THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2179, 28 November 1895, Page 8

THE APIARY.

By Novice. I

SEASONABLE NOTES. Almost every year at the end of the honey ceason beekeepers may bs heard when they meet speaking of the extraordinary yield of some particular hive which has distanced all the others, and stored nearly twice as much honey as most of them, and questions will almost be certain to bring out another fact — viz., that there are other hives which have persisted in swarming, but have added very little to the total yield. Variations of this kind ,are quite common in most apiaries, whether larger of small, and yet how many beekeepers are there who endeavour to perpetuate the . very desirable qualities of the good colony ? Not many, most beekeepers being content to take the swarms as they come, and as the hive in which is the queen in whom this very desirable variation occurs seldom Swarms, it is lost when the queen in whom it lias arisen dies ; while on the other hand the progeny of the queen whose hive is constantly swarming, and in whose bees the instinct of storing a large qu*ntitity of surplus honey — muck more- than they can possibly need for their own use— is not unduly developed, will by reason of their constant swarmiDg leave their impress in the future on the bees of the whole apiary. I want to impress this on the minds of beekeepers as strongly as possible, because if we do not take advantage of such valuable variations in our bees when they do cccur, a golden opportunity of vastly improving our stock is allpwed to slip past us. From which cows does the dairyman cave the calves that in the future are to" be ths milk cows of his herd ? Is it from those that go dry quickest, or ftom .those which can be relied on to keep in good milk month after month? It is only by careful selection and breeding from the best that the vast improve ment E«fcice»ble in all kinds of stock has been made. Variations »s they occur are noticed at ence by keen-sighted thoughtful men, and if desirable are soon developed into new and valuable types. How often have I felt quite elated at hear* ing btekeepers, who are for the first time •visitors at the apiary, cay in admiration, " What splendid tl*b3 of brood ! Why, I never get anything like., that -with ■my queens." No, bat -every beekeeper might do so if he would only take the pains to stock his apiary with" the ■progeny, only of his best, and not tolerate an inferior queen, or tolerate her only so long as ; would .enable him to raise a better one to introduce in her pl«Ce. , It is true that to raise queens of good quality and, capable of perpetuating the beat qualities of her mother requires time -and attention to minute detail*, but such time and attention is amply repaid by results. Simply removing a ; queen from the head of a colony will not produce good queens, though one often sees this method recommended on account of its apparent simplicity ; but (he bees in their eager desire to zemedy the disaster will feed a larva which is tco old to reap the fu'l benefit of the special food which is fed to the young larva the bees intend to devtlop into a queen, and so on the tenth or eleventh day after the queen was taken away there emerges from her cell a young queen, which, though she looks all right, is invariably incapable of keeping her hive up to the proper standard, and is thus of no use to us in our endeavour to perpetuate the good qualities of her mother. The special food which develops an ordinary worker egg into a queen is a secretion from a gland in the head of young bees only. This gland becomes atrophied (dried up) as the young bee grows older, and its work as a nurse being then ended, it becomes a gatherer in pollen and honey. This food (royal jvlly) is fed to the young royal larva in such abundance that it floats in it, and when after being sea'ed 'up it emerges from the cell there often is, and always ehould be, a considerable quantity left in the cell unused, and it is only when this is the caie that we are able to say the conditions have been such that we have produced the best queens possible.

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