HONEY-CROP PROSPECTS.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume VI, Issue 4, 15 April 1913, Page 441

HONEY-CROP PROSPECTS.

The Director of Orchards, Gardens, and Apiaries Division has received the following reports on' the honey-crop prospects from the Apiary Instructors: — Auckland. —Owing to dry summer, honey-flow ceased early in March, but good yields were secured. The market price averaged 10s. per dozen 2 lb. tins. — 7. Westbrooke. Wellington.—Honey crop in my district now almost completely gathered, the greater quantity of which was of excellent quality. Prices are firm, and beekeepers in Taranaki and elsewhere are arranging for export shipments, which are expected to assist the local trade.- A. Jacobsen. Christchurch. —Honey season is now finished, and most beekeepers are preparing for the winter. A fair trade doing, and prices much the same'as last month, although there is a tendency to advance.— Bowman. Dunedin.—The surplus of honey is in excess of last season’s crop. Extracting has finished. Bulk honey sent forward is meeting good demand, bringing from 4d. to 4{-d. per pound in 1 lb. glass bottles, 9s. per dozen. Fancy white-comb honey realizes 7s. per dozen. Beekeepers are warned against forwarding lots in second-hand packages (kerosene-tins). Dunedin auctioneers complain bitterly of methods adopted, and consequently by which prices are affected.— E. A. Earp.

Honey on a London Roof. —It will surprise many to learn that an apiary is being maintained with profit in the very heart of busy London. Within sight of Holborn, on the roof of a block of flats, Mr. Wakeveil keeps fifteen hives, from one of which last year he obtained 531 b. of honey. The bees buzz as merrily in the London smoke as if they were in a country garden. They find their own food in the summer, but during the winter sugar-canes are placed on the roof for them.