THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 11

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

NOTES FOR BEGINNERS; No. 5. My subject for this week is “Getting a Start.” There is no question that I am asked more often by would-be beekeepers than just this: “How can 1 get a start?”

Before going into the various ways in which a start may be made, I would like to accentuate the point that it is not wise to start too ambitiously. If the beginner has to depend on text-books and can gain his experience only as he goes, then it is better to have from one to five colonies only. I started in 1884—just 4£ years ago—with one colony in a gin case. It was strong, and gave two swarms, so I purchased three Langstroth hives—one each for the swarms and one for the old colony. My ignorance practically ruined the swarms % It was a very busy time on the farm, and the swarms were left in ordinary boxes until time was available for shifting them into the Langstroth hives. That was in about three weeks, the three best w’ceks in a swarm’s life being lost, because I could only transfer the bees; a 1 the combs and brood, being too tender, 50 per cent, of the bees were dead and gone, and I had only a miserable remnant to transfer. The following year the apiary was increased to 15 colonies, and the next to 50 colonies. Blundering in an apiary is quite easy if the beekeeper has only a text-book knowledge. A great many of the terms used and the work described are not understood until the beekeeper has practical experience. The first thing to be done is to buy the required number of old colonies. These can generally be found in most districts. There is a prejudice against anything old, but it is well to remember that a colony of bees never grows old. The population changes about every six weeks in summer time. The queen will live through three or lour seasons, but as soon as she gives evidence of failing another is reared to take her place. Therefore the age of the bees need not concern the purchaser. Two things, however, are requisite. One is that the colony has ample stores of sealed honey, which should be heavy. The other is that it should be clean. A diseased colony is dear at any price, no matter how slightly infected. If it has foulbrood don’t touch it. If two old colonies are bought at, say, £2 10s to £3 each, heavy in stores and clean, they will provide a good start, and the beginner will b- at once faced with the necessity of providing and furnishing two more hives, so as to be ready for the swarming season.

Another method of starting is to go to a queen-breeder and buy three or four frame nuclei, with young queens in each. These should be bought in November or December, and will require to be fed. It will take all season to build them up into strong colonies, so that there will be no swarming. They should cost about 15s each, and it good and strong and fed steadily until the main flow is on, should be able to give a good deal of surplus. There is not likely to be any question of disease in these nuclei, as queenbreeders’ apiaries must be above suspicion. Pure Italian queens should be insisted on. The bees should be changed to single-storey hives and closed up with division boards, combs being given as fast as the bees can take possession of them. A frame feeder should be hung inside of the division board, and feed given regularly. A cupful of syrup made with two parts of sugar by measure to one of water will make good feeding. In this work a great deal depends on regularity of feeding, and if tlie weather is cold it would be well to heat the syrup. Unless the queen is kept busy and the brood-nest extended steadily without break, the population will come too late for the honey flow. Still another method of starting is to buy sw'arms. I know of no regular trade in these. Still, they may be procurable. In this district most of the orchardists have a hive or two which came to them as runaway swarms. If this method is adopted, the swarms should be procured about the last week of November or up to the middle of December. A good swarm should contain about 61b to 81b of bees with a laying queen. If the bees are obtained in broken weather feeding will be required. There is a danger, if the swarms are procured from an apiary where disease exists, that they will take the infection with them. Bees always load up with honey in swarming, and it is in the honey that the spores of the disease find protection: consequently, if this honey is stored in a new home, it will certainly when fed to young bees develop into foul-brood. 1 have seen this result so often that I accept it as absolutely proven. In the United States a system of selling bees per lb has been adopted for a good many years. The beekeepers of the warmer Southern States can raise the bees so much earlier than is possible in the north that they have found it profitable to raise bees for the north. Were this system started in New Zealand, it seems to me that it would be a good plan to produce bees in Auckland for sale in the south, and that beginners would find it an excellent way of getting a start. The bees arc sold in little package boxes in lib and 21b lots, and are forwarded by post. A good deal of trouble has been taken to work out a suitable package, but they are now sold by the factories.

The information that a new style of signal is to be placed at the railway crossing at Tumai draws attention to the fact that this is not by any moans the only dangerous crossing in the vicinity (says our Palniertson correspondent). The next one to the south—Toomoy’s Crossing—though not on the main road, is a bad one. while the first one south of Scacliff and the second one south of Warrington are dangerous in the extreme. Indeed, it seems nothing short of miraoulous that these crossings have not already added their quota to the almost daily increasing list of level crossing fatalilies.