THE 
Hudtralian .IBcchcqpcrs’ 
JOURNAL, 
Vol. III.— No. 7.] MAY, 1889. 
[Price 6d. 
(6 tutorial. 
HINTS FOR JUNE. 
If our advice for April and May has been 
followed, all stocks should now be in a position 
to be left to themselves for the next month or two, 
and supposing they are adequately supplied with 
food the less they are examined or disturbed the 
better. A careful beekeeper will have already 
seen that no queenless stocks are left to die out, 
and that any stocks showing signs of disease have 
either been properly treated or destroyed, or at 
all events marked as diseased ; if the latter, they 
must be left till September, for breeding having 
all but ceased by this time, the disease will not 
increase in the hive until a higher temperature ( 
prevails and breeding commences again in Spring, 
and before this time arrives the stock must be 
dealt with as already recommended. Where 
feeding up the hives for Winter has been neglected 
it should be done at once, and for this time of 
year either honey from a source that can be relied 
on should be used, or, what perhaps is even better, 
blocks of feeding Candy made as directed in an 
article on “Candy” in the present number. 
From the beginning of June till September the ! 
principal points to be attended are to keep the i 
hives dry and undisturbed, all stocks not having 
already 20 to 30 lbs. of food, to be supplied with 
it at once. Mats over frames renewed if worn 
out or dirty, and, if of enamel cloth, replaced by 
some soft and porous material, such as Hessian or 
Burlap, for enamel cloth covers in winter con- 
dense too much moisture in the brood chamber. 
The matter of width of entrances for winter 
months is a somewhat disputed point, but we find 
the larger they are, so long as they are not too much 
exposed to direct cold winds the better. Entrances 
3 inches wide by fg deep are as small as should 
be allowed, and if hives have entrances the full 
width of the front they should be reduced by 
small blocks of wood to about 3 or 4 inches wide. 
In this month beekeepers should commence 
preparations for next season by cleaning and 
painting hives, preparing frames, melting all 
scraps of comb down to wax, clearing up all 
frames of comb and storing them in a safe and 
dry place, for they will be worth money in the 
Spring honey flow. All partly filled sections should 
be either used up to feed lightly stored stocks or 
put carefully away with any empty ones on hand, 
so as to be ready to put into crates of new section 
boxes in October, for there is nothing will tempt 
the bees so quickly into the supers Is two or three 
partly filled sections. 
Advice to Beginners . — To those desirous of 
beginning beekeeping, we advise not commencing 
till the winter months are over. The end of 
August or during September will be quite 
early enough, for unless one can secure 
the assistance and advice of an experienced 
beekeeper it will almost surely happen that stocks 
of bees taken in hand by beginners now will be 
very weakly ones in the Spring. It is easiest to 
commence the undertaking in the early swarming 
season by securing good strong first or even second 
swarms ; for, as a rule, these only leave the parent 
hives while there is a good honey flow on. If, 
however, a beginner can secure some stocks in 
winter, either gratuitously or very cheaply, let 
him do so. But attend to the following advice : 
If the hives are light, say, weighing less than 15 
lbs., exclusive of the hives, the bees must be fed 
freely and regularly. The hives must be placed in 
a fairly sheltered place facing N. or N. E., and well 
protected from wet by covers of galvanized iron 
or boards, unless the hives are of the modern 
form with thoroughly weatherproof roofs. And 
last, but not least, any frequent examination or 
meddling, beyond what is absolutely necessary in 
case feeding is required, should be carefully 
avoided until warm Spring weather comes in. 
THE HEDDON HIVE. 
As many enquiries are made concerning this 
form of hive, and as our own experience has been 
limited to the working of two stocks only in the 
Heddon Hives, a correspondent has kindly ob- 
tained replies to a series of questions from an 
apiarist in the North-Eastern district, who has 
