THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3327, 19 December 1917, Page 9

THE APIARY.

By J. A.

A BEEKEEPERS' DIARY-SEASON 1917-1918. December 6. —Continued, and finished, work of renewing brood-nests. This work has been slow owing to want of preparation entailed by my absence from the district and apiary. It has, however, been effectual in stopping swarming, and that is a. considerable relief. Owing to the heavy breeding induced by the warm weatner and bush flow of nectar, the relief will only be temporary, and tho work will require "to be repeated, I think, before Christmas; but that depends on weather condition- 1 ?. All the combs that were used in wintering the bees aro now in tho top super; and the next move, in about 10 days, will bo to gather these and make new colonies by putting four of them together on a new stand. The field bees will all fly back to their own colonies, but enough will remain to hatch out the already settled brood. Conditions aro improving in the nectar fields, but are still not good enough to prevent a disposition towards robbing. December 7. —To-day tho weather threatened for rain, which did not come. It would bo much appreciated by the farmers. In tho honey-house were still some of last year's cappings, and a quantity of combs condemned to the melting pot. So early in the day we got our fire on, the waxprcss ready, and pu'6 these through. It is not nico work, and close proximity to the fire does not make it more so. Wax is- not a source of profit to the apiarist—usually he requires to exchange it for ready-made •foundation. It is, however, at the present time so expensive that care has ter be taken to preserve every ounce. Our method of procedure in rendering combs is to grasp the combs (two in each hand) by the end, and dip them into the boiler of boiling water, first one end and then "the other. This leaves the frames fairly well cleaned of wax. Afterwards they get a second run through to clean them for refilling with foundation. After 12 combs have been so rendered, the wax is dipped off the surface of the, boiling water into the wax press, and by pressure from a screw the wax is taken fairly clean. The slum gum is, when dry, used for firing. In this work speed depends on good stoking. The wax, as it comes from the press, is dipped into empty- petrol tins to cool, and as it contracts when solidified it is turned out of tho tins in blocks. December 8. —Received notice from Mr Gardiner, secretary of 'the Southland Beekeepers' Association, of a meeting of Southland beekeepers to meet Mr Gilling, of. the H.P.A., and to discuss co-operative selling of the honey crop. To-day's work was again in the honey-house. The blocks of wax turned out yesterday weighed 1281 b. This properly belong* to last season, part of it being from last season's cappings. One hundred and seventy pounds was taken at the end of the season, so that the total output of wax for last season was 2SBlb. To-day we were scalding old frames, preparatory to wiring and refilling with foundation. December 9 and *lO.—A cold easterly - wind with slight showers of rain is the 'prevailing weather. The bees are entirely shut in from the fields. All outside work in tho apiary has to cease for the .present until more suitable conditions prevail. The beekeeper, however, has always work waiting in the season, and more especially the beekeeper who goes fruit-cultivating in. the off season; so our work to-day was wiring frames. It was pleasant because it meant being inside out of the storm. We put in three, sometimes four, horizontal wires; this year we are putting in only three. The No. 20 tinned wire that is generally used for this purpose seems to be scarce, as something very much thicker has been sent us by the supply man. It is so much thicker that we were glad to be able to find some remnants of the old stuff and to lis© them. We will probably use up the thick wire before the season is done; but we don't want any more of it. BEGINNERS' LESSONS. By H. H. Root, in Gleanings. Possibly some who expect to be begmncrs in beekeeping may wonder why I do not devote one lesson at least 'to the question of selling. This I do not consider necessary, for every beginner worthy of the name is enthusiastic. He bees, thinks bees, .and —talks bees. It is this contagious enthusiasm that sells honey, and evpry beginner, without really being conscious of it. is really creating a market that will take more honey than he can produce for several years. Tho least of his worries is . getting rid of his crop ; what concerns him the most is in producing enough _ honey to supply the demand right at his own door. There arc, however, a few "dont's" that should be observed by every amateur honey salesman. Don't sell your honey for less than the market price. Give it away to your friends if you want to, but don't hurt some other fellow's business by selling honey to anyone for less than it is worth.

Don't sell to a grocer and then turn around and retail from house to house to the grocer's own customers, or at less than the grocer's pi'ice. Don't peddle honey in a town without first finding out whether you can do so without a license.

Don't spend sdol in advertising when yon have only 1001 b of honey to sell. Don't sell honey that has a scum on the top. You may know that the scum is undo up of bubbles of air, but it looks bad.

Don't sh ; p your honey away if you can sell it locally at a much better mice.

Don't sell honey locally if you can ehip it at a much better price. Supplying Winter Stores.—

Most of the experienced and successful beekeepers unite in saying that supplying an abundance of good stores is by far" the most important requisite for successful wintering. In a few localities that have no fall honey flow to keep up brood-rear-ing, feeding must be dono in September to ensure a good strong force of vigorous young hers before the cold weather comes on. A bushel of old worn-out bees would not come out a strong colony in the spring, no matter how favourable other conditions might be.

Early in October every colony should be looked over carefully to make sure there are enough stores. Paying no more attention to a colony after the first of September is rarely safe. Thirty-five to forty pounds of honey in the combs for strong colonies is none too much. _ Several years ago I was making an experiment in feeding back extracted honey to get some un-

unshed sections filled out and' completed. Eight different colonics scattered about in one of our outvards were fed every clay all tho thinned honey that they would store. They finished up considerable comb honey, and, of course, stored their brood-combs solid. The next spring our apiarist reported that there were eome half-dozen colonies that had gone away ahead of any of the others in tho yard, and he suggested that it must be duo to the queens. It turned out that these extra strong colonics wore tho ones that had been fed so lavishlv the fall before. There have been scores of patents issued to beekeepers for various complicated feeders; in fact, several thousand dollars have been wasted in obtaining patents along this line. In the March 1 issue of Gleanings for 1915 J. L. Byer described on page 194 his plan of feeding, making use of 51b or 101 b friction-top pails, the lids being punched full of holes. I do not know whether the idea originated with Mr Byer, but certain it is that this -simple, inexpensive method of winter stores has become verv popular. The lids are mmched full of l-16in holes, or finer, from the inside, so that the inner surface of the lid is smooth. These cans when filled with thick syrup (at least two parts of sugar to ono of water) are turned upside .down either directly over the top-bars of the brood-frames or over the hole in the escape-board or inner cover. If the lid fits tightly the syrup cannot run out except as the bees take it; and be sure tho lid does fit tightly. t The pails themselves cost nothing, as they may be used later for shipping honey, the lids only being kept over from year to year. These extra lids are inexpensive, and take but a very small amount of room when they are stored away. Friction-top pails are being used more and more for honey. They are easy to fill, easy to handle, and the consumer, after he empties tho honey-out, has a pail that he can use. Best of all, no extra equipment is necessary for feeding. Many beekeepers succeed in producing honey in paying quantities and then fail because they spend, too much in useless equipment. The syrup mav be mixed at home and carried to the yard right in the pail used for feeding, or, if water is handy m tho yard, the emptv nails and the dry sugar may be taken and mixed right at the yard in an ordinarv extractor. It is beyond the province of these lessons to discuss the comparative merits of suprar syrup and honey for winter stores. Because of the salts of iron, magnesia, etc., contained in honey there is no question but that honev is tho best food for bees as well as for human beings. Furthermore, in most instances it is foolish to extract honey nicely sealed in the combs and then be obliged to feed syrup to take its place, for the difference in price of the two hardly compensates for tho extra labour. Nevertheless we must not forget that many successful beekeepers feed syrup year after year and with the very best of results.