BEE-KEEPING.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 121, 27 June 1914, Page 2

BEE-KEEPING.

IN CANTERBURY. A paper 011 "Fourteen Years of Beekeeping" was read by Mr W. P. Barker (Canterbury), at the recent Beekeepers' Conference held in Wellington, who stated; that he formerly kept a few box hives to fertilise the fruit of a large orchard, when he was recommended to go in, for patent hives. He thought over the whole business, and read, up all hj? could find, on modern be<? culture. Experience led him to the conclusion that anyone keeping bees without expert knowledge would obtain a profit of £1 per hive, and with careful skilled attention the profit would be 35/- to £2. The apiary could be built upon small capital. Selling the produce needed careful thought; he knew a man who sold 10001b of honey in Christchurch by calling on grocers. Finding the value of personal touch with customers, he liked to take a packet or two of honey in a handbag into a fresh town once a year, and do a personal eanvass of grocersi Once he gained the connection, all lie had to do was to circularise the grocers on a postcard asking for new season's orders. As ' for the Agricultural Department's inspectors, he paifl a cordial tribute to the help, given by Mr Isaac Hopkins when that gentleman held the 'position. It ; was seldom a man of sense did not profit by the visit of an inspector. The conference ought to feel grateful to the department and its inspectors for the trouble they had gone to in helping to place the English market at the disposal of honey producers. He hoped that as producers realised more completely the requirements of the graders, their work would be less arduous, and as honey became more standardised, producers' profits would become more assured. Notwithstanding foul brood, he had never regretted introducing Italians. There was no doubt that, although inveterate robbers, they were far better hustlers —up earlier and at work later. It seemed to him that they had a more robust constitution, able to resist foul brood, though undoubtedly they could at the same time act as carriers of. disease. In entering the business the amateur should go slowly at first. *'Feel your way along, and make the business pay for itself, getting year by year more conveniences." His district was a particularly favoured One, and he had never struck an "off" season. This he attributed to the assistance of the native flora —lancewood, fuchsia, golden mapun, oilwood or pittospottmi, kowhai, etc., keeping the bees going when tlic clover was not available. ■