THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
C>9 
in the partition to enable the bees and queen to 
get at it. So that in fact the cage consists of 2 
living chambers and a food chamber. Saw cuts 
are made at the end of the cage right into the hole 
occupied by the bees so as to admit of circulation 
of air. The sides of the cage outside have 2 
quarter inch grooves cut the whole length, and 
the saw cuts for air are made at the bottom of 
these grooves. The cover is about a quarter 
thick, the same size as the cage block, and is 
generally grooved on its underside like the sides 
of the cage itself, so that when it is nailed down 
over the holes with fine pins, the grooves 
admit a further supply of air. A piece of honey- 
comb is pul into the food chamber, or it may be 
filled with Good candy — a very stiff paste made of 
powdered sugar (icing suger) and honey, when it 
is ready to receive the queen and bees, which can 
rarely be shaken out of the glass tube into the 
cage, covering at the same time the second 
chamber with a piece of card, which should be | 
slid carefully over the third hole as the tube is 
withdrawn. Now by placing the cover over the 
card the latter can be slowly drawn out and the 
cover nailed down. 
Whenever it is necessary to keep a queen in a 
cage over night, it is the best way to place the cage 
under the mat of a good strong hive, as both the 
air and the temperature are suitable. 
To judge a queen by her appearance. When 
queen cells are formed either under the swarming 
impulse or by a colony made queenless, but little 
difference can be seen until they are sealed over, 
when it can generally be observed that while 
some are long, tapering, and pointed, others are 
dumpy and round ended, or crooked or cramped 
into an awkward corner. As a rule, those queens 
hatched out from a long straight-pointed cell are 
thefinest.although well shaped queens often emerge 
from badly shaped cells. A young queen not long 
hatched has a different look to one a few days old, 
for each day she becomes more developed, and 
after mating takes on a much more important 
aspect. 
A good queen, of whatever breed, should be of 
a fair size, perfectly shaped with perfect and un- 
deformed wings, and a long tapering abdomen, 
the legs should be all well shaped, and not stiff, 
deformed, or broken in any way, for in examining 
several queens some of these defects are frequently 
seen. A short dumpy queen, with a broad but 
short abdomen, seldom turns out well ; neither do 
queens with any of the defects mentioned, 
although a good queen with a damaged wing will 
often turn out satisfactory. Small queens are not 
regarded with favour by experienced bee-keepers, 
although it frequently happens that a small one, if 
well and symmetrically shaped, will turn out 
better than larger ones. 
With respect to colour and markings, this, of 
course, varies with the breed. The queens of 
black bees are usually pretty dark on the back of 
thorax and abdomen, but often of a lighter colour 
(brown or even dark orange) underneath. This is 
probably due to some strain of Italian blood for 
it is now difficult to find black bees without some 
trace of this. Crosses between Italians and blacks 
will have more or less of the orange or brown 
colouring beneath and on the sides of the abdomen, 
and while some quite black will produce w orkers 
marked almost as regularly as the true Ligurian, it 
frequently happens a fine dark orange coloured 
specimen will produce bees almost w holly black. 
With pure Italian queens, the colouring varies 
very much from one hardly to be distinguished 
from a Hybrid black to others whose whole 
abdomen is quite a bright orange brown. Some 
Apiarists prefer such ones with the point, or last 
segment, of the abdomen much darker, and ap- 
proaching black. Cyprians, as a rule, are lighter 
colour than the Italians but cannot be readily 
distinguished from the latter, they are, however, 
generally rather smaller and more slender than the 
Italian, and when young are unequally coloured 
on the abdominal segments giving them a slightly 
striped appearance. The purity of the queen is 
best seen by her progeny, both Italians and 
Cyprians produce workers which, when distended 
with honey, show three distinct yellow or orange 
brown bands on the back of the abdomen, that is, 
the first, second and third abdominal segments 
are either partly or fully so coloured — but often 
show only two when the abdomen is more or less 
empty. The bees of Italian or Cyprian queens 
that have been mated with a black drone will be 
made up of some well marked with the three 
bands, some showing only two and some quite 
black. (To be continued.) 
Ilrhra front Colonial ^.piarirs. 
A SUSPENDED APIARY. 
An enterprising young beekeeper, owning ioo 
stocks in full work in the Horsham district, called 
on us a few weeks since to see how our own 
apiary was managed. He gave flourishing 
accounts of his own locality, and of the* success 
that had so far attended his venture. He in- 
formed us that at first he almost dispaired of keep- 
ing bees at all. in consequence of the constant 
annoyance to the bees caused by myriads of a 
small kind of black ant. Eventually, however, 
he established a thriving apiary despite the ants, 
by means of a rather ingenious contrivance. 
It is often stated that ants give no trouble to 
strong healthy colonies, and only attack weak or 
queenless ones. This is true of many kinds of 
ants, but there are some small species that 
become troublesome by reason of their smallness 
and immense numbers, and simply worry the bees 
till they are worn out or strike work. This was 
the ease with the bees of the apiary we are speak- 
ing of. 
The plan our informant adopted, and which has 
been completely successful, is as follows : — He 
keeps all his bees under rough sheds. From the 
roof of the shed he suspended, by means of 
fencing wire, a long frame of quartering, con- 
structed so as to form a bench for the hives to 
stand on ; this frame or bench hangs on these 
wires about two feet above the ground. The 
frame itself is about 14 inches wide, and the 
suspending wires spread out till they are several 
feet apart where they are fastened to the roof. On 
this frame the hives are placed about three feet 
