BEE-KEEPING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5011, 9 August 1926, Page 3

BEE-KEEPING.

A PIMJFITABLE INDUSTRY.

MONEY TO BE . MADE IN HONEY.

At the recent Farm School held in Palmerston Nprth the Government Instructor in Swine Husbandry aduiited that the only primary industry that could show a bigger profit than pig farming was bee-keeping. And ifi one can judge from the experiences of that well-known beekeeper, Mr A. Bates, of Wonga, who was a visitor to Palmerston North last week, there is certainly a great deal of money to be made in honey production. “I only started in a small way,’’ stated Mr Bates to a “Times” reporter, “totaie 18 years ago. Toj-day I have no less than 800 hives, and propose this coming season to keep 1100 hives.”

- Questioned as to the return from his bees last season, Mr Bates stated that they had manufactured for him 35 tons of honey which was of an average value effi £5O a ton. The gross return was thus £1750. The expenses would probably be about £6OO, which left the handsome profit df £ll5O. One is probably under the impression that all these 800 hives are congregated in one large farm, but further inquiries elicited the feet that this was not so. Mr Bates works! in conjunction with the farmers of his locality, having his hives distributed over a wide area in batches of 30 to 50 hives. It is an example o® mutual cq-operatioh, the farmers getting the benefit of the bees to fertilise their fruit trees and clover while Mr Bates gets' the nectar from the blosspfcns. There is also the added attraction .from the farmer’s point of view enojigh delicious honey left in his store-room to last him ajid his family. 311 ,the year round. Questioned as a practical apiarist as to the minimum number, of hives a person would have to keep to make a living on bee-fanning alone, Mr Bajes instanced the case of one beekeeper who had secured a net return of £5OO for the past year or twipl off 350.! hives. This man, of course, applied practical business methods to hisi beekeeipng knowledge. Mr Bates can lay claim to the third largest apiary in the Dominion, and being a business nian as well as a. successful beekeeper, he realised the advantages to be„ gained by the use of- electricity in the industry. He uses the “juice.” to d*rive his circular saw far hive-making, drive hiis honey extractor, and alsof or heating purposes. A profitable sideline is the raising Of Italian queen bees, and these he stends to all parts of the Dominion.