1907. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



107 



this clustering sooiv turns the apiary 

 into general confusion and idleness. 

 The apiarist is at a total loss to know 

 what to do to get the bees settled 

 down to work. It may happen on the 

 very days when honey in the flowers 

 is most abundant — a time when the 

 time of each of tihe individual colonies 

 is worth fifty cents to one dollar a day. 

 An ounce of prevention is some- 

 times worth several pounds of silver. 

 If these swarms are shaken and caused 

 to build new combs or hived in a new 

 location the cure is worse than the 

 disease. It is cheaper to buy colonies 

 than to form them with bees which 

 ought to be in t'he supers completing 

 sections of honey. I often make in- 

 crease from odds and ends but i>ot 

 by undermining the main force. When 

 the colonies are building up in the 

 spring we have plenty of time to in- 

 sert a guiding hand so that they build 

 up evenly. Then they will all be ready 



INTRODUCTION OF BEES INTO 

 NEW ZEALAND, 1839. 



T 



A Historical Note. 



BURTON N. GATES. 



HE NEW ZEALAND expert 

 on bees, Mr. I. Hopkins, in his 

 annual report to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, for 1906, makes 

 ofificial record of the first landing of 

 bees in this country. 



"It was on the 13th of March, 1839," 

 writes Mrs. Gittos, wife of Rev. W. 

 Gittos, of Auckland, N. Z., "that the 

 good ship James (Capt. Mark Todd) 

 anchored ofif the Mission Station of 

 Mungunga, Hokianga. She brought a 

 party of missionaries, among them 

 Rev. J. H. Burnby and his sister, Mis.<! 

 Burnby. This lady brought with her 

 the first bees I ever saw. They were 

 in two straw hives and were placed 

 in the Mission churchyard, being a 

 for their supers at once and swarming safe place, free from the curiosity of 

 will take place in all the colonies at the natives, who had never seen the 



about the same time. Then if we can 

 succeed in guessing at the time when 

 the honey harvest will begin, we can 

 aim the whole apiary and make a 

 "bull's eye" shot. In an apiary of 

 100 colonies there may be 20 to 30 

 swarms a day and the swarming season 

 is soon passed. If the hives are not 

 too large or manipulated to prevent 

 swarms, swarming will set in before 

 the honey harvest sets in and the colo- 

 nies will have their new queens and be 

 settled down for a long and steady 

 pull. Then if there comes but three 

 days of good honey flow every colony 

 will take advantage of it. 



That three days may amount to 25 

 or 30 pounds of honey to each colony, 

 where, if part of the colonies are more 

 or less broken up by swarming, or in 

 expectation of swarming there will not 

 be much done within three days. 



Chatsworth, California. 



busy bees." 



In the next few years, at different 

 points, several other consignments of 

 bees were landed. 



In 1840, "Lady Hobson, wife of the 

 first governor of New Zealand, brought 

 with her bees from New South Wales." 



"In 1842, Rev. W. Cotton brought 

 bees with him from England, to the 

 Bay of Islands." Just previous, in the 

 same year, there were bees landed at 

 Nelson, from England, "sent out in 

 the ship 'Clififord' by Mrs. Allom, . 

 mother of A. J. Allom, of Auckland, 

 and for which she eventually received 

 the Isilver '^Iris' medal, awarded' by* 

 the Society for the Encouragement of 

 Arts, London." 



In the accompanying illustration, 

 there is no mention of the location of 

 the Mungunga Mission, but it is pos- 

 sible that the church in the lower left 

 of the picture is that spoken of. The 



