THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL 
151 
has done done his best. Such instances as these 
are facts and others could be cited. 
Let us, by all means, abstain from superfluous 
references to syrup as food for bees, if we cannot 
afford to throw it overboard altogether, and it is 
likely as not that some diseases and sufferings of 
the bees may be prevented. Let our observations 
be directed to nobler and more profitable studies, 
the bees life and nature is so full of it and affords 
ample opportunities. Study them in the hive as a 
whole body, from the queens to the drones their 
their use and design. From the egg at bottom of 
the cell to its hatching out as a perfect insect, 
ready to do its duty and die. Study them on the 
comb which you hold in your hand, watch them 
on their way in and out of the hive, follow them 
to their watering place, to the field, from flower 
to flower. Study the flowers, and study their 
(the bees) nature, their habits, and then say, if 
this is not a nobler, a more profitable occupation 
than boiling sugar syrup. Say, if such study does 
not make beekeeping more pleasant, agreeable, 
and leads the soul to a spere hitherto unnoticed 
to a sphere where it must be admitted, ‘‘With 
our might is nothing done !” 
Parramatta, W. Arbram, 
2 7.7/8 9- Manager Italian Bee Co. 
AN APIARY FOR ONE HUNDRED 
STOCKS. 
In regard to your correspondent’s inquiry re 
information to appliances, building, &c., for an 
apiary of two hundred hives, I wish to supply 
some (perhaps useful) information to your corre- 
spondent as well as others. My information is 
the outcome of practical experience, and if I 
differ in some respects from yours, it may be the 
means to compare them, and the best should be 
adopted. 
Whether your correspondent desires to make a 
start with two hundred hives or not is not the 
question to be decided, nor whether the locality 
is suitable for the purpose. In regard to the 
former, I am inclined to believe that he has the 
knowledge of the management, and intends to 
make bee culture his occupation for a living, or 
he intends to engage a person who has the know- 
ledge, and that he has the required capital ; in 
regard to the latter question, if he has not formed 
an idea by the result ef his own, or one of his 
neighbours who keeps bees, a good look around 
the district upon the vegetation, and a little 
enquiry concerning its flowering from his neigh- 
bours, will give him the desired information. 
Large timber is to my opinion no objection for 
bee culture, as many farmers who keep their 
bees close to or quite under large trees will testify. 
First he has it in his hands to prevent swarming 
to a great extent if he desires no increase, and it 
makes no difference whether clear of large timber 
or not ; second, he has the means of artificial 
swarming ; and third, he can use the swarming 
bag, by the proper use of which the swarms have 
no opportunity offered them to settle on high 
trees ; while on the other hand they give good 
shelter, shade and flowers. Of course the trees 
should not hide the hives beneath their branches 
altogether. 
The first points to consider are the area of 
land and how the hives shall be placed, whether 
scattered about the ground with ten feet or more 
space between each hive, or whether they shall 
be placed under a shed, and whether the bees 
may be objectionable to neighbours. In this and 
the first case a larger area is required, while in 
the case of a shed being decided upon, about 
one acre is quite large enough if the shed is 
erected in the centre of the ground. The cost of 
land can easy enough be ascertained. After 
having decided the area of ground and the 
placing of hives, the spot for worksnop and 
extracting room is to be fixed. I like to have 
both as close to the hives as possible, so that 
when engaged in the one or other room, I can 
oversee the whole apiary when looking through 
the window. The workshops, whether for making 
hives or otherwise, ought to be about 20 x 1 2 
feet, be iron roofed, and the sides covered with 
weatherboards, but no flooring or veiling is neces- 
sary. Doors and windows are fixed to suit the 
purpose. The costs will be from £15 1° £ 2 5 
for material and labour, according to cost of 
timber, &c. The necessary tools can easily be 
obtained, as well as their cost. The extracting 
or honey room might join the workshop, and be 
of about the same size, or somewhat larger, but 
must he floored, ceiled and lined with lining 
boards inside to make it bee-proof, which could 
not be effected with weatherboards only. Sash- 
windows will answer best, and when opened a 
frame 1 x 2 inches may be fixed into the opening ; 
this frame to be covered inside and outside with 
i-i 2 th of an inch mesh of galvanized wire-netting 
to afford ventilation when required. The cost of 
this room will be so much higher than the work- 
shop, as the flooring, ceiling, lining and extra 
iabour demands. Besides the extracting room I 
like a honey-store room in the dwellihg-house for 
obvious reasons. 
The bee shed is not looked upon as favourably 
as it deserves, and it is not in use with all bee- 
keepers ; but although its erection increases the 
cost of starting to a certain extent, I would not 
be without it in this country where the sun has a 
great power, and where the rains are often very 
heavy ; and whether its usefulness be admitted 
or not, go where I like I always find some sort of 
a cover over the hives, or even the common 
boxes, which certainly indicates that shade and 
shelter is approved of. Why then not erect a 
proper shed at once ? Of course the hives could 
not then be spread all over the place, or it would 
necessitate too many sh^ds and be too costly ; 
but what hinders one placing the hives close 
together, say 2 feet apart ? The advantages of 
this are so manifold as to justify it. It is true my 
hive is more suitable for a shed, as it can be 
placed in two tiers one above the other, and it 
affords all the advantages of any other hive ; but 
if another kind of hive be used, is the shade and 
shelter the shed offers for hives and bees as well 
as for the operator of no consideration ? 
Having approved of land and buildings, it 
remains to ascertain what appliances are neces- 
