BEE INFECTION RISK

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 268, 2 February 1928, Page 18

BEE INFECTION RISK

KEEPERS FINED NO REGULATION HIVES Press Association. WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The .responsibilities of those who go in for beekeeping were pointed out in the Lower Hutt Magistrate’s Court today, when the inspector of apiaries, Mr. D. S. Robinson, proceeded against Norman Barnes Gibbons and John Martin Baigent for keeping bees in hives not conforming to the regulations. The inspector stated that he visited the property of Baigent, a registered beekeeper, and found a number of hives of bees and one swarm in a common benzine box without frames. The whole apiary was badly infected with disease, and notice was served on Baigent ordering the destruction of the apiary. A similar swarm had been found on Gibbons’s property. Mr. Robinson explained that the Act laid down that bees must be kept in boxes with readily movable frames, this being for the purpose of inspection. Bees kept in boxes usually became infected with disease. The bees died out and the boxes 'were robbed by bees from neighbouring apiaries. Thus one discarded box might be the means of infecting' hundreds of other colonies. Continuing, Mr. Robinson said he regarded Gibbons as a “pirate” beekeeper. He had obtained the swarm, put them in a common box, and had failed to register under the Act, which demanded that every beekeeper, no matter if he had only one hive, must apply to the Department of Agriculture to have the bees registered. The new Act came into forpe on January 1 of this year, increasing all maximum fines-for various breaches of the Act. The inspector added that beekeeping in New Zealand was one of the growing primary industries, and that honey 'was being exported to all parts of the world in quantilities up 500 tons showing that although a comparatively new industry in Dominion it was of considerable financial value to exporters. New Zealand honey commanded a higher price than honey from any other part of the world. This was due to the fact that no honey was allowed to leave the country until it had been graded by the Government honey graders. Stating that he believed neither of the defendants had acted in ignorance, the magistrate, Mr. J. H. Salfnon, fined them £2 each.