BEE-KEEPING IN WAIKATO. [By Cincinnatus.]

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1225, 6 May 1880, Page 3

BEE-KEEPING IN WAIKATO. [By Cincinnatus.]

It is, on the whole, matter for much wonder that, although bee-keeping has more or less extensively obtained in this district ever since its settlement, so little knowledge should exist on tne subject. This deficiency is aggravated by an apparent indifference, and the consequence is that a pursuit which might be turned to much profit is little more than a desultory means of supplying the farmer's household with honey. I have certainly seen hundreds of pounds of honey, the result of little care, but its inferiority alone ought to have suggested to the producers the necessity for more methodical I operations. There are few matters the treatment of which calls for the exercise of more advertency than apiculture. What would we think of a farmer who sow 3d his grain on unploughed land, or who cut his hay with a reaping machine ? And yet methods as unstable as these are resorted to in the management of bees. I do not intend at the present to write a treatise on the subject, and will content 1 myself with drawing the attention of bee-keepers and those who wish to indulge in the pursuit to the necessity for greater attention to tlie subject if they desire to make their operations successful. I cannot do so better than by adducing an instance of what has been clone in this direction by a Waikato settler, Mr Parsons, of Te Awamutu. This gentleman commenced operations in the year 1876 by purchasing two boxes of bees from a neighbor. Two swarms were added to these the same season, and in lytay of the following year Mr Parsons paid a visit ta America. While there he purchased two swarms Italian bees, and procured a pattern of Quinhy's box hive, a kind very popular in the United States. Unfortunately the foreign bees perished en route. On his return to Waikato Mr Parsons found that one of his four swarms had also died. Transferring two of the others to the Quinby hives he commenced afresh, and in the following year captured five new swarms. In 1879 he took 8 new swarms, and this year* succeeded in hiving 25, making in all 40 colonies, all of' which are now housed in American box hives. Next year he calculates upon raising the number to 100. The first year — 1877 — the amount of honey taken from each of the boxes was 601b5., the next the quantity was also 601bs. from the old, and 301bs. from the new boxes, the latter being robbed once while* the former were submitted to the operation twice during the season. The same plan has been followed since, and my readers can therefore easily calculate what amount of honey has been obtained, the average being from 50 to 6Olbs, from the old hives and from 25 to 301bs. from the young swarms. This year, however, an allowance has to be made on account of Mr Parsons not having been able to complete some of the boxes, the yield from which was'in consequence much diminished. Nevertheless, the quantity available for sale this season will be about 9001bs, for which from its superior quality, 9d. per pound will be obtained in Auckland.' All the honey is sold hi the comb, which is of a beautifully pure white, while the honey is almost colorless. In taste, it is simply delicious, and it would not fail of commanding purchasers when the common kind would be a drug in the market. This is of course solely owing to the method adopted for obtaining it, whereby not only is the necessity for killing the bees obviated, but the comb is secured free from all undesirable matter, such as bee bread, dead bees, &c. A full description of the Quinby hive would occupy too much space at present, it can be seen in full operation at Mr Parsons' and in another paper I hope to advert to the matter again when I hope to be able to give some practical information regarding bee culture, with some hints on the kinds of food most suitable to this busiest and most useful of winged insects. For the present I hope I hajve said enough to awaken sufficient interest in the' subject in the hands of my readers to induce them to look forward to my future communication with curiosity.

pRErABEra fob Death. — A man of eccentric habits, named Lyne (says the Bolton Evening Guardian), recently died; at Wigf-n. Feeling some time ago that his dissolution was not far distant, he walked into an undertaker's and had himself measured for his wooden suit. The coffin was prep*ed*and embellished according to his own instructions, and paid for down on the nail, Lyne declining to be buried on credit by the parish authorities. This pieoe of furniture having been constructed according to the directions of its yet living tenant, Lyne wrote out his funeral cards, intimating the day and date of his demise, and requesting the attendouce of his friends. Everything beiag in reacL'ness for his death, the man quietly laid himself dawn and died. How he managed to die it id difficult .to say, although it is certain the mwi laid no violent, hands on himself.