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

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

Contact No:  Association President – Bob Shaw  Ph: 62540018

Meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 10^th June at 7.30pm, at CIT Weston.  Paul Hooper will lead a discussion of the options available to beekeepers when choosing equipment and demonstrate some of the items available.

The business section of the meeting is from 7.30 and the discussion will begin at 8.00pm. There will be time for a cup of tea and chat after the meeting.

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President’s Note:

Hi everyone!  I hope this finds you and your bees well.  Winter is upon us again and the cold weather may be the ideal time for you to carry out maintenance on your spare equipment in preparation for a, hopefully, productive spring. 

Lift your hives occasionally to check for adequate stores and feed them if they are light.

The committee has met and formed a plan for our future meetings.  It is published elsewhere in this newsletter.

Come along to our June Meeting where Paul Hooper will lead a discussion and provide examples of the various equipment options available to the beekeeper. See you there!

Bob Shaw

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Library Books

Richard is recalling all library books for stocktaking.  If you have a book, magazine or other item please return them to Bindaree or bring them to the next meeting.

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Committee Members

Elected at the AGM on April 13^th.

President : Bob Shaw

Vice President : Paul Hooper

Treasurer : Dave Alden

Secretary : Brigitte Ballard

Public Officer : Mark Elliott

Librarian : Richard Johnston

Newsletter : Lyn Shiels

Committee Member : David Lillis

More committee members are needed. The job is not onerous; perhaps one or two committee meetings a year.  If you feel you would like to join us please speak to someone on the committee so that they can nominate you.

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Proposed Timetable for Activities

Date	Activity	Organiser
June 10th	Equipment Options	Paul Hooper
July 15th	Mid Winter Dinner	Lyn Shiels
August 12th	Spring Preparation	Richard Johnston
TBA	Hive crawl &Barbecue	Lyn Shiels
September 9th	Swarm Collection	Paul Hooper
October 14th	Local Eucalypts	Richard Johnston
November 11th	Preparing Show Exhibits and Mead Making	Bob Shaw
December 9th	Christmas Party	Richard Johnston
February 10th	Speaker from ANU	Lyn Shiels
Mar 10th	AGM and Gadgets Night	Lyn Shiels
April 14th	Feeding Pollen & Nectar	Bob Shaw

Anyone with ideas or requests for particular activities please contact any committee member or mention your idea at the meeting.

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Irradiation of Beehives

Anyone who has hives to go to Steritech please contact Bob Shaw on 6254-0018 or Lyn Shiels on 6286-2421.  We will send another load as soon as we have enough to make an economical load.

Cost of irradiation is currently $22 per triple and $15.40 per double which is certainly cheaper than buying new material.  If making up triples do keep in mind that weight of each unit must be below 25 kilos and Steritech may refuse to handle any above that weight.  For full details on packaging refer to the October 2003 Newsletter or NSW AgnoteDAI/35 which is available from NSW Agriculture offices or at www.agric.nsw.gov.au

TJs Country Express have been transporting the hives for us.  Anyone who needs to use a courier service will find their prices very competitive and the service excellent.  The cost of transport depends on the number of units sent and is usually about $7-$8 per unit.

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Diseased Hive Material

This may be delivered to the ACT Government Incinerator at Mitchell for disposal. They will store the material in secure storage until disposal.  Please make sure you label the packages clearly “Diseased Bee Material. For Secure Storage and Disposal”. There is no need to contact Environment ACT before taking the material to the incinerator.

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Mini Honey Cheesecakes

250gm ricotta cheese

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/3 cup honey

4 eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Rind of 1 lemon, finely grated

Beat ricotta, sugar and honey in a large bowl until smooth and well combined.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in cinnamon and rind.

Spoon mixture into 6 greased friend moulds or 6 greased muffin tins.  Bake in a moderate oven (180) for 20 to 25 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool.

Serve with a drizzle of warmed honey, a dollop of cream or mascarpone and berries of your choice.

From Super Food Ideas November 2002.

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Ancient Remedy for Modern Medicine

Honey is proving to be an effective wound dressing which promotes healing as well as clearing up infections. Research by Shona Blair at the University of Sydney has found that when diluted honey is applied to moist wounds hydrogen peroxide is produced. Glucose oxidase, an enzyme added to honey by the bees, reacts with water to produce the hydrogen peroxide.

Other factors which may help healing are the acidity of honey which prevents the growth of some types of bacteria and its thickness which makes a protective barrier. There may be other unidentified ingredients which reduce inflammation and promote healing.

Many medical practitioners are using honey to treat wounds which have not responded to other treatments.  In New Zealand and in Nigeria honey has been used on unresponsive skin ulcers and wounds. Dr Peter Molan, a biochemist at the University of Waikato, claims that Manuka honey has cleared infections that had resisted conventional treatment including the most potent antibiotics.  Dr Molan believes that Manuka honey has antibacterial components above that of most honeys and is the most suitable for use as a wound dressing.

Honey is also being used by some medical practitioners to treat peptic ulcers and dyspepsia.  The discovery that many stomach ulcers are related to the presence of bacteria Helicobacter pylori raises the question of whether honey will prove to be an effective treatment.  In Britain honey is also being used in the treatment of gastroenteritis.  Honey is used instead of sugar in rehydrating solutions and has proved just as effective in rehydrating and also helped to clear the infection.  However medical authorities are cautioning against the use of honey for infants under 12 months of age because their immature digestive systems may not be able to cope with some of the spores contained in unpasteurised honey.

The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved honey as a medicine and it is being marketed under the name of Medihoney, produced from a leptospermum species found in northern NSW. 

Honey may be applied directly to wounds or to dressings which are then placed on the wounds. Dressings should be changed twice a day.

Information taken from an article in “Women’s Fitness and Sport”.

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Beekeeping at Heligan

Beekeeping at Heligan pre-dates modern hive design, and the bees were kept in an early-Victorian Bee Bole wall – a construction with 14 cavities to house skeps. Wooden doors provided protection from the elements, but had space for the bees to get in and out. The key skill for the beekeeper was getting the size of the skep right, because honey collection involved killing the bees by smoking the skep in a sulphur pit - they didn’t say what effect this might have had on the honey! Since honey collection involved destruction of the colony, they would only do this after the bees had swarmed, so that there was a successor colony for the next year. This is why the size of the skep was critical - too small a skep meant the bees would swarm very early and the honey yield would be low, but if it were too large they would swarm too late to build up sufficient honey supplies to see them through the winter.

The original Bee Boles wall was sited near the fruit and vegetable gardens to ensure good pollination, and they tried to use it when they restored the garden, but apparently with limited success – it proved very difficult to collect a honey crop and keep the swarms. Also, because of their location, the risk of visitors getting stung was too high. They still keep bees on the estate, but much further off, away from the main visitor areas. We didn’t see these, and so I do not know if they have replicated the old structure or whether they are using modern hives.

This description of beekeeping at Heligan is based on what we were told by the guide. Thinking about it now, with the benefit of a little real beekeeping under my belt, I would probably have asked more questions, and I’d be interested in any comments on the methods they used. In particular, smoking the skeps to extract the honey seems efficient but rather brutal - would there be another way of clearing them of bees before the days of the porter bee escape? The other thing I might question is the idea that if the skep is too large the bees would swarm very late in the season. Last spring I got the distinct impression that swarming is a very strong instinct, and that they would swarm if they were living in the Albert Hall, but my experience is very limited, and perhaps I just have bees with itchy feet! Catherine Cooper E-mail: catherine.cooper@danre.net

This article was published in APIS - UK The Electronic Beekeeping Newsletter" found at
 http://www.beedata.com/apis-uk/newsletters/apis-uk101103.htm