Newsletter of the Beekeepers Association of the ACT

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 2001

February Meeting

Our first meeting for 2001 will be held on Wednesday 14th February at 7.30pm, at CIT Weston. See President’s Note below.

Royal Canberra Show

If you are exhibiting your honey or other apiculture products at the show it would be worthwhile referring to the hints for exhibitors published with the November newsletter. These are available also on the Bindaree website

Exhibits can be delivered to Pat and Lyn Shiels at the Association meeting on 14th February or to 57 Beasley St., Torrens before Wednesday 21st February. Please phone on 62862421 before delivering your honey to make sure someone will be home. If you have a problem with getting your honey to us please phone and we may be able to make another arrangement.

Please make sure your exhibits are packed securely and labelled with the label provided by the Show Society. You may want to provide spares in case of damage.

We will bring home any exhibits not collected on Sunday night and they can be picked up at Beasley St. or at the following Association meeting. I apologise for the late notification of entry dates and hope many members are still able to enter their exhibits.

Lyn Shiels

Queen Marking 2001 – White

The internationally recognised colour coding for the marking of queens raised in the year 2001 is white.

President’s Note

I hope your festivities all went to plan. The annual Christmas party, at Dick Johnston’s place, was once again an enjoyable evening. My thanks to Dick and Jan for opening their home to us. We were fortunate to have present a surprise guest from Bosnia, Momir Milosovic, who is the president of the beekeepers’ association where he comes from. We have agreed to exchange newsletters via the internet. Thanks also go to Rob Gardiner for opening up some of his hives and showing Momir around his apiary during his stay.

Members tell me their honey flows have been slow and the hot weather hasn’t helped. During these hot periods it is important to be extra careful with using smokers. A hot smoker or loose ember can cause some unwanted damage to park and grassland. Keep some water handy and observe all total fire bans everywhere because they apply to beekeepers as well. It is illegal to expose a naked flame during these periods.

I hope all those intending to enter exhibits in the Royal Canberra Show did so before the cut-off date, 7 February. Thanks to Lyn Shiels for mailing the entry forms. Suitable jars for exhibiting honey can be purchased from Bindaree Bee Supplies.

At this month’s meeting there will be some discussion about the organisation and layout of our exhibition so come along if you wish to be involved or sell honey.

Next month is the AGM so circle this date on your calendar.

Regards,

David Lillis

Properties of Bee Venom

Here is the summary of an excellent 1999 review by Comvita (the largest bee products company in New Zealand):

Bee venom has been used for therapeutic purposes for more than twelve centuries, is part of clinical practice in Eastern Europe and Asia, and is an important part of Chinese acupuncture. Bee venom therapy is also gaining in popularity in the US and Western Europe.

Bee venom contains 18 components with pharmacological activities. The major bioactive substances are the enzymes.

Melittin and apamin found in bee venom have been shown to stimulate the pituitary gland in humans and animals, releasing a hormone that causes the adrenal gland to produce cortisol, one of the body’s major anti-inflammatory agents.

MCD peptide found in bee venom has been shown to produce an anti-inflammatory effect in animals 100 times stronger than the common anti-inflammatory drug hydrocortisone. The effect is in addition to the cortisol effect.

Bee venom is effective in all afflictions that are influenced by cortisone. Bee venom is not accompanied by side effects normally associated with cortisone, apart from allergic reaction.

A variety of clinical studies have shown bee venom to be effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and degenerative conditions of the spine.

There is anecdotal evidence to support the use of bee venom to reduce the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Clinical trials are currently under way to test the effects of bee venom on MS sufferers in the US and England.

Studies show that the percentage of people with true insect sting allergy is 1-2%. The probability of death due to bee sting allergy is extremely low (less than 1 in 12 million). True bee sting allergy can be diagnosed and treated.

There is no link between bee sting allergy and allergies such as asthma, hay fever and food allergies.

For Sale

15 Beehives, ten-frame; most hives are three box, some are doubles, all have queen excluders, some have three quarter and half boxes. They are located on a dairy farm at Fyshwick and should have plenty of honey. There is a possibility to continue the same location. Price $1,500. Phone Stef Turcin 6254 3798.

For Sale

Stainless steel 2-frame 200l hand-driven extractor, cappings melter (20l) on stand, 8 hive box bodies (8-frame), 3 lids, 3 bases, 6 queen excluders, 20 frames, 1 smoker, 2 uncapping knives, 1 bee brush, 6 brood boxes, 1 homemade jig for wiring frames, 2 20l honey tins, 2 beekeeper’s masks, 1 box foundation, 30 sets unassembled frames plus books: "Beekeeping" (Eckert&Shaw), "ABC&XYZ of Bee Culture" (Root), "Beginning in Bees" (NSW Ag), NSW Tafe Course Notes on Beekeeping. $600 the lot. Cash or bank cheque only. Equipment only used for two seasons and presently at Bevendale, NSW. Will deliver in Canberra or anywhere in between, e.g. Yass, Gunning. Kevin Rattigan, 8 Trott Place, Holt, ACT 2615. (02)62544785, mobile 0427 544 785.

For Sale

Six 2-box hives, two 10-frame, four 8-frame, all healthy and storing honey. Frames in good condition; boxes may need some external maintenance. Asking price $80 per hive but room for negotiation. Delma Robson, (Phone 6286 2113 or email Delma.Robson@ato.gov.au ).

Empty Super Award

Don’t be Trigger-Happy

My hives are on a property owned by a leading member of the local fire brigade, so it’s particularly important to be seen to be doing the right thing in regard to smoke on fire danger days. Consequently I often use liquid smoke. It’s not perfect, but at least cuts down the dive-bombing to a squadron at a time.

Recently I was working on a stroppy hive. I pumped a bit of liquid smoke in and laid the pump aside while opening up. They started to play up, so I reached for the pump – just as the hissing indicated that I had left it on spray and there ain’t no more. By the time I got the lid back on and myself the heck out of there, I had multiple stings to deal with, and a certain queen’s abdication in mind.

Rob Gardiner

Letters to the Editor

Problems with producing sections

This season I have been using several types of super/frame/foundation material. In spring after the initial inspections I used a half-depth Circomb, a snaplock circular arrangement for producing sections. This went over a double brood box to ensure that the bees had no choice in the matter. On another hive I used a half-depth super with Guilframes. Not even a single comb was drawn in either configuration.

On another hive I used the PFF plastic frames and foundation as the top box in a two-box hive. The drawing pattern was quite unusual. They would draw a little, fill it with honey, cap it and then draw a little more. The queen absolutely refused to lay in these frames.

I grant that the season has been poor, but over January I found 2½ boxes of honey ready-capped from 3 hives, so they are getting honey from somewhere.

It looks as if I will have to return to the full-depth system, as that’s what my customers are telling me they want to work in. Are there any suggestions?

Rob Gardiner.

Recent Bee-Sting Deaths

There were two tragic events in the last few days in South Australia. First a worker was stung to death while working in a chimney at an Adelaide school which had recently been fumigated for bees. Then a motorcyclist was killed while riding in rural Keith.

Both tragedies were the result of people being allergic to bee stings. This causes the victim to suffer anaphylactic shock. This is not subtle; massive reactions occur including severe swelling and acute respiratory distress within minutes.

A portable treatment, the EpiPen, has been developed for use by people at risk. Training in its use is very simple, and basically involves pressing the pen into a leg muscle to deliver a dose of adrenalin. If you know people who suffer acute allergic reactions (not limited to stings by any means – allergy to nuts is very common), you may be able to advise them to seek medical advice on obtaining the EpiPen.

Rob Gardiner.

Water

Water is important to bees. In the early spring they need it to thin down the honey from their stores to make the larval jelly. When there is a honey flow they seem to get enough from the nectar that they bring in. I have noticed that when they are putting up honey, they don’t go after water to any extent. In times of dearth they gather a lot, and when the dearth comes in hot weather, they bring it in by the gallon, and I am not kidding. They use it then to help cool the inside of the hive, and also to thin down the honey that they are again consuming from their stores.

They will go to the strangest places to get it. In my case they preferred the neighbor’s, not to the extent that a little honey wouldn’t sweeten the situation, but under the wrong circumstances it could mean trouble. I can’t advise you what to do about it, except to make sure that there is a supply available nearby. This may not mean anything, but it does seem to me that they like to fly a bit before gathering it. Every one of the waterers that I have put out for them deliberately has been within ten feet of the hives, and has been ignored. In some cases, the same apparatus a hundred feet or more from the hives has been visited eagerly. Draw your own conclusions.

Propolis Pete writing in Gleanings in Bee Culture, Aug 1952

What is Old is New Again

It is singular that, though honey was used for thousands of years for treatment of wounds and skin troubles, our modern medical literature ignores the subject. Lately, it seems, honey is gradually regaining its age-old repute and lost popularity. Dr Zaiss, of Heidelberg, considers honey in the treatment of wounds superior to all other ointments. He has treated several thousand cases of severe infections with honey and could not report a single failure. He dresses the wounds with strips of gauze dipped in honey and finds the wounds perfectly clean in 24 hours. The healing is remarkably rapid.

Dr Bodog F. Beck in "Honey and Health", 1944.

Removing Bees from a Chimney

Having removed a well established hive from the wall cavity of a weatherboard farmhouse, I was asked if I could then remove another colony from a blocked-in chimney in the same house. The hive had been active for more than 20 years and reached up to the very top of the chimney, where it was directly exposed to the elements. The depth of the comb could not be determined because the associated fireplace had been securely closed and walled in.

The home owner was very keen to ensure the bees were not killed and that leakage of honey from any meltdown of unventilated comb in the hot weather was avoided.

Intrigued by the challenge, I decided to use an "escape method" along the lines of one described in Chapman-Taylor and Davey’s 1981 book "Beekeeping for Fun". Essentially, the plan was to remove the bees, then to use those same bees to rob-out the honey from the old hive, and finally to fully seal the chimney and let the wax moth destroy the comb. The intended time-scale was six weeks.

Removal of the bees was achieved by sealing all but one entrance to the hive, and placing a one-way escape on that remaining entrance. A single box hive was placed such that its entrance was adjacent to the escape. During all this activity the bees were very busy, going about their normal business apparently oblivious to the changes taking place in their environment. At no stage during the entire seven week operation did any of the bees exhibit any aggression – until the box hive was finally closed up and removed from its perch on the chimney.

The following sequence of photos shows: the chimney before starting, gaps sealed with foam strips, the sealing board in place (with its one circular entrance), and the escape. The escape was a cone made of aluminium flywire, about 4 inches (100mm) diameter at the base and open 3/8 inch (9mm) diameter at the top. The ends of the wires around the top hole were arranged to make re-entry as difficult as possible.

Once the cone escape assembly was screwed over the entrance the box hive was placed in position and securely tied down with rope to prevent dislodgement by strong winds. This hive contained a small swarm hived a week before on foundation. The swarm had partially drawn two frames of foundation, stored a little nectar and the queen had started laying. Chapman-Taylor and Davey suggest the collecting box be "baited with one frame of brood including eggs and one of stores, both covered with nurse bees", the collected bees then raising a new queen. I am sure that the latter would work but, rather than disturb another hive, I preferred to use the new small swarm.

In the two photos above, taken four days after installation, the bees can be seen emerging from the cone and trying to re-enter the cone. During a total of about one hour’s observation only two bees were seen to successfully re-enter the cone, meanwhile hundreds of bees had exited. The desired outcome was that the foraging bees would leave the chimney hive and on their return, unable to re-enter the chimney, drift into the adjacent box hive. Subsequently, the younger bees would also leave the chimney and end up in the box hive. The chimney queen would soon slow down and discontinue laying as the loss of foragers became evident. Nurse bees would continue attending the brood, using stored honey and pollen, until all brood was hatched and eventually left the chimney. The fate of the queen was uncertain; she would either emerge eventually or die unattended.

Inspection of the box hive after seven days revealed that it was rapidly filling with bees and comb was being drawn on all frames. A second box was added. A further inspection another week later revealed comb drawing in the top box and a much reduced activity in the chimney. The initial plan was to remove the cone escape five weeks after it had been put in so that the bees, now established in the box hive, would enter the chimney and rob the old hive of any remaining honey. Circumstances delayed the escape removal until six weeks from the starting date. Having done this, the chimney entrance was left open for a further week before the box hive and all other paraphernalia was removed.

Nothing was easy working on a tin roof, sometimes in very hot conditions, but one man getting a reasonably full two-box hive off a chimney, across a sloping roof and down to the ground was fraught with some danger. The hive was lifted off the chimney, carried across the roof and lowered to the ground on a rope. In the event, despite the Emlock being quite tight, the hive sections did slip a little, but not enough to let bees out. However, a small indiscretion with the entrance closer did let about 20 angry bees out.

Once the box hive was removed the comb in the chimney was examined and found to be completely empty, apart from a little pollen. All brood had hatched, all honey removed and there was no sign of the queen or any other bees. Wax moth had just started to work on the comb. The comb was found to extend only a metre down the chimney as the chimney had been blocked off just below that level, either by man or bird, long ago. Consequently, the comb was not left to the moth but was removed and the wax recovered.

To complete the job the loose bricks atop the chimney were mortared in together with a sheet of Hardieplank covering the opening to block all holes and hopefully prevent any re-colonisation. The box hive was taken some 20 kilometres away and has prospered.

Observations:

I believe the effort would be futile if all exits from the hive could not be blocked. I was lucky this time, but all other hives I have observed in dwellings have had access to a number of discreet exits.
Other styles of escape were considered before deciding on the cone. Porter escapes offered the security that bees certainly would not be able to return. But there were a lot of drones in the chimney and, as the system had to be left unsupervised for up to a month because of its remote location, even multiple Porter escapes would possibly be blocked by stuck drones. So, even though there was very little published about the efficacy of the cone escape, the cone was used.
Would I do it again? Only as a very special favour.

Paul Hooper

Bindaree Bee Notes

Sparkling new 500g glass jars are now available to show your honey to advantage. They are a special purchase and have colourful yellow plastic screw top lids.

The jars are ideal for selling honey, for gifts or to show your honey at the Canberra Show. In fact last year’s show winner chose Bindaree glass jars.

Waterford crystal honey jars and lids - pictured - sell for $US95. The Bindaree honey jar and lid is only 65cents each.

Go to BINDAREE BEE SUPPLIES

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