Rural Life.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2336, 18 June 1906, Page 6

Rural Life.

SEASONABLE BEE-KEEPINOi Mr. A. Hamer, of York (Eng.), who has been a most successful exhibitor of honey for many years, and is again winning many prizes this season, writes as follows :—‘The honey season is now over, so far as general gathering for 1897 is concerned. The season, although short, has been a good one. Very little first honey—that is, honey from the early blossom —was gathered by the bees, owing to the cold winds that prevailed at that timo. The leason of 1897 will long be remembered for Its great number of swarms ; 1896 was the opposite, as very little swarming or requeening occurred In this part, and, with the favourable weather we have had, a prolific season this year was naturally expected and realised. Our field and garden honey flowers are nearly over. The weather of lato has injured many of them, and few of them develop any honey properties in September ; but In districts where honey abounds there will still be much honey collected, as the heather will remain in bloom throughout the month Bee-keepers who are not near the heather are placed at a great disadvantage to those who live in its vicinity. It is a most valuable honey flower, and, besides yielding much.of it, the flavour it imparts is distinct and especially agreeable. Although there are still many enthusiastic boe keepers, I fear not many of them take the trouble now, as they did so often in bye-gone times, to take their bees to the heasher: but it pays well to do so, and all should avail themselves of it that possibly can. Those who live away altogether from the heather should arrange with the shepherd or somoone else who lives near the heather to take charge of their bees if sent to him for the month of September. This may bo secured for a trifle, and the bees will benefit greatly by a change of air and food, besides securing much honey. If the bees can bo put right in the midst of the heather so much the better, and they should not bo more than a mile away from it, as, when further away, much time is lost in going backward and forward, and they cannot load themselves so heavily to fly a mile or more as they can to go only two or three hundred yards. If they did, many of th'.m would drop by the way, ani fail to reach the Live. It is useless taking a weak stock to the heather' as such would never pay for the trouble, but strong ones will do so hanlsomoly. Whoa the boos are strong and active, I prefer putting some one pound supers an the top to collect the honey in. These should not bo too numerous, and they should, if po sible, bo furnished with comb before they go to the heather. TLoy can then begin at once to fill them with honey, and they will do so in a fortnight if tho weather is tine. The great advantage of this is that the hor-y is then pure heather and of a distinct character. This honey, I may remark, will bo much darker in colour than ordinary honey gathered from a united lot of flowers, but it is peculiarly acceptable to many, and it is the honey par exc silence in Scotland. I have seen more good honey at shows this season than I have known to bo exhibited for many years. The quantity is ample, and the quality first rate. But I daresay there will still be many who will be anxious extract the last drop from the combs, but this is a poor system, which all careful bee-keepers condemn,' Feeding in late autumn, winter, or early spring is all very well, but it falls far short of being so beneficial as allowing the honey to remain at the and of the season as their food in winter I have rarely known of a hive to become weak that was left at the commencement of winter with a fair amount of honey as food, but when it was all extracted and the bees kept alive by artificial feeding they were invariably weak, and many of them died outright. Feeding is often neglected. At other times tho weather is too rough to admit of it being given them, and altogether different and much easier managed. I, therefore, strongly urge on all bee-keepers, especially beginners, not to extract all the honey from the combs, but leave them sufficient to keep them through the winter. To extract and tamper with weak hives often kill them altogether, and the strongest and best hives in the spring are invariably those which started the winter with a sufficient supply of their own honey. Broken and disturbed combs are disliked by bees at the beginning of winter. Extracting always does this. Late in the season thejr cannot repair them again, and their comfort is interfered with for the whole winter, and this is another very strong reason, I think, against extracting. Cold rarely kills bees in winter, but insufficient food and especially damp in the interior of the hive are moat injurious and destructive to them; and before the winter sets in the greatest attention should be paid to putting all hives in a waterproof state. If thatch is used, renew it. If each box has a top of its own that is movable, but beginning to decay, have it renewed altogether. If the wood is still good, but the paint is off, repaint it three times over, as a water-resisting roof is of the very greatest importance. The sides should also be made secure, and all boards on which hives stand should be quite sound and fref from damp or decay.* i

CONDITION OF GRAPES. The grapes for this wine need not be ripe —indeed, are best not ripe—and many makers like to have a considerable quantity of the fruit quite small and not full grown. The nuripe grapes, especially for champagne or brisk wines, are decidedly best, but many use a mixture of immature, full-grown, and nearly ripe. With regard to adding the stalks, some wino makers consider they greatly improve the flavour ; others, on the contrary, think tho wine tastes much bettor without the stalks. These are matters of taste, as so far as making tho wine goes it is of no importance whether you leave them in or remove them. The isinglass for fining or clearing the wine is sometimes suspended in the wine in a muslin bag; more often it is dissolved in a little of the wine made lukewarm. When dissolved it is strained through a linen cloth, mixed with- a little more wino, and beaten up well. When cold it should form a thin jolly. This jolly is beaten up with a little more of tho wino and poured into the oisk, and all tho wino is at the same time well stirred up and then left at rest. The wine nroperly should remain in tho bottles for a year, hut is seldom given that time to perfect itself.