APIARY NOTES

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 61, Issue 1, 15 July 1940, Page 65

APIARY NOTES

Contributed by Officers ■ of the Horticulture Division

Precautions in Moving Bees

ALTHOUGH bees may be moved at any time in cases of emergency, the early spring is the best time for this work. Bees may then be moved long distances with safety and minimum of loss, either for the readjustment of apiary sites or the establishment of new apiaries.

Commercial beekeepers usually carry out this operation a little later in the spring, however, when the general disturbance caused by shifting has less effect on the bees and the apiaryground is more firm. Advanced beekeepers now agree that it is -not desirable to 'move hives during the winter rest period or at times far removed from an early honey flow. Shifting in summer is not desirable because of the strength of the bees, the large amount of brood in the hives, high temperatures, and the fact that the bees should be hard at work on the main crop of honey at this time of the year. To be shifted long distances, singlestorey hives should be reduced to medium strength. They should have no green or new honey in the hives, and should be completely screened with wire gauze either on the top or bottom to provide suitable ventilation. The removal of double-storey hives short distances by road transport in the early spring does not require these precautions.

The hives are merely held together by cleats or crate staples, the tops secured by close-fitting flat lids, sacking cut to size, or wooden mats, and the hive entrance closed with a piece of wire gauze or sacking. In this way the hives may be placed out on their new permanent stands and immediately released. Shifting bees up to twenty miles or more should not take more than one or two hours from the time the bees are secured at the entrance to the time they are released, provided the hives have been properly prepared beforehand and shifting is carried out late in . the afternoon 'or on a dull day when all the bees are at home.

Migratory Beekeeping With few exceptions, August and

September is early enough to move bees in New Zealand, according to location. In the northern portion of the North Island, however, shifting bees on a large scale is a common practice from the middle of ' June onwards to take advantage of the teatree, which begins flowering that month and yields nectar lightly at first until about the middle of August, when great quantities of honey are produced from it. In more southerly districts of the Auckland Province the tea-tree flowers later, and the flow extends to late November and early December. This shifting of bees in the north to tea-tree areas is done purely for spring feeding purposes, after which they are moved back to clover pasture areas in time to produce a crop of better quality honey. Not only do the hives fill up .for their own requirements, but during favourable seasons they also supply large quantities of well-filled, capped combs of honey for removal to other apiaries. Northern beekeepers would do well to study the conditions in any teatree areas within easy distance from their apiaries with a view to securing at low cost a good supply of early spring feed for their bees. Early each spring in light soil areas further south many hundreds of colonies are transported in single-storey hives during July and August to take advantage of the heath (Erica gracilis pyramidalisQ which begins to bloom in July and continues to September. The bees are allowed to remain for a week or two according to the weather, and are then moved back to clover pasture lands with enough stores to carry them on comfortably to the main honey flow.

Although migratory beekeeping is not practised to any great extent in this countryas it is in Australia and other parts of the world—beekeepers with apiaries situated in closelycropped, clean pasture lands do resort to this practice in a modified form.

Apiary Locations

There is no more important question for the beekeeper than location. His future success will depend on the selection of a suitable district where clovers and mixed pasture sources are available, and in territory that is not already' stocked with bees. The local Apiary Instructor - should be consulted before a decision is made to establish an apiary in strange country, where feed and shelter are the main requirements.

Tea-tree Honey Areas

As previously stated, tea-tree honey areas may be excellent for spring feeding purposes, but they should be strictly avoided in all parts of New Zealand for the establishment of permanent apiary sites for the production' of marketable honey.

It is extremely difficult to find suitable markets for this class of honey away from the areas in which it is produced because of its general condition and its thixotropic nature. This condition makes it impossible to ex-tract'-tea-tree (manuka) honey from the combs by ordinary methods, and when it is separated from the combs it will not .strain and holds suspended all air bubbles and foreign matter.

* To remove this class of honey from the combs by centrifugal force, it must first be stirred up or agitated. This is done by the use of a pricker pad, which temporarily breaks up or softens the stiff jelly-like or glutinous condition sufficiently to enable it to leave the combs freely, but not sufficient to enable the clearance of foreign matter and air bubbles that enter the honey during extracting operations.

Moderate heating by ordinary methods will not reduce the viscosity or holding condition sufficiently for clarification either by straining or gravitation. In all cases where high temperatures are used to remove this type of honey from the combs or to

facilitate straining, the colour is darkened and the natural flavour destroyed to the point of caramelisation (spoiled honey). Pressing the combs is also a common practice to separate this honey, but this method is very crude, and drives this method is very crude, and drives a great deal of air and small -pieces of comb into the honey which remains there. Honey in this condition is definitely below the acceptable standard, as there is no way by which it can be successfully clarified and blended with other honeys of better quality. People living in more or less isolated areas where tea-tree honey is produced have acquired a taste for it, but on the open market this honey

cannot compete on an individual merit basis against good quality honey. ... Robbing , this time .of the year-r-and also later in the spring, during the aSCe is a honey flow and when the weather . g mild _% e tendency to rob other colonies may develop among the bees to such proportions that all weak or queenless colonies are completely robbed of all their stores. Further, the majority of the bees in the robbed hives will perish in the struggle. Conditions favourable to robbing in ne J le Tby the" beeSp" toMnte? the bees n proper condition and to take the precautions advised in last month’s apiary notes.

Preventive Measures Preventive measures consist of reducing the size of the entrance of weak colonies and being sure that all cracks and crevices are closed. The examination of the colonies in the early spring should be avoided as much as possible, and no -honey combs should be exposed to possible robber bees. Queenless colonies, no matter how strong in bees, seem to be less organised to fight would-be robbers, and are quickly overcome and reduced to starvation point. S. WINTER, Senior Apiary Instructor, Wellington.

Possibilities of. Ruotorio os Honey Producing District

SOME hundreds of tons of good honey are going to waste in the Ruatoria district between Gisborne and Cape Runaway for the want of bees to gather it. It would appear to be a district with wonderful prospects for bee-keepers. It has already established itself as a butter-producing and sheep and cattle district, but its honeyproducing capabilities have not yet been fully exploited. Confining oneself to the main road, . one cannot appreciate the wonderful possibilities of the district from a production point of view. In and around Ruatoria there are many roads which lead to numerous fertile valleys where there is a wondrous growth of grasses and clovers. It has possibly one of the finest climates in New Zealand with sufficient rainfall for agricultural purposes. My first visit was in .April, 1939, when an address on bee-keeping was given at Ruatoria. A fair number of interested persons were present and became sufficiently interested to attend a practical demonstration in transferring the bees, from , old boxes, of which there were a number, to modern frame hives. There are some 38. registered beekeepers with 200 , colonies of bees in the district. They have formed a

Bee-keepers’ Association, and have linked up with the New Zealand Beekeepers’ Association. Most of these are now enthusiastic bee-keepers in a

small way. Some, however, after seeing the results of . the ' modern methods adopted in bee-keeping, are increasing their colonies with a view to producing honey on a commercial scaie. Among these bee-keepers are a num-, ber of Maoris. They are being visited by officials of the local association and are being shown in a practical manner how to properly keep their hives. Some quite remarkable returns have been obtained in the district. One instance may be quoted. From a hive obtained in October, the secretary • of the association, * Mr. 'W. H. O. Johnston, has taken more than 2001 b of good white clover honey. This colony is 7J stories high. Another transferred from an old box in the late spring has now five supers well filled with honey (see photographs) This association recently held its first field day at Mrs. O. T. Williams’s apiary at Titiraukena Station, and, in spite of the showery day, a most interesting meeting was held. From the results obtained, it would be safe to say that this district is capable of producing many tons of first-grade honey. —G. V. WE BROOKE, Apiary Instructor, Hastings.