Control of Grass Around Beehives

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 73, Issue 6, 16 December 1946, Page 584

Control of Grass Around Beehives

/CONSIDERABLE difficulty is experienced each year in keeping down excessive growth of grass and weeds around beehives. Long grass in front of the hives retards the activities of the bees, and causes some pollen to be lost when the bees scramble through the obstruction to reach the entrance of their hive. At critical periods in the spring the loss of this pollen may seriously affect progress of the bees in building up colony strength. Rank growth around hives prevents circulation of air under the floorboards, and not only keeps conditions damp in the hives but also hastens the deterioration of hive equipment.

(T\N' permanent sites concrete slabs or/, paths make an excellent base on which to stand hives. Grass growth near the hives is thus eliminated, and hive material gives maximum service. In apiaries where tenure of the land is uncertain the expense of concrete foundations -■ is not . advisable. On fenced sites the : general practice is to scythe the ■ grass . when it reaches sufficient ; length,. grass clippers being used to remove the growth near the hives. Some beekeepers prefer to take a sharp spade and turn over a couple of sods in front of each hive. These

methods take a lot of time, and relieve the position for only a short period. The use of weedkillers has never been popular, mainly because of -the . price and the fact that the, ingredients are poisonous.

New Method of Control In an endeavour to find some method safe to use and not poisonous, experiments; with ' various -materials were carried out last season. The most encouraging was one which gave very definite results over a period of three months.

At the beginning of October, when the growth of grass around the hives in a small apiary was about 6in. high, a fuel oil was used. > This' is a dark, thin liquid which, can be procured from oil companies. Small quantities may sometimes be obtained from machinery merchants. A small watering-can ■ with a fine rose was used to distribute the oil bvenly over the grass to a width . of about 9in. around each hive; two pints were used for each stand. Although this, fuel has a very strong odour, it did not appear to affect the bees in any way unless they happened to alight on the treated grass soon after the. application. To prevent this a flat piece of board was placed on the ground in : front of each . hive ■■ for a few hours, by which time the oil had begun to show its effect on the treated grass. Growth in the Waikato during the spring of 1945 was never very strong because of the low rainfall in Novem-

ber and December, and that may have had some bearing on the results. Nevertheless, photographs taken at Christmas , time show . growth around the hives definitely, checked, allowing the bees a good clear entrance, as illustrated ■at right above. > The. hive on the left shows what the growth would have been like around the hives i had no measures been taken to check the grass. .: This fuel oil costs approximately Is. 2d. a gallon in bulk. The cost of one application was 4d. a hive, and growth around the hives was checked for 3 months during the most active . growing period. Another small application in the ■ autumn left the .' ground clean for the winter so that the floorboards would 1 dry out quickly after wet weather. The oil used must not be confused with used motor oil. It would appear from experiments carried out for one season that fuel oil will give a very beneficial retarding effect to all growth around beehives at a* cost that more than favourably compares with other methods of control.

C. R. PATERSON,

Apiary Instructor, Hamilton.