which also belong the Cyprian and Syrian. 
The Italians are very quiet and gentle, in their 
purity, while the other two varieties named are 
very cross and vindictive. Italians were imported 
to this country about I860, while the other two 
were not brought to our shores until about 1880. 
So far nearly all apiarists agree in placing the 
Italian bee at the head of all others, both as to 
ease of manipulation, beauty, and honey-gathering 
qualities. 
As comb-builders the Italians are not quite as 
good as the black or German bee, neither do they 
use as much wax in capping their surplus honey, 
which causes it to have a little darker, or watery, 
appearance. They cling very tenaciously to their 
combs, while the black bees often fall off or run 
about in a frightened way. making it a nuisance 
to handle them, especially if a little too much 
smoke is used. The tenacity of the Italians makes 
the handling of the hives and combs very pleasant, 
but when wc wish to get them off the combs for 
extracting the honey, or for any purpose, it is 
quite a job. 
However, the main point of superiority of the 
Italian lice is in its honey-gathering qualities. If 
there is any honey to be had, they are away to 
the fields after it, and will toil incessantly all day 
for a very little, while the black bees will not 
work at all unless honey can lie gathered quite 
freely. Italian bees will labor faithfully all day 
long for only "pennies," while the German bee 
must have the “ dollars" or it will not work. To 
illustrate : 
In the spring of 1872 the writer had fifteen 
colonies of black bees, and three Italian colonies. 
As an experiment, a 14-quart pail full of maple 
