THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 7

THE APIARY.

By J. A. A BEEKEEPER'S DIARY—SEASON 1917-1918. January 23-25.—The weather has not been ideal for boo work during these three days, the scale hive increase showing an average of 21b per day. One or two swarms issued, but were put together. Our work was inside, extracting, Oho working of which we described last week. Our vat holds 8401 b, and a run of four hours easily fills it; but as there are boxes to make and fill the time is fully occupied. January 26, 27. —Saturday and Sunday were both ideal days in the apiary, the scale hive showing 131 b and 14lb respectively for the two days. This is the best effort for .this season. On Saturday we finished up the first round of the apiary extracting. The yield was 87 641 b boxes. There are a few supers still to extract and about a dozen stacks of old brood combs to- shake and extract also. We are having great satisfaction with our 641 b box. -It is easily handled, is easily made honey-proof, and is, in our estimation, a great improvement on the 1121 b boxes we have used hitherto. We hope to show one of these boxes with honey granulated and one containing pate under the H.P.A. brand at the winter conference, and to invite a discussion as. to merits and demerits as a package. Further, we hope to submit the case of granulated honey to the graders to be graded at the conference, and to have 'their report on it. January 28-30.—Extracting first round at the Mataura Island Apiary. This little apiary of about 30 colonies is in an ideal location. It is within easy reach of native bush for spring feed, and is in as good a clover patch as can be found anywhere. Unfortunately, it has had its ups and downs, mostly caused by floods. On two occasions of late years the Mataura water ha 3 been into the hives. One of these was during, last winter, when several hives were 'washed away, and the flood water was several inches into a good many others. The colonies were weak in the spring, but have made a good recovery. In this apiary the quality of the honey is particularly good, being in the summer Sow almost pure clover honey. The yield from the first round would give an average of about 601 b. Broken weather has again prevailed during the last three days, and prospects at 'tho moment of writing are not very good, No honey has come in since Sunday. TAKING OFF HONEY. inow is the .time that tho beekeeper requires to have his wits about him in tho taking off of honey. Just as soon as the clover flow is checked we may expect tho bees 'to become troublesome, and if wo are wise we will endeavour to work in such a way as to keep them as quiet as possible. In flow-time we can put back wet combs any time, .and not cause much disturbance, but as soon as robbing starts it is best to give them these only late in the evening, so they will get them dried off in the night, and be normal again in the morning. One of the best friends a beekeeper oan have at this season is a bottle of Calvert's carbolic. Make a fairly strong solution of this with water and then dip a square of sacking that will easily cover a" 10-frame super into it. Each super of honey as soon as the boos. are shaken off should bo covered with one of these squares until it is taken into the honey-house. By doing this the bees are kept from tasting the combs, and if that is done they are easily amenable to discipline; but once let them get visiting exposed honey and in a very short time trouble will"."be suit. It ie a good plan to have empty supers for carriers to tho honey-house", and to leave the super just emptied on the hive until the evening, and then to put back tho empties just at sundown. If the beekeeper wants comfort in his manipulations his great effort should bo to keep the bees from getting at tho honey ho is handling. Carelessness in this matter may be reckoned as being always costly. Usually in handling bees the advice is given by experts to first blow smoke into the entrance, and there are cases in which this is absolutely necessary. Our advice, however, is to do' as little of this as possible. If you aro being followed np by robber bees, and you disorganise the hive on which yott aro "working with smoke, you make it an easy prey to tho robbers, who get going before the bees recover their normal, and may give lots of trouble. Use the smoke to drive down tho bees in tho super sufficiently for you to shako the combs, but no more, and unless the bees bubble out in front don't touch the entrance. Then don't take moro than sufficient time to get off the honey. Do tho work quickly, and cover up, jinking the robbers with al] your skill. If care is taken and 'the carbolio squares are used a good deal of work may be done without causing much stir amongst tho bees. A good deal of time is sometimes lost trying to got the bees too clean oft" the combs. Wo give only ono or two sharp shakes and when the super is filled put it into the honey-house. Tho bees will leave the combs and go to tho windows, when .they can be let out. This is better than too much brushing.