APIARY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 22

APIARY NOTES

Advice to Beekeepers JANUARY HONEY RECIPES (By D. S. Robinson, Apiary Instructor, Department of Agriculture, Palmerston North). The honey flow is still on during this month, and if the beekeeper has not plenty of spare comibs, he should take off completed combs as fast as they are filled, extract the honey and return the combs to the hives. The replacing of combs that have been extracted is best done about sundown, as there are then comparatively few bees flying, and the danger of exciting the bees and starting robbing is much reduced. Be sure and give the bees plenty of room in the hives. Keep the entrances free from weeds and long grass, so as not to retard the bees’ flight, or to prevent plenty of ventilation around the hives. Any hives on which the bees are noticed clustering outside should be given an extra super nt once, as these bees are wasting goMen hours. The honey flow is usually of a short duration; therefore, it is bad beekeeping to allow the hives to get so overcrowded that the bees are compelled, through lack of room, to cluster outside when they should be out iu the fields gathering nectar that is otherwise going to waste. Toward the end of the month the flow will be easing off in some locations, which will be indicated by lessened activity at the hives during the afternoon, bees being about the apiary, in greater numbers than usual This month’s honey recipes are as follow :— Honey peanut butter: 4 cupful honey, 4 cupful peanut butter. Blend peanut butter and honey. More honey may be added if a sweeter paste is desired. Excellent on hot buttered toast or as a dressing for sweet sandwiches. Honey buttered beets: 24 cups beetroot cooked and sliced. 4 cup of boiling Yater, 1 tablespoon flour, 4 tablespoons vinegar or lemou juice, 2 tablespoons butter, 4 tablespoons honey. Blend butter and flour, add hot water and stir until smooth. Add other ingredients and pour over the beets that have been placed in a buttered dish. Cook 29 minutes in a moderate oven.