AN ENTERPRISING BEEKEEPER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 149, 18 March 1908, Page 2

AN ENTERPRISING BEEKEEPER.

DOES. HIS ; ROUNDS IN A MOTOR-CAE. i /If one had to pick out .the man who is.most, .'ontitlcd to be called tho aristocrat among bee-keepers,■the choice would surely liavo to foil upon* o certain operator in .tlio Welling,ton .Province, who does his rounds in, a motorcar.. His methods are interesting, and. show a grip ,of business that is worth copying. He possesses about 800 .hives, and they are distributed''over about, eight, apiaries in 'a radius of about fourteen, miles; advantage of thus-scattering the. bees .is that .they cover a.wide area of honey country, and donot .overlap'in their work....The .sections>of land,: perhaps not an aero each, arc rented, from various' owners of land at a small, but 'doubtless satisfactory, fee.: The wide distribution of tho apiaries necessitates the use of some rapid • means of travelling, and thus camo tho motorcar.. Possibly one. visit-a week'v suffices to each*; apiary,' or; at the rate of one apiary per day. Ono assistant is.eugaged, and sometimes two. In tho work of honey, extraction, tho motor-car becomcs again useful. Certain attachments are made to tho gear, and it swings tho combs at such "speed as may be" required to expelthe honey. It is considered that from this apiary '.forty'.tons of honey (lcwt. per hive) is: obtained per annum,, worth, at about £20 per. toil in bulk, a total of £1200... ■