Gauteng Smallholder July 2016 | Page 26

BEEKEEPING Success depends on vigour of the queen T Some arithmetic by the Eastern Highveld Beekeepers! he success of a beekeeping venture is Association chairman Peter Clark to illustrate the ongoing dictated by the value of value of good queens in your venture a good queen as head of the Here are some numbers that For our exercise, in our first colony. Failing queens spell illustrate the value of a good year we start with 20 strong disaster. queen. swarms headed by young one year old queens. As an illustration, our apiary of 20 strong hives is in a cattle farming area somewhere on the Highveld, where we have a eucalyptus woodlot of 2 000 spring and sum