December 2017 Newsletter Next meeting Wednesday 6 th December 2017 Where Main Hall, Johnsonville Community Centre, Moorefield Rd Nucs are still available If you missed out on the November nuc sales from the Chartwell Apiary, you can still purchase nucs from WBA members. These bees come from registered beekeepers and come with a laying queen. See the special Nuc for Sale page. December Programme Beginners session 6.45pm Topic: Nuc maintenance Main session: 7:30pm Gadgets and gizmos Mead competition Bring and Buy Christmas BYO Build your own robbing guard for $5 Build your drone comb frame for $5 Contents 2 Frank Lindsay a note from the President 5 Club Profile - Pat Phipps 6 Interesting swarm captures 7 Chartwell nuc collection 8 Club members nucs for Sale 9 School visits 11 Honey extraction 12 Things to do this month 13 Apiculture NZ Update 14 Tutin and honey 18 Interesting website 19 Who can I speak to
Frank Lindsay a note from the President Here we are in December at the beginning of the main honey flow. It's getting very dry and there are 9mm cracks in the ground. Could it be that we are going to have a real summer this year? Hopefully we get a good flow from pohutukawa and other deep rooted species, but clover and perhaps manuka could suffer from dry roots and not produce much nectar. All depends upon rain to green things up again. Time will tell. Congratulations. So far there hasn't been a lot of swarming in the Wellington area. Hopefully this is the result of the nine days quick check and splitting the hive when eggs or larvae are found in a queen cell bud. If you want honey and not hive numbers, you need strong hives. Select a warm evening and combine the splits to the original hives by placing two sheets of newsprint on the top super of the main hive and then put the nuc/split directly on this, then add a honey box. If the frames are all foundation frames, bring up an outside honey frame from the super below and place this in the middle of your new honey box. This will encourage the bees up into this super. The bees will eat through the newsprint and combine without fighting, and you get more bees into the air gathering nectar. If it s really hot, slide one corner of the top honey super back a little and make a top entrance for the top split about a bee width wide. This will save them from over-heating next day. If you have drawn frames in your honey boxes get them on as a strong hive can fill a super in a week. Too often we don't super early enough or put enough boxes on at once. Those with new nucs, you should have done your first inspection. Remove an outside foundation frame to make room, slide half the frames to the side to 2 P a g e
make a gap, remove the centre frame carefully keeping it vertical and look for eggs in the centre cells of the frame. If the frame is covered with bees, move them aside gently with your finger so you can see the empty cell underneath. Eggs look like- tiny grains of rice. See eggs and all is good. We want to see eggs rather than young larva as this indicates the queen was there 1-3 days ago. Replace the frame, remove the shipping cage, close the frames together and close the hive. If you can't see eggs, remove the shipping cage, (it should be empty), close up the hive and feed again at night. Check again in another week and if still no eggs, contact John for help. He may get another beekeeper near you to look into the hive. If all is well, a week later move the outside pollen and honey frame out one and put a new foundation in the space. The bees will start drawing this out if their tummies are full of nectar. The weekend after inspect again and see how many frames are being covered by bees. It might be possible to move the outside frame from the opposite side you did last week, out one frame space so another frame starts to get drawn. Continue feeding and moving the frames out until all the frames in the box are drawn out. For those with ¾ frames in a full depth box, leave the drone comb underneath the frames. If you cut them off, the bees will just replace them which is a waste of effort. We want the bees to concentrate on drawing out the foundation frames. Once all the frames are drawn, cut the capped drone comb off and feed to someone s chooks. This is a form of varroa control. It's time to make robbing screens to protect your hives. Simple to make and effective against robber bees and wasps. A must if you have commercial hives nearby. We'll go over how to make them at the meeting. There also a bit in my article in the December issue of the NZ Beekeeper. 3 P a g e
Basically, the December meeting is a less formal affair with more emphasis on the social side but there's still work to be done in the hives so don't slacken off for Christmas yet. If you are going away for Christmas, put another box on your hive just in case there is a very good honey flow. Enjoy your Christmas break. Frank. 4 P a g e
Club Profile - Pat Phipps December 2016 newsl I have been a beekeeper about six years, I have always wanted to keep bees and during a sea change in my life decided to take the plunge and have never looked back. My brother knew a beekeeper in Tawa so he organised for me to visit just expecting to go and talk to Colin, however it turned out he was doing a new beekeepers afternoon and re queening so I turned to my brother and said, cool let s do it, to which he replied bugger off I don't like bees. Anyway, all the other people were fully suited up and all I had was a veil and here I was taking out frames and letting the bees crawl over my hands and arms. Later Colin said to me that there was no way he would have done that, so that was my introduction..i have an apiary in Johnsonville facing west so I get the mid morning and evening sun. I enjoy the social aspect of beekeeping especially learning new and better ways to take care of bees and then passing on the knowledge so that everyone benefits. I became very involved in the Chartwell Apiary for this very reason along with John, PK and others and have had great pleasure in seeing it grow and being of use in teaching new members. A while ago I also decided the club could use some merchandising so along with John Burnett we started getting T-Shirts and caps printed and now that I have more time again I will look into expanding what we can offer, ideas are welcome. I also enjoy catching swarms which can provide very interesting moments and mentoring new beekeepers including inspections which lets me see other setups and how other apiaries around my area are doing. 5 P a g e
Interesting swarm captures December 2016 newsl A job with a view a remarkable swarm collection by PK in Titahi Bay. You never can tell what s going on in the burbs. (Job referred to John Burnet by Pest Proof Pest Control). An impressive swarm capture in Tawa by Craig and Jude Taylor 6 P a g e
Chartwell Apiary Nucs collection Twenty-one excited new beekeepers collected their nucs from the club s Chartwell Apiary on Saturday 11 th November. Another seven were subsequently made up using bees from John Randall s & PK Tan s hives. Thanks to Clive and Linda Button who provided the photographs. 7 P a g e
Club members with nucs for sale December 2016 newsl The following club members have nucs ready now with laying queens. Also, click on the link below to go to the WBA website to find the trading post for nuc sales, etc. James Withington, Ph. 027-285-1206. Email: jwithington2016@gmail.com Jan - 021 064 0066. Two ¾ five frame Nucs for sale. $280 each. Spring queen. Pick up in Newlands, Wellington John Randall in South Karori has a few 3/4 depth 5 frame nucs for sale for $250. Contact John via email westernbeeline@gmail.com or phone 476-9959 Wayne Wild (Ph 564-4069) has full depth nucs currently available for sale Viv Harris (phone 478-7521) has ¾ and full depth nucs currently available. PK Tan (238-4106) also has full depth and ¾ nucs available. http://www.beehive.org.nz/forums/nucs-buy-sell-swap 8 P a g e
School visits by Eva Durrant December 2016 newsl I received the following is a response from teachers at Raumati South Kindy following my visit in November. I also visited Island Bay School and Raumati South School. Kia ora, we have noticed how much our tamariki have been enjoying observing the bees in the garden lately with the warmer weather arriving. There have been many discussions about what bees actually do. Some of the responses have been "they are making honey for us to eat" or "they are getting the pollen to make honey" or "they are drinking the nectar". We have noticed that if a bee is found in the water trough the tamariki are proactive in scooping it out so that its life is saved and satisfied that the bee will now be able to continue its job of making honey for us to eat. "We love honey to eat and we love bees because they make us honey" is the genuine consensus of our tamariki. Our tamariki understand that bees don't want to sting us, they only sting when they feel frightened (that they may die), if we don't annoy them, they won't sting us". 9 P a g e
As this is a strong interest we invited Elijah's granma to Kindy. A beekeeper to show us her bees working hard to make honey from behind a glass window. This was an incredible experience, the tamariki were quite captivated. Eva brought in flowers and told us that bees prefer blue flowers, and that's how they start making their honey, by visiting flowers. They collect a sugary juice called nectar from the blossom by sucking it out with their tongues. They store it in what's called their honey stomach, which is different from their food stomach. When they have a full load, they fly back to the hive. There, they pass it on to other worker bees. It s stored in honeycomb cells which are like tiny jars made of wax, where it gradually turns into honey. The honey is still a bit wet, so they fan it with their wings to make it dry out and become more sticky. When it s ready they seal the cell with a wax lid to keep it clean. So that is how bees make honey. They don't make very much of it though. It takes at least eight bees all their life to make one single teaspoonful. Fortunately for us they usually make more than they need, so we can have some too! Eva said that when it was time to harvest the honey from the bees, they sometimes get annoyed and want to sting, so she uses a smoker to make the bees calmer. She then lit a little fire in the smoker and told us not to touch the metal container or the spout as it was hot, we were allowed to touch the lever at the back, pushing it down, which then lead to a big puff of smoke bellowing out. This was a great machine and many tamariki had turns pushing the lever to make smoke. Eva then handed out tiny little stones which she had painted up to look like bees. Thank you, Eva for coming to Kindy with your bees. We all learnt so much. I wonder if we will get a beehive at Kindy one day? We would love to hear from you about any little snippets that may have come from this experience. Thanking you, the teaching team. 10 P a g e
Honey Extraction December 2016 newsl All new beekeepers are advised that the Club has a couple of manual four frame extractors available for hire at $20 per hire (weekend or three days midweek). Extractors come with two nylon cappings basket strainers and a plastic cappings bin. Book through the Club Treasurer John Burnet. For beekeepers with more than a couple of boxes of honey to extract, the Club has an arrangement with the Crave Cooking School in Island Bay. Cost to hire their facilities is $15 per hour, an electric four frame honey extractor is provided with all the stainless steel benches and space you could need. Vehicle loading and unloading is available next to double doors immediately off the commercial kitchen. For enquiries concerning hire of Crave s facilities contact John Burnet. 11 P a g e
Things to do this month December 2016 newsl December checklist Remove any varroa treatment applied in early October Feed sugar syrup if honey stores are low Manipulate hives Introduce nucleus hives Check supers for wax moth Super up Prepare honey house equipment Harvest and extract early crops, especially if in the city. 12 P a g e
As we head into another busy honey season, I m already getting calls from media asking about how it's been going. While it is early days yet, I am getting feedback from members around the country about a season that s looking promising, but with the usual variability around the regions. Some of you have been asking about MPI s mānuka honey definition. ApiNZ chair Bruce Wills and I recently met with the new Minister of Agriculture, the Hon Damien O Connor and shared industry concerns regarding the current definition. We will update you as soon as we hear back on the outcome of those discussions. Again, we know these delays are hurting industry, and Government is very aware of the need to resolve the definition and help grow this important industry. This weekend I m attending the Auckland Beekeepers Club s 70 th anniversary, a very impressive milestone that is being celebrated tomorrow. Way back in 1947 a number of beekeepers, including Mr P A Hillary, the father of Sir Edmund Hillary, got together and established the club, with the aim of having a greater focus on hobbyists. The Club s motto Learn, educate is still very relevant today, in fact more so, given the growth of new beekeepers to the industry. Congratulations to the Club which retains a strong membership today. Myrtle Rust From the CE Karin Kos November 24 th Update It's disappointing that the fungal plant disease myrtle rust has been found for the first time in the Auckland. According to MPI a serious infection of several hundred ramarama plants has been confirmed. 13 P a g e
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Interesting websites December 2016 newsl https://www.botany.one/2017/10/sexual-magnetism-as-aninfection-how-red-dwarf-got-close-to-the-truth/ 18 P a g e
Who can I speak to? December 2016 newsl President Frank Lindsay (04) 478 3367 lindsays.apiaries@clear.net.nz Treasurer John Burnet (04) 232 7863 johnburnet@xtra.co.nz Secretary Jane Harding (04) 421 2417 janeh@xtra.co.nz Best times to Jane by phone are evenings, and Friday/Saturday/Sunday Newsletter editor Eva Durrant (04) 470 7879 or 027 3118700 edurrant@xtra.co.nz Committee Members Viv Harris 4787521 vivharris@xtra.co.nz PK Tan 0211093388 PK Tan pk.propserv@gmail.com John Randall 4769959 westernbeeline@gmail.com Richard Braznek 0210344311 Meeting location Johnsonville Community Centre, Moorefield Rd, Johnsonville 19 P a g e