THE APIARY

Otago Witness, Issue 3280, 24 January 1917, Page 9

THE APIARY

By J. A.

A SUMMER IN A SOUTHERN APIARY. A BEEKEEPER'S DIARY. January 10 to 13. —The rush of honey still continues, and, just as last week, there is little or no time for anything else but harvesting—taking off full combs and replacing them by empties from tho extractor, and in turn extracting these. At the moment we have 80 supers of honey awaiting the extractor, piled in tho honeyhouse. As soon as these combs are emptied they will replace others that arc being rapidly filled in the apiary. On Wednesday we had a visit from some Waianiwa friends, readers of Apiary Notes in tho Witness, and deeply interested in bee-culture, and, as a matter of course, with many questions to ask. Intent en making the most of a very short visit, they had their questions tabulated, and produced a notebook containing them. They for a time watched the ordinary work of taking oft' and extracting heney, and then for a quiet time wo sat down round a beautiful Italian colony and examined it frame by frame, noting the queen in passing, and asking and answering questions relative to the inner working of the hive. The pleasure of that little lecture round the hive was mutual, for nothing pleases the writer better than to find others interested in what has been to him an absorbing study. On Friday we paid another visit to the Mataura Island apiary, and took off some very fine honey. The clover in that district is still luxuriant in spite of the dry weather, and will last much longer than at Edendale. or on the ridges, so that this little apiary of 25 colonies will probably give a very good account of itself. Saturday came in with a nor'-west wind and a sickly heat, turning to rain in trie afternoon, and driving -home the boos. Should tho rain continue it will lengthen the eoason and give us a fresh growth of clover. January 14. —The rain did not amount to much, and was immediately followed by a strong nor'-wester, to be immediately followed, however, by further rain. A week of showery weather would keep tho bees in, but it would probably give a better result than continued drought. January 15 and 16. —All outside work has ceased in tho meantime, and showery conditions prevail. Inside the honey-house extracting and packing is tho order of the day. One relief conies in the fact that tho swarming season lias ended. We have had swarms as lato as tho middle of February, and even at that late date able to provide for tho winter. Usually, however, the middle of January ends them, and especially if it comes with a break in the weather. With us the swarming has not caused much difficulty. We have increased about one-third in number, rising from 120 to about 180. This is just about our usual, and it seems to us less trouble than almost any scheme of prevention. In the late autumn they will be doubled back again. We often indulge at the end of tho season in alterations of plans in view of tho next one, and one of these is, instead of doing without excluders altogether in the early part of tho season, giving tho queen free room over two sets of combs to raise the winter brood-nest, and shut tho queen below on tho new set of combs, giving her a start of a comb of brood. This is tho Alexander method in swarming, and wo have found the putting down of the queen cuch a bother that we will probably use this Other plan in preference. Some day, when more space is available, I will minutely describe it for the benefit of younger hands. SCALE HIVE RECORD TO JANUARY 16.

Total for week 3.31 b From the total of 1401 b a further quantity of 83!i.) was extracted during the week. The total amount extracted during the season up to date was 2741 b. THINGS MISLEADING. " I have read what the two Millers have to say regarding the flight of bees—Arthur C. on September 15 and Dr 0. C. on October 15; also what the editor says. It seems to me that all but Dr .Miller put forth a misleading- idea before the average reader. Editor Hoot says 'that they will generally no! go more than a mile in average localities and seasons, we believe, is not far from tho truth.' This, I suppose, means a mile in a straight line in n'l directions from the apiary. Now, with 100 colonies, could Editor Root. Dr Miller, or Arthur C, in an average locality, secure the yielcte per colony reported if the radius of flight was only a mile?" In my memory of the days of Ihe old muzzle-loading rifles I can see the champion shot of Central New York pulling the charge or powder in tho barrel of his sun, then a cloth patch on the end of Ihe barrel where the powder had acne in. and on this patch a ball of lead (100 of which it- rook to weigh lib), moulded in the bullet-mould from a long-handled spoon of molten lead, hraied on the coals in the open fireplace. Thin with a wooden ramrod, made from a split hickory stick, this ball was pushed homo, and a. percussion cap put on the "tube." A chicken had been placed standing on a box 80 rod- away (one-fourth of a mile), and whoever shot the chicken could have it. .Many would shout, but very Few got a chicken. Tho old man would wait riil all tho amateurs had fried and failed, then he would raise the rifle to his shoulder, pull tho trigger, and tho

chicken would drop. Now, for Editor Root to tell us that bees •■ very often do not go much over a quarter of a mile'' for nectar does seem to me, as our questioner savs, somewhat "misleading." A>id with KM colonies set on the place where lhe old man fired from, 1 can hardly conceive of any beekeeper in America, securing an average of 851 b of comb homy, as 1 did for 15 vears in succession. . . Now, for what J. know to bo positive facts, proven by actual observation when tho first Italian bees were brought into this part of the country. The late Jerome Burtis, of Marietta, Now York, a beekeeper of more than ordinary ability in the early seventies, procured the first Italian queen that came into Central New York, receiving her in July. Ho raised some 10 or 12 queens from her the first season, so that he had nine colonies headed with Italian queens the next spring. As I had only blacks at that time, I was very much interested in these Italians. When tho apple trees bloomed 1 watched the bees at work on the bloom, and, much to my surprise, saw several Italian bees at work with the blacks. A count was made, and the first gave three Italians out of a total of 20. Other counts gave from two to six Italians out of 20, with apple trees pink with bloom as far as the eve could see the orchards. Now, Marietta was two and three-quarter miles distant as the crow flies, and apple trees were white with bloom all around tne two and three-quarter mile radius from Marietta, yet Mr Arthur C. Miller and Editor E.' R. Root would have us believe that bees "will generally not go more than a milo in average localities and seasons. That same year, with no Italian bees nearer so far as I knew, I passed through a field of red clover three and a-half miles from Marietta, and, seeing bees at work on the clover, the first count gave three Italian bees out of 10. The fields were red with clover everywhere. Editor Root speaks of moving " the Waterworks yard scarcely a mile in an airline." This was clone in the aster bloom, and "not a one" came back. Now, asters bloom in September here in Central Now York, and bees are comparatively " sluggish" to what they arc during May, June, July, and August; "and with a whole apiary moved I should hardly expect many to come back, especially if everything about their former home was cleaned up so that tho old site had no home-like look. About 1880 I sold during the latter part of Mav a colony of Italian bees to a man living " about one milo and a-half away, and °he carried them away after dark. The next morning at about 8 o'clock I saw boos hovering about whore tho sold colony stood, and, being short of colonies, I put another hive on tho stand, having a frame of honey and one of brood in it. At night I had a good-sized nucleus in that hive, and built it up to a full colony, winch stored me several boxes of romb honey from the buckwheat bloom. A year or two later I sold a colony during tho first days in June, having " a lOdol golden Italian queen in it. This colony was taken two miles away, and enough bees returned the next day to make a small nucleus.—G. M. Doolittle.

January 9 —1' orwai'd .. . 1051b January 10 —Increase of weight 161b . . 1231b January 11 —Increase of weight 81b . . 1311b January 12 —Increase of weight 51b , . 136ib JaJiuary 13—Increase of weight 41b . . 1401b January 14 —Increase of weight — — J annary 15 —Increase of weight — . — January 15 —Increase of weight — , — January 1G —Increase of weight