THE HONEY-MAKERS.
SPRING HERALDS NEW SEASON. MANAGEMENT OF BEES The advent of spring means to the apiarist the commencement of preparations for the new season, and it was therefore appropriate that the Government apiary instructor (Mr. H. W. Gilling) should at this time give an address, as he did at New Plymouth, last night, on the spring management of bees. Beekeeping, said the instructor, was not taken as seriously as it might be; no doubt the sting of the bees had a lot to do with this. Yet beekeeping compared more than favorably with any other branch of small farming, and. given a good district, it could be made a very profitable means of making a living, especially in New Zealand, because of the co-operatvie organisations. There would be no difficulty in placing all our surplus stock in time, as the prices were fixed by New Zealand agents in England. The Dominion's standing in thp market was very good, because the specific gravity of our honey was very high, whilst we need fear no competitor in quality, easily holding our own against the Californian product.
Coming to the spring management of bees, the speaker said the "let alone" plan was not the nest to adopt, for the beekeeper had to do a Mt to get the best results. First of all it was essential to look to the food supply, to see if the bees had enough sealed stores to carry them over th# season. If not. the best way was to supply candy, which could be made by boiling together 12 lb of sugar, 5 points of water, and of an ounce of cream of tartar, to a temperature of 240 degrees, and then cooling to 150 degrees. After stirring
a while, it would be found that the mixture was resolving into a milky icandy. Before be-
coming too stiff it should be poured into moulds and then placed over the cluster for winter use. Then it was necessary'to look for symptoms of disease, the American foul brood, which was really the only disease common in New Zealand hives. Once neglected, this disease soon destroyed the hive, and in one hive recently affected he had had to burn everything. Tf not too bad, the 'hives could be infected. Hot water or steam at 212 degrees invariably killed the spores. It was preferable, iiown ever, to wait till the honey-flow and feed then with the syrup made from sugar dissolved in two parts of water, and arrange the combs so that tine bees could leave the infected honey behind: In spring brood nests would probably be found, and pollen-invested combs should be replaced by clean ones in order to build up the colony. Brood nests were admittedly difficult to rid a hive of.
When handling hives, bee-keepers were liable to find the frames gummed up with propolus, which evidently came, as he had found at Hurworth, from blv.egum trees, and, to a lesser extent, from pinus insignia. He had been disappointed to find some Taranaki apiarist putting only nine frames in the hive, to allow more space and so avoid propolus: but the proper method was to use staple-spaced frames, which, he predicted, would soon become the standard frames in use. The lecturer produced a foundation, which it was claimed was an improvement on the present foundations used. The speaker said it was best to take the frames of stronger broods to build up the weaker ones, November being the best month to do this. It was not a good policy to build up strong brood in the spring. Precaution had to be exercised that disease was not transferred from one brood to another in performing this operation. It was a rather difficult thing in any case to make increases in spring in Taranaki. Swarm work was better if done in established colonies. It was very difficult to rear queens in this province during the spring, as so many were lost, and the effort was really a waste of good time. It would be better to make increases during the autumn, the second week in February preferably. Otherwise the only way, and perhaps the best, was to procure queens from outside the province, such as the Walrarapa, or the Waikato, to construct the colonies. The interest aroused by the address was veflected by the number of questions put to Mr. Gilling at its conclusion, and these were satisfactorily answered, after which a vote of thanks was accorded him and a wish expressed that he should again visit rhe district later in the spring, or early in the summer.
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Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1922, Page 5
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768THE HONEY-MAKERS. Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1922, Page 5
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