BEEKEEPERS CONFER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3105, 8 June 1917, Page 8

BEEKEEPERS CONFER

EXPORT ; METHODS ' DISCUSSED . _ Tho ijeekccpcrs"Conforenco was resumed m the Esperanto Quay, at '«! p.m. yesterday, ilr. J. KentouL presiding. Xbere wero about thirty beokeepers present from all parts of New iiealand. Mr. R. H.,Nelson, .of Alartiuborough, spoke. interestingly oil the "Uentoii" capping-metting process, an improved way of extracting tho lioney from the como with a minimum of loss, llr. Allen (Southland) said that for , six years past ho had been using white pine and kauri boxes in which to keep honey. His product 'had always, brought (id. per lb. on the Dunedin market, so that no one could say that his honey had suffered at. all from being kept in wood. As tho result of experience, ho had scrapped tho tin slides ho had used within the box, and now ho advocated a box about the size of a butter-box, a -little longor and a little narrower, but si- box' that would hold 611b. of honey. Tho Lox and tho tin. slides was fairly expensive, and ho found that, with his new .box, lie was able to cut the pats more;/ acurately to the pound, and that he.'wfts'able to pack tho pound pats in the samo box that lie had kept the bulk - honey' in to granulate. Ho had gone very carefully. into the matter of cost, and, counting everything, paper, box, and labour, the cost was 3d. per lb. This was the box he advocated for the export trade. ; The joints could be waxed, and ■ here would be no leakage, as no honey is- accepted' for the export trade in a liqiid. condition. If a package sucli as he urged was adopted, he could see Major Norton,, cutting the honey into pats and wrapping tho pounds into parchment ' paper for sale on the English market just the sains as he was doing in New Zealand, instead of melting it down and putting it out in mono-vessels. Tho boxes would have to.be sent.Homo in cool chamber, and he judged that if the honey wero sent Home in cool chamber it would arrive very hard. Mr. Nelson raised the question of the difference in freight, and also as to whether, tlie honey would absorb mois-

ture, and arrive Homo mucky. ''lUr. I?, W. Urickell moved: "That tho Department of Agriculture be asked to allow of the export of a small shipment of honey in wooden boxes in order to test whether this.package could be substituted for tins.'; This was seconded by Mr. Allen, and carried. Mr. Jacobson, who wished to send half a ton of honey to England in tho new wooden boxes, thought the idea was a great one, and ho moved a hearty vote of thanks to Allen. This was carried with acclamation. During the afternoon the president gave an interesting address on running npiaries on shares. He thought the best working Imisis was that the owner of tho apiary should pay oil expenses, and that tho working partner should take half the net profits. Mr. Jacobsen said he was at present working on such lines, and it worked very smooth!v. His arrangement included taking stock and lequeenmg.

Interrogation Evening. The evening meeting of the ussociavioii was devoted to questions of "enoral interest. It was asked. "What is the best, method of preventing swarming.'' The simple answer- appeared to jbe.that tho removal of tho Queen bee would put a, stop to it, buit several ! speakers pointed out that no fixed, rule could be applied, lor what had proved successful in one district was ineffective in another. Furthermore, breeding by selection would greatly reduce tho trouble. With respect to the question of "Does it pay the honey producer to rear queen bees?" one answer was that it did not pay because queen breeding was a very deiicate matter, besides the market prico was too low to make it profitable. Another beekeeper -with about 400 colonies said it paid him to Tear queen bees, but at the same time ho agreed that it would pay him better to confine himself to honey production provided he could buy queen bees'at, say, 28. 6d., each, at which price tho breeder should be able to suipply them. There -was considerable discussion on this subject, several questions varying in detail being asked. The meeting was of an informal character, but interesting and instructive.