THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2013, 22 September 1892, Page 8

THE APIARY.

By Novice.

With the bright, mild weather of the past fortnight the bees have wakened, and again beekeepers find their interest in the condition of their stocks increasing and are busy making preparations for the coming season.

The past winter has been a very favourable one in our locality for the bees. There have been more wet days than for some years, and' the weather has been sufficiently cold to keep the bees in the hives, instead of being stirred up as they usually are by spells of warm weather in midwinter, inducing them to fly and break up their cluster in the hive, a cold spell, which always follows, causing the nearest approach to spring dwindling that we ever get in New Zealand; Spring dwindling is the cause of the loss of thousands of hives of bees. every spring in the United States.

We have made our first overhaul of bees for the season, and find that mice have been particularly destructive. In some cases they have made the entrance larger in order to get in and out ; in others they have got in when' little fellows and grown in the hive, so that they were prisoners until the lid was lifted. ■ It has taught us a lesson that we shall in future take care to profit by, and fix up the entrances with zinc. They got intols or 16 colonies, and have caused the death ofTlve or six. In these the mice ate all the stores, and the bees died of starvation.

With this exception the bees have come through the winter in better condition than usual. We have very little of that pest of beekeepers, foul brood, and I am in consequence more than ever convinced that the treatment I have recommended for this disease for some years is the best that can be adopted. All hives should now at once have the bottom boards scraped and scrubbed, dry mats carefully adjusted close on top of the frames, and above all it should be seen that there is an ample supply of food in the hive. Whether there is an abundance of food, or only just

enough, will make a difference of three weeks or more in tho timo when the bees will be ready for profitable work. In my own locality there is some uncertainty as to when the honey flow will commence. In some years it begins about the 14th November ; in other years it does nob begin until after the new year. As a rule it is the early season that pays best, and so we plan to have all the hives full of bees by the 7th November. We have no trouble to do this since we have kept the improved races of bees. In fact year by year we find a larger proportion of the hives full "of bees in ths month of September. ' Careful selection of queens, and breeding only from those that are first class is effecting this change.

It is one of .the curious facts in connection with beekeeping that once there has been a real live interest awakened that interest never dies. There is such a fascination in looking after bees that though "circumstances ,may compel the beekeeper to give up bees for a time, yet the sight of a hive, or even of boos working on the flowers, will stir up within them pleasant memories, and they are sure to ret'irn to their old love on the fi>st opportunity. When beekeepers meet lucy will discuss questions in connection with bee culture for hours without weariness, or without exhausting tho subject. The range is so extensive, and the bee occupies so important a place in the economy of nature, that tuccees or failure of a full crop of fruit or the propagation of many species of plants depend entirely on the untiring efforts of the honey bee and other nectar-loving insects. As they have come down . the ages together, each h«s become exactly fitted to tho other, the flower to the bee and the bee to tho flower, and many flowers have been develuped so as to protect their nectar from all insects except those which are capable of properly and perfectly fertilising them. Aborted or imperfectlyformed flowers are seldom fertilised, and so -we sco the Divine purpose carried out by natural moans, and tha survival of the fittest only provided for. ,

The interest in beekeeping is gradually extending. Every season we welcome new additions to the ranks in all directions, and are looking forward to the time when honey will bi come au important article of export. This industry is as yet undeveloped, and the capabilities of our country only imperfectly understood. The method of farming bees in frame hives is known«pnly to a few, and some of these do not make the best of their, surroundings. Now that dairying is placed on-a better footing and becoming more general, beekeeping, as an additional source of income, should follow it. A good dairying district cannot help being a good district for beekeeping, and the two work very -well together. The bees require attention only in the middle of the day, and milking is done morning and evening. There is no rural industry that will give better returns for the. amount of capital and work expended than .a few hives of bees. Taking the world over, I' do not suppose there is any minor rural industry which has a better or more complete literature, and I am sure there is no industry the members of which are more desirous that all should share the benefits of any new discovery than are beekeepers. Every season improvements in appliances and methods are. made, and it will be a pleasure to me to bring these under the notice of the readers of the Witness during the coming season.