APIARY NOTES FOR SEPTEMBER.

Shannon News, 13 September 1929, Page 3

APIARY NOTES FOR SEPTEMBER.

' (By D. S. Robinson, Apiary Instructor, I Department of Agriculture., Pal- [ merston North).

Now the ' days are lengthening, the bee-keeper must realise that the winter months are past, and that it is some months since his bees were able to collect any honey. How are the bees off for stores? 'inis query should now be the bee-keeper's chief concern, and advantage should be taken of the first fine days to gently open up the hives, and ascertain the amount of. stores present. * The bees will now require from 20 to 25 lbs. of stores to take them on to the time when honey will be coming in. Given a normal season, the bee-keep-er must bear in mind that brood rearing will soon be well started, and it is then that the stores rapidly decrease. Should the stores in the hive be low, artificial feeding must be carried out. Honey from an unknown source must never be fed.

The food given to the bees at this time of the year should consist of about < one-third I.A. ■ sugar and twothirds water. The water should be heated and the sugar dissolved in it. The mixture should never be boiled.

The syrup should be given to the bees in the evening when there are few robber bees about.

There are various patterns of. feeders on the market if the bee-keeper desires to purchase, but for simplicity and general efficiency a tin holding about L} gallons of syrup is hard to beat. The mat is removed from the hive, and an empty super put on. The tin of syrup is stood over the centre of the frames. Before the syrup is put in, a float of wood, just a little smaller than the inside dimensions of the tin and about half an inch thick, is placed in the tin to prevent the bees being .'drowned. Over the tin should be placed a few pieces of wood about three-quar-ters of an inch thick, to prevent the mat fitting close to the top of the tin, and thus stopping the bees from gaining access to the syrup; the mat should then be put in position and. the hive shut up. All material should be overhauled, and repairs where required carried out. Where increase is desired, extra supers, roofs and bottom boards should be made up, and kept in readiness for the swarming season. Whatever new material is made up, the bee-keeper should adopt a standard size and keep to it. Little is more Annoying than finding a roof that will just not fit a super, or a super that will not quite fit on another.

Any bees that are to be shifted should be moved without delay, but the bee-keeper should remember it is necessary to apply to the Department of Agriculture for a permit, before selling or moving any bees to a distance of more than 10 chains. This is to prevent diseased bees being taken into a clean area.

Many bee-keepers have given up painting hives, and use instead paraffin wax as follows: —A quantity of paraffin wax is heated in a shallow pan a little larger than 'a super; the . wax being made to boil by a stove or fire under the tin. The supers are then dipped in this boiling wax, gently turning the super over so that all four sides become coated with the boiling wax, both inside and outside; the hot wax penetrates the grain of the wood, and also fills up any cracks.

This method of treating, supers is considerably cheaper than painting," it lasts longer, and takes far less time to accomplish.