THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3149, 22 July 1914, Page 14

THE APIARY.

(By J.A.)

“ I am a young man. • I have become interested in beekeeping, and would like to go in for it more extensively. I have a small apiary, which I find is very bad with foulbrood. What'should Ido with it?” Lot mo give you something I happened on in reading Streeter’s book, “Fat of the Land.” The question under discussion was swine and swine fever. He asks: “What should Ido if disease should appear? I do not know. I think, however, that I should fight it as hard as possible at close quarters, killing the seriously ill and burning'all bodies. After the scourge had passed I would dispose of all stock as best I could, and then burn tho entire plant—piggeries, fences, and all, —plough deep, cover the land as white as snow with lime, Rave it until spring, plough again, and sow to oats. During' the following summer I would rebuild my plant and start afresh. A .whole year would be lost, and some good buildings; but I think it would pay in the end. There would be no safety for the herd while a single colony of cholera or plague bacteria was harboured on the place; and while neither might for years appear in virulent form, yet there would be constantly small losses and constant anxiety. One cannot afford either of these annoyances, and it is usually wise to take radical measures.” In dealing with foulbrocd you are dealing with a bacterial disease in many ways as virulent and hard to deal with as hog cholera. There is this difference, however, that some authorities claim that honey is the only place where the spores can find (.belter. Others, again, toll us that any covering that will keep them from the air and sunlight will protect them. Honey that has spores in it is regarded as unsafe to give to the bees, even after half an hour’s boiling, so that they (the spores) are difficult to kill with heat, and probably neither time nor cold has any effect on them at all. It is of groat importance to get a clean start —of far more importance, probably, than you at present realise. The writer’s experience will help you to see this. It was in 18S4- when I started with one hive. 1 had no knowledge of disease and no books, and did not realise, when transferring not only the bees, but the combs also, from a gin-case hive to a Longstroth that I was making absolutely certain of transferring the disease as well. When I got on to the track of the disease and realised what 1 had to deal with, 1 fought hard; but it bested me every time. As my knowdedgo increased, so did my apiary, and thus it always seemed like sacrilege to adopt tho bonfire cure. The losses, of course, were heavy, and the annoyance they caused unbearable at times. The result has been that right throughout the intervening 30 years I have never known what it was to be quite clean for more than one season at a time. For some years now the Joss has not been great;'but still, it is necessary to be always on the watch and to act quickly when occasion requires. “What should I do with it?” is your question. Choose the first warm spell in spring and shake the bees into temporary boxes made from petrol cases, and having about four frames, with starters in each, and then remove them at least a mile from the site chosen for your apiary. Then have a bonfire, making as clean a job of all that pertained to that apiary as you can. If there is a honey-house on the site, and any plant .that has been in touch with diseased bees, burn everything that is not too valuable, and make a sure job of cleaning and disinfecting the rest. In this way you are sure of being clean where your apiary is to stand. Feed the shaken bees unless a plentiful supply of nectar is available, and at the end of four days transfer again into new hives and on to frames, with full sheets of foundation in 'them. Then, again, make a clean-up of the temporary boxes and frames, so that tho bees' cannot get any of the honey they had stored not in touch with the frames and boxes.. A bonfire for all that will burn, and a hole to bury tho rest is the best way. When all this is done you are still not quite sure that at least one or two may not develop the disease again; so leave them in the new location until swarming-time, when, if no disease shows, take a shook swarm from each and leave the old colonies to hatch out a new queen. In 21 days from the time the shook swarm was taken you will probably find them with .a young laying queen just beginning to lay, and all the old brood hatched out. Now, you can make doubly sure by shaking again on to new frames and removing the old combs. This is a lot of trouble, and probably many would rather put bees and all into the first bonfire. Possibly, if clean bees are procurable handy, that would be the better plan. What you want to do is to make perfectly sure of a quite clean start. You will easily catch up for any little sacrifice at the beginning. Now, just one more suggestion. Visit every apiary within a three-mile radius of your site and find out what outside disease you have to combat. The failure to do this was where the writer fell in badly, until the apiary inspector put his finger on the sore spot and insisted on having things cleaned up.