THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 9

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

THE “ NATIONAL ” CONFERENCE. We are now getting so near to the date of this annual gathering that we must keep reminding beekeepers of the fact. This year it is to be held in Dunedin. We are sorry not to have received the exact date,

but it will be near to Carnival week, when nearly everybody will be in town. The H.P.A. meeting- will also be held about the same time. That is the adojnrned annual meeting, and as interesting developments in the purchase of the Alliance Box Company's factory and the formation of a honeypacking depot for the South Island have taken place in Dunedin, no doubt the director of the H.P.A.. will have something interesting both to say and to show. We hope that the beekeepers of the south will be alive to their opportunity. A correspondent writes: “I have one colony of bees. The super has been oh all the season without a queen excluder, with the result that the super has been also utilised as a brood nest. I want the super to consist of clean white comb, so that I can take out a comb and use it as honey in the comb. We like it better that wav. But as at present, constituted we cannot do that. I have examined the hive, and find there are about 301 b stores. Now, sir, I want your advice as to what I am to do at the beginning of next season so as to get, that super full of white comb honey without any brood. The queen has been laying in both chambers. They are black bees. I have been advised "to Italianise with an Untested queen. So please tell me what is the best thing to do. I did not have a swarm this year, perhaps due to the room they had. Kindly reply through your much appreciated column.”—“Novice.” An excluder would have done the trick for you. but. would it not be better to go in for sections. In raising section honey no excluders are required. Possibly a section or two may he damaged by the queen laying up for drones, especially if she has very little drone comb belowx That certainly is the best jvay to get comb honey for the table. I. so wide frames made specially for sections, and fill them with x -bisections. Eight of these will fill the frame, and seven of these frames will fill the 10frame super, giving 56 sections to the super. The reason that the queen dees not go up into these sections is that they are spaced too. wide for brood-rearing, and have a tin division between the frames. The next best arrangement for comb honey is the half-depth super with half-sized frames. In the use of these, how r ever, the excluder would be required, but a much lighter filling of foundation comb could be used. When you u?e brood foundation in producing honey in the comb you have in it a thick rib of wax that is objectionable. With tlie narrow frames a starter, say, half-depth, of section foundation would do, with the result that the mid-rib of wax would not be noticeable. Comb that lias once contained brood is spoiled for table use.. The cocoons of the young bees adhere to the cells, giving the comb its dark colour, so that it cannot be used for that purpose. The position, then, is that if you are going to use frames either half or full depth you must have an excluder; with sections you can do without the excluder. We regard the sections as by far the most satisfactory You are probably right in thinking that ample room prevented your colon/ from swarming; it certainly is a great help in that direction. That, again, may form your principal difficulty in raising sections; to do it well the hees. require to be squeezed a bit for room. If they have ample room without the sections they will do only poor work, and you may find yourself at the end of the season with a lot of unfinished sections. It is not an uncommon thing for a. good swarm that will fill a brood-nest to overflowing to have a super of 56 sections completed in four weeks, more especially in the month of January. The advice to Italianise is good. You will get much more pleasure in the handling of your bees, as they are of a much quieter disposition; at the same time they are better at defending their hives against robbers.