THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 4057, 15 December 1931, Page 11

THE APIARY.

MAKING BEES PAY. In a bulletin written by C. B. Gooderham, a Canadian Dominion apiarist, some iteeful hints on how to make bees pay are given, and, although written for apiarists in Canada, are invaluable to beekeepers the world over. “ Because of keen competition in marketing with its resultant lowering of prices the producer of honey must carefully watch every step connected with the production and handling of his crop so that he may’ reduce the cost of its production to a point whereby he can meet his competitors successfully on any market and still make his business a paying proposition.

“ Lowering cost of production may’ be effected in many ways, but it is only through the keeping of a careful record of all expenditures of time, labour, equipment. etc., expended in the apiary- that most beekeepers will be able to find ways and means by’ which one or more of these expenditures may be reduced and thus increase the efficiency of their business, lhe following are a few suggestions whereby suclr savings may be made and they by no means cover all the possibilities.

“In the industrial world the object is to secure the maximum output from each unit or machine yvith the least expenditure of labour possible, thus reducing the actual cost of producing the article to a minimum. This also should be the object of the beekeeper, working himself and each of his colonies to their fullest capacity. Many producers of honey who are really- good beekeepers, and who are capable of greater effort, are simply wasting time with too few colonies when with the same amount of time and very little extra expense of labour and equipment they could manage double or treble the number. A short time ago a well-known beekeeper of Ontario said that he made one big mistake when honey prices were at their peak: he claimed that he could easily have managed three times the number of colonies yvith very little more effort than was required for those he already had. In other words, this man could have reduced his cost of production to almost one-third by’ this one method alone. The cost of production in a large apiary or system of out-apiaries is relatively smaller than in a small or single apiary, for the equipment required to handle the crop of, say. 100 colonies is almost sufficient to handle the crop of three times that number.

“ Every beekeeper knows that there is a great variation in the amount of honeyproduced by individual colonies in almost any apiary, and that the difference maybe as great as one hundred pounds or more. Standing in the same location, with the same system of management and working under the same conditions of weather and flow, there should be verylittle variation in the amount of honey produced by' different colonies. To some beekeepers a queen is a queen, no matter her breeding. Unfortunately manycolonies are headed by queens that should never have been reared, for no matter how efficient the care given them they fail to produce colonies strong enough to take full advantage of any honey flow that may- be available. Other things being equal, a good queen will produce a strong colony- of bees, whereas a poor one is unable to do so. Furthermore, a cold and bitter winter is often very hard on bees, especially yvhen they are not properly prepared for it, and. as a matter of fact, a great many- colonies die or become seriously weakened through such neglect. Every colony- that dies is a charge against the apiary, and its loss must be charged against production, those that are yveakened can never become maximum producers unless they- are assisted from some outside source. Often such assistance is not available, and the weak colonies are nursed along with the hope of getting something from them, yet in spite of the nursing they fail to become profitable producers, thus time, labour, and equipment are wasted in so far as production is concerned. “ Disease also takes a large toll from the profits of the apiary. Diseased colonies weaken and ultimately perish, and the honey crop is reduced because of it. If not immediately destroyed or treated the disease will spread rapidly, and may easily result in the destruction of the whole apiary. “Lack of equipment, too, very often results in loss of crop. Nothing is more disheartening to a beekeeper than to find when honey is coming in at the rate of 101 b to 151 b per day or the bees are swarming that he has not sufficient supers or hives to take care of the honey or bees. On the other hand, some apiaries are cluttered up with idle equipment, and this is also a dead loss to the apiarist. “ Swarming is also another detriment to honey production. While the number of eyvanns given off by- an apiary was at one time the measure of a beekeeper’s success, the opposite is the criterion today. Much time is lost from honey-gather-ing while the colony- goes through the process of preparing for and casting a swarm, therefore, if some successful system of management can be found whereby natural swarming can be prevented or controlled, the yield of honey per colony can be materially increased. “In the general management of the apiary- throughout the active season there are many yvays in which cost of production can be lowered. Fewer manipulations of the colonies will enable the beekeeper to keep more colonies and in many cases yvill increase the efficiency of the colony. The use of queen excluders to eliminate the sorting of combs containing brood from those containing honey at extracting time and the use of bee escape boards for rapid and efficient removal of bees from the honey supers when it is desired to remove the latter from the bees are great savers of time and labour. “ Turning from the management of the apiary, to the care of the crop, here again there is considerable opportunity- for improvement. . Too much honey is taken off before it is “ ripe.” Such honey soon ferments, and unless sold at once is a dead loss to the beekeeper, and if sold yvill seriously injure his market for good honey; therefore it is advisable to leave the honey yvith the bees until it is thoroughly ripened or to keep such honey off the market. The light-coloured honeys usually command the highest price on most markets, therefore in localities

where honey of different colour is produced every effort made to keep the light honey crop separated from the dark yvill result in increased returns for the total ciop. Mixing dark honey or capping melter honey- yvith yvhite honey tends to reduce the yvhole to an inferior grade. One or the greatest impediments on the honey market of to-day is the lack of care in preparing the product for the market. An examination of 442,8661 b of honey during the year 1930 showed that 18.8 per cent, of the honey inspected had been wrongly graded, while 5.73 per cent, was rejected as unfit for any but a manufacturer’s market. Unclean, improperly graded, and poorly packed honev will not return to the producer the best prices available, and unless the beekeeper is willing to put up his product in accordance yvith the consumer’s demands lie must be content yvith yvhat the consumer is willing to pay- for it.”