THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3862, 20 March 1928, Page 11

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

UNITING IN AUTUMN

It would strengthen most apiaries very much if at the end of the season the beekeeper were to unite all those colonics that do not come up to his wintering standard. Each beekeeper knows, or should know, his own locality and the winter- requirements of his colonies, and to keep a number of colonies that are too light is only to invite disaster when springtime comes.

The last round of the extractor is a good time to have a glance at the broodnest, and if the queen is doing indifferent work to destroy her and use her broodnest to strengthen other colonies. Then towards the end of March a systematic examination of all the colonies should be made, and such colonies as are too weak in themselves should be united to others. It is not wise to unite two colonies that are. so weak that' when united they are still in doubtful condition; rather the union should be of colonies which, when united, are beyond doubt strong enough to go through the winter and spring. It seems to be beyond doubt that strong colonies winter more economically than weaker ones, and colonies should be united not only because they are light in stores, but because they are weak in bees. Uniting at the close of the brood season is a very simple operation, and involves just the placing of one broodnest on top of the other. At that season bees unite very easily, without any apparent fuss or fighting. Earlier it is well to put a sheet of paper (ordinary newspaper) between the parts united, so as to allow the bees to come together quietly after cutting through the paper. The choice of which queen is to survive can without much danger of loss be left to the bees themselves.

In most. parts of the Dominion, and especially in the south, autumn is this season more favourable than it has been for several years. The sudden change from summer to winter conditions early in February makes a long off-season that uses up a very large supply of stores. When. February and March give opportunity for gathering from autumn flowers the result is very much more satisfactory. Both 1926 and 1927 seasons had this short cut-off in February, and thereafter no further opportunity to increase stores. During February and the most of March shrinkage in weight is very rapid under those conditions, and it is necessary for the beekeeper to take this into account in apportioning winterstores. AUTUMN CLEAN UP. It is a good plan in connection with apiary management to have an autumn clean up. All supers, as well as spare tops ami bottoms, should be carefully stored under cover. The grass round the hives should be closely cut, and immediately round the stand all weeds should be cleaned up. All entrances ■ should be reduced to winter dimensions, and some device used to keep out mice in the winter tune. When the bees are close clustered in the cold of winter mice can, and do, work on the honey that is outside the cluster, not only using the honey, but destroying the combs. I have used very successfully in this connection a tin facing cut to Jin for an entrance. Roofs should be attended to after a rain, so as to find any leaks, a leaky roof being a very unsatisfactory covering for a hive, especially if mats are used. I now greatly prefer flat roofs, which when placed on the hive leave only a bee space (|in) above the frames. When this is used no mat is required. The bees with such a roof will attach it to the frames with bur combs, and that in winter is a great advantage in ease of wind, as it is thus firmly held. The beekeeper leaves the apiars to its long winter rest with some degree of satisfaction if this clean up is made and everything left tidy- and secure.

The same work should be done in the Roney house when the packing of the crop is completed. The tanks, extractor, uncapping box, and all tools should be washed and covered, and then the supers or combs carefully sorted and stacked, excluders being used to keep out vermin. 1 prefer to stack the combs wet. as they come from the extractor, as this is a protection from moths, which are apt to do damage on dry combs, more especially it they contain some pollen, which is very likely to be the case.