Seasonal Work for Beekeepers

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 63, Issue 2, 15 August 1941, Page 152

Seasonal Work for Beekeepers

Spring Apiary Management

SPRING apiary management should begin in New Zealand some time during August, according to weather conditions. Warm days, when the bees /are flying freely, will give the -opportunity to ascertain the condition ■and requirements of each hive. Care should be taken to avoid undue delay while each, hive is open for examination; otherwise, brood may be chilled and robber bees attracted by the exposure of honey combs at this time of the year. If colonies are wintered in clean, dry hives with plenty of stores, young bees, and a good queen, few will need any further attention until August. -■ The main object of the first spring examination is to see that each colony has an ample supply of stores, as feeding may be necessary to prevent starvation or to stimulate brood-rearing when no honey is available from natural sources. Artificial feeding is tricky, and should be avoided whenever possible, especially where the beekeeper is a beginner and does not . thoroughly understand the habits and requirements of the bees. It is much easier and more economic in all cases to supply the bees with combs of honey kept for the purpose from the previous- season. ' ;.

Food Requirements

At this time of the year all normal colonies will have patches of brood on both sides of two to five combs, according to the strength of the colony and weather conditions. The number of eggs laid by the queen in each hive increases daily, with a consequent heavy consumption of stores in feeding the young larvae and hatching bees. Some 15 to 20 lb. of honey may be used in each hive in a week when broodrearing has begun in earnest, and the rate of consumption increases as the colonies gather strength. A hive which is well stocked with bees and has a young queen may, have from 10,000 to 12,000 larvae to feed daily as well as maintaining the young bees , already hatched, which are unable to gather from the fields for a week or more after hatching. Consequently, the food situation soon be--comes critical when brood-rearing activities increase and there is little or no nectar being gathered from the fields. , '

At this time of the. yearj where a hive has equal to five full frames of honey, it may be considered sufficient until nectar is available. A weak or medium-strength hive would require less, as the queen would not be laying at her fullest capacity until there were sufficient nurse bees hatched to attend to the feeding of all the baby larvae and keep up the necessary warmth in the hives. The strength of each hive and the amount of brood present is the guide to food requirements. , Where spare combs of honey ' have been kept from the previous season, feeding will be a simple matter. Remove one or two empty side combs from each hive to be fed, taking care not to disturb pollen combs ; on either side of the cluster, as pollen is as essential as honey for feeding the 'young larvae. No matter how much honey is present, very little progress can be made . by the bees if all pollen combs are removed and the bees have no opportunity to gather fresh supplies, which is very often the case at this time of the year. Place the combs of honey outside the pollen combs on each side of the brood nest, and close the hive as quickly as possible. All feeding operations must be done late in the day or when the weather is wet enough to prevent the bees flying. v The best plan is to go through the apiary and quickly remove the necessary empty combs from all hives requiring to be fed, at the same time closing each hive immediately. When the bees have settled down, fill the empty - spaces with feed combs, working quickly and with as little disturbance as possible. Flying bees should not be allowed to get at the combs while they are being distributed, otherwise . robbing may develop, with consequent loss of all weak and medium-strength hives in the apiary. The combs should be carried in supers on a barrow . well covered with clean corn sacks, and where ■ conditions ' are favourable for robbing, sprinkle a little diluted carbolic solution on the sack covers as a repellant.

Fceding Syrup

Where combs of honey are not available, the beekeeper will have to use other means to supply any food deficiency. Although honey is the natural and best food for the bees for all purposes, sugar syrup may be used with good results either to stimulate brood-

rearing in the spring or to make up for any shortage of winter stores in the autumn. Conditions of feeding, however, are somewhat different. In the autumn two parts sugar to one of water is best, and should be fed warm in large quantities for quick storage in a manner that will not" encourage the bees to raise more than the normal amount of brood. A handy feeder for this purpose is a 5 or 10 lb. friction-top honey pail with small holes punched in , the lid. The pail should be filled with warm syrup and inverted directly over the cluster, enabling the bees to take the syrup through the perforations in the lid. An empty super should be placed on top of the colony and sack covers placed around the pail and over the tops of frames to prevent the heat of the cluster from escaping above., ■ ; A strong colony will take the contents of alO lb. pail in a day. If all the syrup is not taken as rapidly as it should be, the remainder should be removed and replaced the following night by warm syrup.

Division Board Feeder

The division board feeder is perhaps the best for all spring feeding purposes, and , has the same outside dimensions as an ordinary brood-frame but is two

inches wide. It will hold about 5 lb. of syrup, and should be placed inside the hive in a space provided by the removal of two empty combs next to the hive wall.. This feeder can be readily filled from a jug or watering can without disturbing the bees . by quietly ( lifting the lid of the hive and moving it to one side, at the same time folding back the hive mat just enough to allow the feeder to be filled. It is important to place floats in these feeders, otherwise the bees have diffi-

culty in keeping a foothold and many get drowned during the excitement when the fresh food is first discovered in the hives. Dry brushwood or small sticks will do quite well. ' - . While a heavy syrup is required for storage purposes in the autumn, a lighter mixture of equal parts of sugar and water ais best for brood-rearing, where required, and should be given regularly twice a week until the bees are able to maintain ’ themselves from natural sources. For stimulative feeding just before the main honey flow, when the colonies are < strong ; and there is a shortage of stores because of bad weather, a mixture of two parte water to one of sugar is sufficient to keep the bees in good condition until the main honey flow begins. . As a general rule, the main points to observe for safety in artificial feeding are to feed luke-warm syrup late in the day, and give no more than the bees are able to take up during the night. Disturb the bees as little as possible, and contract the entrance to all hives.

-T. S. WINTER,

Senior Apiary

Instructor, Wellington.