Seasonal Work for Beekeepers

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 63, Issue 3, 15 September 1941, Page 247

Seasonal Work for Beekeepers

Increasing the Number of Hives

IN some parts of New Zealand, 1 chiefly in southern districts, the bees come through the winter greatly reduced in numbers. Bees which have passed through a hard winter - are vigorous enough for a time,, but they quickly die off in the spring after the first cycle of brood has been raised. The secret of successful spring apiary management, therefore, is to get a force of young bees to care for the queen and brood as soon as possible, and this can be done only by supplying the bees with ' dry, comfortable' hives and sufficient stores, as indicated in last month’s notes. After the bees have had an opportunity to carry on brood-rearing the next visit to the apiary should be for a close examination of each" hive. Queenless Colonies Where colonies are not successfully re-queened by the beekeeper before wintering them . down, or where ' a queen has died for any reason late ,in the autumn, the colony becomes hopelessly queenless. A number of worker . bees then attempt to perform the duties of a'queen, and they eventually start to lay eggs. Although worker bees are females, they are capable of laying only unfertilised eggs, from which drones develop? These drones are raised in worker cells, and are i always much smaller than normal drones raised in natural drone cells used by fertilised queens. The presence of bullet-shaped. cappings over cells scattered through the : brood nest and small drones in the hive is sufficient indication that a colony is queenless, ' and also that laying worker bees are present. Although it - is possible to re-queen colonies reduced to this . condition, . are very slow in building up,- and it is best to unite them immediately with hives which have laying queens. - Making Increase Many small beekeepers will now be considering how to increase the number of their hives without purchasing new colonies or depending on swarming. Before attempting to make increase by artificial. methods the beekeeper must thoroughly understand the fundamentals of colony requirer ments and the habits of the bees. - . The queen must have the - protection of large numbers of worker bees and sufficient comb room (worker cells) in which to lay her eggs during the breeding season. Each -colony must have

sufficient worker bees, including a large portion of nurse bees, to maintain the necessary warmth for broodrearing and to feed . the young larvae. A colony containing only , old field bees is not capable of raising brood satisfactorily, and can make but slow-pro-gress. . In addition to honey, bees require a good supply of pollen and ; water. Pollen is a source of proteins and fats in the food prepared for feeding the larvae in the brood-nest, and without pollen or a suitable substitute no brood or young bees can be developed. Fresh water should be provided where there is no readily accessible natural source. The elimination of long , flights. for water .enables the bees to return to the hives before they become chilled on' cold days in the spring, and is at all times a distinct saving of bee energy. .', ', . ; . V Dividing Hives In districts where the honey season is- fairly long and there, is a relatively late = main. honey flow, the brood stores and' bees of a strong colony may be divided into two parts without serious loss of honey crop, provided the division , is , made early.', in the . season... and the queenless portion is given a young laying queen immediately. : The division. should be made six to eight weeks before the main honey flow begins, and care must be taken to get . the largest portion of nurse bees into the section moved away to a new stand. The entrance should be closed with a wad of green grass for at least two days; otherwise this new colony would be weakened considerably by the return of the majority of field bees to the

original hive location. Great care must be taken to prevent robbing of the weakened colonies and to see that they are well supplied with suitable stores.. ,"■. ;In localities where the main . honey flow begins early and is of short duration, there is usually insufficient time for the bees to build up and store a normal surplus when ■ divided in this manner. They will, however, build up into good strong colonies and store a little surplus, provided the season is favourable. ! v Rapid Increase 1 .. Rapid increase by dividing each colony into three or four at one time can be accomplished only at the expense of the honey crop for that season. Where

the beekeeper has good Italian stocks, brood-rearing should be encouraged by feeding a little sugar syrup regularly three or four times a week to the colonies to be divided until' each hive contains at least eight combs of brood and has an abundance of nurse bees. , . The time to divide is when the hives are .in . that, condition before , the main honey flow begins and when nectar is available in the fields. A simple, plan is to remove the queens and leave . the hives for. ten. days, during which time the bees will have raised queen cells on nearly all •of the brood combs. Queens removed in this way may be used to make' further increase by introducing them to the queenless portion ■of divided hives as explained earlier.On the tenth day after the removal of the queens a sufficient number of hives should be prepared and placed in position about the apiary ready to take the increase. Divide the brood combs

and place , two . together with one or two combs of honey and pollen, and with all the adhering bees, into each of the prepared hives, making sure that there is one good-sized ripe queen cell present in each division and plenty of nurse bees. The brood combs should be placed next to the wall of the hive, with the queen cell between the two combs. ; When each division is completed two good mats should be placed over the. frames, and the entrance to the hive completely closed with a wad of green grass tight enough to prevent the escape of bees for at least two or three days. If this is not done the field bees will immediately drift back to their original stand in great numbers, thus leaving insufficient bees to keep the required warmth necessary, for hatching the queen cell and brood. Ventilation and Mating There will be sufficient ventilation through the crevices about the hives, and the bees will gnaw a small passage through the grass as it withers, by which time the majority of the bees will make no "attempt to drift back to their original location in the apiary. If the best cells are chosen, the queen cell in each division will not hatch be-

fore the tenth or eleventh day after removal of the queens from the parent hives, and the young virgin queens will not require their liberty for mating for at least another three days. In the meantime, the beekeeper should widen the entrance to each hive to about two inches, but before doing so he should make sure that there are no robber bees about to molest these weakened colonies. When the young queens are mated and laying, the frames should be moved over from the side of the hives as each colony makes progress, and the empty spaces filled with good worker combs according to requirements. The entrance to each hive may also be extended accordingly. The same results may be obtained by dividing a colony which is preparing to swarm, using only the best queen cells for the purpose and destroying all others, together with the old queen. Only hives which have given good results the previous season should be used for increase in this way; otherwise inferior stocks may result. More advanced methods of raising queen cells to provide a supply of young queens will be dealt with next month. S. WINTER, Senior Apiary Instructor, Wellington.

Freezing injury is likely to occur in cool chambers where pears are stored, as the storage temperatures are lower than those required for apple storage. The freezing of fruit is brought about by maintaining the flesh of the fruit at too low a temperature, often due to an imperfect system of air distribution in the cool chamber. The freezing temperature of pears is 28.5 deg. F., and wrapped and packed fruit held under conditions where the temperature of the circulating air when it enters the chamber is lower than this reading *is likely to suffer injury. Temperatures should be taken with a flesh thermometer. The temperature of the fruit stacked adjacent to the delivery air trunk or cooling pipes is the most reliable guide to the cool storage engineer in preventing freezing injury. One degree of variation will be sufficient to cause freezing when suitable temperatures are being maintained for successful pear storage. Thermometers. used for registering cool storage temperatures should be checked from time to time with a standard instrument in order to prove their accuracy.

A. A. POWELL,

Cool Storage

Officer, Wellington.