THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3400, 14 May 1919, Page 9

THE APIARY.

By J. A.

AMERICAN MARKETS,

. March Gleanings speaks of the honeymarket throughout the States as being very quiet, with very little demand at the high prices at which ho>iey is still quoted. It says, "The r-ituation is practically as described by a well-known New York honey buyer a lew days ago when asked about the honey market, his reply being, 'There isji't any honey market at present.' " The quotations from the different States show that salesmen are still quoting high prices, averaging from 9d to Is per lb; but Gleanings says they are not moving their stocks at these prices. The paper goes on to say, "The hope in the situation is that there will soon come a readjustment of prices that will move honey stocks now on hand, and yet not reduce: honey below a figure at which honey can be purchased in the future at a good profit price to the honey producer. What that price will be must wait on the opening of the new honey season of 1919, and the trend of prices throughout the whole food list during the next several month." American honey prices assume a new interest for us -when we remember that they will have a large influence on the world's markets, and that the position we now occupy in this Dominion is that our prices will be owing to the working out of our co-operative H.P.A., largely governed by the world's market prices. It is iiot now difficult to realise that the American honey crop, be it light or heavy, will to a considerable extent influence the ruling price for us here. America has the advantage over us in that she has only a short distance to ship, and far more regular shipping services. Her immense and rapidly-increasing population, however, make it not improbable that she will socn be her own best customer, and that her shipping of honey will cease very largely when honey drops to normal prices. BIG HIVES. A good deal has been written of late about big hives. Quite a number of New Zealand beekeepers are now giving preference to 12-franc hives using the Langstroth frame, and some have adopted 13-frame hives. This latter gives an exactly square hive body, just as broad as it is long, and so would enable the user to put his super combs across or in the same direction, as the brood combs underneath. Wo- are not aware that such would bo of any larg"e benefit or any benefit at all for that matter, but sometimes we like to do things dif ferently just for variety. Now comes another idea, of which Mr Hewitt, a States beekeeper is the promulgator. It is to use a 13-frame hive body as a broodnest and to put on eight frame supers. This leaves five frames of the_ broodnest uncovered by the super, and this is covered by a piece of Bin x lip board._ The claim is that this rather hive fulfils the need for a larger broodnest, and at the same time saves a lot of work lifting off supers to examine the broodnest, as it can be at least partially done by lifting out these five exposed frames. Another claim is that, by making a back entrance and using a close division board, this five-frame portion of the broodnest can *at times be used as a queen-rearing nucleus hive, and, with done with, the bees can bo returned to the parent colony by simply lifting out the division board. This is almost an exact copy of u, hive brought out by a North Island beekeeper, Mr Watt. Mr Watt's hive, however, was a double one, and the supers used were 10-frame. The side extensions (one on each side) were recommended as a means of raising young queens. Mr Watt's hive had this advantago over that nroposod and used by Mr Hewitt, that he had metal gutters to prevent leakage from rain. For this Mr Hewitt depends on bee glue applied by the bees themselves, and we are not at all sure that in Southland, at all events, the bees would make a sufficiently good job to keep out a driving rain. With us Mr Watt's hive was never a success, and we are not very muoh disposed to favour Mr Hewitt's either.