POOR HONEY AND BEESWAX.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1233, 15 September 1911, Page 8

POOR HONEY AND BEESWAX.

INTERESTING VIEWS OF AN EXPERT. Discussing the question of whether it will pay to raise beeswax, Mr. T. Hopkins, Into Chief Ai>inrist to the Government, states in liis recently-published "Australian Bee Manual" that ho is certainly inciincd to believe that at. the present price of beeswax, and with every prospect of its getting doarer, it will pay to raise it instead of honey, where the latter is of a low grade, such as in some bush districts. Jlr. Hopkins says lie knows of bee-keepers living near bush who would like to extend their operations, but the difficulty of getting their honey into shape for market,.and the low price received for it, prevents them from doing so. To such people the raising of wax might prove of enormous benefit. Some inexpensive form of large, homemade hive carrying 15 or 1G frames, say 12 or It inches deep, might be jised. Small fillets of wood dipped in wax and tacked along the centra of the underside of tlio top bars would induce the bees to build straight combs within the frames in the first place, after which there would be no trouble, as a small strip of comb could be left in each time tlipy were cut out. Most of the combs could be removed'as they wo to built, and in this way the bees would be kept chiefly at comb-building through the season, and the 'greater part'of the honey gathered would be converted into wax, leaving sufficient' of both ctimb and honfcy to see the bees through the winter. ' " Jlr. Hopkins thinks it nuite likely that if worked in this way-each colony started early in the season should yield from •lib. to sjb. or more of clean, marketable wax. which, at Is. 3d. to Is. Gd. per lb., would pay far better than raising lowgrade honey. Mr. Hopkins had intended carrying out an experiment on the above lines at the Waerenga State Apiarv, where a low-grade honey is frequently gathered, had he continued as Government Apiarist.