THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
149 
holds good in regard to the drones. A hive 
would soon become extinct without them, and 
where the frames are supplied with whole sheets 
of foundation very few drone cells are raised, but 
as soon as only a starter is given to a frame, 
drone-comb is the result in most cases. Now for 
both of these points, namely, too much pollen and 
too many drones, Alley’s drone trap is an excel- 
lent remedy. The drones are very easy des- 
patched. and the workers in making their way 
through the narrow apertures drop the greater 
part of the pollen on to the floor of the drone 
trap. There is another thing which has troubled 
me for years in beekeeping here in Victoria. 
It is this Sometimes we have fine weather 
during the month of October, and brood rearing 
goes on well for some time. All of a sudden 
there comes a change, cold boisterous weather 
sets in, and in a few days chilled brood is found 
outside the hives. But this evil does not befall 
all hives alike, only those hives which have a 
large entrance scooped out of the floor barrel in 
the very centre, so that the cold wind at once has 
free access to the brood nest. I think there are 
two methods by which this occurrence might be 
avoided. One is by having the frames close 
ended, and the other by having the entrance in 
the side rather than in the end of the hive. 
Whenever we move from one district into 
another we find that we have many things to 
learn we did not know before So it happened to 
me, although the distance from Hamilton to the 
Grampians is not very great, yet I very soon 
found out that I had much to learn. When I 
arrived here the gentleman who keeps the rain 
gauges up the Victoria Valley said to me, “ The 
more grass trees you will set on fire the more 
honey you will get." 
This suggestion seemed rather strange to me at 
first, but I was only here a few months when I 
was fully convinced that his statement was quite 
correct. 
To save the estate from damages by bush fires, 
which annually occur in these localities, I had to 
burn the scrub outside our fence, as also a great 
number of grass trees, because these contain so 
much resin that it would be too dangerous to let 
them remain uncharred. After a few months had 
elapsed the grass trees shot up flower stalks 
which were covered with white bloom, smelling 
very much like the bosswood. This was one im- 
portant experience which I had thus made ; 
there was more to learn yet. When the gum 
trees flower the people say there will be honey 
this year, and so it comes. Now I have ascer- 
tained that there are numbers of eucalypti which 
do not flower annually, and there arc others 
which do, and again others which blossom once in 
about nine or ten months, but these things cannot 
be learned when one lives in a town. But here I 
study trees, beside bees, and I find that some 
which flowered last year in February and .March 
will bloom again in those very months this 
season. And, further, I thought when I had 
raked the ground and burnt up the leaves and 
rubbish it was done. But I found that the 
eucalyptus, although belonging to the evergreen 
trees, sheds its leaves annually as well as de- 
ciduous trees, only with this difference, that the 
new leaflets are there before the old ones drop. 
While I am writing the grass trees are in bloom, 
also the Emu berry, three varieties of Epacris, the 
white, the pink and the scarlet. The native holly 
is just beginning to flower, the Corea has just left 
off, but many others whose names are not known 
to me are fully out, and their beautiful fragrance 
is an indication that they possess honey. As the 
holly is in full bloom until long after Christmas, 
when the messmates begin, there is not a single 
week during the whole of the year when there are 
no flowers here. H. Naveau. 
July 18, 1889. 
llfports front Australian Aptarira 
ITALIAN APIARY, GLEN HASTINGS, 
' BULN-BULN. 
The past season has been a very good one in 
this district. The heaviest flow was in February, 
when the messmate was in flower. I extracted 
four hundredweight of honey from three hives. I 
started with four stocks and formed five nuclei 
that are now fine and strong ; three I extracted, 
and one I worked for comb honey. I reared 
queens for them from a Kangaroo Island queen I 
bought from Mr. Chambers. The whole are now 
fine, stroqg and healthy. I had foul brood in the 
spring, but I put the bees into clean hives with 
starters, scalded the old hives and burnt the comb : 
this is the surest way of getting rid of the disease. 
The white gums are now heavily laden with buds 
which are just breaking ; these gums flower all the 
year round, so I think we shall have a very heavy 
flow in the summer. 
Robert Hastings. 
July 4, 1889. 
BLACK RANGES APIARY, 
Near Stawell. 
Number of Colonies. September. 1888, as fol- 
lows : —37 Pure Italian ; 33 Blacks and Hybrids. 
All strong colonies in splendid condition. Swarm- 
ing began 27th September, ending the 16th of 
November : total number of natural swarms, 69 ; 
these with a few artificial swarms made during the 
season brought the total stocks to about 150; up- 
wards of 20 of these were used for queen rearing. 
The hives were all of the Langstroth form. Began 
extracting 1st December, and finished on the 16th 
March. It was my intention to continue extract- 
ing during March and part of April, but bad 
weather put a stop to further operations. The 
season throughout was a beautiful one. and the 
total weight of extracted and comb honey secured 
amounted to 18,417 lbs., all first class. The bees 
are now taking their winter's rest, with a good 
supply of sealed honey which they will require to 
carry them through till January next, for we 
expect no blossom of any description till the 
prickly bush blooms in January, followed by honey- 
suckle in February and spotted box in March. 
April, and May. We usually have to resort to 
