AMONG THE BEES

Shannon News, 15 November 1929, Page 3

AMONG THE BEES

Apiary Notes for November (By D. S. Robinson, Apiary Instructor, Department of Agriculture.) Beekeepers must keep careful wntch over their bees, for the coming crop depends largely upon the present treatment. Hives should all be thoroughly inspected to ascertain if a laying queen is present. Her presence is indicated oy Pgf? B in tno cclla - Should the eggs uo laid unevenly, instead of every colj in the bvood nest being filled, this denotes an aged or failing queen and steps should bo taken to re-queen these hives with a queen cell or a young laying queen.

If any scarcity in the amount of stores of food is noted, syrup made with one part of 1A sugar and two parts of water should be given to these hives.

The prosenco of the diseases of wax moth or foul brood is another point the beekeeper must be on the look-out for, especially at this time of the year. In the event of warm, dry weather and a good early honey flow, see that spare supers are in readiness, fitted witii drawn-out combs or full sheets of foundation.

Swarming may be expected to commonce this month. Swarms should be hived on full shoots of wax in preferonce to drawn-out combs. Swarm Control

Thore are many methods of swarm control practised more or less successtully. jOne of the simplest is to see that none but young queens are in the hives and to re-queen each y&ar. To prevent swarming, give the queen plon ty of room to lay eggs in by adding extra supers. If the weather is warm when the aeeond super is put on, raise one or two of the brood frames containing eggs and brood to the second super, and replace these frames with full sheets of foundation. Another method of control is to ex amine the hives every 10 days or so and cut out all the queen cells. The following method may also be used: Wait till'queen cells are being started, then go carefully through the hive, find the frame on which the queen is, and remove this and adhering bees and one other frame to an empty hive, putting fresh frames with sheets of foundation in the place from which these frames were takon. Next move the old hive to a new site and put the hive in which is now the queen on the old site. Now examine the old hivo and destroy all queen cells but one and allow this one to hatch. This will give you an extra hive and will have prevented swarm ing. If the beekeeper does not desire increase, instead of moving one hiv< away, place them both close together Af- soon as the newly hatched queen if laying, find the queen in the old hivo, kill her and unite the two hives, placing a sheet of newspaper -between the supers as has before been described in these notes. This method serves two purposes—it checks loss by swarming and re-queens at the samo time. The use of queen excluders will often causo bees to swarm, especially if used to confine a queen in one super only. What is the uso of trying to breed a queen capable of laying 2000 to 300 r eggs a day and then to restrict her by confining her to a single super in which to lay? Plenty of room in the brooi; nest in the warm weather should b«. the beekeepor's motto.

Section Honey , To produeo good section honey several factors must be taken into eonsid eration. The hive must be strong, th. climatic conditions good with a goo-: honey flow, and swarming must be prevented. The bees should occupy at least two supers. Over these is ncx ! placed a quoen excluder, the best type of which is undoubtedly the all-wire excluder, as this type restricts the pas sago of the bees but little. The supe. containing sections is then added. Bee usually work sections bettor in the hall depth frames than in the fall depth. A.B the sections in the super arc drawi; out and partially filled, this super may be raised and a fresh one put under it Black bees will produce botter sec tions than hybrids or pure Italians, the cappings formed by the blacks being much neater and more even. Having selected a good strong hive, the sections should be prepared by pouring boiling water across the Vcuts while the sections arc in the flat: they will then bo found to bend without, breaking. If one observes tho split end of a section in the flat, it will be noticed that the section is cut on an angle not square across. In putting these sections together, place the portion with the longer bottom edge ir. first, then put in the wax. Next, fasten down tho other half of the split end. The wax should hang quite squarely to within about half an inch of" the bottom of the section and should not touch at the sides. The sections are next placed in tho section frame, on which has been tackod a tin separator. This is fitted leaving a bee space at the top and bottom of the frame. The frames should all be pushed to one side of the super and wedged in position; this will ensure even sections. It is a wise precaution to place a partly filled section or so in the centre frame, as this induces the bees to enter and work on the sections more readily. As soon as the sections are filled they should be removed to prevent them being travel-stained by the bees passing over them. When being taken from the frames

the sections must be handled with earo to prevent breaking the cappings and so causing the honey to run or weep. All propolis can be scraped off and the sections stored in a dry cupboard, free from flies, etc. The very best sections should be saved to exhibit in the honey class of the local winter shows. This is a class in which the amateur' beekeeper stands as good a chance of obtaining a first prize as the commercial beekeeper. The commercial man does not as a rule cater for raising section honey, as it entails a great amount of extra labour, but with the small beekeeper the production of sections has the advantago of not requiring appliances such a 3 honey tanks, extractors, Uncapping knives, etc.