THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 15

THE APIARY.

By J A. By this evening’s mail I received from Mr Billing, chairman of directors of the Now Zealand Honey-prcduccis’ Association, a very interesting picture of a shop window in Bristol, England, displaying New Zealand honey in retail packages. As is well known generally amongst beekeepers, the N.Z.H.P .A. have sold, on account of its members, all their export honey to tiia Bristol and Dominion Produce Company (Ltd.). Perhaps it would bo more correct to say that they have employed the B. and D.P. Company as agents, they giving a guarantee of at least 4cl f.o.b. for the honey and whatever balance they can gel over working expenses and commission when the honey is sold, and which they estimate at something over Id per lb. This Would give a total price to the raiser cf over 5d per lb. Prices for honey exported have been so very unsatisfactory during the last two years that this must be regarded as a very satisfactory arrangement for the beekeepers of the Dominion. One of the conditions of the arrangement is that at least 100 tons of honey per year must be shipped to the Bristol Company, and it is very gratifying to know that though the past honey season was practically a failure over throe-fourths of the Dominion, yet during the year the amount required has been sent and some six tons more. The account sales for this 105 tons will be very interesting reading for the beekeepers of the Dominion. I have not heard of any results yet. Probably the establishing of bottling depots may moan that it will take some little time to get the new arrangement going in England, and consequently a delay in returns from there; but to the shipper who has already received an advance of 4d without recourse, this will not be any hardship. I am sending or. the picture to the editor of the Witness in_ the hope that he may be able to give it n place in his picture department. Let me say this about it, that whether it can bo published or not, it is a very satisfactory showing of our New Zealand honey. THE WEATHER. Our Southland weather deserves this week a paragraph all to itself. On all hands one hears the same story—What beautiful weather we are having. August and September have both been good months, but the last week of September has been the climax. As indicating what it moans to the apiary, rny scale hive has put on 181 b for the week, the best clay (Sunday, 26th) giving 61b. Such weather and such an inflow of nectar make ideal conditions for brood-rearing—far better than any stimulation that could be given by feeding. South Canterbury beekeepers arc reckoning on a surplus from Willows. In Southland no surplus counts until after Now Year; wo are still three months from starting the extractor, but all the same it is very pleasant to sec spring food coming from the bush rather than out of a sugar-bag. Writing to the New Zealand Beekeepers’ Journal, Mr Cottorell, president of the “National,” says, and ho is speaking from Auckland: “It is still too early to make more entrance than §in by Sin. I opened mine to full width this week. I won’t say it may not be necessary to close up some again; but in the meantime they had to be opened; what is more, some of the supers have got to go on. I put on one yestordav, and by night it was full of bees, and to-dav the centre combs are half full of honey. Colonics that came through the winter with a good supply of stores, in a flow such as we are having, if they have been breeding anything well at all, -will block up their brood nests if not- given combs to remove the honey to. Whore breeding has been slow, supers will not bo required yet.” RAILWAY FREIGHTS ON HONEY. Railway freights on honey are about 80 per cent, dearer than on dairy produce. I don’t think that even the Minister of Railways or the manager oould give .any reason for that. The honey requires no special cool trucks, as dairy produce does. While as a new export of value to the country it requires more encouragement than dairy produce, and yet our enlightened rulers clap on 80 per cent, clearer freight on to it. There is another reason why more consideration should bo given to honey in the matter of freight. There are only a very few grading ports, and honey has in some cases got to travel as much as 100 miles unnecessarily Just because it must go through a Government grading store before it. can be shipped. Why do I write this.? Just because at the present moment it is proposed to raise this freight in common with that on other things. Messrs Baines and Briokcll are fighting this, and the Minister has replied “that the representations have been noted, and will have careful consideration.” We have had that promise several times before.

BROOD-CHAMBER ROOM. USING TWO-STORY BROODCHAMBERS. “In using brood-chambers two stories high, which is bettor —the eight or 10 frame Langstroth hive? I am told that, for section honey, two-story eight-frame hives, or 16 frames, aro best until the time to put tho supers on; then one story is to be taken off, reducing them to one story or eight frames. In this locality the honey harvest opens and supers should be put on somewhere about June 5, and up to that time the queen rarely occupies or fills more than eight frames with brood. Under such circumstances would it be necessary to put on tho second story?’’ If a single story gives all tho room the queen will occupy, and if no more room is needed, then there can hardly be any advantage in giving a second story so far as tho part of tho queen is concerned. But no ono can be perfectly sure in these matters if ho has never tried it. You can hardly be euro that none of your queens will occupy more than eight frames until you give. thorn a chance. Bees do not freely uso cither of the two outsidle combs for brood, but uso them mostly for honey and pollen. If brood is found in either (and it may be found in both) they are somewhat crowded for broccl-room. If you find eight combs occupied with brood in an eight-frame hive, tho probability is that moro than eight frames would be used if the bees had two stories. A strong colony in two stories may have frorn 10 to 12 frames of brood. Some colonies do not need tho second story, even with an eightframe hive, but many more do. If you practise using two stories you will find a good many more of your colonies needing them than you thought. Giving all the room needed results in stronger colonies. But why be confined to an eight-framo hive? With a KHrarne hive a good queen will give eight frames of brood and some brood in the two outside combs, as much usually as is found in the two outside combs of tho narrower hive. This will satisfy most of the queens you are likely to have, and put a large force of bees in the fields at the time of your surplus flow of nectar. If you wish to contract so as to throw more of the bees and honey into the sections, put a dummy in place of each outside comb at the opening of tho surplus flow. This will answer the same purpose as reducing tho two-story eight-frame nivo to a one-story.

In order to secure honey wo must have bees. As a rule, the more bees the more honey. If a queen has filled all the available cells in eight frames, two more additional frames will give more bees-, and, consequently, more honey. Then if, at the beginning of our main nectar flow, we prefer honey stored in the sections instead of the two outside combs, let two dummies take the place of these, and we are brought back to an eight-frame hive again with approximately one-fourth more labourers to work in the nectar harvest than if we had used only -an eight-frame hive all the while. Now, as to the two stories. A queen that has eight combs well filled with brood just at the approach of the honey harvest will not fill eight more as completely as another queen would have if she had' had them early in the spring. What extra brood she does put in the upper story will hardly give bees that will labour to advantage in that harvest. Bees in their prime as labourers when the honey harvest is at its prime are the ones which make the profit.

The profitable keeping of bees docs not depend so much upon having each queen occupied to her full capacity as it does in haying- the combs and hives occupied to their full capacity, and that at just the time when the flowers which generally give surplus honey are in .bloom. Taking advantage of this thought, and by using the 10-frame hive as a single story up to within 20 d : ays of the opening of tire surplus bloom, and then putting a queen-excluder on top, and on top of this another 10-frame hive filled with good worker combs, a twostory hive can bo made a paying investment. Swarming can he kept back till the lower hive is nearly filled solid with brood, and quite a start in honey made in the upper hive by way of storing honey, which start accustoms the bees to storing above. As the surplus bloom arrives, reverse the hives, put a super of sections between, and see that the queen is in the now lower hive with the queen-excluder under the super. The bees will remove the honey that has lately been stored there to give place for the eggs from the quen, and this honey, together from that coming from the fields, will go into the sections almost at once. Ten days later, shako the bees from seven of the combs now in the upper story, at the entrance below, and set the upper hive on a new stand, thus getting a now colony. By adding supers as needed, success is yours in good seasons.—G. M. Doolittle.