THE APIARY.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume V, Issue 1, 15 July 1912, Page 49

THE APIARY.

NOTES FOR AUGUST

F. A. Jacobsen.

Making Hives : Does it pay the Average Beekeeper ?

I have received many inquiries, both verbally and by letter, in reference to the above subject. Beekeeping is . becoming more and more popular, and the large increase in the number of hives used is attracting the attention of woodwork-manufacturers. Quite a number of these have taken up beehive-making as a side-line, yet some of them do not make the hives to the satisfaction of many beekeepers. The reason may be ascribed to a lack of knowledge of bee-life. By this term I mean the habits of bees under certain conditions and in certain districts. One kind of frame would suit a certain' district admirably, yet would be of considerable inconvenience in another.

The first thing the amateur should consider is, does he possess sufficient knowledge of bee requirements to enable him to make them correctly ? The next thing is for him to find out if he has sufficient mechanical knowledge to work a crosscut saw and a planer — must be at hand to drive these machines. He must also be able to buy his timber at a cheap rate. All these considerations must have due thought before arriving at' a decision; and to the uninitiated I would remark that the best knowledge is gained by experience. Mistakes are always liable to occur even with the most careful; and, in order to keep up to date, changes may have to be made from one style of hive to another. For instance, a beekeeper running a tenframed hive may desire to adopt the twelve-framed, or he may decide to run his apiary fo'r comb honey in place of extracted. Many changes will certainly be made during a number of years, .and it is advantageous to have tools at hand to do this work.

The hive principally used to advance bee-culture in the Dominion is the one planned by the veteran American beekeeper Mr. Langstroth, with modifications continually being made to bring it up to date. The Langstroth ten-framed hive has become popular over all parts of the world. It sometimes occurs, however, that in certain good beekeeping districts it has been found rather small; and in those cases the number of frames has been increased to twelve, the remaining measurements

of the hive being the same as those containing ten frames, with the exception that the supers are wider.

All these matters considered, and presuming a beekeeper wants firstclass workmanship and an accurate fit of the interchangeable parts, the question arises, how many hives are required It would not pay an apiarist in a small way to purchase machinery, and to make hives by hand is a long, tedious process. I would, therefore, advise that all small beekeepers procure their goods from some reliable maker who will give them satisfaction. The price for a good article does not prohibit making these purchases, and any improvements he may desire could be made at a cheaper rate by the manufacturer than by himself. The makers supply hives in the flat, and all the beekeeper has to do is 'to nail them together and paint them. This is a good system for' a man who is combining beekeeping with some other industry or has no leisure time for hive-making. For a person who is running several apiaries and who devotes his whole time to the industry the case is different. It is essential for him to know something about hive-making, and he spends the winter in repairing hives and effecting improvements. He .probably, wants to make up a hundred new hives for the following season, and so he sets his engine to do the work. He buys a fairly large quantity: of timber in one lot and gets it cheaper than the man who buys a small quantity; consequently it pays him to manufacture to his own satisfaction. Perhaps the best kind of timber to select for hive-making is whitepine. ...It has the advantage of being light and easily worked ; when painted it is very durable, and it withstands well both hot and wet weather.

Mating-boxes

Now is the time for getting everything prepared for the coming season. Not of. the least importance is preparing for queen-rearing and mating. The best mating-boxes are made the size, of ordinary supers and divided into three compartments. The divisions are made in various ways. One way is as follows A Two saw-cuts are run from top to bottom, about J in. deep, on the inside of. each end, and a division of tin is slipped down in the grooves so made. Another way is to tack two sets of.cleats at each end, so that a thin partition of wood may be slipped between. Two of these division boards divide a hivebody into three compartments, and the entrance to each is made by boring f- in. holes at the bottom of each compartment, one on each, side and one in the middle, making three entrances to the hive instead of one.

When the hives are not in use for mating-purposes the divisions may be slipped out and the super used in the ordinary way. These matingboxes have an advantage over all others in the matter of heat-con

servation. The partitions are so thin that the three lots of bees on their three combs help to keep each other warm. I have seen queens held over all the winter in these boxes and each nucleus built up to a ten-framed hive in the spring. It is advisable to place strips of matting of suitable size over the single compartments, so that the other two are not disturbed when one is being manipulated. The ordinary hive-cover is used over the whole.

Foundation Imbedding.

There are a great number of methods employed in imbedding the supporting wires into the wax foundation; the most common is what is called a wax imbedder, and is on the principle of a tracing-wheel, such as dressmakers use. Slots are filed round the edge of the wheel, which is run over the wire on the foundation, thus imbedding it. This method is not the most satisfactory; a slight jar on the frame will set the foundation loose again, and it is not always convenient to handle new frames carefully. A system which is coming into use now is to melt the foundation on to the wires, thus uniting the two strongly. A piece of | in. round iron, about 1 in. or 5 in. long, is tapered by a blacksmith to a curved blunt point; file a nick in the point to run along the wire, and the tool is complete. When using it keep the point heated over a small lamp. The work is done in the usual way by placing the frame with the foundation on . the im-bedding-board and running the hot point of the iron over the wire. The plan works simply and efficiently, and is perhaps a little quicker than the tracer system.