THE APIARY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 302, 22 December 1933, Page 9

THE APIARY

NOTES FOR DECEMBER. (By 1). S. Robinson, Apiary Instructor, Department of Agriculture.) Th e main work now requiring attention will be the adding of supers with frames or sections to secure the surplus honey. This is a point 100 often neg looted by beginners. They wait till the brood chamber is full before giving additional room. This is a big mistake, as the overcrowding causes the bets to swarm, and so lessens the forces that are required to gather the nectar. As soon as the bees are covering seven or eight of the ten frames in the brood chambers, a super of full depth frames fitted with full sheets of foundation should be added. This will give a good queen some twenty frames to lay her eggs in, so resulting in strong colonies of ;endy for the harvest. As soon as the bees have drawn out these into comb and the queen has filled the combs with eggs, then another super, or half super should be added, for the honey slorage. Beekeepers who have only a few hives are advised to go in for tho production uf section honey as it is hardly profitable to go to the expense of purchasing an extractor for less than ten hives. A few hints to tho beginner on raising good sections may be of help;— Do not attempt to produce scctioa honey unless your hives arc well filled with worker bees. Do not hope for well filled sections if the drought continues, as good sections can only be obtained if ther e is a good honey flow. In working for section production, do not place a queen excluder on the hive until the bees have started to draw out the foundation wax in the sections. In fixing foundation wax in sections see that it hangs down freely and it is not buckled otherwise uneven sections are likely to be the result. When procuring sections and frames, do not forget to obtain also the required number of tin separators. These are tacked on one side of each frame, so placed that a small space is left top and bottom for the bees to gain admission to the sections. The purpose of the separators is to make the bees build straight, even combs in the sections. If they are not used, the bees will often build one section into another with the result that the sections cannot be removed from tho hives without damaging some ol the cappings, and a damaged section is useless fur marketing. Remove sections as soon as filled and completely capped, if left on the hives they become stained by the bees constantly passing over them. As the present indications are fur an early season, beekeepers are advised to see that everything is in readiness m the extracting house, that orders have been placed for a supply of containers that arc likely to be needed. Next sed that the honey house, and especially the portion used lor extracting, is thoroughly cleaned out and all unnecessary gear stacked away so that the utmost amount of space is available. In the apiary the next few months duo attention should be paid to the ventilation mf the hives, and sec that adequate ventilation is provided: in the case of hives with limited entrances the front of the hives may be raised by placing small blocks of wood about one inch high under the front corners of the brood chamber. In all manipulations of the hives, keep a. careful watch for disease, and if in doubt on the subject consult your nearest apiary instructor of the Department of Agriculture. This month’s honey recipes: Use honey for sweetening all summer fruit drinks. It makes them both more palatable ami increases their food value. Honey with fresh fruit such as strawberries anil raspberries gives an ridded flavour not met with when sugar