Book," of some 368 pages. He also 

 published about the year 1844, 

 "A FEW SIMPLE RULES FOE NEW 

 ZEALAND BEEKEEPERS. 



" ( 1 ) Be anxious to increase your stock 

 at first rather than to take a large 

 quantity of honey. 



" ( 2 ) Get well acquainted with your 

 bees, and make them acquainted with 

 you. Handle them gently, and do not 

 blow on them. Leave them alone when 

 they are cross. 



"(3) Always in swarming time have 

 a spare hive at hand. 



" ( 4 ) If you have boxes to pile one 

 on top of the other, never disturb the 

 lower box, except when, after two or 

 three years, the combs have grown old 

 and want renewing; then, late in the 

 autumn, when the breeding season is 

 over, take the combs away from the 

 lower box instead of the second. 



"TO TAKE HONEY. 



"(5) Take off the cover, blow some 

 smoke into the upper box between the 

 bars to drive the bees into the lower 

 box. Have a table ready, with a cloth 

 upon it; lift the box on to this, and 

 carefully cut out the outside combs, 

 stopping directly you come to those 

 which have brood in them. Return the 

 box with the brood-combs undisturbed. 

 This may be repeated as often as you 

 see through the window (of the hive) 

 that the honeycombs are sealed over. 



"(6) After the breeding season is over 

 all the boxes except the lower one may 

 be entirely emptied in situations where, 

 as at Paihia, the bees work through the 

 winter. 



" ( 7 ) Keep a stock book regularly, and 

 write down immediately anything curi- 

 ous which is observed. 

 "(Signed) WILLIAM CHAS. COTTON." 



The above rules were no doubt the 

 best that could be adopted by New Zea- 

 land beekeepers at that time, and the 

 system advocated was at least a great 

 advance on that of the sulphur pit 

 method, though quite out of date now. 

 Rule 7, however, concerning an apiary 

 register or note book, will always hold 

 good. 



THE FIRST NEW ZEALAND BEE 

 MANUAL. 



Somewhere in the early part of the 

 second half of tlie last century a useful 

 little manual, with the title "How to 



Manage the Honey Bees in New Zea- 

 land," compiled by an Old Beekeeper, 

 and revised by H. J. Hawkins, Belvedere 

 Nursery, and David Hay, Montpellier 

 Nursery, was published by Geo. T. 

 Chapman, A.uckland. 



The practical part of this little work 

 covers some 45 pages, and was fully up 

 to date at the time it was published. 

 The bar hive — not the bar-frame hive 

 — was the most advanced form of hive 

 then in use, from which the honeycombs 

 had to be separated from the sides with 

 a long knife when taking honey; bar- 

 frames as we know them now had not 

 then been invented. Notwithstanding, 

 however, all that the Rev. W. Cotton 

 and a few others had done- to awaken 

 an interest in the most humane system 

 of beekeeping in New Zealand, the old, 

 cruel and wasteful sulphur pit method 

 was generally practised down to the year 

 1880, when things took a turn for the 

 better, although the sulphur pit was still 

 largely in evidence until some eight or 

 nine years ago. /^ 3 3^ 14" 

 PRIMITIVE BEEKEEPING. 



As I have already intimated, beekeep- 

 ing in New Zealand for very many years 

 after the introduction of the hive-bee, 

 speaking generally, followed the primitive 

 methods in vogue among the cottager 

 class in Britain and other parts of 

 Europe at that time. Common boxes 

 with crossed sticks running through 

 them to support the combs were the 

 common form of hives, though a few 

 settlers who had been familiar with and 

 made straw skeps in the "Old Country," 

 adopted that style of hive here. During 

 the first years of my travelling among 

 our beekeepers as Government Apiarist, 

 I came across several lots of well-con- 

 structed skeps. They were made of 

 twisted straw laced with split supple- 

 jack cane, and were very neat and cosy- 

 looking. It grieved the owners very 

 much when they were compelled to do 

 away with them and adopt the more 

 serviceable frame hive. 



A prominent feature of this primitive 

 hive system was the sulphuring of the 

 bees at the end of the season to obtain 

 the honey they had stored. A small pit 

 was dug a foot or so in depth; half-way 

 down two cross-sticks were placed, on 

 which some sulphured rags were hung, a 

 match was applied to the rags, and the 



