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

February 2000

February Meeting

The first meeting for 2000 will be held at CIT, Heysen Street, Weston at 7.30 pm on Wednesday February 9th. Come along and give us your suggestions for 2000.

 

Honey Judging at the Show

We are planning to hold a friendly Honey and Hive Products competition at the Canberra Show. Judging will be done by Margaret and Robert Gardiner, making use of the judging skills they learned in Scotland. The emphasis will be on encouragement for all, with written feedback for each entrant. Later in the year we will hold a judging evening, with a view to making it a more competitive event in future years. Our long-term aim is to encourage higher standards of presentation of hive products.

Please consider making one or several entries. David Lillis (62965571) and Roy Bray (62583433) will accept entries and arrange them prior to judging on Friday 25 February.

Classes:

1. Canberra Garden Honey: A. Candied, B. Liquid, C. Cut Comb.

2. Australian Native Honey: A. Candied, B. Liquid, C. Cut Comb.

3. Chunk Honey – any variety.

4. Three jars of any type of honey.

5. Best quality wax product.

6. Best quality wax mould.

7. Best quality cookery product.

8. Best of show.

Jars may be any size to 500g. "Products" will be interpreted flexibly. You may use your imagination freely.

 

Caravan

At the November meeting it was agreed to look into options regarding re-registration of the Association caravan. The options available were as follows:

1. Re-register late December when due at a cost of approx. $200 per year.

2. Re-register at any time within the 12 months after the due date, minimum 1 week pro rata, on presentation of the renewal notice without extra fees or testing.

3. No action for 12 months, re-registration under the old registration ceases to be an option.

Under option 2, the caravan registration has lapsed. If it is required to be moved on the roads this year, within the ACT, pro rata re-registration of a minimum of 1 week is available on presentation of the renewal notice. If it is required to be moved outside the ACT, pro rata re-registration of a minimum of 1 month is available on presentation of the renewal notice. If it is not used during the year, it must be re-registered for at least 1 week before the 12 months is up to roll over re-registration options for the next year.

Considering that the caravan, currently at CIT Weston, was not used off site in 1999, paying for minimum registration seems the most cost effective option. If anyone would like to use the caravan for promotional purposes, please remember to allow time for registering as well as any sprucing up to be considered.

 

Bees Presentation

The Association has received a request from the Belconnen Ladies Probus Club asking if we can provide a quest speaker to talk about bees and beekeeping for approximately 45 minutes at their February 28 meeting at 11 am. If you can help out, please contact Derek Butler on 62865377.

 

Empty Super Award - Anonymous (for obvious reasons), but true.

The Scene: in bed in a Sydney hotel.

"Love..,. Are you awake?" (Thinks: aha - Australian foreplay) "I am now... what's up?" "I've been thinking.... Do the bees cap queen cells?" (With great restraint) "It's 4am. I'll look it up in the morning." "OK love. 'night." 'Night, love."

Irradiation of Hives

An important new NSW Agriculture Agnote DAI/35 issued in January 2000.

 

Honeybee Improvement

By Robert Gardiner

Recently my wife Margaret and I spent three months in Scotland on long service leave. While the rest of the bee world was focussing on Apimondia, we were forging links with Scottish beekeepers. We found that the Scots were as friendly as beekeepers anywhere, being made most welcome at conferences, dinners, meetings and home visits. They were certainly extremely interested in the way in which we go about our business, especially in our (for now) varroa-free environment.

The following article is taken from a presentation by Michael McGiolla Coda, a leading Irish bee breeder, at the Scottish Beekeepers' Association Autumn Conference at Edinburgh in October 1999.

The four principles guiding honeybee improvement are:

Evaluation: How Well Do 1 Know My Bees?

A number of characteristics of bees are known colloquially in the trade as a pain in the neck. These include:

On the other hand, bees which are always a pleasure to work with include:

Record - keeping

Records are kept according to Hooper's 5 Questions:

1. Has the colony sufficient room?

2. Is the Queen Present and Laying (Queenright)?

3. How is the Colony Developing?

4. Are Signs of Disease present?

5. Are there Sufficient Stores?

Record keeping must be meticulous, in order to make a reasonable comparison between the hives in the apiary and to map progress. A ranking system is recommended on a 5 point scale, using your own reading of the situation. The only limitation is that you should be consistent in your marking scheme across the apiary.

Examples.

 

A B C D E Comments

Docility Steadiness Brood Pattern Pollen Comb

1 2 4 3 3 Bees angry

Selecting

Use the accumulated data to decide which hives to use for the next generation of queens.

Example:

Hive No. A B C D E Sum Product Yield

(A+...E) (Ax...xE) (kg)

14 3 2 1 3 3 12 54 40

By combining all the scores, an overall score may be arrived at. Either the Sum or the Product can be used, but the Product emphasises differences more clearly, By this means the beekeeper can decide which hives to select for continued improvement, and which ones are to receive the "treatment."

Culling

The aim is for early elimination of the following bad traits:

Later culling can be carried out for fine-tuning characteristics of:

This method seems a lot of work, but it is very methodical. Michael has used it for many years now, and can easily refer to any hive he has ever owned. More importantly, he can point to a steady record of hive improvement. The thought of it scares me, but I'm going to try it out this season. After all, if every other agricultural enterprise needs careful record keeping, why not ours? There are many zeros after the dollar sign in honey production, which alone should justify the effort.

 

Bindaree Beenotes: Dick has a good price on jars and labels for your honey-judging entries. Also check his stock of honey extraction items – buy or hire.

 

 

 

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