APIARY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1263, 14 May 1896, Page 6

APIARY.

When feeding bees, the best way to prepare a syrup is to place lib sugar moistened with water, about equal weights, in ajar ; then place the jar in a saucepan containing water, and allow it to boil slowly until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved. Allow it to cool and feed in the ordinary way. The bees when storing sugar syrup do not apparently alter it. Whatever aroma it may afterwards obtain seems to come from the wax, not from any manipulation on the part of the bees. If stored in brood cells which have been frequently used, it is doubtful whether any aroma of honey would bo noticeable with the syrup. It seems to be an axiom that bees cannot turn sugar syrup into honey. This lack of ingenuity on the part of the bee is amply compensated for by the practices of some dealers in honey. Worker comb has an average of 10 cells to 2in ; drone cells average 9 to 27-l Gin. A. report reaches us from Germany that complete comb is now being made artificially (for honey storing purposes only) which only an experienced beekeeper could detect as artificial. The cells are made of pure beea'-wax, and are a fraction larger than those made by the bees themselves. If the invention turns out satisfactorily, the saving of time in a newly started apiary, when a heavy honey flow is in progress, will amply repay the extra cost from the ordinary foundation. Under ordinary circumstances the new complete comb will not be used, as bees can draw out foundation for brood' purposes so quickly, and far more economically to the beckoeper. The beos have a knack in foundation comb of tearing it up if given too large a quantity at once. This would apply to the complete imitation, and prevent its general use.

Painting and storing away old bodies, re-wiring and generally mending old frames, is now the work to be done by the beekeeper. In making fresh frames try wide top bars—l|in wide, -gin thick. Theso prevent to a great extent brace or burr combs. The eight-framed Langstroth hive is perhaps the best for amateurs. Professionals have their own experience to guide them in hives. The best result obtained by us in an apiary of IGO hives baa been by the Heddon hive. If troubled by the bees propolisim.', brush the different points of contact with vaseline. The use of vaseline is reported ns preventing the sticking together of frames, and the consequent jarring to the bees when re-opening the hives after the winter's spell. "The offspring of a cross between different species is a hybrid ; and the results of a eros-i between different members of a species, or between different races of the same species, are mongrels. The offspring of hybrids is a hybrid, and the offspring of mongrels is a mongrel. We have, or have had, in this country (America) the German (or black bee), the ttalian, the Egyptian, the Cyprian, the Holy Land, the

Carniolan, and the Tunisian (or Punic) bees. I have studied all the literaturo accessible on the subject, and I have never seen a hint of there being anyessential difference in the anatomical structure of any of these different kinds of bees. If this conclusion is correct, as I believe it to be, we have not different species of bees, only races and their crosses, or mongrels. It follows that to speak of hybrids is improper, as there are no such bees in the country." Despite this obviously sound reasoning, the crosses between these various races will continue to be called " hybrids," and not " mongrels," because usage has sanctioned the term. — Australasian.