The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1913. BEEKEEPERS' PROBLEMS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 June 1913, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1913. BEEKEEPERS' PROBLEMS.

The beekeeping industry in New Zealand, though practised in these times by fewer individual than formerly, is of greater extent than it used to be, and the value of honey saved is more- than that of old. The ramifications of tlio industry extend from Southland to the North of Auckland, and whatever can he done ta improve conditions for tlie apiarists must indirectly benefit the whole dominion. Therefore it is satisfactory to.note that keen interest was evinced in the Beekeepers' Conference held at Wellington during the last few days, and that many helpful discussions on beekeepers' problems took place. Two papers of an especially interesting nature v were read to the conference: they concerned "queen-raising'' and "foul brood" respectively. In regard to queen raising. Mr It. Stewart read a paper in which he dealt with the beekeeper who had fifty to one hundred and fifty colonies of black or hybrid bees and desired to Italianise them, but was so situated that he could not do so advantageously by buying, and had little or no knowledge of queenraising. He shoilld, during tho previous autumn, secure a few untested queens from a reliablo breeder. The untested queens should bo well fed. so as to be strong in bees early. When tho brood was about nine days old tho queen should be killed, and tho brood given to some other polony. This would leave the colony queenless and with no brood of its own young to start queen cells on, but with plenty of nurse bees. When bees prepared to swarm tho apiarist should note all those colonies that slacken in. th'eir work, or were prevented from doing so by tho removal of the colls. These bees, said Mr Ward, would be persistent .farmers, and would not raise queens and drones, and would keep on bringing in honey right up to tho minute of coining out. Mr R. Gibb, of Wyndham, spoke instructively on that troublesome disease among apiaries, "Foul Brood—lts~ Scientific and Prac- ' tical Aspects." The disease was as old as tho bees themselves, and was spoken of by Aristotlo as occurring in Italy. He said that it was certainly an infectious complaint, for he had never yet found it present in a wild hive in the bush isolated from domesticated dees. Foul brood, he considered, probably originated in New Zealand through the medium of Ital- I ian bees, but it was probable that the bees had settled on the receptacles of imported honey and spread the disease. Nevertheless the disease was prevalent in the dominion. Many cures had been tried. Starvation was found to be useless, but the McEvoy system of treatment had been found the most effective. However, a great deal depended on th« .scrupulous cleanliness of the apiary, and the destruction of bees infected with the disease. Mr W. E. Barker, of Canterbury, in reading « paper on "Tho possible origin and spread of foul breed," echoed Sir Gibb's remarks on the origin. He attributed the spread of the disease largely to bees dying away from the hives as nature had taught them to do, in which case the bodies could not be destroyed. Other bees came in contact with the bodies, and to a great extent the wind aided the spread, for the germs were blown to all quarters. The spread could be combated to a great extent, however, by acting upon the Darwinian theory ol the survival of tho fittest, and breeding among the bees which it was observed showed the greatest resis-

submitted showing the difference in tance to the disease. A paper was freight on butter and honey charged by the Railway Department. It appeared that approximately six tons of honey could be packed in the space occupied by four tons of butter, and that the value of butter was nearly three times that of honey. Butter was always put in specially huilt wagons. Yet the freight per ton on honey was almost double that of butter. A deputation consisting of Messrs Allan, Hutchinson, Gilling, and Brickell was appointed to wait on the Minister of Railways to endavour to secure more equitable charges. After a lengthy discussion, a-deputation consisting of Messrs Allan, Cbtterill, Gibb and BartlettMiller, was appointed to wait on the Prime Minister, requesting his assistance in the placing upon the statute book the amendments of the Apiaries Act now put before the conference "Subsequently the deputations interviewed Ministers, and were given encouraging replies to their requests. A resolution was moved by Mr Bart-i'ett-Miller, and adopted, "That the Minister's attention be drawn to the resolution passed at the last annual conference regarding the compulsory registration of apiaries, hut that the fee of 2s Gd therein proposed be raised to ss, and that this money be spent upon an up-to-date experimental bee farm with an official in charge who is an up-to-date qualified queenraiser." Another resolution moved by Mr J. B. Adams, of Poverty Bay, was adopted, urging that the Apiaries Act be so amended as to empower apiary inspectors to deal with apiaries where honey is produced under insanitary conditions.