Newsletter of the Beekeepers Association of the ACT Incorporated

 

Meetings of the Beekeepers Association of the ACT Inc are held on the second

Wednesday of the month at 7.30 pm at the CIT, Heysen Street, Weston in Building A

August 2000

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August Meeting

Our August meeting will be held on 9th August at CIT Weston at 7.30 pm. We are lucky enough to have as our speaker at this meeting Doug Somerville of NSW Agriculture, Goulburn, to tell us about spring management of hives. This is a must for any serious beekeeper, as Doug has a wealth of experience. Apart from that, he’s coming all the way from Goulburn, so it behoves us to give him a good audience.

Winter Madness Barbeque

WHERE: the Blue Range Camp, off the road to the Brindabellas.

WHEN: Saturday 12th August (The Saturday after the next meeting).

TIME: 11.30 for 12.00.

This is a picnic ground and the usual wood-fired government BBQs are there. Bring your steak and food. And if a couple of people could bring some kindling (or a flame thrower) to get things going. The trick to enjoying this kind of thing is to wear the right clothes and have plenty of food. And don’t forget to bring the folding chairs to toast the toes at the fire.

The camp entrance is locked at night and is opened at 7.30 each morning (unless the ranger has to dig the army-on-exercise vehicles out or collect the most recent suicide). So if the gate is shut just wait. It was closed when I did my recce.

Beekeepers should be able to find anything in the bush!

Directions:

Time: about 40 minutes from Belconnen town centre without going sideways too often.

For something different, Belconnen residents can go along Coppins Crossing Rd., turn right onto Uriarra Rd. and through Uriarra Crossing to Brindabella Rd.

After those instructions, it’s the London to Dakar for me.

Roy Bray.

September Dinner

Since our room at the Weston TAFE is not available to us during the holidays, we plan to hold a dinner instead of the September meeting ,details to be supplied in the next newsletter.

A Code of Practice for ACT Beekeepers?

Many members are probably aware that a sub-committee of the Association has been developing a Code of Practice for Beekeeping in the ACT. The current draft of this Code is included with this newsletter so that we can get feedback from you. I want to emphasise that this is very much a draft—there are several important issues still to be clarified (e.g., Regulations), and we particularly want members to have the opportunity to be involved in the development of the Code.

So we’re hoping that you’ll take a squiz at the Code and provide comments to us. There’s no restriction on your comments, but to help provide some structure I’ve given below some key questions that you might consider.

First, should the Association have a Code of Practice at all? This really begs the question: what are we trying to achieve with this Code?

Just to give some background to this, the original intent came from wanting to prevent the occurrence of nuisance bees and particularly situations in which lives may be in danger. We don’t want a recurrence of the extremely unfortunate incident in Sydney earlier this year. Other states have developed their own Codes (which we have drawn on heavily).

Second, if we do think we should have a Code of Practice, then which group or groups should this address?

For example, the Code could be aimed at:

Obviously, who the Code is aimed at has a lot to do with what we are trying to achieve with it. And it might be that the Code can suit many groups and purposes, but we should realise that this makes it harder to develop and can result in confusion if not done well.

Third, how would we promote a suitable Code?

It’s not much use if we produce the Code only for it to sit on the shelf gathering dust. Is it sufficient to let people know that a Code exists (e.g., through media outlets), or should we be more pro-active? The answer to this question is obviously influenced by the group(s) we are aiming to reach. And some approaches may incur a cost.

Getting some reasonable agreement to these questions will really help us to develop an effective Code of Practice. You’re welcome to provide comments to any of the committee members, and coming along our monthly meetings is one opportunity to do this. Ideally, we’d prefer written comments since there’s less chance of misinterpreting things. To provide a central point of contact, you could give your comments to me:

email: graham.turner@cbr.defence.gov.au

(active until about the end of August)

Graham Turner
10a Atkinson St
Cook ACT 2614 ph: 6251 9422 (h)

or send them through the Association’s mailbox:

Beekeepers’ Association of ACT
PO Box 1482
Woden ACT 2606

Read the draft Code of Practice

Talk by Colin Marshall

At the July meeting Colin Marshall, of Brew Your Own at Home (Kambah), gave an entertaining talk showing his wide knowledge of the biology and practicalities of brewing. Beginning with the home-brewing of beer, he moved on to the advantages of adding honey to the wort (flavour, head retention) and then to mead making. He finally invited us to sample some excellent beers and a mead produced by himself and Stephen Nielsen.

Some of Colin’s points about brewing in general:

Some points about brewing beer with honey:

Some points about mead:

Apimondia 2005

At the end of June the Association was contacted by the Secretary of the NSW Apiarists Association asking for support for their bid to be Australian hosts of the International Beekeeping Congress, Apimondia 2005. We posted off a letter of support to NSWAA but have subsequently been advised that their bid was unsuccessful. Next year, at Apimondia 2001 in South Africa, Victoria will be promoting Melbourne as the venue for Apimondia 2005.

‘Ape’ on the Net

Can you guess what is a ‘gabbietta per l’introduzione della regina’? Or how it could be used to help with your ‘alveare’ and its ‘api orfane’? Check out George & Kate’s Beekeeper’s English/Italian Dictionary at http://www.fabaris.it/api/english.htm . For those without internet access, check the answer at the end of the newsletter.

Pollinating Blueberries

The Association has been advised that a vacancy for a pollination site for blueberries has arisen in Murrumbateman in spring.

Discussion on the issue at the July meeting suggested that it would be difficult to justify as a commercial venture since blueberry pollen is deficient in protein and the site is netted over. Consequently the bees are restricted to the blueberries and there is likely to be little honey income or hive growth for the duration of pollination, so the bees would require supplemental feeding.

As a sidelight to this, there is a good article on blueberry pollination in the June 2000 ABK which suggests appropriate hive densities and pollination fees.

Does anyone know if hives can be successfully operated with dual entrances, one entrance inside the netting for the blueberries and another entrance outside for balanced foraging? Would the bees then neglect the blueberries? If so, could the foraging be balanced by the entrances being adjusted for access, for example the blueberry entrance being normal but the outer entrance being small or through an empty tube (like the old Questacon hive)?

If anyone wants to try the site, please call Derek on 62865377 or Brian on 62381554.

NZ Varroa to Stay

The New Zealand Government has accepted that varroa has come to stay and that the best they can do is slow its spread throughout that country. This leaves Australia as the last significant honey producing country in the world free of varroa …. but for how long?

AQIS is again our ultimate line of defence, but we beekeepers of Australia have a vital role to play in keeping Australia varroa-free.

The NZ government was given the choice of attempting to eradicate or to manage the varroa infestation. The cost of attempting eradication was estimated at $55-70 million and NZ beekeepers strongly lobbied for that option. However, on 12 July, the Minister for Biosecurity and the Minister for Agriculture announced that the Government was opting for joint government and beekeeping industry management of varroa only. Eradication was ruled out as an option after a group of technical experts identified that the chances of successfully eradicating varroa were minimal.

The management programme is expected to cost Government up to $40 million over the next two years. Government's involvement and funding of management beyond the two-year interim programme will be determined through the development of a long-term management plan.

The official estimate of the economic impact of varroa on the New Zealand economy is in the range of $400 million to $900 million. This is the total, or one-off, value of the future expected impacts. The impacts arise through factors such as the reduced bee numbers leading to reduced pollination of crops and reduced honey production; increased costs of pollination services; and increased costs for beekeepers.

NZ beekeeping will never be the same again.

Book Review "Field Guide to the Native Trees of the ACT"

A Canberra classic, put together by the National Parks Association of the ACT. No Canberra area beekeeper should be without a copy. It is 99 pages long and contains descriptions and illustrations of the 60 trees growing naturally in the area.

There is a key to identifying members of each major group:

The key is a set of questions based on botanical features that are readily found and are consistent. It works through a logical process of elimination.

The eucalypts are of most benefit to beekeepers because most pollen and nectar outside the built-up area is provided by eucalypts. Although it is not a simple matter to identify species, with this guide in your hand you will be able to identify native eucalypts over the course of a year.

Where can you buy it? Bindaree of course, only $7.15.

Reviewer: Dick Johnston

 

‘Ape’ on the Net – Answers

Ape = bee; alveare = beehive; api orfane = queenless bees; gabbietta per l’introduzione della regina = queen cage.

 

 

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