T IT Y 
Huetralian Beekeepers' 
JQUKNAL. 
Vol. III.— No. 10.] AUGUST, 1889. [Price 6d. 
(B tutorial. 
HINTS FOR SEPTEMBER. 
With September commences the busy season for 
beekeepers, for in favourable weather, even in the 
Southern districts of Victoria, swarms may be 
expected any time after the second week, and in 
many inland districts, even a fortnight or three 
weeks earlier ; while, in hill and mountain 
apiaries, the first swarms are frequently delayed 
till December. As stated in our last number, the 
first beginning of the breeding season is always a 
trying time for all stocks that are not strong and ' 
well furnished with stores. In looking over our 
hives on any fine day about noon, we are able to 
judge by the business going on at the entrance 
whether a hive is populous and prosperous, or 
weak and requiring help. In front of some 
colonies we may, perhaps, see an unusual number 
of dead bees just beneath the alighting-board, and 
probably see bees dragging out their dead or 
dying companions, and dropping them to the 
ground. Such cases should be looked to at 
once. 
We advise that all hives which appear weak, or 
have any more than a very few dead bees about, 
should be carefully examined the first fine and 
warm day after the 20th of August, to ascertain 
as. far as possible the cause. Queenltssness will 
often be found the reason of weakness, and should 
be dealt with at once, either by introducing a 
queen and feeding freely, or by uniting with 
another weak stock having a queen. 
Want of food may be found to be the cause, 
little or no honey in the combs ; in these cases 
feed pretty freely every evening, and better with 
syrup, or thin honey given warm. It is wonderful 
how such stocks are invigorated by a little care of 
this kind. 
Perhaps disease may be discovered, either foul 
brood or one of the spring diseases. The first can 
be easily detected by the dirty look about the 
centre of the combs, some with a dry brown 
substance filling the bottom angles of the cells, 
and some with old cappings covering scattered 
cells, which, when opened, display a brown 
mass, which has a fetid smell, partly filling 
them up. These signs will be those left from 
the autumn brood, and will almost certainly 
develop the disease in a virulent form as 
soon as the first spring breeding has set in. 
To grapple with such cases, unless the hive 
be fairly populous and the queen a good 
one, is often hopeless. The best plan is to feed 
freely with warm syrup every evening, and, 
directly the queen commences to lay, remove the 
hive from its stand to some little distance — say 20 
or 30 yards — away, put a new hive with 4 or 5 
frames, with starters only of foundation and some 
warm syrup in a feeder, on the old site, then 
shake the queen and bees off each frame of the old 
hive into a separate box (an old gin case or a 
swarming box will do well). Many bees will fly 
and go back to the old spot and enter the new 
hive, while most ot them will remain in the box 
with the queen. Now take the box and bees to 
the new hive, and prop it up in such a way that 
the bees can easily crawl out on to the alighting- 
board of the new hive, which they will quickly 
take possession of. and, encouraged by a plentiful 
supply of warm food, will commence comb build- 
ing and a new start in life, and, if the queen has 
not already become diseased herself, will rapidly 
thrive and remain healthy. If the queen, how- 
ever, has contracted the disease, it will constantly 
break out again. It is, therefore, good policy if 
the stock be a good one, to give it a new queen at 
once if ttye rising brood shows any signs of 
disease, which can be seen by the larva and more 
advanced grubs presenting a slightly yellow, 
instead of glistening, pearly white tinge. 
If the colony affected is very weak, and the 
combs strongly infected, our advice is to destroy 
the bees w ith sulphur, burn the combs and frames, 
and scald the hives. 
The spring diseases are sometimes difficult 
to cope with. First we must see if we can find 
any cause for it, such as damp, dirt, mildewed 
mats or combs ; if so, remove these causes anil 
feed, as before, with fresh, warm syrup, with a 
