BEE-KEEPING AT NORMANBY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 5307, 13 March 1884, Page 2

BEE-KEEPING AT NORMANBY.

(from our own correspondent.)

My recent description of Mr Epping's apiary has, I dud, created so general an interest in bee-keeping, that I make no apology for now referring to that of the other, and asit involves certain points of management and detail quite new in apiculture, it can scarcely fail to have some practical value for others. Having this" point in view, I strolled towards towards the grounds to gather and collate the result of a new and unexpected experience. Mr King was fortunately at home, buaily supervising his skeps and hives, and, by a method of his own, controlling he operations of the worker. A number of hives were scattered in every direction, and were of every diversity of shape and size. But the main object of attraction was the apiary proper, the like of which I had never heard or read of before. It is a round building, or lather an octagon, 12ft in diameter, with 6ft walls. The roof, like the walls, is also eight sided, tapering at the apex, like an obtuse pointed pyramid. About 20 inches from the ground each side of the building is perforated with three distinct slits or openings, each having* a landing-stage like the entrance to an ordinary beehive. A narrow door admitted us within the precincts of this gothic and singular structure, and once within the curiosity of the visitor is awakened to the utmost. Every outer orifice is represented by a bee-box in the interior} constructed on the Langstroth principle with this diference, that instead of a boarded covering, only bags or quilts were placed over them. The object of this is to secure, as far as possible, the desired combination of ventilation with warmth, but obviously this arrangement would not work outside. The building of course had its full complement of hives, and though more courses could easily have been ' disposed both above and below with corresponding openings to the outside, the noiße would be too great, and the calls of - the queens be distracting to the workers. The apiary on this principle therefore admits of no enlargement, otherwise than by the erection of additional structures of the kind. To some extent, however, this ia obviated by the use of supers, or additions on the top of the boxes. The honey of course can easily be extracted from these boxes at any time by the, mere withdrawal of the supers, but these supers are absolutely necessary, the more especially, as sometimes happens, when there is a glut of honey. But, for these supers, plenty of air must be provided, particularly in warm weather, or otherwise the bees will refuse to enter them, lest they should augment the heat ac to cause the fall of the combs by softening. In seasons of plenty the addition of supers, or the extraction of a portion of the honey from the stock hives, must be strictly attended to ; or, if not, all vacant cells will be quickly filled up, and any additional ovipasition by the queens be prevented. Reproduction — an essential in bee-keeping — would suddenly cease, while the population might so diminish in in numbers, as to be in danger of extinction. The present season certainly has been a bad one for beekeepers'. It has been highly prejudicial to the bees, the blighting winds have paralysed their industry, and the cold continuous rains have co confined them within doors that the owners have been deprived of large stores of honey, which, in ordinary seasons, would have been culled and collected from every flower. Upon the whole, while much pleased with apiary, I should have very much preferred a more

uniform sizo in the boxes and their belongings, for it is one of the essential rules in bee culture that every hive and all the movable parts of it should be so exactly of the same size and pattern that each should fit into one of every other. Whilst I was in the apiary, I was shown and witnessed the perilous process of honey-taking, and of uniting swarms and the like. We had scarcely entered indeed, when Mr King, without the least ceremony, began to uncover some of the boxes. The number of bees vrhich then flew out seemed to manifest some signs of a determination to resist the invasion, but further than saluting them with a puff ot tobacco smoke, and a magisterial wave of the hand, the operator utterly disdained all notice or fear of them. " Are you not afraid of being stung," I ventured to ask him in some trepidation. "Not the least ; bees never sting me," and he nodded negatively; but certain inflammatory spots over the left eye, ' and which had been painted over with washing blue to prevent them from swelling, did not at all seem to support the negation. Nevertheless he continued to plunge his hands amongst thousands of bees with a recklessness and contempt of danger, which to me was perfectly appalling. Some of them flew menacingly around, and when they began to alight on my arms and neck, I was, I assure you, mightly relieved when I managed to scramble outside of the apiary, and all the kings, or persons of that royal name in the world, would not induce me to enter it again. Mr King has the merit of having invented a new hive. This hive — or, as it is called, the king bee box — is a most important innovation on all hives of the kind. There is no greater enemy to the bees than the beemoth. Should they contrive to elude the vigilance of the doorkeepers, and get access to the hive, the entire colony is doomed too clow, but sure destruction. They deposit innumerable eggs all over the comb, which speedily develope into living organisms, and both oomb and honey is then either speedily devoured or destroyed. Bees themselves also are notorious robbers, and one family or colony will sometimes ovrpower another, and carry off their whole produce. But the invention mentioned makes it now possible for the janitors or keepers to cope with these depredators, in addition to which the bees are more satisfied, and work infinitely better in these new hives. The entrance is made directly in the bottom irstead of, as is usual, in the side. An inclined plain leads up to this entrance, and this inclined plain is walled on each side up to the bottom of the box, so that the box as it were rests on the walls or sides of the approach. The entrance or slit in the bottom of the hire, instead of being cut perpendicularly, runs on a bevel or inclination similiar to the approach, of which it is a continuance and the termination. Here on this inclined plain, and under the bottom of the hive, the watchers can move about in all kinds of weather, and having good warning and plenty of time, can signal to their comrades within the hive the approach of an enemy, whom, with the assistance of others they can now beat off and repulse before they approach the entrance. By the old arrangement they (the enemy) could slip in at the door before the astonished sentinels had time to seize them or give the alarm ; but now this is impossible. Another effect is that by the new method there is some charming effect in the ventilation of the hive, so that the bees now work with redoubled liveliness and vigour. The discovery to beekeepers is really a great one, and there is no doubt but that the king bee box will speedily supersede, or at least lead to a modification of all others known. Great credit is due to Mr King for the simple but efficacious contrivance, and beekeepers will now rejoice that they are able, not only to cope with the long dreaded bee moth, but that the bees themselves can be placed in a position to defend their hardearned and valuable treasures against the greed and rapacity of neighboring hordes and colonies.