PROSPECTS FOR HONEY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 261, 2 October 1940, Page 3

PROSPECTS FOR HONEY

HIVES IN FINE CONDITION

Provided tlic weather remains favourable, prospiects for a large erop of lioney from producers along the West Coast and in the Taranaki areas appear to bo bright.’ Mild winter conditions have aided bee-keepers in maintaining their hives strong so that there will be larger numbers of bees in each to gather the crop when the main flow of nectar commences. Hives which have been opened up in the normal course of spring inspections have in many cases been breeding right through the winter, owing to its mildness, whereas usually all such activity is at a standstill tliroughout the coldest period. Under these, conditions, and also because tlie warm winter has kept' the bees more active, they have consumed greater quantities of their winter honey stores. Where tho .hives are situated out of tho actual coastal areas, tho season is, in general terms, about six weeks ahead of the normal. Flora in areas of bush is early r in blossoming and the bees have been making full use of it. Closer to the. coast, as always, the season is a little later, but in the Manawatu one bee-keeper has not known the season to be so far forward in 20 years’ experience here.