BEEKEEPING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 145941, 26 September 1917, Page 4

BEEKEEPING.

OVERSTOCKING' AATTH BEES. ’ This question is asked every season. My latest letter is a request for information on the subject. In reply 1 cannot do bettor than quote a writer in the AA’eokly Press. He says:—There has boon much talk with regard to overcrowding a locality witli bees. I wonder if some of the beekeepers themselves overcrowd their own apiary. Where. tho business is followed extensively it becomes a matter of importance and the apiarist should stop and consider to what extent he may increase his apiary in one locality without danger of overstocking, and thus decreasing his profits. There are so many factors entering into tlio case l that no rule can be established setting a limit on the number of colonics in one apiary. This must be a matter of experiment, and observation. A mosA important consideration is tho honeyyielding flora, of tho locality. Somo locations would be overstocked witli 100 colonies; in others 200 or more colonics might give satisfactory results in a good season. There is no doubt in my mind that tho .smaller tho number of colonies kept in one location the greater will be the yield of honey in proportion. But the question is not, how can a beekeeper secure tile largest yield of honey from a small number of colonies, but how can lie secure the largest income by keeping bees? My answer is: By keeping and managing well a largo number of colonies scattered in different apiaries, none of which should contain more than 100 colonies in the .spring. If ho could arrange so as not to start witli more than 50 in one location in the spring it would probably bo the better. If placed three miles apart there will be no danger of overstocking in ordinary seasons.” Another writer in the 8.8. Journal says that the out apiary will always be a success because it is a relief to tho mam apiary by taking away the necessity for a largo number of hives concentrated in one place, thus enabling tho bees to gather honey over a larger area. The average return per hive is always less in large apiaries than in small ones.

My own experience is that my bee.s in the out apiary do better than those where i live, but this I attribute to tho lack of suitable flowers and the limited range in\ a town as compared to the open land outside.

A few reports have reached mo about bees dying out. Two cases which I liavo investigated proved conclusively that the cause was starvation—want of food during tlie next five or six weeks is the critical period of beekeeping. Slugs and mice are my trouble this year, both here and in Stratford, where I took out and killed 28 large slugs over li inches long from one hive. Aly friend (the owner of, the bees) had put Jin. strips in tlie bottom board instead of fin., thus making tlie opening too deep for winter use.^ I have to acknowledge receipt of wax from-Messrs. Fnssell, Beale, Shaw and Wilson, ani have forwarded it to Hawera.