THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3234, 8 March 1916, Page 9

THE APIARY.

By J. A

A BEEKEEPER'S DIARY. (Continued.)

February 24.—For a few weeks, not to &ay months, we have been intensely interested in the weather; but wo don't care a dump now. iho honey How is over — plover is fading away. Ragwort and Capo Weed aro giving the combs a yellow tinge. Nearly, if not all, the nectar coming m fcow is going into the brood-nest—that is well; it is where wo want it. The bees are killing off the drones. Poor drones! they feet a sorry time when autumn comes. It as- quite easy when you know how. That is what I thought to-day as I watched an expert test my littlo Gilson engine. Ho very soon located the trouble and left us happy. In the afternoon we extracted 6001 b, find were much pleased that the behaviour Of the bees was much better than wo iiad expected to find it. The quality of the honey coining in is very line. February 25.—Disappointed; had to send •word for that expert to come- back. The engine would not budge; simply dened every effort to get her to go. Tho day ■was beautifully fine, and the bec3 wura doing very fine autumn work. The beekeeper had to content himself emptying his honey tank. February 26.—1 think our engineering .troubles are ended. Wo extracted anotner pGOlb this afternoon. It was another lino clay, and the bees were working strong, but ,very much inclined to rob. From now on the colder days will bo more suitable for taking off honey. To-day wo had to stop in the afternoon, as some of _ the colon"cs fore were operating on were in danger of being overpowered. February 27.—Another fine Sunday. Bees "working steadily. February 28. —Pushing on the extracting. Took about GOOlb. The bees were difficult and required careful handling. As a help, wo cut two squares of sacking and steeped them in water for covers to the honey as goon as it is taken from the hives. Somo carbolic would have been a further help; but we had none. Our great endeavour is not to expose the combs any more than can bo helped. If tho bees get at the combs it demoralises them altogether, and makes it unbearable not only for tho beekeeper, but for every hive ho touches. Our apiary barrow is made to take two supers sitting flat on tho floor of the barrow. Combs put into these and immediately covered wiwl a square of wet sacking are out of reach of tho bees. Wo aro not touching the brood-nests at all this round—merely lifting away tho excluder and putting on the mac and cover, and then cutting down tho , entrance to about 3in. February 29. —A very warm day; the ' thermometer at the moment of writing '7.40 p.m.) stands at 70deg. Scale hive put on 21b. Extracted anotner vatful of honey—our vat holds 8401 b. Bees were more easily controlled to-day —an evidence that they were getting more nectar in tho field. The principal sources of nectar just now are clover, Cape weed, ragwort, and thistles, The clover is holding out well. March 1. —Another warm day; dull and hazy, with a northerly wind blowing. ISot much nectar coming in. Bees more inclined to hamper the operation of taking off honey, snowing that they aro not satislied with tho nectar availablo in tho held. To-clav we completed our filth ton of honey, making an average of lOUlb per colony on tho spring counts. There is at least another ton in signt, but it will take four extracting days to get it in. We expect to continuo pur diary until the bees aro fixed up for winter, which will probably not bo yery Jong now.

PRESERVING FRAMES OF COMB. <; Having sold quito a share of my bees, I have on Jiand more combs than I am liable to use before August, 1916. I feel that it would bo better to preserve theso eornbs than to melt them for wax and then buy foundation to replace them when I want combs again, as. most of them are nico and straight. 13ut during the spring and summer months I have had poor success in keeping such combs from the larva of the wax-moth. How may this difficulty be overcome V

Straight all-worker comb, built true in frames, is of greater value for bar than the wax will bring which can bo gotten r rom them, to say nothing about tno cost of rendering. Experienced beekeepers think it very profitable to purchase comb foundation at the rate of 10 cents for enough to till a Langatroth frame, besides the cost of transporting it and the labour of putting it into tho frames. So I have considered such JL. frames of comb worth at least 12 cents .each. But the wax that can bo gotten from such a comb will not bring, as a rule, more than five or six cents. Therefore I have always made it a point to preserve all the spare combs I had for future use. Combs on which the bees die during winter and early spring can bo kept by placing over strong colonies during tho latter part of May and June,' so that tho bees, but not the queen, can have access to them. In this way they can bo kept for any increase that may be desired, and used for colonies sut ar>art for extracted honey. This plan has also an advantage by way of keeping down the swarming fever liable to occur with strong colonics too early, and will more often than otherwise stop all swarming entirely, if theso combs are allowed to remain till tho surpus flow of nectar from clover is fully begun and the sections on.

Another effective way is to hang tho combs up to tho light and air with a space of IJjin to 2jn between them. For convenience in practising- this plan, when I built my shop- and honey-room I placed 'the joists overhead so as to admit tho top tar of a frame crosswise; then by nailing common lath near the lower edge of neighbouring joists, each space made a convenient' place for keeping all frames of comb nob occupied by tho boos, tho ends of tho top bars or arms resting on tho lath. jßowevor, with combs not toughened with Jthe cocoons of many generations of brood, ;or where the brood has not reached parts of the oomb near the upper corners of tho frames, tho light seems to have a deteriorating effect upon tho wax, causing it to become brittle and crumble when thus left jmore than a season or two. Whero it is desired to keep combs for an indefinite period I have found the following to bo tho best way i —Exposed to cold in which the mercury touches zero or below, everything of tho wax-moth nature has to isuccumb and die. Therefore, if the mature fsmalo moth can bo kept from such combs over afterwards they will be in perfect cone' : ' --•"" should 10 or 15 yoafs ©lap ■ . • ■ r t a omba have been tints frozen, y tw< < iknesaea of nowopa-pej;

upon a level and out-of-the-way place on tho floor of any building, setting a hive of these combs thereon; and after covering the hive with two thicknesses of paper, put another hive of combs covered with paper on that, and so continue tho operation until tho pile is of tho desired hoight.when tho top hive should bo protected with paper and a close-fitting cover. As these combs are packed close together and so tightly enclosed, they must be reasonably dry, and put away only in a dry place. It is important, also, that they bo not allowed to stay in any place after the zero freezing (and warm weather comes on before they aro packed) where tho millers have an opportunity to deposit their eggs on them. As all of our older beekeepers know, the female moth or miller which produces the eggs from which tho larvae hatch is furnished with a long ovipositor, which she can insert into almost any crack or small opening—something which she can very easily lind between almost any two hives which have been used for a little when one is set upon another. I would not say that these two thicknesses of paper close every crack or cranny, but for some reason the miller seems to shun them.

Whether tho paper is repulsive, or bocauso the paper extending outward from tho hives all around 2in _or so does not allow her to take a position to uso her ovipositor, then paper seems proof against her eggs. Tarred roofing paper might bo a certain insurance that, should there bo no warping, or from any other unforeseen cause, worms should get in any one hive, they would bo impeded from. spreading to other hives in either direction.