THE AUSTRALIA!? BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
85 
weight of water, combined with a little acid and 
some aromatic principles which gives it its special 
flavour. In crystallization, no alteration takes 
place, except the loss of a little water by evapora- 
tion. 
QUEEN BEES FROM EUROPE. 
To send a queen bee from England or other 
part of Europe all the way to Australia at first 
sight appears a somewhat hopeless proceeding. In 
order that she may exist at all beyond a few 
hours it is absolutely necessary she should be 
accompanied by a number of worker bees, and 
to box them up wdthout a chance of a flight for 30 
or 40 daysseemsto be merely boxing them up to die. 
Nevertheless queen nees are arriving in Australia 
from various parts of Europe every spring and 
summer, although the number of deaths on the 
voyage are often large, and probably not much 
over 60 per cent, reach their new home. We think it 
is quite possible to materially lessen this large 
mortality among voyaging queens by profiting by 
the experience of Australian consignees It seems 
to be insisted among beekeepers in the Western 
world that the farther they have to send their 
queens, or in other words, the longer they are to 
be kept prisoners the more bees and food theie 
should be, and so miniature hives with hundreds 
of bees and combs full of honey, were thought 
necessary for the voyage, but the latest arrivals 
from Europe where the loss has not been more 
than 20 per cent, have shown such a course to be a 
wrong one. For example, two years ago we 
ordered from England 3 Cyprian and 3 Carniolan 
queens, these were sent out by a quick steamer, 
and arrived in 37 days from London. The queens 
were each placed in a small hive with 200 bees 
and 2 frames of honeycomb each, and a sponge 
for water supply, and ample ventilation. On 
opening the first two all the bees and queens were 
found dead ; in the third a Cyprian queen anti 
about 6 bees were found alive ; in the fourth and 
fifth, queens and every bee dead ; and in the 
sixth, a Carniolan queen and about 50 bees were 
alive and comparatively vigorous. The cause of 
this mortality we attributed to the bees having got 
wet by the careless and over abundant supply of 
water to the sponge boxes provided for the 
purpose. Many bees had been actually drowned 
and become putrid, and so poisoning the whole 
hive. In one or two compartments the honey had 
leaked out of the combs anil smeared and finally 
smothered every occupant of the compartment. 
A second consignment was from Mr. Benton, 
the well-known queen breeder in Austria. lie 
sent out four Cyprians in a small box of four com- 
partments, each compartment had a small frame 
of honey and a store of Good Candy on top of each 
frame. Three out of the four were dead with \ 
nearly all the bees. The fourth was alive and 
vigorous. The loss here was attributable to the 
honey dripping from the combs, and smothering 
the bees on the floor of the little compartments. 
There were wax moths in each compartment, and 
some moth grubs in the combs, these may have 
brought about the leakage of the honey which 
killed the bees. 
A comparatively recent consignment to an 
apairian in Sydney, also from Mr. Benton, arrived 
with the loss only of one or two worker bees, 
these were packed in the small Benton’s box, 
4ft. x I ft. x 1 ft. , described in our last number 
(page 68), with only a dozen bees each, and 
solid food (Good Candy). So that we may con- 
clude that queens wdll travel safest in a small cage 
with only a few. but young bees and supplied only 
with food that will not get fluid and besmear both 
cage and bees. If this be so. and it seems to be, 
it greatly simplifies the packing of queens for a 
voyage, and should lead to a freer importation of 
choice stock. 
(Original (Contributions. 
THE RAILWAY BLIGHT. 
After the farmer, horticulturalist, dairyman, or 
apiarist has overcome the forces of nature and 
successfully subdued the enemies which on every 
hand rise up to oppose him, and has wrung a crop 
from the earth — there is still waiting for him a 
more subtle and insatiable foe — who at the last 
moment demands a toll upon his labours, and 
also elects what form or quantity the demanded 
contribution shall take. This Microbe has come 
to be known and recognised at Spencer Street as 
the Railway Blight , and appears to be somewhat 
allied to the Take-all of South Australia, differing 
only from it in the fact that not all is taken but a 
sample left to swi-ar by or swear ovei. All those 
whose needs compel them to send any eatable 
articles to a Melbourne market, before many trials, 
discover that the much vaunted railway manage- 
ment of Victoria is a fraud and a delusion, 
and that lest the Commissioners should, by 
reduced rates, be too lenient with the country 
producers, the annexing fiend endeavours to 
equalise matters by frequent sampling of goods in 
transit and in store. There are a few' lines on the 
goods schedule on which the Commissioners bar 
responsibility, legally or not. Among these come 
chiefly eatables, honey amongst other things. 
Honey forwarded in kerosene cans is frequently 
insecurely packed, and much leakage occurs, to 
which the floors of the goods sheds testify ; but 
the shipper, by goods trucks, who carefully cans 
and cases his honey finds the same leaks at their 
delivery at Spencer Street, with the simple 
difference that a case or can of honey, carefully 
packed, appears to denote to the knowing ones a 
good sample and leaks more liberally than one 
over w'hich little care has been taken. Section 
honey being somewhat of a novelty suffers largely 
from Railway Blight , and when I can succeed in 
getting a parcel clean through without any loss, I 
am going to present a sample dozen to the 
Commissioners to celebrate the fact. With comb 
honey the trouble does not end by loosing a few 
sections, but the finger *ampling not only spoils 
the look of the combs but causes the released 
honey to run over the packages, and so sensibly 
decreases their market value. 
Seeing so many examples of this dreadful blight 
and hearing such accounts of it on all sides, I 
