1 May, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 365 
Apiculture. 
Our Queensland bee-keepers appear to be satisfied to jog along in their old 
groove without troubling themselves to make investigations, or, if they -haye 
done so, without giving themselves the further trouble of helping neophytes in 
bee-keeping by publishing any valuable results they may have arrived at. 
Such supineness, and we may even say selfishness, is nothing less than culpable. 
Every new departure in the affairs of rural life should be ungrudgingly 
imparted to the general public. We have several times invited bee-keepers to 
contribute to the Journal, but without success. They prefer not to advertise 
themselves or the products of their apiaries. Great Britain imports yearly 
between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 Ib. of honey, and the average price realised. 
is about 83d. perlb. Is not some of this trade worth catching? Amongst the 
countries engaged in supplying the markets with this product the principal are 
Chili, the United States, Peru; amongst the minor contributors are the 
British West Indies, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, and the Spanish 
West Indies. Australasia also contributes in a’ small degree. Why 
should not Australasia contribute as amongst the principal suppliers? 
Here there is no hard winter. Honey is produced all the year 
round. Australia abounds with honey-producing flowers, both indigenous 
and imported, yet our exports are small, and they are stigmatised as flavoured 
unpleasantly with eucalyptus. So far as Queensland is concerned, the fault 
lies with the bee-keepers themselves. They seem to have no enthusiasm in their 
business, and to be content to “let things slide.” If they would see apiculture 
a success, they should try to force success, and not rest content with a verdict 
which is untrue in most cases. Queensland honey is as good as any produced 
in Australasia, and should command a price in the home markets which would 
repay the producers for their outlay. Much lies in the general get-up of any 
product placed on the London market. Honey may be excellent ; cornflour, 
banana-meal, arrowroot, &c., may be of the finest quality ; but, placed on the 
home market in a kerosene tin, nobody would look at it. Let our producers 
study the style of the get-up of articles put up for export in Great Britain, 
France, and Germany, and compare that style with many of their own, and 
they must recognise that, if they fail to catch the home buyer, the fault lies in 
the carelessness with which their various products are prepared for export. 
“The Drone,” in the Australasian, whose writings on apiculture are 
deserving of careful perusal by all interested in bee-keeping, has the following 
on a series of questions asked by an anonymous writer under the pseudonym 
of ‘“ Bloodwood” :— 
“Bloodwood” writes, asking a series of questions which will be of interest 
to many more than himself. I shall, therefore, quote from the letter in full. 
He writes :—‘ What is the recognised and proper course to adopt when one 
wishes to secure strong working colonies, in anticipation of a good honey 
flow ?’’ The course adopted by most bee-keepers now is to leave a sufficient 
supply of honey in the hives to last them through the winter months. In 
Australia, where no wintering is necessary, bees can be left sately with 25 lb. of 
honey in the hives, calculating eight frames, Langstroth size, to carry that- 
amount as well as brood. If stimulating is desired, feed the bees early in 
spring on sugar, ground to powder (with a glass bottle or roller, on the table), 
mixed with honey till it becomes solid, and will not run. 
“ Bloodwood” continues:—TI find that my bees do not seem to favour 
the supers, for, when I supply them, using the queen excluders, the bees 
almost wholly remain in the brood chamber, and give off their surplus energy 
in the shape of swarms, instead of in garnering honey. Ihave arrived at quite 
a sufficiency of hives, and would like to restrict the swarming instinct, in order 
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