THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3958, 21 January 1930, Page 11

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

January 13. lhe week ending on this date lias show n a much-needed improve* ment m the weather. lhe scale hive readings weie 1,0, 0,0, 4,4, I, or a total of 191 b fo r the week. Very dull and misty weather continues, but the temperature has risen, and for the last three days the apiary has been very lively. ,So far swarming is not giving any trouble; there was only one swarm during the week. No means has been used to check swarming further than to gi\e sufficient room tor the queen to expand the brood nest upwards. The rerel sal ol the tw o chambers constituting the brood nest has provided tins, and m another week the excluders will be used to keep the queen down in the lower chamber, thus compelling her to make tins the centre of her work. There is a certain amount, ot check in carrying the nectar to the highest point imposed by the excluder, and as a result a better furnished brood chamber. The breeding tendency of Italian bees is such that the apiarist must to some extent arrange his hive so as to curb the queen by limiting her brood space towards the end ot the season, this will be seconded by the bees themselves filling up that limited space with winter stores. lhe ideal cliamber for wintering should have its combs well tilled with that mixture of pollen and honey that the bees themselves by instinct realise to be right.

THE USE OF EXCLUDERS. ’• Novice" writes: ” I notice you advocate the use of eight combs in Mie supers above the brood combs. As you do not mention the use of excluders, do you consider this as a better idea than using the excluders to keep the queen down? ” There are so many different systems ot working in the apiary in use by beekeepers that I do not earc to be at ail dogmatie in answering this question. ” Novice's ’’ apiary is over 200 miles from mine m a drier climate, and that will to some extent affect his system. Probably the best answer 1 can give is just to state my own system, and allow "Novice” to draw his own conclusions.

In the first place, then, I am only amongst the bees from December 1 to rebruary 15 —from 11 to 12 weeks. If my colonies are wintered on 10 combs in a single brood chamber, then one of the things done on the first round of examination is to give them by way of extension of the brood nest a further storey ot ]0 brood wombs. If on the other ham] they have been wintered on -0 combs I invariably find that the lower storey is practically empty and the true centre of the brood nest is in the upper storey. The operation then consists m a reversal of position, the lower storey being put on top. This is done because it seems more natural for the queen to extend upwards, and the extra room gives plenty ot space and delays swarming. As soon as the bees enter on the main honey flow from clover the first super is given, containing eight combs, spaced by band. ’These the queen is not likely to enter, as there is still plenty room in the two-storey brood nest, and the wide spacing seems to be quite a decided cheek.

This 20-frame brood nest is allowed to do duty until about January 20 to 25. I util that time we want the queen to do her utmost, but after that date the resultant young bees will be too late for the elover flow, consequently it becomes an advantage to cut down the queen’s work by shutting her down to 10 frames with an excluder. Some apiarists go much further than this, and by division boards confine her to four or five combs lhe reason for this is that it is a useless expenditure of honey to produce bees that can only become themselves consumers, and most beekeepers in the south are realising that this is more necessary with the Italian bee than the black, ’ If a strong colony is used for section honey it is given a one-storey brood nest and a super of sections, no excluder being used, with the result that the queen seldom goes into the sections. The wide spacing there is effective, but it is, of course, helped by the separators. As the season advances, the bees fill up the combs in that one-storey brood chamber, and thus they themselves restrict the laving of the queen, with the result that ‘the colony to be wintered is in Nature’s way reduced. and the combs stored for winter use. Bv using the excluder about January 20 that is the effect that is sought. Our preference for wintering is a singlestorey chamber well filled with stores. Where the 20-frame brood nest is kept on till the season closes there will be heavier breeding, anil consequently a heavier consumption during the MarchApril period, when there is nothing coming in to replace it. As frequently mentioned before in these notes, we supplement the winter stores by giving a halfsuper of sealed comb honey about the end of August.

What it all amounts to then is this: In the earlier season the combs in the supers are spaced wide in order to get fuller combs and a certain amount of freedom from brood, but in the later season we consider the excluder essential in order to make the lower storey the centre of the brood nest, round which tiie bees will prepare for winter, and by closing in on the queen prevent overpopulation of the hive. There is a tendency to pile on supers and get the colonics three, four, or even five-storeys high without realising that in most cases the brood nest centre is rising in the hive, and that when winter preparations come the bottom storey will be very poorly provided. According to this system it will be seen that excluders are essential.