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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 46, 6 February 1920, Page 5

Growers of fruit in and around Auckland state that bees are devoting considerable attention to ripe peaches and plums. Wherever a small puncture has been made by the bill of a bird, or the fruit has been cracked as the result of the rain, there is usually to be found a certain amount of sweet juice, and this appears to have an irresistible attraction for the busy bee. It is no uncommon thing to see three or four bees busily engaged at one peach, gradually eating their way into the fruit in their quest for the juice. Peaches attacked by brown rot seem to be equally in demand, and in cases of this kind the juices of the fruit appear to have a stupefying effect. The opinion is expressed by some that in this way bees convey disease from one orchard to anotner, but experts hold that very little apprehension need be felt, and that the spores from diseased fruit that float about the air and are blown from place to place by the wind are far more likely to spread infection than the industrious bee, which does more good than harm.