THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3335, 13 February 1918, Page 7

THE APIARY.

By J. A. A BEEKEEPER'S DIARY-SEASON 1917-1918. January 31 and February I.—Our extractor is going every day now, and uii >vo have to record "is just the same sticky job. We have got to that stage in tno season when a severe change in_ the weather might close it at any time. Still. there is a great wealth of bloom. Clover has not gone off much yet, and tho autumn flowers, such as capeweed ragwort, and thistles, are luxuriaut, while the weather is all that, one could desire for at least two or three days per week; The season has been .very patchy; there has been no steady flow that coujcJ be called the main flow, as in other years. February 2 and 3.—Spent the week-end at Linwood, Roslyn Bush, Saturday and Sunday; were very warm days, and we found, on coming Homo on Monday morning, that tho bees had added to their store 171 b for tho two day*. We nope next season to start a 100-colony apiary at Roslyn Bush. There eeems to be an unlimited supply of clover in .that locality, and if we are able to carry out the intention we hope to use our long experience to have at least an up-to-date apiary. There is o ne lCar « however —.that the call of the orchard at Tasman may make it inadvisable. ■ _ February 4,5, 6.—Back to work on Monday morning, and, for a beginning, stripped 11 colonies, that had been passed in the first round, because there was some brood where no brood ought to be. These 11 colonics save about 9001 b of honey. Wo are now ready to start on tho second round, and, from the look of the supers, anticipate a fair return. To-day has been the warmest of .the season, and though rain has come this afternoon, still the bees are out in clusters all over the apiary. Since we last wroto the scale hive has put ■ on 241 b, and now stands a't a net increase of ' 1381 b. At timer of writmg we - are hopeful of a good autumn flow, but would strongly advise beekeepers in Southland to clean up their supers as quickly as possible, as otherwise, if they are in reach of ragwort, they will, if weather conditions sui'D gathering, find the combs taking on a yellow tinge, and that an inferior honey, in flavour, is to some extent spoiling what is on the hives. When this is coming in it is time to be lively, otherwise a fine crop of good white clover honey may be damaged. There is another ambercoloured honey coming in just now from .dandelion or' capeweed. This is much better in flavour than tho ragwort, lhietle honey, on the other ' hand, is* water-white, and, when granulated, has a very line grain. This plant is now at its best, and is yielding freely. WANTED, A CAPPING-MELTER. Can no one give us a good cappingmelter. I thought when w : e got the flames melter that we had just the thing; but mine is seldom used, it is so dead slow and to apply more heat we run the nek of melting down the man who is uncapping. At last conference Mr Nelson, of Martihborough, sang the praises of a new melter that was to be on the market this season. However, it did not get there, much to tho writer's disappointment, X notice that' our North Island friends are interested in what is known as the Bartlet Miller uncapper. I have seen some .engravings of this, and it seems to haVe some good points; but I have got very shy about buying my pigs in -a poke. 1 want to see it working first. It seems to me that there is a really good opening here for the inventive genius of some of our beekeepers, and that the first man who comes along with a suitable machine will confer a great'benefit on our industry. Mr Benton's machine was 'to be capable of melting down honey, in the comb by the ton, the idea being a circulation of Bteam through a copper coil. Mr Nelson, who has tried it, was loud in its praises; but there the matter has ended. . Now please, somebody, get to work and give us a really good capping melter before next season. USING A CAPPING-MELTER IN THE WINTER. To all who are engaged ill the production of extracted honey at all extensively the question of how best to dispose of tho cappings is quite an important one. A number of capping-melters are on the market, and some beekeepers use these melters continuously while the extracting is being done, mixing the honey from the melter along with the general crop taken from tho extractor. While a few report satisfactory results from this system, many others, after trying the method, have discarded it as unsatisfactory. Personally I have yet to see the melter that will turn out honey without having a slightly cooked flavour, and I believe about all the different makes have come under my notice. In using one of these melters a few years ago in our own apiaries we found ■these unfavourable conditions in connection with their use at the time of extract-'ing—'-i.e., when cappings were melted as fast as taken off the combs, and the resultant honey poured right in with the rest from tho extractor, tho honey was off in flavour and colour, no matter how rapidly it was cleared from the machine; if strained, waxy particles in the hot honev would clog up our strainer clothe; if poured in tanks without, straining, then waxy particles would bo found all over the inside of the tank; and even when strained we found, after putting the honey in pails, that minute dark specks came to the top. Then, again, our honey-houses at some of the out-apiaries are none too large; and with the heat generatel by the stove under the melter it is really too hot to work in comfort on very warm days—the kind of days in which extracting is most easily done. After using tho melter for taking care of cappings from about 40,CKX)lb of honey ono season, we unanimously voted it not a. success, and since then we have been draining our cappings ns best we could, and then storing them in barrels till winter, disposing ,of_ them at our leisuro during- the slack time, Somo ycar3 ago we used to wash the cappings out and uso the sweet water for making vinegar; but we soon came te the conclusion that there was no money in tha game, as new barrels have to bo used with each batch of vinegar, and, moreover, honey vinegar costs too much. _ Since then wo have been running the cappings through the capping-nielter, and, as a rule, the honey obtained has been kept and used for Hpring feeding whenever necessary. Of course, tho honey before being used has always been diluted with water and boiled. One of tho objections to using the melter

in this way is that it is always a sticky and mussy job to remove the wax from tho honey, for, as all will understand, tho wax and honey run out together in one receotaclc. During the past week or two we have been using with much satisfaction a little invention brought out by Mr Armstrong, of Selkirk, Ont., which docs away with a lot of the bother in separating the honey from the wax. and the honey thus obtained is surprisingly free from any foreign matter. . . This invention is very simple. It is a double boiler made of galvanised iron, and of the following dimensions:—Height, lOJin; diameter, outside measure, lO^m; water-jacket, outside and bottom, gin. Tho bottoms of tho two outlets which pass through the water-jacket are each from top of the separator. These outlets are gin in diameter, and have a projection of 2jin. A sheet of galvanised iron is soldered to tho inside of the separator, and runs to within jjrin of the bottom. The centre of 'this sheet is just 2in from the side of the separator, and opposite the spout. The small spout at the top is for pouring in hot water when starting operations. A funnel-shaped top would bo quite an improvement. After filling 'the separator with hot water tho wax and honey will start to run from tho melter. In a warm room it will require no more heating all day if tho" melter is going steadily. Wax and honey are together in the wide apartment in 'the separator ; but the honey, being tho heavier, enters under the space at the bottom, while the wax stays in the large compartment. As the separator fills up, the wax runs from one side and honey from the other. The honey comes out so clear that it will surprise you; and the first 101 b or 121 bof wax will bo fit for market. After that, an accumulation of slumgum will unfit tho wax for market. With a wirecloth dipper to take out the elumgum, one might have most of the wax fit for market;" but in our case we did not try this, but remelted most of the wax and ran it through the press after all ' the cappings were molted. We ran five large barrels of cappings 'through this separator last winter, getting 3501 b of wax and over 7001 b of honey, and we are much pleased with the separator idea. At the close of the day's operations we never emptied out the separator, preferring to heat it the next morning before starting, and thus avoid any chance of wax getting over into the honey side of the separator.—J. L. Byer, in Gleanings.