THE BEEKEEPER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 17 May 1912, Page 2

THE BEEKEEPER.

•The Wellington instructor in bee culture recently took action against *w-9 cc farmers for breaches of the Apiaries Act, which specifies that measures must be taken to prevent foul brood, or where hives contain foul brood, to cure the disease. 'The inspector said he did not wish to press for a heavy penalty, but brought the case more as a way of letting bee keepers know their liability. The Magistrate, in giving judgment, said that no doubt it was important that, the foul brood sho\ild be destroyed, as the bees carried the infection, and thus;. badly-kept hives might injure those kept by a man who was making a j1™^ % keeping bees. He, did not-j think the case one for a heavy penalty' and imposed a fine of 5s and costs. The advantage of having good shelter* around an apiary is almost incalculable, as it, depends almost entirely upon this whether ;the bees suffer or nol during high" storms. In: looking back over the past season, ,says a. southern writer/ I can only conclude

tha^ it was a very peculiar one. In some parts of the colony it, was an entire failure, and although it was very good in some parts, it provfed much beltfw the average generally. Then- agairi, there was-a peculiarity with regard to the honey itself. In some districts near Canterbury the honey granulated in the 6omb shortly after it was "gathered, a •thing I have never noticed before. In several eases when the? sections of honey were removed from the hives the honey,was granulated, although it had been capped over but a very, short time. See that all hives have plenty of food, also some pollen; also see: that r,hei hive is not a damp one, for if so at the beginning of the winter, you cannot expect it to improve through the winter. Mats should be examined,, and any damp ones removed and dry ones substituted. Remember the bees cannot be kept too warm or too dry, ■ and damp^ ness in the hive means ruination to the colony. .

'•A new kind of "feeder" is thus described by. a correspondent. It is an. 'entrance' feeder, and is very reliable, I find. The construction is simple, but I have got it protected. It consists of a tin, with a hole near the top, with a piece of perforated zinc from here to the bottom. This tin is attached to a stick, with a hole up the centre, opposite a hole 4in. up. A small notch near the other at the foot side' admits the bees, and they find their way up and into the feeder. It can be attached, with a screw at the top, or set on a block, and a stone put on the lid/ I have got one firm—Smith and Laing—to catalogue it for next year, bu tas it is yet distant, I thought I would let you know about it. This has been a success with.-me, and I think the average bee-keeper will find it very useful. Reviewing briefly the 1911-12 season, a writer says: "Looking back over the season, we have to write it down as the worst in our experience of some 26 years. We have never before known a season that the bees did not get at least a fortnight of good weather. This season it has only been intermittent days. There was practically no swarming season, and queen breeders had great difficulty to. get their queens fertilised, more especially in the spring. Under these circumstances, in Southland at least, we do not expect to hear of anything but almost total failure in so far as the honey harvest is concerned. Our own yield is 18001b, about one-sixth part of what it would have been in an ordinary year. Already there is evidence of great scarcity in the honey market, and prices accordingly are reported as very firm. ' We fear that the season will prove a severe check to our industry. Many of our beekeepers have lost heavily, "and at least some of them will not seek to restock —more especially will that be the case where the fight aeainst foul bi*ood has proved very difficult, and the personal interest in the bees themselves is lacking. We hope, however, that the check will only prove to be temporary, and that a good year will restore confidence again."

The New Zealand" Farmer writes of the food supply and autumn breeding as follows:

"The food supply is the most pressing consideration at the present time. There must not only be sufficient food in the hive to serve the daily needs of the mature bees, but there must be enough to keep up breeding, which means that the workers must be storing more than they actually require, let it be ever so little. Bees are very provident; they breed according to the amount of food they are gathering to supply the extra mouths they will, have to feed. When food falls off breeding diminishes, and when food is plentiful breeding increases accordingly. In the course of an interesting article by Mr J. M. Doolittle, in Gleanings, the writer refers to the question of advertising as producers: "I have been reading the Rural New Yorker for the past year, and I notice that many of the producers of apples, potatoes, beans, etc., put inside the packages a slip of paper, or something of the kind, telling what they received as producers, and requesting the consumer to let them know what he paid for the same. From data received in this way the Rural figures that the producer gets only about 35 cents, of the consumer's dollar. This seems quite unfair to the producer, and gives a clue to the reason why w© bee-keepers receive so small a price for our honey when compared with most of the things we have to buy. Now, while I would not advocate the same plan, I have been wondering why it would not be a good plan to put our names, as producers, on every crate of comb honey we send out, if not on every section, using a pretty stamp therefor. Then by sending out only a gilt-edged article the consumer would soon, know of whom he could buy the best honey, and in this way the progressive bee-keepev might build up a most profitable trade, while those who work only in a slipshod way could be shut out from hurting us by selling their product for less than good honey is worth, as is so often done by the careless and indifferent."

An American official bulletin givers some information of interest and use to beekeepers and to fruitgrowers on the subject of fruit tree bloom.

It is shown that the honey bee undoubtedly plays an important part in the proper fertilising of the blooms, and what with nectar from this and other local sources bees should make a good return. The following abbreviated remarks about orchard trees are interesting to the apiarist and the fruit-? grower. They are observations by Mr C. Ritcher, the author of the pamphlet. Apricot.—Honey and pollen from the flowers; an aid to building-up bees in the spring.

Cherry. —Among the leading honeyproducers of deciduous fruits.

Plums. —Honey and pollen from the flowers. When favorable weather prevails the peach is reported to yield enough for an extraction.

Pear. —Honey and pollen from the flowers. Warm weather at blossomingtime usually means an extraction of pear honey, accompanied by swarming.

Apple. —Honey and pollen from the flowers. Surplus crops of apple honey are often reported.

A question much asked is, "How many colonies of bees are required to fertilise an orchard?" Professor W. T. Clarke contends that one colony is amply sufficient to fertilise 80 acres of apple-bloom, and that other bees and insects aid greatly. Mr Root, however,, believes that 10 colonies might pollehise a. 10-acre orchard, but probably 50 or 100 would be much better.