APIARY NOTES FOR SEPTEMBER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 241, 10 September 1932, Page 9

APIARY NOTES FOR SEPTEMBER

(By 10. S. Robinson, Apiary in~t ruct or. Department of Agriculture, Palmerston North.) During line, warm days of this month an inspection should bo made of hives and the examination should reveal brood raising in .several combs. Should no eggs or scaled brood be seen, it is fairly safe to assume the hive to be quecnless, and as young queens cannot be procured so early in the season, the best thing to do is to unite any queenless hive with a queen right one. The following method, known as the paper method, is the most efficient method of uniting two colonics of bees: —About sundown go to your queen-right hive, remove the cover and mat without disturbing the bees too much and place a sheet of nowspaper over it. Now take a quecnless hive anti, without, removing cover or mat, .ift it carefully off the bottom board and place it over the newspaper of the queenright hive. If the quecnless bees are only few in number, punch a few small holes in the paper with a nail. This method of uniting is considered to be one of the best, ,:s it is little trouble, and fighting between :he bees seldom occurs.

After a few days, when the bees have gnawed their way through the (taper and united, the super may be removed. If on examination the brood appears to he patchy and has dome-shaped cappings standing out from rhe comb, it will indicate that the queen has become a drone layer, and only drones are being raised, probably through old age or else the bees are queenless and laying workers are in the hive. If you are able to find the queen, kill her anti unite the bees with a queen-right hive; a« already indicated. If. however, you cannot find a queen, the best thing to do is to shake the adhering bees off the combs and destroy them, anti distribute the combs amongst the hives that are short of honey. The bees in a laying worker hive are old and of very little use, and if united to a hive willt a queen are very liable to kill her.

I)o not distribute the combs if there is the slightest trace of foul brood in your hives, as thin would only be spreading the disease. Brood rearing should now continue steadily on, and if a spell of bad weather should bo experienced keep a sharp look-out on the stores of the hives, because if the bees find their stores getting low they curtail brood raising. It must be remembered that the resultant honey crop is largely dependent on the management of the hives at this season of the year. When looking through your hues at this month, take, with you a clean bottom board, and, before you open the first hive, give them a little puff of smoke: then gently lift the whole hive away, putting the clean bottom in its place. Now lift the hive off the bottom board and place if m position on tbe clean one. The old bottom board can now be scraped clean and the same process carried out throughout the apiary. All hives should have a slight cant to tho front, so that rain will not run into them.

THIS MONTH'S HONEY RECIPES. Baked bananas with honey.—6 bananas, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Remove skins and cut bananas in halves lengthwise. Arrange in shallow pan. Spread the honey over the bananas, dot with butter and pour on the lemon juice. Bake 20 minutes in a shallow oven, basting occasionally with sauce. Honcv Almond Macaroons.—6ozs. Hour, 4ozs. butter, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon castor sugar, I egg,. loz. ground almonds, £ teaspoon baking powder. Cream together butter, honoy and egg, adding almonds, flour, etc. Work into a still dough. Break off small pieces. Roll into small balls, place a split almond in each. Place on greased cold trays, bake in slow oven for 10 minutes.