THE APIARY.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXX, Issue 1, 20 January 1925, Page 53

THE APIARY.

THE EXTRACTING SEASON. By this time, provided weather conditions are favourable, extracting will be in full swing in all districts. There may be two or more extractings during the season, or the honey may be left in the hives till the close of. the flow and the whole crop removed at one time. In the latter case the beekeeper needs an ample supply of supers and combs, and must, watch attentively that the hives do not become honey-bound and the bees commence loafing. The better plan is to have two or three extractings during the season, removing at the first operation all combs in which the honey is wholly or three-parts sealed. When these are emptied and returned to the hives the. ■excluders should be brought into use if they are not already in the hives. Hot sunny weather should be chosen for the work, as on such days the honey runs freely and the bees are good-tempered. A good plan is to remove the honey in the morning, stacking the supers in

the honey-house as they are removed, preparatory to extracting in the afternoon. By this method all stray bees can be removed before' the actual extracting commences, and the operator can work quickly and peacefully at emptying the combs till the evening, when the empty combs can. be'returned to the hives. By the morning the bees will have settled down and returned to the task of refilling. “ Keep the extractor running ” is a good maxim once the work has commenced, and every hot day should be utilized for gathering the harvest. REMOVING HONEY FROM THE HIVES. Honey should not be removed from the hives until it is well ripened. . When the surfaces of the combs are a half to three-parts capped the honey is ' usually sufficiently ripe to enable the beekeeper to extract with perfect safety. In northern districts the practice of taking off “ green honey,” to be afterwards ripened in the tanks, has been to some extent carried out, but the humidity of the climate must be the deciding factor. In southern districts such procedure would be dangerous, and care should be exercised and only wellripened honey taken. By taking unripe honey, fermentation will often result, rendering it unfit for consumption. When the time for extracting is at hand the usual practice is to remove the combs one by one, and to brush or shake off the adhering bees. . As the combs, are. relieved of the bees they should be stacked in a super, to be afterwards removed to the honey-house. It is a wise precaution at all times to place a cloth over the combs in the super, and if there are any signs of robbing it is a good plan to use a damp doth which has been previously immersed in water containing a small percentage of carbolic acid. STRAINERS. Some form of strainer should be adopted to catch the larger particles of wax, dead bees, &c., in the honey as it leaves the extractor and before it finally reaches the tank. It is a simple matter to strain the honey, and yet this important part of the work receives less attention than its importance demands. It should be the aim of every beekeeper to see that his product is rendered as marketable as possible before it finally reaches the-., customer, and thus create a name for a high-class article. Wax is not a component part of honey, and dead bees are foreign matter, and yet they-are frequently found in honey exposed for sale. Honey containing either is not likely to suit the buyer, and its selling-value is ' consequently reduced. To ensure that all but the smallest particles of wax will be removed the honey should be run through a fine wire, strainer, and finally passed through fine cheesecloth before entering the tank. Cheesecloth strainers are cheap and are easily made, and should be cleansed after each day’soperations. The strainers should be of such construction as to be easily cleaned, and if the cloth is tacked into wooden frames the operation is greatly facilitated. Use cold water when cleansing the strainers : hot water melts the particles of wax, thereby clogging the holes in the cloth ; whereas cold water removes all wax from the surface. Hang the strainers up to dry, so as to be ready for use when required. . ' - - HONEY-TANK. No'part' of the apiary ..equipment is of more importance at extracting-time . than a good tank. From the strainers in use it is-

advantageous to run the honey into a tank, so that the small particles of wax that pass through the-strainers will rise to the surface, when they can be skimmed off before finally drawing the honey off at the bottom of the tank. Many beekeepers run their honey direct from the strainers into tins, and small packages ready for sale, with the result that the small particles of wax rise to the surface, to the detriment of the honey and its sale. Frequently complaints are made as to the .quality of the honey, and not infrequently adulteration is suspected through an excess of these wax - particles rising to the surface. Such honey should not find its way to market, its condition ■ having been brought about by sheer neglect on the part of the beekeeper to provide adequate tank accommodation. By allowing the honey to settle in the tank the air-bubbles escape, the small particles of wax rise to the surface, and in dry weather surplus water is evaporated. The size of the tank to be adopted must be decided by the beekeeper himself, as it is hard to find two beekeepers with requirements alike' in the matter of honey-tanks. He must study his needs and convenience, but in any case the tank should hold enough to enable him to deal with the honey in the hives at the time of extracting. The tank illustrated in Bulletin No. 55, “ Beeculture,” in use at the Department's experimental apiary, is capable of dealing with the product of two hundred colonies, and is so arranged that each extracting can be left undisturbed until it is matured and ready to be run off into the tins. * . . CLEANLINESS IN THE HONEY-HOUSE. It should hardly be necessary to point out that the greatest care must be taken in preparing honey for market. However, it is by no means an uncommon thing to come across cases where the beekeeper appears to have lost sight of the fact that honey is a food, and, what is of more importance, a food which is eaten uncooked. Too much stress cannot be laid on the fact that everything in the . honey-house should receive the same attention as dairy utensils. The extractor and tank cannot be washed out every day during the season, but they should be thoroughly scalded before commencing operations, and whenever honey is allowed to remain in them they should be covered with clean washing covers. These cost little, are easily made, and should be very much in evidence throughout the season. On no account should bees, flies, dust, or other foreign matter be allowed to alight on the honey in the tank, and as soon as extracting is finished for the day the extractor should be closely covered with a cloth. ■ Finally, as a fitting close to the day’s work, the floor of the extracting-room should be washed and .every drop of honey spilt during the day removed. TREATMENT OF. FOUL-BROOD. The work of putting colonies under treatment where foul-brood is detected should not be postponed. The season is a short one, ' and every effort should be made to winter only clean hives. The risk of having the disease spread by robbing during the off-season, when it is most likely to break out, will lead to endless work in the spring unless the beekeeper is in earnest in checking its spread during favourable conditions.. No, better plan can be followed than to treat all infected colonies by the McEvoy method during the late

flow. Many beekeepers are, too ready to postpone treatment, only to find in the spring their hives'weak in bees, and consequently in poor condition for successful treatment. No half-measures should be adopted when dealing with foul-brood, and in all cases the “ double shake ” should be practised if the disease is to be entirely eradicated. A good plan to follow if any doubt exists as to the complete absence of the disease is to mark all infected colonies, and to leave them to be finally dealt with after- the clean colonies are extracted. In any case the combs should be marked with the number of the hive to which they belong, so that when they are extracted they may be returned- to the colony from which they were taken. If these precautions are taken the risk oh spreading disease by means of wet combs is minimized.

E. A. Earp,

Senior Apiary Instructor.