AMONG THE BEES

Shannon News, 26 October 1926, Page 4

AMONG THE BEES

APIARY SOTES FOR NOVEMBER, (By D. S. Robinson, Apiary Instructor Palmerston North). Before reaching this date the beekeeper should have completed his spring examination, diseased colonies should have been marked for treatment and those badly infected should have been destroyed. Value of Artificial Feeding. . With the continuous wet weather that is being experienced this spring a watch should still be kept on the amount of stores each hive is in possession of. Should there be any scarcity of food artificial feeding must still bo restorted to as during this time of the year a large amount of food will be required by the colonies for rearing young- brood. Lack of food at this time of the. year will mean that the queen will restrict her laying in proportion to the amount of food in the hive and this is detrimental to the well being of the hive if a large crop of surplus honey is required. A hive containing only a small number of bees cannbt be expected to gather a large amount of honey. Registration. [ Beekeepers who have not yet. registered! their colonies are reminded that-it is required of every beekeeper to register his or her apiary even if in possession of only one colony. Failure to register renders a beekeeper liable under the Apiaries Amendment Act, 1913, to a fine not exceeding £5. Forms of application for registration are obtainable from the Department of Agriculture Wellington, at any post office, or from the various offices of the Department of Agriculture. There is no charge made for registration. Swarming". With the advent of fine and warm weather swarming may be expected. Beekeepers intending to increase the number of their colonies should have hives in readiness with frames in which full, sheets of wax foundation have been fitted. Swarming usually takes place between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., but of course bees, Jike human beings, do not always adhere to set hours. In hiving a swarm after it has issued and settled, a fair size box should be obtained and held under the swarm. The branch or whatever the bees have settled upon, should be given a sharp shake to dislodge them. Any remaining on the branch should be brushed off on to , the other bees. The box should then I be inverted and one side propped up to allow any stragglers to join the throng within the box. A sack orbranch should be covered over the box to protect it from the heat of the sun. The bees should be left in the box for two or three days in order that they will have a chance to use up diseased honey they mave have taken with them should they have come from an infected hive. Any small portions of comb they may have built in the box should be removed (after the, bees have been hived in their permanent quarters) and boiled down. Just before sundown on the third day after swarming the bees in the box should be dumped out on to a sack leading from the ground to the alighting board of the hive they

are to v occupy. ) The front of the hive should be raised a few inches and the bees will immediately run into tiie hive. When they are all safely hived, the front of the hive may be lowered to its normal height. It is a good precaution to give the bees a frame of young brood in the centre of the hive in which a swarm is being hived, the frame of course being taken from, a hive free of disease. Bees will seldom leave a hive thus fitted. After being- hived for five or six days the hive should be examined to ascertain that the foundation in the frame is in the right position and that none of the wax foundation has been dislodged by the heat and weight of the new swarm. This precaution will save a lot of extra work at a later date, as the wax sometimes curls up and two combs are built together which renders it impossible to lpmove the fromes without cutting them lapart and thus damaging- them. Should the beekeeper not wish to increase the number of colonies, the swarm should be taken in the manner described and at sundown the new swarm may be returned to the hive from which they have left. First the frames in this hive should be carefully examined and every queen cell cut out and the young queen, if hatched, removed. Should the beekeeper be unable to find the young queen, the swarm must be united to the hive by means of a sheet of newspaper; this method has already been described in these colu/nns. Again if no increase is desired the new swarm may be added to a weak colony, using a newspaper as before mentioned. In this case the queen in the weak colony must first be destroyed. In cases where a swarm is returned to a. parent hive or united with a weak colony an extra super must be added for bees, while in the swarming stage, are ready to draw out combs and the best drawn-out combs of the season are usually thus obtained. Extra supers may now be added to to all colonies ready for the surplus honey. Entrances, that were contracted for the winter must be enlarged. Should bees be noticed clustering put in front of a hive, the bottom supers may be raised to give the hive more ventilation, and it is advisablo to see that the bees are not short of room in the supers. If the bees appear to be overcrowded put another super on the hive. Dack of room will induce them to loaf and also has a tendency to promote swarming.