THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3314, 19 September 1917, Page 6

THE APIARY.

By J. A.

BEES IN THE ORCHARD. During- the week an orchardist approached the writer to transfer some bees into now hives. The bees had been placed in ordinary box hives, and -were not regarded by the orcbardist as of any value tor noneygathering purposes j but, wishing to comply with the law, ho wanted them put into frame hives. In other words, this orchardist was willing to go to tne expense of keeping a few colonies of bees solely for fertilisation purposes. He wished to have the bees, not to supply honey, but to supply apples. The honey produced in the district is of inferior quality, and he had no time for it. We notice that this feeling of keeping bees for fertilisation purposes is very general all through the district, and wo venture to say that it will become even more so as the value of the work done by the bees is recognised. Mr E. R. Root tells the story of th<j brothers Repp ; who, as fruit-growers, had an orchard of 800 acres growing an immense quantity of apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and grapes; and who had their own cool stores sufficient to store 120,000 cases, and so perfect in appointment that they were able to hold some varieties for three years and then put them on the market in perfect condition. This is what one of these brothers has to say about bees in the orchard: —“So indispensable are beea to the growing of fruit in this country (New Jersey) that our fruit-growers have & me to the conclusion that they can afford to pay local beemen the rate of £1 per colony to have the bees in the orchards during the time the trees are in bloom and then take them away again.” The measure of what store we get by a thing is the price we are willing to pay for it, and, judged by that standard, these New Jersey orchardists do place a high value on the bees’ work in assisting the fruit-grower. To pay £1 per colony for the privilege of having them in the orchard for three weeks or a month is surely the best possible testimony to their value. If it pays to do thisJ and the testimony of these men is righJ then just here there is a big proposition for our orchardists in this district (Tasman* where the whole land is being brought into orchards, and where but little flora will be available at other times of the year to keep the bees going. • At one time the whole of the Moutere Hills was covered with manuka, and as it bloomed in succession for a long period in the summer it provided quite a store of nectar for the bees. Under those conditions wild colonics .were very plentiful; now, however, manuka is giving place rapidly to the apple and pear, and the soil around them is kept in, constant cultivation, so that in all such land the three or four weeks of fruit bloom, will measure the whole length of the hone-J season, and will fall far short of what ifl would be under natural conditions. It may<| and probably will, be the case that fqr many years considerable patches of the manuka —especially on steep land, where orcharding would be unprofitable—will remain, and will help to maintain a sufficient number of colonies. There is another probable source of honey in the future. Already there is a pine company at work planting waste areas with a view to growing timber for future box requirements, and it may bo that some varieties of timber so planted will be nectar-producers. At present the Pinus insignis is first favourite, and, beyond supplying pollen, I do not think that it is of any'value to the bees. Gums would be much better, and they do very well; not only so, , but they bloom very early, coming in before fruit bloom. At the present time bees are working strongly on gums, and though (September 7) some of the stone fruits are in bloom and some pears are j«t opening, still the bulk of the pip fruits will be three weeks yet in coming out. I have never been a strong advocate of growing nectar plants for the bees; but I believe that m a <hstrict such as this is it would be well for our orchardists to do all they can to support boo life by planting suitable flora.

BEEKEEPING AS A SIDE LINE.

(Grace Allen.) "Beekeeping as a eide line is a curse to the industry' —page 26*, April Gleanings. Yes that is really what it says. I read it several times to make sure. I do hope Mr Bales smiled as he wrote it. I didnt emile a bit when I first read it, nor while I wrote a long and spirited reply. But when my bump of humour woke up (bumps do go to sleep occasionally, you know} I tossed the "retort courteous" into the fire, and smiled across to Mr Bales, clear from Tennessee to California! : Now if ignorance had been labelled the curse to the industry, there would have been a comnlete unanimity of opinion, for all reading bcefolk, mainliners and sideliners alike, would agree heartily. . Of course, we sideliners all admit frankly that there is a great deal of ignorance and unprogrcssiveness among the non-professionals. Why, haven't we ourselves a neighbour who recently boasted to his neighbours, "I tell you what—beekeeping is the thing! -Now, I've got iust two hives—well, I've really f ot three; but one didn't do no good—'n. I didn't, do a single thing to 'em last year, 'n I got ten full pounds of honey"? But shall the efficiency of all sideliners be iudged by that of our neighbour? Seriously, it is true that in the ranks of the non-professional is a high degree of intelligence and skill and success. "We have the honour of including men of educar tion and intelligence among our number—■ college nicn and ministers, lawyers and doctors and editors, and men of trained business gra;-n. And some women! And many a man has reached the mainline only by first following patiently, and perhaps etumblingly, the humble tracks of the eide lino Some beekeepers may have been born professionals, as it were, because their fathers were that before them; but surely most of them—l soma great and famous names —have achieved _ their present dignified and substantial positions by thd old and honoured route of beekeeping as a side line. In this department wo want to record,

one after another, the successes of nonEofessional beekeepers, and shall bo glad have a generous supply of thaee interest g stories. But wo aro also going to look at tho other side of the shield, and admit sho failures and mistakes and countless problems,. In 1914 Mr N. Person, of San Francisco, caught a swarm of bees, and then bought four colonies from a neighbour for sdol—three in old hives, one in a box. He fed them to bring them through tho ■winter. They all died, except the one in the box. This one he transferred late in February, smoking and handling "accordtag to the books." "The contents, probably a handful," writes Mr Person, ."left through a crack; but tho queen came back in about 15 minutes and settled on my hand. I put her on the frames I had fixed up, and the poor fellows tried to start housekeeping again. I realised \ ought to help them, so I gave a frame of bees and brood from tay other colony, which was very strong." Most of this brood died from chilling, so ho gave another frame, and tho next day found the queen outside, dead. Later he bought a queen and started a nucleus. This queen cast three swarms, all of which wintered successfully and stored _ surplus next season. One swarm was hived on drawn combs and "put on a stand a couple Of hundred feet from the mother hive. In about 45 minutes they were going in a Steady stream back and forth to the old hive, robbing, and carrying away everything." By 1916 he had 10 colonies. He got, a good honey crop and left "each hive with plenty of stores. Early in February of this year they started breeding "to beat the band." But then came storms and cold weather, queens stopped laying, and brood was thrown out. Not till April did laying begin again; and by that time three queens had died, one had swarmed, entered the Wrong hive, and been killed, and most of the old bees were dead. So now "I am buying bees to build them up again," ,-he writes, "and all this with plenty of sealed and unsealed stores."

Now, that is a chapiter of accidents and mishaps; but he will win out yet. In our own yard this spring I had to kill a queen because not one of her eggs hatched into larva. We bought her last year in late August, and, after finding her laying early m September, I had left her alone <except to see that there were enough stores, and 80 had not discovered this unexpected nogoodness. The first examination this spring made mo realise she was backward, as there were eggs only, in only one comb. The second examination, about two weeks later, still showed only eggs, though by that time jn three combs—not a larva in the hive Of course, that sealed her fate, and I killed jaer.— Gleanings.