THE APIARY.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXXVII, Issue 6, 20 December 1928, Page 420

THE APIARY.

RETURNING SWARMS TO PARENT HIVES. Swarms in January are of little' value except as increase for the next season, and should be returned to the hives whence they originated if these can be traced. It is a good plan to kill the old queen in the swarm when returning it, at the same time destroying all but two queen-cells in the parent colony. If the hive is cramped an extra super may be given, and with this inducement the colony will usually settle down at once to work.

After - swarms should always be returned to the parent hive. They are easily disposed of even if the beekeeper does not know whence they came. ■ If they are shaken through an excluder into an empty super the virgin queen or queens can easily be picked out as they attempt to force their way through, and once these are removed the bees will return to their old home. The young queens can then be used to replace poor queens in the apiary. It is an excellent plan to have one or two queen-cages always on hand. The young queens can each be confined in a separate cage, and when the queen to be destroyed is removed the closed cage containing the virgin can be placed on top of the frames and left there for twenty-four hours, during which time she will be fed by the bees in the hive. . At the end of twenty-four hours she can be released and allowed to run down into the. frames, when she will , be accepted by the bees.

VENTILATION

The matter of ventilating the hives should by now be receiving every attention. Every means should be "used to ensure the bees having an abundance of fresh air day and night. All weeds and other obstructions should be removed from the fronts of the hives, and the entrances enlarged as much- as possible. In extreme cases the hivebodies should be raised from the bottom-boards by means of small blocks of wood. On no account should the bees be allowed to cluster outside the hives, and wherever they show a tendency to excessive .fanning steps should be at once taken to increase the supply of fresh air to the colonies.

SUPERS

One of ,the necessities of a well-regulated apiary is an abundance of supers when the honey-flow is in full swing. Every inducement should be given the . bees during the often brief season to gather in every available drop of nectar. No beekeeper with business acumen will allow his bees to loaf or cluster outside the hives for lack of storage room. It is well when adding extra supers to place them between the broodchamber and the first super, or at least to raise a few frames of honey from the first super into the second when adding the latter.

It should be understood, however, that supering must not be overdone and the bees disheartened by . being given too much work at one time. On no'account add a second super until the bees are well, at work in the first, and in cases where the colonies are only building up well at the beginning of the honey-flow —that is, where a poor colony has been requeened and the new queen’s brood has not as yet hatched — is an excellent plan to tier up with half-stories. Many an apiarist has had a moderate return from a small colony with half-stories, when it is doubtful if any return at all would have been obtained by the use of full-depth supers.

QUEEN-EXCLUDERS

January is the month when queen-excluders are of most use, especially in southern districts. Whatever their disadvantage may be in some localities, in the South they have proved their efficacy in enabling extracting to be finished before the hot weather goes, without the destruction of any brood whatever. Excluders should never be used for general purposes until the main honey-flow is in full swing. By that time the bees are used to working in the supers, and with nectar in abundance to be had all around them they will work cheerfully right through the hive, passing through the holes in the excluders as if no obstruction existed.

The best method of using the excluders is as follows : All sealed brood should be raised above the . excluder, and the queens confined below on drawn-out combs. The brood above the excluder should be watched for a few days in case any eggs have been elevated, as the bees will sometimes, attempt to raise queen-cells above the excluder. If this happens the queen-cells should be destroyed, as the queens which would emerge from them would not be able to pass through the excluders to get mated, and would in time develop into dronelayers. By providing the queen with plenty of empty combs she will be able to cultivate laying at a sufficient rate to keep up a supply of workers, and as the brood hatches out in the upper stories the cells will be at once filled up with honey.

Excluders are often condemned as being productive of overswarming, but in many localities swarming ceases automatically as soon' as the main honey-flow commences, and if the queen is allowed plenty of room in the brood-chamber, and the brood in the supers carefully watched for the production of-queen-cells,'very little harm can come from, the use of excluders, while the immense advantage of being able to extract combs entirely free of brood is worth a great deal to the apiarist at his busiest season.

FOUL-BROOD

Foul-brood, unfortunately, is all too common in some localities, and in consequence beekeepers may at any time have a visitation. No one, however, should look upon foul-brood as a necessary evil — it can be cured. It is unknown in some parts of New Zealand, some apiarists who have been keeping bees for ten years or more never having seen it. Other districts' that have in' the past been troubled with the disease are now free from any sign of infection.

There is therefore no excuse for the presence of foul-brood in apiaries . situated in open country; . its presence is explained by carelessness ' on the, part of the beekeeper.- There is no remedy for

American foul-brood superior to the McEvoy treatment, which has been frequently described in the Journal, and is more fully dealt with in the Department’s Bulletin No. ng, “ American Foul-brood in Bees and its Treatment,” which can be obtained free on application. Carelessness in' dealing with foul-brood must result in heavy losses, and eventually in the destruction of the whole apiary. Make a point of treating any colonies found to be infected ; though' there may be only a few cells of disease showing, the infection is there, and it is not safe to trust to any methods less than the full McEvoy treatment. On no account put supers on infected colonies ; this will only increase the quantity of material that must eventually be destroyed to ensure the eradication of the disease. '

-E. A. Earp,

Senior Apiary Instructor, Wellington.