CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 82, 27 September 1911, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

BEE-KEEPING, To the Editor. Sir, —There are no means of beekeepers in North Taranaki exchanging note*, and it appears to me tlwt much valuable time is lost during the season through tha want of knowledge on the part of the modern apiarist. All the old pasturage for bees has disappeared. The box hive is condemned, and we are i'ace to face with a new system, viz., bar-framed hives- and a short season of white clover. Several complaints reached mo last season of the failure to get any honey, and I think that it is likely to be the complaint again. Last month (August) was exceptionally iine and warm. The bees were busy and breeding went on apace. Then we got a fortnight of cold, rough weather. Tills has checked the flow of honey in the fruit blossom and kept the bees busy at home trying to keep up the warmth of the hive'for the .sake of the young brood.

Sunday was tlie first real working day among bees for about twelve or fourteen days. Xow, if there does not happen to be a good store of honey in the hives., then we must resort, to stimulative feeding, just a little at a time. This ludps to keep tilings going, and brings on a lot of young bees to take the place of the old ones whieli die away very fast now, often giving rise to the. trouble known as ''spring dwindling." I found it necessary to feed two hives the other day. Xow, do you think you could see your way to invite beekeepers here to send in not? to you so that you might have a bejjWTFpers' column, say. on one day each week, so that we might mutually help each oilier? ! hope you will be able to do .so. I fiml that iny 30 years' experience in Canterbury does not help me much here. The seasons are so different, and consequently the bees act differently.—l am. etc., I<\ W." SAXDFOUI>. "Tainui," Vogeltown. [We will be glad to afford space for .such a useful purpose.—Kd.]