THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3756, 9 March 1926, Page 11

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

THE SEASON. The last vecoid for the season' having been made, we can look back oyer it and try to take in its lesson. Amidst absolute plenty, it has failed. With clover more than usually abundant, and both sappy and vigorous, not hall a crop ias resulted. Why? Continuous cloudy and showery weather and want of sunshine arc certainly responsible for what otherwise might have been a really good season. We naturally ask ourselves the question, could we have got better results |,y any change in our management? Last veek we pointed out. that in probably nearly every apiary the fact that some hives succeeded, as it were, in stealing a crop between showers, was proof that this could be done. If one hive could do it, then why not all? The answer to this question would solve one of the greatest problems m beekeeping. Every beekeeper knows that, apart from tiie variation there may be in the gathering powers of the bees,’colonies in normal condition are dependent more on numbers than anything else. If the hive is full of bees—if instead of, say, 31b or -lib of bees it contains 121 b or 151 b—then we have a proportionally greater field force, and the work both inside and outside the hive is carried on with greater vim. From this statement it might at once be argued that the problem is simple—that all lat is required is to begin early in the spring, and by artificial conditions produced by feeding build up the strength of. the colonies. It is web known amongst beekeepers that the regular feeding of about half a pint daily of tliiu syrup will induce brood-rearing. There are, however, difficulties in the •way. Not a great quantity of bees can be produced on half a pint of thin syrup daily; it is only a stimulant, and causes the quicker use of the stores in the hive, therefore there must be stores to fall back on. Reduced to bedrock, we find, then, that in the abundance of reserve food in the hives in the spring the whole position depends. The question of stimulation depends very largely on the locality and the period reliable for the honey-flow. If stimulation is resorted to and the bees brought to- the ’icak of condition, say, a month before the main flow of nectar, then there will require to be very careful manipulation to maintain that condition without any backward tendency, and the consumption of food will be very large. If, on the other hand, the beekeeper can gauge the time of the main flow' fairly accurately, then lie will feel very safe in bringing the bees to the greatest possible strength at that time. The late Mr Alexander of New York State, was one of the greatest advocates of stimulation. His locality was one in which large quantities buckwheat were grown, ana the consequence was that he could count to within a vo. few days when the buckwheat flow would be on, and could stimulate accordingly. In our dairying districts in the south, where clover is our main rource of hiney supply, there is greater variation in season and in time of yield, and it would certainly be a very dangerous proceeding to stimulate for an

early season unless tuere was a sufficient backing of food reserve in the hive, or awaiting in the honey-house ready for use.

Now we come to the crux of tlie position, and it brings home to us the main lesson of the season, and that is that we should plan to have that food reserve that would bring us safely through the worst season that can come. “Millions of honey in our house” was Doolittle’s motto, and in light of the past season it is a good one. We are tempted in our exti acting to go too close, and to take more Iron) r .he bees than we should do The colonies that stand out in all our apiaries as doing the best work are those which never felt the pin’ and never felt the need to economise, but could go from comb to comb extending their brood-nest and filling up their hives with young bees. The surplus honey we extract may pay us very well, but l venture to say that the surplus we store away to be manufactured into bees for next season’s work will ' . us much better.

Speaking, then, for our own apiary—and beekeepers elsewhere can make their cwn comparison,—we find this: that when the honey-flow ceased at the end of January last year there was a very large autumn consumption of stores, for which we did not make sufficient provision, and in the spring the colonies were too light and had to economise severely; consequently brood-rearing was very slow, and the population of the hives, except in the case of a few colonies, was never nearly as strong as it sl.juld he, and that this was av I 'ravated by the continuous dull and showery weather that prevented the bees from getting out to the field. Profiting by this lesson, we have used our extractor very lightly, taking only about 12c .\’t of honey, and storing a quantity in the lioney-house for spring use. The colonies are all left with a double broodchamber, and as well provided as we could make them. We have heard of a few beekeepers who have done very well, and we are hopeful that, in favoured spots and under conditions such as we have named, there will still be a fair showing in the south. We now bid 19251926 season good-bye, and begin preparations for the next one.