Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 2080, 4 January 1894, Page 12

THE APIARY.

k

By Novice.

USEFUL HINTS. For three weeks we have had exceedingly bad weather for bees, and our hopes and fears of a good season have been rising and falling in exact sympathy with the barometer, and^we have been watching Mr Paulin's prophetic paragraphs with the greatest anxiety. We have, however, just had three successive days' of real bee weather. Now that the season is here we must see that every hive from which we hope to get a return is in a condition to store surplus honey, and only strong colonies can do this.

If the bees have been allowed to carry out their own sweet will there will be found some second and third swarms, and in many instances the old colony also so sparsely occupied with bees that they cannot send out the field force necessary to gather much honey. We have some colonies which have not swarmed and some first swarms that came off in the first days of November. They occupy three storeys of the Langatroth hive, and daring the three good days we have had they have gathered fully 251b fcurplus honey. On the other hand, we have some colonies that do not cover more than five frames in one storey. We cannot expect these to gather any surplus ; they have been used to raise queens, and though if left to themselves they would build up into nice colonies for the winter, there would be no profit in them. Consequently thay are united. When these small colonies were made we intended to unite them as soon as the honey flow commenced, and so they were placed side by side. To unite them without loss or trouble we first select the best of the two queens, and that queen is as a rule the best which does her work in the most complete way.

If you find a young queen which skips cells, and in which the bees store honey, in among the brood, that queen will seldom turn out to be a first-class one. The brood nest when sealed should presenb a complete, even surface of solid brood, and the longer it is, the more of each frame it occupies, the better. Having decided which queen to keep, remove from the hive all the frames which have no brood in them to rnako room for the frames from the other bivo. Place a division in close up to the frames. Thin will leave an empty space on one side of the hive, and in this space place the combs that contain brood from the hive to be united, having first removed the queen. It is best to take away the queen about midday, and then late in the afternoon unite, aa when

the bees leave off work they realise their loss, and are ready to fraternise with any colony 1 where there is a queen ; while any colony will accept queenless bees, provided they come slowly in and are conscious of their queenless condition, and that is the reason we use a division board which allows the bees to travel in underneath it. The combs that were taken out are placed in an upper storey and at once put on, but the mat is left on the lower frames folded so as to cover the division board, and three frames on each side, for two days, when the diyision is taken out with as little disturbance as possible and an empty comb put in its place. We always unite bees in this way, and I have described it in detail because so many when uniting succeed in starting them to fight. Strong first swarms will many of them now prepare to swarm again. This can hardly be prevented without considerable labour. The easiest way is to return the swarm. We adopt this plan : The swarm is hived as usual and placed alongside the hive it came out of until the evening. Daring the afternoon we go over the combs of the hive it came out of and cut out every queen cell. Very frequently we take away a frame of hatching brood and give it to a weaker colony to help it along, putting an empty comb in its place. In the evening the mat is removed, and the hive containing the swarm is placed on top. By the next morning they will be all down among their own combs, working away as usual, plenty of room to work being left them. If you return them without cutting out the queen cells they will come out again next day.

ROWLAND'S HACA6SAB OIL preserves and strengthens the hair, prevents it falling off or turning grey, and is the best brilliantine for everybody's use, and as a small bottle lasts a very long time it is really most economical for general use ; also golden colour for fair hair. Rowland's Kalydor is most soothing, cooling and healing for the face and hands ; removes freckles, tan, sunburn, redness, Ac, and produces soft, fair skin. Sold by chemists. Ask for Rowland's, of 20 Hatton Garden, Londbn.