BEEKEEPING AT SCHOOLS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 March 1933, Page 12

BEEKEEPING AT SCHOOLS

SUCCESS ALONG THE COAST INTERESTING HELD DAY HELD. ADVICE GIVEN BY EXPERT. The efficient manner in which the work in its various phases is carried out and the confidence with which the children handled bees were remarkable features that struck the spectators who attended in large numbers at the second field day held on Saturday in connection with the beekeeping classes that have been introduced this year into the Warea, Puniho and Okato schools as an additional phase of agricultural activities. It was hard for the visitors, who included. Messrs. A. Bain (senior inspector), Henry (inspector), the chairman and members of .the coastal, school committees, to realise that the beekeeping has been introduced only seven months ago. The state of efficiency reached is a tribute to the keen interest taken in the work by the children themselves, the support given-by the teachers, Messrs. D. W. Longley (Warea), E. Coleman (Puniho) and Pearce (Okato) and the zeal and ability of the honorary instructor, Mr. H. O. Maxwell, who, is actively co-operating with Messrs. Duncan McKay; senior agricultural instructor, and W. Dill Mackay, agricultural instructor to the Taranaki Education Board. The children from the three schools with parents and friends, a. party numbering over 200,' assembled at Mr. Maxwell’s factory ori Puniho Road, the honey having earlier been taken from one of the hives at the Okato school. An- adjournment was then made to pic, turesque spot on. the property of Mr. Riley, Timaru Road, where in the sheltered seclusion, .of a beautiful piece of bush, beneath-the shade of- a giant rata; Mr. Maxwell gave an interesting talk on beekeeping. There' was displayed on a table the honey. that had. been . taken earlier in the day from one of the Okato school hives, and very tempting it looked, the half frames, and full frames all being filled with well-sealed honey. On a table nearby were displayed the . products of a commercial, apiary.

SUCCESS OF SCHOOL HIVES. Mr. Maxwell explained that the Okato apiary, which had been established in August from two • nuclii, had- done quite well. He estimated that three-fifths of the honey crop, about 1501 b, had been taken from the one hive, and when the balance was taken he estimated tlie’total production of each hive would be 2001 b of honey. • That should bring the Okato school ■ committee £lO, while the two hives had cost - at- most £4 10s. The hive at Puniho had been unfortunate,' the . queen having- been accidentally killed at a critical time,, but despite tliat the. hive would produce 601 b or 701 b of honey.. Warea had one hive which cost £2 and he expected it would produce 1601 b; of .honey, .or. a ■ gross return of £4. Most, of the frames were made by the school children. . Mr. Maxwell stressed the value of beekeeping 'as a side-line to farming, apart altogether from commercial beekeeping as a full timei occupation The quantity of honey gathered from the hive depended largely on the - season. After 12 years’ experience he had come to the conclusion that large apiaries were a mistake, and he -thought that for commercial beekeeping the best results were obtained with 200 hives.

As a part-time occupation a man should npt have more hives than he’ could at T tend to properly. As an illustration he pointed, out that a farmer ■ who three years ago considered beekeeping a failure had since gone in for-the matter thor? oughly,-giving his apiary-every attention, with the ■ result- that this year front his first 17 hives he had averaged . 1601 b per hive, so • that his -40 hives should • bring in a grass return of £l5O. He pointed out. that in starting beekeeping it was necessary to start about April and thus have eight months to prepare for the honey crop. Each month there was . important work to do and; to get • results that work had to be done at the right time.. He. suggested starting in' a modest way with two hives and gradually building up. : .

An important matter was. to choose the right bees, whieh could notbe bought, sold or transfered without a permit as ’ a' protection to the beekeeper against the introduction of disease. It was' better, he said, to start with one Halean nuclei colony, which could be divided' later.' At the end of the season the hives could be increased: to five, then the next season to ten, which; was quite a large number to fun as a side-line. Besides being interesting it would net about £2Ol Oil a 10-acre farm it should be possible "to keep'2o dr 30 hives, which would be a useful addition to the returns. He-placed 50 as -the absolute limit for a part time 'occupation. ;'" PLACING AN APIARY. ’ ' Care should be taken in selecting the site'for the apiary, which should be in a dry position facing the north-east, with no high . shelter in front' of the hives. The’ apiary should not be placed where the bees were likely to become a. public nuisance; • A■ small ■ orchard' was perhaps the best place. ■ The hives should not be in the shade ,a$ the bees then : became savage and could not work well. . It was important that they shoudl get the early sun. In -closing down: the: hive' for the winter only sjx - frames should ,be left and two frames or the equivalent, should be full of honey. He showed how to make the hives comfortable for the winter. it was necessary that the floor should slope slightly to the front to enable the bees, to keep the hives clean. At the end of July they should open the. hive again , and if the supply of honey was Becoming depleted it was necessary to add another frame of the same honey if possible so-‘ as to obyiate introducing foul brood.

The first super could be added at the end of September, and from thereon supers should be added as required, the bulk' of . the honey thus coming about Christmas. It was necessary to prepare supers and frames in the winter as there was no time later. He favoured mostly using half supers, starting the hive with two full supers and adding four halfsupers. ; The party then had an alfresco luncheon, after which a number had a swim in the river.

Mr. Maxwell gave another interesting address, stressing at the outset that while the commercial beekeeper was. with other producers faced with the difficulty of finding a ' market. The small beekeeper who kept bees as a side-line, however, had a great advantage over other producers. Whereas, the dairy-farmer, poul-try-farmer or fruit-grower had to put his produce on the market at-once the feekeeper had the whole 12 months in which to sell his Mr. Maxwell-gave an interesting denomstration of a simple method of extracting honey suitable for the small producer, who need not go in for an expensive extracting outfit. The plant that Mr. Maxwell used for his demonstration consisted-of two enamelled basins, a cup, some cheese cloth and a thin tablespoon. The Cheese cloth was tied over one basin to act as. a. strainer. Using • the cup as a stand Mr. Maxwell carefully scraped all the honey .and. wax from., the frame into the other basin, being Very careful to avoid destroying the foundation comb, which could be available for use again. He then turned, that basin upside down

over the first one, allowing the honey to strain through the cheese cloth. The wax would later be melted down and sold. It -Was preferable to take the honey to an extractor, but if one' were riot Available the method shown was less ’wasteful than breaking all the comb. RAISING QUEENS. ; Mr. Maxwell gave an address on queen bee raising. He stressed that good queen bees were just as important to the beekeeper, as good cows were to the dairy farmer. The queen was the mother of the hive and one could not make a success of beekeeping with inferior bees. was also the- question of breeding for quietness of handling, some bees being So fierce that they could be handled only by experts and, moreover, they were liable- to' be dangerous.' Queen raising was a highly technical work. In' -raising- queens they combined the natural conditions of the hive with artificial methods; ■ The natural- conditions of the lyve were first, the swarming- impulse; second, the supercedure impulse which occurred when the ‘queens were growing old, and the third irhpulse was the replacement impulse. Those conditions had to be introduced into the hive, and he explained how it was done. He also explained how’ the queen cells were removed from the hive and the artificial queen cells placed in the hive, showing the grafting -of the new queen cells, 25 in all, with their speck of royal jelly, was carried out. He stressed the necessity for care in removing the cells before the queens were hatched put as the first one hatched would kill all the others, and the event of two or three being hatched together they would fight to the death. Of the 25 queen cells it should be possible to rear 20 queens. Each cell should be cut out and placed in a nuclei hive, the queen being protected by a wire gauze for the first couple of days to give her time to be accepted by the hive.

Mr. D. W. Longley, headmaster of the Warea school, took the opportunity of testifying to the valuable work that Mr. Maxwell had done in connection with beekeeping in the schools. It was a work that covered many phases—nature study as well as woodwork in making hives, preparation of notes, scale drawing and last but not least character training. Mr. Maxwell had certainly not spared either time or berizine.

The party then visited Mr. Maxwell’s factory, where Mr. Maxwell gave a demonstration of the extraction of honey by electrical machinery, showing also the process of incapping. The party then visited one of Mr. Maxwell’s apiaries on Mr. T. Morris’ property, Upper Timaru Road, and was interested in the taking of honey from a hive that had not been touched this year. Mr. Maxwell was assisted by two pupils from each of the three schools, and the quiet confident manner in which Mr. Maxwell and his young assistants, both boys and girls, handled the frames, taking no notice of the bees as they buzzed around, was a revelation to the spectators. The hive was a six-storey one and the honey was taken from four half sections and one full section, , .