THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3972, 29 April 1930, Page 11

THE APIARY.

By

J. A.

SOME THINGS THAT HELP TO MAKE THE APIARY ATTRACTIVE.

We have all met the person who cannot go within a mile of a bee without being stung. He keeps as far away from bees as he can, and if at some early period of his life he did receive a sting the agonised pain he then endured has been increasing ever since, To hear him tell the story now of what he then suffered is to listen to a heartrending tale. Poor little honey bee! It has been much maligned because of that infinitisemal dose of formic acid which it has been given as a means of defence.

C. J., my correspondent of a fortnight ago, who wants to be an amateur beekeeper in order to make a little pocket money for her own spending, must not pay heed to these mournful tales of distress, but must find that there is also a very attractive side in beekeeping. A swarm came to her last year, and was put in a new Alliance Box Company hive. I wonder if that hive was painted, and what sort of a stand it was put on and just where it was placed. Some people think any old place is good enough for a beehive. Bees want a place of their very own. We call it the apiary, but it is only the home of the apiary, but it wants to be homelike, well protected trom intrusion of any kind of stock, and should not be so shaded by tall trees that the sun cannot reach into it. I always think, though to some extent it may be fancy, that shaded bees are crosser than those on which the sun shines. The hives should be so placed that they face the midday sun, and their home should be well protected on the south and western sides—not by something that allows the cold south-westerlies to whistle through and concentrate on the hives but something that will trim close to the ground and form a real protection. The giound itself should either be level or should dip slightly to the north. The hives themselves require a dip to the front to enable the bees to clean' away dead bees and comb chips from the bottom board.

Bees are clean insects. They do not make a mess of their hives though sometimes after being confined to the hive and having a good fly on washing day they spot the washing rather badly. Their combs are regularly brushed up, and though black in colour they shine everytime when eggs are laid in the cells. The eggs and the tiny larvae that hatch from them are cradled in clean cells, and when food is served to them by the nurse bees the bottom of the cell makes a cleanly dish for it.

For the same reason the grass should be kept as short as the lawn mower will make it, so that there shall be no impediment at the door of the hive to hinder the bees’ flight. When a bee dies in the hive it is dragged out to the lighting board, and then a sturdy bee takes hold of it and flies away out of sight to drop it.~but many of these bees fall immediately round the doorway in the grass, enriching the soil and increasing the growth of grass. It is the beekeeper’s work to give the front of the hive an annual clean up. This may seem fanciful, but a queen laying 2000 eggs per day must increase her colony by that nujr.ber of bees per day during summer, and, as we know that workers live only six weeks, there must soon also be a death rate of 2000 bees per day. That means about half a pound of dead bees per day. The proportion of these that fall at the doorway is too large to allow them to accumulate too long. Long grass in the apiary is out of place. It ought to be kept short and well trimmed. The doorway of the hives should certainly be kept quite clear, so that there is no hindrance to the workers’ flight both in and out. Besides all this the beekeeper, and especially a young lady beekeeper wants tidy surroundings, anil therefore everything that can be done should be done to make it as attractive as possible in the keeping of the ground and the placing of the hives and the upkeep of the whole plant. It is not wise to have the home of the bees where there is much traffic, nor where their outward flight will be across the clothes green, but rather in a retired spot, where it can be got to handily without interfering with the general working of the home. I can easily imagine C. J., when the house-cleaning is done, going out to the flower garden to cull flowers to fill the vases, and thus give that finishing touch that ladies like so much. Well, that same spirit imported into the apiary will in a different way give that finishing touch that, not the bees, but she herself will like to see, and it will greatly add to the interest that is sure to gather round the bees themselves. The perfection of care will bring the same perfection in results, and when supers of wellfllled and beautifully white clover honey are forthcoming at the end of the season it will add to the pleasure of harvesting them to know that it is being done in welltended surroundings and from hives that are carefully kept.