THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3859, 28 February 1928, Page 11

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

END OF SEASON 1927-1928. At time of writing (February 18) there will still be beekeepers hoping to add to the crop for this season. The fine weather that is being experienced will lead many to expect an unusually good autumn flow. . In some locations this may hold good, such as on the river flats, for instance, but, speaking generally, the season is done.

At Roslyn Bush extracting has been completed, the colonies prepared for winter, all supers of combs stored away; and a general clearance of the honey house made. The apiary has been increased from 78 colonies to 120, while q few nuclei are left to replace any missing queens in springtime. The colonies generally are in good condition, but no exception will now be taken to the bees storing all they can get from ragwort and other autumn flowers, and so adding to their stores.

In requeening operations the fine weather has greatly assisted in the fertilising of young queens, and I found in the last round that all of my queens were showing young brood. 1 hope to continue this work next season and to supersede all black and half-black queens. It will take some time before pure mating can be secured, but as some of the leading beekeepers in this district are also bent on getting only pure blood, it will be a case of helping each other by seeing that as far as possible only pureblooq drones shall be flying. The crop for the season at Roslyn Bush was three and a-half tons. This, with an increase of 50 per cent., may be regarded as a fair result. It is not. however, quite satisfactory. Much better could have been done with the bees in better condition in the first week of December. The want of uniformity in the colonies, and particularly the failure of a much too large proportion of the queens made a variation in the individual colony of from less than 201 b to more than 2001 b. There is only one cure for this, and that is good young queens and plenty of stores. I labour under a disadvantage in that I am within reach of my apiary only for three months of the year. A month later in the autumn and a month earlier in the spring would give much much better chance for bringing the colonies out in equal condition. 1 would give much to spend the last week of March amongst them, and be able to make sure of the condition of each colony. -

It has been very pleasant to go through the season absolutely clean. Foul-brood has been conspicuous by its absence, and it adds much to the pleasure of beekeeping to be entirely free from it. This I attribute entirely to the thorough inspection under the local system which is gradually eliminating the disease, and thus giving those who wish to be clean the chance to keep so. Looked at from the departmental point of view, this system may seen costly, but the impetus given to the industry will repay the cost over and over again. All we can say to the department is, “Keep going; you are on right lines.” It was stated by the chief inspector at the Southland field day meeting that the amendments to the Apiary Act are going to increase its usefulness eyry much in the way of fighting the disease. Then we may hope for still better results, and for the final elimination of the disease in those corners where it still lurks. Let us get rid of it. and treat any reappearance of it with as much dread as the farmer does foot-and-mouth disease amongst his cattle. The beekeeper can only breathe freely and put into his apiary that energy and expense which are needed when he knows that nowhere within reach of his location is there any disease-infected apiary. THE WEEK. This has shown that clover is nearly gone, and that the main source of supply is from ragwort, capeweed, and thistles. My scale hive record was 3,0, 1,5, 0,0, 0, or a total of 91b. I find that much interest has been taken in the publishing of this weekly record. A number of beekeepers have remarked that they always look it up. Well, it could be made even more useful. I met two beekeepers at the field day meeting who have scale hives, and I have no doubt that they have a record of what the hives have done, and probably there are others who have done the same. I would esteem it a great favour if they would send me their records with permission to use them in parallel columns with my own, so that a comparison could be made, particularly as to weather effects on the gathering of nectar. I am sure that much useful information could be got in this way. I leave Roslyn Bush for home in Nelson on the 20th, and anyone wishing to correspond with me on apiary interests will please note the address, which is Tasman, Nelson. In order that the apiary column may be made more useful correspondence is freely invited, and where possible help will be given.