THE BEEKEEPER'S RIGHT TO HIS LOCATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3399, 7 May 1919, Page 7

THE BEEKEEPER'S RIGHT TO HIS LOCATION.

J. D. writes:—"Sir. I am a young man living in my old home. My father is a dairy-farmer, the land being very suitable for that purpose. Of late years 1 have developed a strong liking- for beekeeping, and have succeeded in working up an apiary of over 100 colonies. As the district is a good clover district, I have during late years, while prices have been so high, derived a good income from my bees. This season, however, a neighbouring farmer has leased to another man an acre of what is practically waste land, and it is his intention to locate a large out-apiary there. If this is done his bees will be less than half a mile from mine, and will come between my bees and the best side of their location. Have I any redress?" "The position seems a very hard one, and so far as I know you have no legal redress. There is certainly an unwritten law, but a man who would do as this man proposes would probably not be much affected by it. To get the cold shoulder from other beekeepers would probably add zest to his doing it, and make him the more determined. Probably the best that can be done under such circumstances is to strengthen up your own colonies, adding to their number rather than cutting down, but depending more than anything else on keeping the individual colonies as strong as possible. "This question is largely exercising the beekeepers of the Dominion at the present time, and will likely bo fully discussed at the Beekeepers' Conference next Juno. As we have before said, we cannot see any way to alter it. It is quite possible that these two ariiaries established in the centre of a clover area, and within half a mile of each other may do quite as well as if they were situated on the circumference of the area and were three or four miles apart. Let me state that again. In a valley, say, six miles wido, the hills on

each sido of which provided little or no forage for bees, I should expect 200 colonies ot bees placed in the centre of it to do quite as well as if they were placed 100 colonies on' each side, though in the .letter case they would be six miles apart. Iho question really resolves itself into this: Is the district being over-stocked ? and that is a question very difficult to answer. We have seen tho Edendale Plain when white with clovor giving such a yield of nectar that one's boots got sticky and damp wading through it. Under such circumstances it would be difficult to form any opinion how many bees it would carry. Tho late Mr Alexander, of New York State, keipt all his bees, some 700 to 1000 colonies, all on one side, and still had enormous yields of honey. So far as we know there is not data yet collected that would 6how just what overstocking means. In old countries such as Holland and Belgium before the war the number of hives per square mile would be altogether incredible to a Dominion beekeeper. I have not the figures by me, but 1 remember reading them, and being amazed at the number. When, however, all is said along these lines, it still leaves- unexplained why an outsider who has the choice of so mucn unoccupied country as we have in New Zealand rhould place his apiary right alongside of another one already 3 established and having so good a right to the location. We don't think legislation to prevent this kind of ihing is practicable. We immediately see why if we reverse the position of these two men. Suppose the man who leased the acre of waste land had established the apiary, and had been there first, and the law prevented another coming into the same location, then the family of the dairy-farmer could not on their father's farm start an apiary at all, while tho outsider, whose only claim was priority, could avail himself of all the nectar grown on the farm. We cannot see how any such law could be made_ without glaring injustice to the occupiers of the soil, and it is safe to say that no Government would attempt it. No. Along with others we have in the past thought that something might be done to prevent overlapping, but the more we think the matter out the more convinced we are that legislation is powerless in the matter, and the beekeeper can only depend on the advantage he possesses in being first on the ground and in the strengthening of his colonies. In lean years, such as the last was in Southland, it will be a hardship, but in our better years probably it will make little difference.