Newsletter of the Beekeepers Association of the ACT Incorporated
Newsletter Web address:
www.bindaree.com.au/newsletter.htm
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
Contact No: Association President – David Lillis Ph: 62975202 (AH)
February 2002
Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 13th February at 7.30pm, at CIT Weston. Final preparations for the stall at the Canberra Show and a tentative timetable for this year’s activities will be discussed and some beekeeping videos viewed.
The Annual General Meeting of the Beekeepers Association will be held at CIT Weston on Wednesday, 13th March, 2002 at 7.30pm.
Welcome to Penny Amberg of Kingston.
Hi Members I hope the festive season has seen you all well. A “hot” Christmas in more ways than one, the fires, I reckon, stirring up some feral hives.
Three weeks of fire bans in New South Wales has made it hard to manage hives over the border.
I can’t stress enough the importance of care with the smoker during Summer especially in bush and grasslands and remember to observe all total fire bans.
Our stall at the Canberra Show is shaping up to be better than ever. New posters and a mural are set to attract attention. If members wish to help out and gain entry to the show then contact Lyn Shiels. Also don’t forget to get your honey entries to Lyn.
David Lillis
February 13 th: Videos (Organiser: Dick Johnston)
March 13th: AGM and Autumn Shutdown (Organiser: David Lillis)
April 10 th: Australian
Quarantine and Bees.
Speaker: David Banks (Organiser: David Lillis)
April
25 th:
Anzac Day Picnic and Hive Inspection
(Organiser: Derek Butler)
May
8 th:
Guest Speaker – Bruce White
(Organiser: David Lillis)
June
12 th: Commercial Beekeeping
(Organiser: David Lillis)
July 10 th: Midwinter Swarming (Dinner)
August 14 th: Craft and Gadgets
Night
(Organiser: Lyn Shiels)
September 11 th: Spring Management and Swarm Collecting – Speakers to be advised
October
9 th: Guest Speaker - Michael Hornitski
(Organiser: David Lillis)
November 13 th: TBA
December
11 th: Christmas Party
(Organiser: Dick Johnston)
Possible Additional Weekend Activities;
·
Mid Winter Madness Picnic in June
(Organiser: Lyn Shiels)
· Hive Crawl in July or August
· Trip to Sutherland to Council Sponsored Centre.
Ideas Welcome.
Members’ ideas and input into our plans for the coming year are welcome. Come along to the next meeting and share your ideas.
Members who attended our Christmas gathering at Jan and Dick Johnston’s home spent a pleasant evening chatting, eating and drinking in the back garden. Entertainment was provided by Mark Hosking and Bart, the Johnston’s talented ladder-climbing dog. Thank you to Dick and Jan for once again welcoming us to their home for this lovely social occasion.
The Canberra Show will be held from the 22nd to 24th February and the Association will once again have a stall in the Harvest Hall Pavilion.
Assistance will be needed to staff the stall. Roster times will be 9.00am – 1pm, 1pm – 5pm and 5pm – 9.30pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A free pass will be provided for entry to the show so come early or stay on after your roster and enjoy the show. If you can help by doing a shift on the roster ring Lyn Shiels or put your name on the roster at the February meeting.
Cec will transport tables and display boards on Thursday and again on Sunday night. Help is needed to load and unload his truck. We need help setting up on Thursday and packing up on Sunday.
Cec has offered to provide bees for our display boxes. Two boxes will be displayed, one with about four frames of brood and/or honey and the other with two frames of brood including a marked queen.
Two
extra stewards are needed on Thursday afternoon to help with judging and
display of show entries.
Members
who want to sell honey at the show should contact Lyn Shiels on 6286 2421
so that a time can be allocated for them. Can anyone make honey straws?
They sell really well.
If you can help with any of the above please contact Lyn or Pat Shiels on 62862421.
Was it a) Cec b) Herb c) Doug Sommerville d) Frank Burns to Hawkeye in “Mash”.
I thought it was a bit late in the season (Jan 4) when I fielded a call
for a swarm collection. The question over the phone was “Did I want a swarm?”
The answer was easy on a high wind, 30 degree day of total fire ban, the
prospect of a trip to Hackett from Kambah and the first beer of the day
about to be forced on me. I mentioned the names of several of my friends.
They are probably no longer speaking to me, but anyway they all managed
to pass the ball deftly back to muggins.
Thinks I, ask all the right questions; avoid getting
caught this time. “The swarm is in a letter box?” Well at least height shouldn’t
be a problem. “When did it arrive?” Two weeks did seem a while for them
to be hanging around in a letter box, what was the postie thinking, etc,
etc… Throw in a short stepladder just in case.
Where’s the swarm? Oh, in…that…tree…in…the POSSUM BOX!!!!
Now I’m not a squib, even though I get nosebleeds
in thick socks. I do regard shinning up two ladders (we borrowed a long
stepladder then an extendable from next door) on a tree swaying like the
topmast in a Cape Horn gale as being a bit over the odds. To top it off,
I had to unscrew the box from the tree (without smoke) to the refrain of
“It cost me $120 for the possum bloke to put this up”. By this time I could
freely visualise myself doused from head to foot in bees, so it was time
to pull out the insect killer. A
whole can later they were still coming, leaving me wondering whether we
had struck the Superbee. Ah, no, my friend, all was revealed when we finally
got all 20 kg to the ground. Not
two weeks’ but two YEARS’ worth of comb, chocker with honey (how I cried)
and the combs neatly laid diagonal to the entrance to stop any nasty swarm
collectors spraying. After that it was a pleasure to leave the possum
box in a neatly unscrewed pile of wood.
At least I got a couple of cold stubbies for my trouble.
My place on the swarm roster? Think I’ll have to put a couple of zeroes on
the fee next year.
Robert Gardiner
26th January, Australia Day, and it’s time to check that hive attacked yesterday by robber bees after being returned from an out-apiary.
The entrance has already been reduced by a half, but that has not been enough and skirmishes are still occurring on the landing board. So now I reduce the entrance further to 2cm, with wire mesh used to block the remainder of the entrance while still providing ventilation in this hot weather.
But what’s this big black fly doing, briefly attacking a lone bee on the side of the brood box then flying off? The bee appeared unharmed. Other flies of the same variety are hanging around a number of hives, darting around like robber bees in front of entrances and occasionally alighting on the landing board or (harmlessly?) assaulting isolated bees. I capture a few of these flies to take back to Canberra for identification.
Michele and I then watch a Willy Wagtail use various hives as launching pads for short flights as it caught and swallowed some bees.
Then I find the first European Wasp of the season in front of one hive, dissecting a dead bee. Now, the odd Willy Wagtail and big black flies are not going to cause any significant trouble to the bees, but European Wasps will. Although European Wasps will be visible dissecting dead and dying bees then flying away with the resultant parts, they will also attack healthy bees and enter beehives to steal honey and pupae. European Wasp assaults on colonies will cause the bees to divert a considerable amount of effort away from brood rearing and honey gathering into defending the hive.
The most frequently given advice on handling the European Wasp problem promotes the use of “wasp traps”, commonly involving plastic drink bottles and various foul smelling baits. I consider these a waste of time! If wasp traps capture a few stray wasps, or even a few hundred wasps over time, the outcome may give you a warm feeling inside … but it won’t help the bees. European Wasps live in large colonies of thousands, much like bees. A loss of few hundred would be neither here nor there.
What will help the bees will be to reduce the hive entrance size, making wasp entry more difficult, and to destroy the wasps in their own nests. Around my apiary the wasps have, fortunately, restricted themselves to nests in the ground, in old rabbit warrens or holes at the base of old dead trees. Finding the nests requires luck and perserverance. Being hassled by wasps “warning you off” while you walk in the area around the apiary is often the means by which you can locate wasp nests close to the apiary. Observation of wasp flight paths from your hives, from dead animals, and from trees from which they collect wood to make the “paper” fabric of their nest combs, will lead you to more distant nests.
The final localisation of your search is best done in full sunlight, preferably with the suspect location between you and the sun. Sunlit wasp wings flying to a focus point is an obvious indication. Under the right conditions it is not unusual to see sunlit wasps approaching their nest up to 50 metres away.
Once the nest is located the next step is to plan for your assault late at night after the wasps are settled in the nest. All nests I have seen have had only one entrance, about 4cm in diameter. After dark, dressed in full protective gear, including gloves, invert a stubby of petrol into the nest entrance and lightly jam the bottle in the hole to prevent wasps emerging before the fumes take full effect. Do not light the petrol !! Let the fumes do the work. Two days later, remove the bottle and fill the entrance in, or dig the nest out to see what havoc you have wrought and to be amazed at the size of the nest. If the wasp nest location is such that the use of petrol could be hazardous, then one of the proprietary wasp poisons (such as Baygon Insecticidal Powder) should be used.
My
tally last year was eleven European Wasp nests within 250 metres of the
apiary before wasps ceased pestering my bees.
Even then I do not really know whether it was my efforts or the coming
of winter that shut down the wasp activity. However, in a location 20 km away, all European Wasp activity ceased
for a year after I poisoned just one single wasp nest in a hole under the
hedge around a farmhouse in January last.
Happy hunting !
Paul Hooper
During the recent bushfire emergency, NSW Agriculture released the following statement:
USING SMOKERS IN THE CURRENT BUSH FIRE CRISIS
The
State Emergency Management Committee discussed the use of smokers at their
meeting in Sydney yesterday afternoon (Tuesday 08.01.02) and the decision
is:
That smokers are not to be used during total fire bans.
No mention of any changes to the previous advice given to Bruce White about
conditions for beekeepers to observe – that is
Permission has been given for beekeeepers to light smokers in their vehicles
and if they carry water they can use the smokers to shift loads away from
the fire danger areas and unload the hives using the smoker.
This only relates to the fire danger areas.
It would be also advisable for the beekeeper
to refuel the smoker in the vehicle.
Before anyone
lights or uses a smoker to shift bees in the fire danger areas, seek approval
from the local senior fire officer. Check
with them to see if there has been any changes to the above information.
Mick
Rankmore
Regulatory
Specialist, Apiaries.
Gunnedah
09.01.02
Editor’s Note: It is important for all beekeepers to take due care when using smokers in rural areas on non fire ban days. A metal container to sit the smoker in or a damp bag to place it on between uses helps to ensure safety. A few litres of water should always be accessible and care should be taken when refuelling. Windy days present a higher risk and should be avoided whenever possible even if there is no ban in place.
If possible hives should be placed in areas that are clear of long grass
or other fuel.
Beekeepers can check fire danger status by phoning the Rural Fire Service on 6297 2332 for NSW areas or 62078603 for ACT information. (Ed)
Honey gatherers taking time off for orthographic challenges. Answer: Spelling bees
Amish honey gatherers taking part in barn raisings. Answer: Working bees
· “It’s 8 feet up.” – halfway up Telstra Tower
· “Do you want a swarm?” – I expect you to collect it for nothing.
· “The last bloke wanted to charge me $35.” – I expect you to collect it for nothing. Answer: “Guess what I charge?”
· “It’s in a letter box.” – in a possum box miles up in a swaying tree.
· “We have lots of bees hanging round our tree” – they’re collecting pollen or nectar.
· “There’s a few (or lots) of bees hanging round the window frame.” – you have a feral hive in the wall cavity.
· “Bees are getting into our bathroom.” – You have a feral hive in wall or roof close to the exhaust fan.
· “There are bees coming and going from a hole in the ground.” – European wasps
· “My house is full of bees.” – you are cooking lasagne with a door open and the house is full of blowflies.
· “There’s a humungous swarm on the back tree.” – 250 bees.
· “The swarm is head high.” – yes if you stand on the 5 metre balcony nearby.
· “They’ve been there two weeks.” – 20 Kilos capped and candied.
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Richard Johnston Phone: 02 6281 2111 Email: bindaree.bee@bigpond.com Website: www.bindaree.com.au Shop open: Wed, Thur, Fri 4 pm to 6 pm, Sat 9.30 am to 4pm Closed: Sun, Mon, Tue. |
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