THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3831, 16 August 1927, Page 11

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

BEGINNING OF A NEW SEASON. August may be said to be the beginning of the beekeeper’s active season. Already the buds are beginning to swell, the days are lengthening and growing milder. In the bright sunshine of the last few days the bees have been active; there has been a hum in the apiary that could be heard at some distance. No doubt this lias been the case wherever the colonies are in normal condition. A friend of mine who was busy amongst the weeds in the flower garden this morning (August 6) said she felt “ quite springy,” and that accounted for her activity. The beekeeper who hears his bees at some distance, and sees the glad rush as they pour out of the hive, feels that way too. It marks a new opportunity to put into practice plans that have been simmering in his mind during the off season. It gives' a new opportunity to add his own mentality to the bee instinct, and to guide his little workers to a successful season.

There are certain things that add greatly to the pleasure of the spring season in the apiary. One of these is a normal healthy condition of the hive, coming as a result of ample provision (made during the previous autumn) of suitable supplies for wintering on. The queen will be plump, healthy, and active; her brood-nest will be expanding normally; the bees will have provided all the room she requires, so that in her egglaying there is no doubling or trebling, but just one egg in each cell and all the cells in the circle occupied. Another thing that adds to the pleasure of spring is to have in the honey house, ready to go out as required, a food chamber, stocked with combs of scaled honey, for each colony. There are sometimes colonies that breed up so fast that their stores even though fairly plentiful in the early season melt away’so quickly that they are brought to the verge of starvation, and receive a check that affects the whole work of the season. The food chamber is an insurance against this, and allows the bees to . increase normally, with no fear of any shortness before an early flow brings nectar from the field. Still another source of pleasure comes from finding th e apiary clean, with no foul-brood, that enemy to all satisfaction and profit, but instead nice healthy combs and bees. There are some other things which do not please the beekeeper much, and which seem to point the finger at him and to say, “The blame lies with you.” First I mention uncomfortable quarters; a leaky roof, causing damp and mouldy combs; a mouses nest on top of the brood-nest, built out ot the frayed edges of the sacking mat, and placed above the mat, but as near to the warmth of the brood-nest as possible; or a plague of slaters or Maori bugs, for sometimes these are so plentiful that tliey also reach up to the mat. A leaky roof on a hive set too near the ground will give most of these troubles. The cure for all this is to waterproof the roof and raise the stand Gm or Bin clear of the ground, and also to narrow the winter entrance to jin. Another thing that points the finger at the beekeeper is the queenless colony Two or three per cent, are unavoidable, but when the figures go up to 15 or 20 per. cent, then the beekeeper must 'be trying to winter too many done queens. These colonies will contain most of their stoics intact. There will be no brood and only a few old bees. As colonies they are done, but their stores may be ot service to other colonies. All th- beekeeper can do is to make a bad mark and try again.

Nearly as bad as the quecnless colony is that headed by a queen that is done or nearly so. If she has had vitality enough to rear some brood in the sprin" the colony may be saved by requeeninm mi 1 nev . er develop to anything yorth while as long as the old queen is in charge.

V here there is foul-brood the beekeeper M writers sympathy. For more than 30 years I fought the trouble in almost every conceivable wav; but there is really only one way, and that is to MEvoy In bygone days there was no hope whatever of a permanent cure, because of constantly recurring infection from outside sources. Now, however, that a thorough system o f inspection has been started, and all defaulters made to clean up, there is a good prospect of cloin* better. Every beekeeper should aid the inspectors in their work, and at least make sure that there is no disease within flying distance of his own apiary. Where bees were prepared for winter with no trace of disease showing, the spring is not likely to show more than one or two colonies tainted. These had better be destroyed at once, and every contact burnt it is like playing with petrol near a lighted candle to have a diseased colon v in an otherwise clean apiary.