136 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Dec., 1898. 
bees to “hatch. Then take out the frames, cutting off the comb to within an 
inch of top bar. Remove the super to No. 2. Take out combs from No. 1; 
put them as before in the super, putting in the frames from which the comb- 
was cut offin No.1. As soon as the young bees are hatched, take out the 
frames and do as at first, removing the super alternately as above described, 
taking care to see that the bees are always fed back the honey taken from 
them (remembering it takes over 12 Ib. of honey to make 1 Ib. of wax), and 
for bees to be kept always making wax is a very great strain on their strength. 
The person in charge must watch and not leave any comb in the super directly 
the young are out, as it only wastes time. 
STARTING AN APIARY. 
BuE-KEEPING is undoubtedly a very pleasant and we wish we could add a very 
profitable occupation, and no doubt many handsome cheques have been realised 
by scientific bee-farming. 
All bee-keepers know how difficult it is to effect sales of Australian honey 
in the world’s market—London. Lither our honey is too light or too dark ; it 
does not set well or it sets too much. If it does not reek with the odour of 
Eucalyptus, it has some other odour, or there is a bouquet wanting init. In 
fact, no matter how good the sample exported from the colony, the home buyer 
will discover such a host of imperfections in it that he considers 15s. to 16s. 
per cwt. a ruinous price for it. 
Some people have the same idea as Eugene Secor’s Dutchman, who sang— 
Oh ! Tish von of dose happy bee mans, 
I don’t got to vork any more. 
I loafs all day in the apple tree shade, 
: Or schmokes mine pipe at der door. 
Now, those who are in the business here know that it is not all “ bee (r) 
and skittles.’ To make a living out of the busy bee, a man must thoroughly 
understand the business, and must devote his whole time to it. We say 
nothing about the man who keeps three or four hives in his garden or orchard 
for the purpose of getting a little honey and wax for domestic use, and perhaps 
a little for sale. His living does not depend on them, and if he neglects them 
he is at no serious loss. 
But where a living is desired to be made out of the bees alone, we would 
not exactly say to the aspiring bee-master, “ Don’t,” but we would warn him 
to hurry slowly—festina lente is a good motto to bear in mind when bee- 
keeping is in question. There are the usual thousand-and-one vexations and 
annoyances connected with this industry as with poultry-farming. 
‘The unexpected is constantly happening. Even supposing an apiarist to be 
very successful—suppose him to have a hundred strong colonies at work— 
working for him like Gilead P. Beck’s Golden Butterfly—what then? He 
turns out, perhaps, three tons of honey in the year, which will probably 
realise, including the wax, under £100, at the prices now offering in the 
London market for Queensland honey. Against this gross return has 
to be set the annual expense in the shape of labour, implements, tins or jars, 
railways freights, commissions, &c., &¢., which take away much of the profit, if 
not all. Combined with other rural pursuits, the produce of the apiary will 
naturally add to the farmer’s income, but prices must change very much for 
the better if even a bare living is to be made outof it. It is very much the 
same with honey-producing as with silk-producing, with the exception that 
there is no limit to the market for silk, whilst the honey market is constantly 
being overdone. According to Coghlan’s “Seven Colonies of Australasia,” the 
total value of honey and beeswax produced in all the colonies in 1896 amounted 
to £53,400, of which Queensland accounted for £5,800, or about 3d. per head 
of the population of the colony. 
