BEE-KEEPING

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1788, 29 July 1926, Page 2

BEE-KEEPING

money to be made from honey. At th'e recent farm scliool held 1 in (Palmerston North the Government instructor in swing husbandry admitted that the only primary industry that could show a bigger profit than pigfarming wa s bee-keeping; and if one can judge from the- experiences of that well-known bee-keeper, Mr A. R. Bates of Kaponga, Taranaki, who was a visitor (to Palmerston North during the school week, there is certainly a great deal of money to be made in honey production.

“ I started only in a small way,* vr.a.id Mr Bates, “ beginning 18 years ago; and to-day I have no less than 800 hives of bees, and propose; this coming season to keep 1100 hives.” Questioned as to the return from his bees last season, Mr Bates stated that they had manufactured for him 35 tons of honey, which wals of an average value of £SO per ton. The gross return was thus £1750. The expenses would probably be about £6OO, which left the handsome protit qff £llsO. One is probably under the impression that all these 800 hives are congregated, in one large farm; but further inquiry elicited the fact that this •is not so. Mr 'Bates works in conjunction with the farmers of his locality, having the hivds distributed over a wide area in groups of 30 to 50 hives. It is an example of m'uitual co-opera-tion, the farmers getting the benefit of the bees to fertilise their fruit trees and clover, while Mr Bates gets the nectar from the blossoms. T,herg is also Hhe added attraction from the farmers’ point of view of enough delicious honey left in his store room to lr.bt him and his family all the year round.

Questioned as a practical apiarist as to the minimum number of hives a person would have to keep to make a living out of bee-farming alone, Mr Bates instanced the case of one beekeeper who had secured a net return of £SOO for 'the past year or two off 350 hives. That man. of course, applied prac.tcial business methods to his bee-keeping knowledge. Mr Bates can lay claim to the third largest apiary in New Zealand, and, being a business man as well as a successful bee-keeper he, realised the advantages to he gained by the use of electricity in the industry. He usie s the current to drive his circular saw for liive-making, drive liis 'honey extractor, and also for heating purposes. A profitables die-line is the raising of Italian queen bees, and these lie sends to all parts of New Zealand, the post office providing specially ventilated bags for the purpose.