THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3040, 19 June 1912, Page 12

THE APIARY.

By J. A.

MORE ABOUT CLEANING FRAMES. Mr W. Barker, of Waikonui Orchard, Peel Forest, writes as under:—"Dear Sir,— 1 was interested in your account last week of your wax rendering, as I happened to be on the same messy job. I tnoughfc it might interest you if I told >ou the way of disinfecting frames I make use- of. l have a 30-gallon tub alongside the boiler filled with a very strong mixture of sulphate of copper, lOib. Into this the frames are plunged after boiling and scraping and allowed to soak for at least 10 minutes, and then put into the supers. After all the work is done the zinc queen-excluders may be treated to a like bath, and left in soak over night and then scraped, but the sulphate of copper must be first killed by the addition of lime, or the zinc will be eaten. There is also a much easier way of dealing with tappings. I let them drain in a largo vat with a false bottom of wire gauze and scrim, then at end of season put them into tho family washing dolly with plenty of hot water, and turn the handle, run off the honey water to convert into vinegar, then by hand ball up the refuse and put the same through the German wax press. 1 have turned over 4001 b of beeswax this season by adopting the above methods with half the trouble I used to. When using the washing machine as above advised it is as well to arrange your business so as to bo away from home the following washing day." Your advice, friend Barker, with regard to washing day under the circumstances wo regard as perfectly sound, unites.you were to set-to and leave that washer as clean as vou got it, and if you molted any wax" in it it would be just a little difficult With regard to your system" of washing out the honey out of the capping* and making vinegar of it, the idea is good, as it not only makes tho wax easier handled, but gives you a valuable product in the * vinegar. Mr Parrett. of Tai Tapu, near Christchurch, does a good deal in this way, making several barrels of vinegar each season and finding quite a ready sale for it. The vinegar made is of the very finest quality. With regard to soaking the frames after boiling and scraping in a solution of sulphate of copner for 10 minutes, we do not know about this. We do not rely on' any disinfectant, but simply on getting the frames clean and allowing the air to deal with the spores of disease. Whether this is right or not, we do not know, and have no means of testing, but we will give our rea son for thinking that it is right and leave beekeepers to judge for themselves; The first satisfactory cure discovered for dealing with foul brood was what is known as the Jones starvation cure. It consisted in shaking the bees into new or thoroughly boiled hives containing new frames with foundation in them. The bees were shut in close for 48 hours to compel them to use the honey in their sacs. They wero then allowed their freedom, and if no feed was coming in thev were fed and were supposed to start clean. Now, mark this, nothing that bad pertained to the diseased hive was used again without thorough boiling. It was, behoved that disease lodged in tho hive, bottom board, cover, and even on the . ground in front of the hive, and that was Sometimes dug and salted. Then came Mr M'Evoy's euro, which is simply a variation of the Jones method. Mr M'Evoy shook tho bees back into the same hive without any attempt to disinfect it, on tho same bottom board, uaing also the old cover just as it was. Inside the hive he put clean frames containing a very narrow starter of foundation, and at once allowed the bees their freedom, feeding if no food was available. In four days he took away tho starters and gave them clean frames containing full sheets of foundation, and tho euro was effected. Mr M'Evoy relied on the bees converting the honey they had in their sacs into wax during the four days they wero on starters. He said there was no danger of infection from any other source than the honey, and that it was folly to go to any trouble about the hive Now, please note this: Mr M'Evoy is credited with curing more diseased colonies than any other person has done. H© has. cured thousands of oolorues, and cured them so that they stayed cured It is, we , think hard to conceive that if the air did not kill the spores the hive and bottom board could be used again without reinfecting the colony in it. •_ - Some years ago we read a booklet pn foul brood by a Professor Howard, who dealt with his subject in a scientihc way. We have not ""the book beside us, so cannot quote from it, but among other things he subjected honey to boiling and then was successful with cultures from it in producing the bacillus;. He took some of the spores and mixed them up in dust in such a, way that the air could get to them, with the result that in a very short tune ho was unable to get cultures. His conclusion was tliat exposure to the air killed the spores. That is our position at the present time. Wo believe that Mr M'Evoy's cure could not be so successful as practice proves it to be were it not for tho fact that all spores exposed to tho air are destroyed. Now it is onlv right to say that, such men as the Roots in the States and T. W. Cowan in England, and many others stil! advocate thorough disinfection of everything. Cowan is president of the British Beekeepcre' Association and editor of the British Bee Journal, and has written many standard works on beekeeping. Ho probably has no peer as to knowledge of the honey bee. And yet he advocates a strong solution of carbolic to wash with napthol beta in the food, and nanthaline constantly in the hive. The Roots advocate singeing "the hives and burning up the frames. We do not know the killing power of friend Barker's solution of sulphate of copper, but to us it does seem a pretty strong dose.

which the combs are built. The bees, how- ! ever, must gather this yellow dust or pollen from the flowers, to prepare the partlydigested food' for their young larvas. This is absolutely necessary; and if they are unable to secure a sufficient amount of pollen, the progress of the colony is delayed considerably. In gathering either pollen or honey the bees come in contact with the pollen grains of the blossoms, which adhere to their hairy bodies, and are thus" carried from one flower to another. These pollen grains thus come in touch with the stigma, or the female part, so to speak, of the next blossoms visited. Orosspollination is thereby assured, and the thorough setting of fruits and seeds the result. Bees arc most important distributors of pollen, because they appear in larger numbers than other insects, and especially in the early part of the season. It is this reason, as well as their greater activity, that makes them more useful in this great work they help to perform, the value of which, as estimated by good authorities, is far greater to our country than the value of the honey crops. It is certain that the bees, on account of their greater numbers, visit a far greater number of blossoms, and do this work more thoroughly than other insects. The Sex in Plant Life.— Sax in plants or flowers exists very much as in animals, and it is just as necEssary that fertilisation take place before fruit or seeds develop. In many plants the male and female exist in the same flower. In others the male is found in one and the female in another flower of the same plant, while in, still others each sex is found in the flowers on separate plants entirely. No matter what the arrangement, however, it is necessary that the pollen grains from the anthers of the male part of one blossom reach the stigma. of* the female part of another. The pollen grains of one blossom ripen earlier or later than the stigmas, so that self-fertilisation is prevented, and the bees carrying the pollen to the otiher blossoms in the right stage to receive it effect and complete tine fertilisation, after which the development of fruit and seed follows. Without this pollination the blossoms would wither and die instead of bearing fruit. Some Striking Examples.— Ihiring the most favourable weather conditions the pollen grains may be blown about by the wind, and pollination of the blossoms take place so that fruit may be borne. But even under such conditions the bees play a great part in making > the work more thorough, as they visit many flowers and blossoms that may not bo reached' by pOlleai driven by the wind. It is well known that such ideal weather conditions do not always exist; and during such conditions, when the weather is damp and the pollen sticky, the wn'nd does not blow it about so easily, and it is then that the, insects, and especially the in their large numbers, play the most important part in the crop of fruit and seeds that will be harvested. Where certain varieties of plants or fruit trees are isolated from others of their kind, and when there is a great distance between them, the chances of pollination are not certain, and the bees must bo depended upon to carry the pollen from one to another. Where bees are not present, and the wind only depended upon, there are instances on record of trees that bore no fruit on the windward side, but an abundance on the other side. The presence of bees would have ensured the pollination of the blossoms on the windward side, and a better setting of fruit on all parts of the tree. — Louis Scholl.