December January 2017 NEWSLETTER

Transcription

1 Franklin Beekeepers Club December January 2017 NEWSLETTER President: Graham Dyche PO Box 1259,Pukekohe Secretary: Joan Leitch Treasurer: Kate Jackson Editor: Ross Jackson Website: PRESIDENTS REPORT 2016 Rollercoaster Alyssa Reid Rollercoaster: What a rollercoaster of a year, 2016 has been. In the world, there was Zika, Olympics, refugees, Brexit and the US elections. Earthquakes, house prices up, dairy prices down and John Key out, rocked NZ. In beekeeping, Apiculture NZ opened its doors on April 1 describing itself as the peak body which administers the industry. It is an industry climbing fast with record high prices and numbers of hives, beekeepers, honey harvested and exports. How much higher can this rollercoaster climb? One downside of the growth in hive numbers and beekeepers is the pressure it puts on the control of AFB. The aim of the national AFB pest management plan is to eliminate AFB from NZ. In reality, the management agency and we beekeepers must run ever faster just to stay in the same place. So if 2016 has you clinging on with white knuckles, take some time out to relax and enjoy living in the moment. The best way is to turn off the cell phone, zip into the bee suit and escape to the apiary. Become absorbed in the hive and time stands still. Observe the unflustered busyness of the bees, working in unison. See the shafts of sunlight, the fragrant flowers, pollen sacs of vibrant yellows and orange. A unique instant in time, which somehow captures all, summers past and present. Eddie Izzard - Covered In Bees: For the FBC 2016 has been a year of steady growth. The cowshed apiary is our familiar home, with hives, and bee garden and honey house. The hum of the hives is like the click of the car as it climbs higher up the track of the roller coaster. Now from the top we cannot help but see the earthmovers have moved next door. Tearing up the green turf and hewing into the landscape to build the 5000 Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 1/10

2 new houses of Wesley New Town. The FBC committee are in contact with the developers who want to include the bee club in their plans. There will be a meeting between the FBC committee and developers to discuss options in the New Year. The cowshed apiary is not affected by stage one of the development but will be by stage two. Like Wesley School, the bee club has moved several times in the past, each time has been an opportunity for improvement. I think we should be optimistic about things to come. So I invite all club members to climb aboard the rollercoaster and hang on for the ride in Dr Graham Dyche FBC President HIVEMASTERS REPORT. The club hives are almost there, a fair bit of work to do putting frames back in the right places (brood/honey) however; in general, they are heading in the right direction. Currently Top Bar- new queen put in and is not yet ready to split. Bench Hive, Rhys was from a split from Sims road- Queen has emerged and it is looking to start doing all the right things. Seven Langstroth hives out of eight after splits are doing well, three are strong and with the honey flow now on we have removed Bayvarol and putting honey supers on. Two of the Sim road splits have failed. From the look of the capped dead broad they have chilled. The wind blows straight into the hive entrances at this site; I propose a windbreak be placed on the surrounding fence. Sim road is now the focus as this has been neglected somewhat. The sheds, are reasonably well equipped and tidy, please keep them this way. Marty & Tania are working on the new "hive log" and on the back of Marty's suggestion it is handy to store the logs between the hive mat and hive lid. HIVE SPLITS As many of us are becoming aware, now is the time, we may be looking to split our hives. It is both an effective way to help mitigate swarms, and to increase our stock. There are many ways to do this; each of us has their own individual preference, or trusted method. This is but one, details are on the club website Step One Choose a strong hive you will need to make a fresh box of 10 frames, consisting of four frames with fresh mainly uncapped brood- ideally as much at early egg stage as possible, four frames honey/ pollen stores mixed, two frames empty fresh comb. Before you, do anything check and ensure this is available without weakening your hive. You will also need a queen excluder. Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 2/10

3 Step Two If this all seems OK, check the weather forecast you will need two consecutive days of good calm weather. If forecast seems OK, move to step three Step Three We are going to make up a super as close to that in step one as possible- the object here is also to ensure the queen does not end up in this super. Therefore, we need to choose an outer frame to go into the super. Working left to right in the empty super with each frame you choose aim to give a short, sharp jerk over the box you are extracting the frame from, and remove the bees from the frame back into the hive we want minimal or no bees on the frames we transfer into the new super. Check each bee free frame before placing in the new super to ensure you are not moving the queen to the new super This applies to all the 10 frames you will move- this will ensure the queen remains in the hive and not in the super we are making up Frame one mainly empty foundation Frames two, and three honey/pollen stores Frames four, five, six and seven- brood- as young as possible, uncapped at egg stage Frames eight and nine honey/ pollen stores Frame ten mainly empty foundations Step Four Place a queen excluder on the old hive Step Five Place your new super you have just made on top of the queen excluder- this will allow nurse bees from the hive up into the new super but will prevent the queen from accessing the new super and she will remain in the old hive Step Six Leave the set up as this for a day- you will find nurse bees and returning bees to the hive will have access through the queen excluder to your new super and will look after the brood you have moved Step Seven After the first day, you will need to move the hive about a metre from its original location. Then put a hive base on the spot where the original hive was located. Take the made up super off the top of the old hive and put it on the new base- in effect you have now set up a new queen less hive on the location of the old hive Your old hive and queen have been removed a distance of 1 metre. They will continue as they were before Bees, which are out foraging, will return to the site of the new hive, on the location of the original, and boost its numbers, and stores. Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 3/10

4 Bees, which had moved, up into the new super to attend to the brood and will remain there. They will also detect they have no queen, and will after a short time try and raise a new queen from the eggs that you moved into the new super in Step three. This is why we want the brood moved to have been as young as possible- to give the best chance of raising a strong new queen. Step Eight Self control- do not open the new super again preferably for five weeks- this will give enough time for a new queen to be raised from egg 16 days,, to fly, mate and begin laying days. You can observe the hive strength by the flow of bees, if weather is inclement- they have 4 frames of stores, try not to be impatient. We do not want to damage a queen cell in checking, nor damage a queen by moving frames around. The weather in days 22 to 30 really needs to be settled, as we have already seen this year, a number of virgin queens have been lost when we have a sudden change of weather, and they fail to get back to the hive, that is something beyond our control. If all has gone well you now have 2 hives both queen right, you should see signs of fresh brood in both. There are a number of different methods for splitting hives. The important points are Don`t be greedy with splits, you want strong hives Splits are an effective way of swarm management Be patient If in doubt ask the club for advice see the club website Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 4/10

5 NEW MEMBERS The club continues to attract new members. Please make these people feel welcome: Ash and Ismail Anwar Steve Rubie Yvonne Gausden Fiona Wormald Caroline Lynch Hori Taka Adarsh Toor Jasley and Roger McSaveney Scott and Corrie Taylor Marian Jones Gren and Dee Jamieson Simon Cotter Philomena Harris Jacques Beukman Mike Gault Chad Keven Brian Himsley New members are keen to learn, so we really appreciate the more experienced members who continue to come along to club days and share their stories and knowledge FRANKLIN HOSPICE Earlier in the year the club attended the Frankiln Hospice fair with good results, we received the following from the organisers of this very worthwhile cause Thanks very much for your support by taking a table / space at the Franklin Hospice Christmas Market. We hope your day was fruitful with sales and ongoing contacts. Thanks also to those of you who have sent us lovely messages about your experience of the market. We appreciate it. If you would like to remain on our list of people to contact for our next event, then please let me know and I will ensure you are contacted when we know what we will be doing next! FYI We do know we raised significantly more for this market than our previous one two years ago, so it was your support, which has enabled this. We expect that our contribution to Hospice this year will go towards specialist palliative care training for our wonderful bunch of dedicated nurses. Once again on behalf of Kay, Steph and I, thanks for your wonderful support and we look forward to catching up with you again soon. Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 5/10

6 TUTIN AWARENESS December 2016-January 2017 Please see other attachment for the full article, or refer to the club website Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 6/10

7 HONEY EXTRACTION ROOM The new season is upon us, so we are getting the extraction room ready for the expected flow. We have had modifications made to our 10-frame extractor, so that it works better with ¾ frames. We have also purchased a 4-frame extractor, which should work better for small volumes and for Manuka honey. We have a stainless steel stand for the boxes to rest on, prior to extraction. Thank you to Peter Biland for all his work with getting the extractors sorted. Bookings for the room should be through our membership system. Go to our website ( and join the club. Then login as a member. Your login name is usually the first three letters of your first name, and the first 3 letters of your surname. Go to Tasks, Purchases & Bookings, and tick the extraction room button. It will offer you a choice of days. Please book in advance if possible. The system will notify us of your booking, but we need to organise someone with a Food Safety Certificate to open up and show you the procedure. If you want to cancel, you will also have to let Joan know. Please remember that you need to have two people working in the honey room, for safety purposes. Booking the Extraction Room The honey extraction room is available for all club members to rent, the prices this year remain the same as last - $15 booking fee, and then $10 per box extracted. Please note that you need at least two people in the room (so bring a friend), and that one of you needs to have a Food Safety qualification (see elsewhere in this newsletter). If you are intending to sell or barter your honey, you should also jar it in the room. To book the room: Visit the website click Join The Club, and Login. Your login details should have been sent to you when you joined. Click Tasks, then Purchases & Bookings. Tick the Extraction Room box, and estimate how many boxes you will be doing. Tick to say you will have two people there, and that one of you holds the food safety certificate. Choose your extraction date. Please do not book for the following day we need to arrange for someone to open up the room for you. If you want a later date, push next until you reach the correct week. You can pay immediately, or wait until you have used the room. If you want to change the number of boxes extracted, contact secretary@franklinbees.co.nz The Home tab will show you the dates you have booked. If you need to change these, you will need to contact secretary@franklinbees.co.nz The default opening time is 9am, but this can be changed in agreement with the person assigned to open the room for you. This person is a volunteer, so please respect their time by being prompt. We would also appreciate it if you brought as few bees with you as possible. Cover your load. New regulations are in place if you are using the extraction room to extract honey for the purpose of sale or barter. Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 7/10

8 You are now required to have someone present at all times who holds a Food Safety Certificate. The club s food registration certificate is in jeopardy if any person/s sell honey that s been extracted at the club if an inspector asks to see your Food Safety Certificate. One simple way to achieve your certificate is to register & complete an online questionnaire at a cost of only $35incl GST, and pass the questions of course! It is a very simple set of questions, common sense ones really. The course can be found here: It is a NZ certified course, at completing & passing you will receive your certificate via or for an extra $15, you can have a very nice color hard copy posted to you. One other thing, all honey packaged for sale or barter must be done so in a registered kitchen/premise (club extraction room). You cannot package your honey at home unless your home situation is a registered food grade kitchen/premise. Please be kind enough not to jeopardize the clubs food registration certificate by not adhering to these regulations, it could cost the club a large fine or worst case scenario would be the extraction room shut down by Council. Happy Honey Harvesting! FRANKLIN A & P SHOW Each year, the club sets up a stall at a local show. The purpose is to promote beekeeping to the community, and to talk to prospective members. Sometimes we have club honey to sell. Often we have a display hive, to show the Queen and workers. The Franklin A&P Show is on Saturday 18 th and Sunday 19 th February, in Pukekohe. Please mark these dates in your diary, and make an effort to volunteer for a few hours in the display tent. We encourage newer members, with their enthusiasm, to get involved, as they can reassure nervous potential beekeepers. Be proud to be a beekeeper POSSIBLE CANADIAN BAN OF NEONICOTINOID PESTICIDES For your information this past week, Canada Health has proposed a ban on the neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid. News report here.; The draft report and executive summary is here. The full 300 page report is attached. Interestingly it is not based on the effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators - another Canadian study is under way on that topic. No doubt, there will be some discussion amongst beekeepers and what does this mean. Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 8/10

9 December 2016-January 2017 For those unaware these chemicals are in regular use as seed coating on items such as Sweet corn, Coriander, Sunflowers, and Chillies, and may remain in the soil subsequently ITALIAN APIARY A row of Italian bee hives, in Apulia, Italy. Note the roof over the landing board, and the handles at the sides. They also still had reducers on the entrances, despite the weather being over 30 degrees. Photo courtesy of our secretary Joan What is interesting is the detection of imidacloprid in waterways and effects on aquatic life. We do not do any pesticide monitoring in NZ of either waterways or soils. FRANKLIN BEE CLUB DIRECTIONS The club address is 733 Paerata Road (State Highway 22), Paerata 2676, and New Zealand. Travelling on SH22 towards Pukekohe, the clubhouse is on the left hand side. Travelling towards Drury, it is on the right. At 733 there is a red letterbox and a driveway that forks left goes to a house, take the right that travels 100m past old sheds and terminates at a turntable by a disused concrete-block cow-shed. This is the apiary site. Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 9/10

10 When visiting the site, please ensure you park on the old turntable, taking care that the driveway is kept clear. When leaving the site, please take great care joining the traffic. Vehicles approaching from the right are not very easy to see. Quarantine rules To reduce the risk of spreading disease, the committee decided (20th October 2014) to restrict the bringing of any used bee keeping equipment (including gloves) to club days the only exception is bee suits. Where required, gloves and other equipment is provided by the club. This rule is not just to protect the club hives, but also protects you from taking diseases home to your hives. If you would like to contribute articles, recipes, photos or any other content for the newsletter or website, please get in touch we would love to hear from you Ross Did you know that old newsletters are published an issue late on our website at Franklin Beekeepers Club Page 10/10