The Honey Bee and its Management.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3541, 1 May 1880, Page 1

The Honey Bee and its Management.

«- _L^_ * A VISIT TO MR HOPKINS' APIABY. ,' {Combtunicated.) ' : . We now approach, a branch of the. subject of bee. culfure which i» of great importance to the keeper of bees, and cannot be overlooked by those who would make this interesting :businesi a succeiß. Nationally it is little understood, and cannot be understood except by people df ..great observation, and rescaroh, among which, oar American cousins certainly take the first place: This branch of the business is the flora from which the little ' creatures obtain the materials so necessary, to enable them to perform their wonderful operations. To> be a successful bee keeper it is needful to be a botanist, and. also" to understand the anatomy of the insect, for the little creature is in itself a perfect manufactory, and although there are plenty of published books and treatises upon these interesting sciences, aething but constant personal observation md application will gain the requisite know-, ledge a bee keeper so much requires to make him master of his. profession. In this respect our friend Mr Hopkins has the advantage over many others, bejng a good florist, and understanding also the anatomy of the bee and;the flowers the little creature requires to supply it with materials for its use. v , These materials are three in number. Ist. That required to make wax. 2nd. That required to make bee bread for the the sustenance of its young. 3rd. That required to make honey. These materials are at necessary to the bee as timber is to a,carpenter, or bricks to a bricklayer, without them the bee keeper would soon have neither bees nor honey. « . Now we believe that there id no country on earth except, the ice bound .countries near the poles' which does.not produce, more or less, the flora from Which these, fiaterials may be gathered in abundance, bis branch of tbe subject is fiowever too extensive for elaboration in m «rtiole of this description and must, %'left to the keen observation of the .bee-keeper himself and our New. Zealand enthusiasts , in this Hue are bound to give this branch of the subject their careful observation and study, for in proportion as the flora which yields the above materials. abound in the neighbourhood of their apiaries, so in proportion will be the product of their hives and the success of their operationsu., It' this flora is abundant then they may * increase the number of their hives mdefi- -' nitely, but if the flora is deficient they will soon find it out from the weakness of their communities, and they must provide accordingly, by either diminishing,.,the . number of those communities, or .by :; ; removing them to a more, prolific '- "■' situation, unless indeed they possess laud on winch to plant .the most -approved ' powering shrubs and trees for the predate.. >v lion of the materials the bees require.* It is the custom in some countries to transport bees on rafts up and downriver*; that they may by 'such method gather w hat they need from the flora on theliattks of such rivers, and a very good pMeticie it is. There js no help for it, there mutt.be either extensirelpultivations, ortransporta* * tion where there is a lack of the flora the little insect requires, that is. il,the.bee. keeper is determined to make bis profei- , sion a success. - The above however will ■" <: notapplv to our J^ew Zeabind agricultural r\ settlers; in this North Island, especially, ! we believe there is Scarcely, a spot any- l! where where tbo natural flower, tree,.' shrub, or bush is not abundant enough for y any number of hives they, may be disposed \ to keep, and here we will remark that it" is far better to depend upon tree, shrub,'; I and bush flowers generally, than upon the

more tender and delicate of the surface flora of the earth which even a short draught would soon demolish, though very many of these delicate flowers yield largely the materials the beea require, especially the saccharine material for honey. Upon the whole we are satisfied there are few places on earth that yield the flora the bees require more plentifully than this North Island except it be ultra tropical countries.

Our object has besn in this rapid sketch, to instruct in the simplest manner possible all who may bo contemplating Bee management, but more especially to enlighten the agricultural settler of New Zealand. Would they but enter a little into this business with a determination to perseTere until they made it remunerative they could hardly fail. Our article therefore is written in a popular style, while what we hare advanced is mostly from our own observation, but Mr Hopkins, in a series of papers in the Thames Advertiser, is going more minutely into the various branches of the subject as he well can do. Bee-keepers should read those papers for themselves, for by so doing they will, gain much knowledge and get many hints, but we Sust, impress upon our readers that eory is one thins, and very well inlts place, but personal and keen observation and practice is another, and herein only is success certain. Now, as regards the Bee Flora the 'desideratum, with the keeper is honey. We do do not think from our own observation that bees have ever any difficulty to find the material, for either wax or pollen but we do know that they frequently icannot find sufficient saccharine matter for the manufacture of honey. This is the desideratum of the bee-keeper, so it follows that he must, if he plants with a view to supply his bees with . honey material, plant such trees, shrubs, &c, whose flowers produce an abundance of saccharine matter. We will indicate a few of such. Nearly all fruit trees yield, when in flower,, more or less honey material, and some of them wax material alsd, so a large orchard near an apiary is a valuable adjunct to the bee-keeper. But the flavor of the honey is no light consideration, and we consider that the best flavored honey comes from an apiary, in the neighborhood of an orange grove or orchard. .-"We/do not think that honeif can be produced jrom any tree or plant, that is superior in flavor or wholesomeness. to that produced from orange flowers, and there is another consideration as regards the orange tree —it bears ah innumerable quantity of flowers, and two crops a year. In the Cape of Good Hope you would, nearly always find flowers on an orange tree. Now, the orange will grow and ripen even here-at ;tbe Thames, but further north it does very well indeed. Sweet briar is a shrub that produces honey of a fine flavour and quality. Mr Smith s farm at the Miranda is covered with this fragrant shrub, and he' informs us the chemists prefer his honey .to any other they can procure. English may and the wild rose are honeyproducing plants; these should be extensively planted by the bee-keeper—also the honey-suckle. Among the smaller flowery plants which clothe the earth, which are legion, and which more or less produce saccharine matter, we must mention the clov.er tribe. We want a bee, however, whose proboscis or tongue is longer than our common bee to fertilize some of these—red clover for instance. Dr Irving, we understand, is endeavoring to procure the Ligurfan bees, which are supposed to be best adopted for this purpose because their tongues are longer than ..those of the common bee. •All the rose tribe and the wall-flower produce honey of excellent quality and flavour, together with the lavender peppermint, strawberry, and raspberry plants. Buckwheat' is a fine honeyproducing plant. But there are also a large' numßer of other plants whose flowers are so minute as scarcely .to be noticeable except by the keen observer, and yet they yield much saccharine matter, (To he concluded in onr next)