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)
March 2003
The Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 12th March at 7.30pm,
at CIT Weston, followed by Brett Rowley speaking about shut down of bees
for winter.
The business section of the meeting is from 7.30 and Brett will speak from 8.30. There will be time for a cup of tea and chat after the meeting.
With the AGM this month it brings to a close another
year for the Association. A quieter
year with the highlight being our successful beekeeping course which is
to become an annual event.
Sadly our Treasurer, Graham Turner, is stepping
down due to work commitments. If
any members are interested in this position please come along to the AGM.
A big thanks goes to the committee for their work
during the year to maintain the smooth running of the Association. Also my thanks to all our guest speakers throughout
the year and to members for attending meetings.
Our guest speaker at the next meeting will again
be Brett Rowley and he will be talking about the Autumn shutdown. This is an important topic for all beekeepers
so come along and have a listen.
David Lillis
Fire Ants were first detected in Brisbane in February 2001. They are small, aggressive red ants up to 7mm in length. In the USA these ants have spread by being moved in beehives. Beekeepers are asked to keep watch for any unusual ant in or near the hives. Samples of suspect ants may be sent to Taxonomy Unit, Orange Agricultural Institute, Forest Road, Orange NSW 2800. Kill a number of worker ants (they are the larger ones) with household insecticide, (away from the hive) place them in a sturdy plastic container and seal it. Place the container in a tough envelope for posting. A NSW Agriculture pamphlet about fire ants is available from the association or from Bindaree.
Herb had a bit of adversity in the beginning when the couple of hives he was given got AFB and had to be destroyed. However he started again and the rest is history. Allan and Herb kept their hives together at Tharwa for many years until the property changed hands and Herb moved his to Narrabundah. Allan still keeps a couple of hives in his backyard in Canberra.
Herb’s first swarm collecting adventure came when Peter Kimber, another Beekeeping Association friend, phoned to say that there was a swarm in Garran not far from Herb’s home. With Peter as tutor Herb collected the first of many swarms to occupy the back garden and harass Gwenda as she tried to put out washing or do a bit of gardening.
The opportunity to buy Bindaree came in 1992 and Herb passed on his beekeeping knowledge to many others who were starting out in bees and came to the shop or phoned for advice. Many of our members owe their start in bees to Herb’s patience and understanding. He sold the shop to Richard in 1999 and went into semi-retirement, although he still has a quite a few hives at Narrabundah.
Lyn Shiels
Volunteers on the stall at the show were once again kept busy with a steady stream of people looking at our display and asking questions and telling their own bee experiences. Our friendly team of volunteers makes our stall one of the most popular in the pavilion.
Some items which attracted special interest were the burnt hives provided by Judy Burgess and Herb Waldie, specimens of small hive beetle and wax moth provided by Paul Helliwell, the feral hive specimen and of course the live bees provided by Cec Mercer. Many people were also interested in the Apiculture exhibits especially the frames of comb honey and the candles and wax blocks.
Among the interesting people who visited our stall were a Queensland beekeeper who manages 1000 hives, a number of people with feral hives or problems with bees in their neighbourhood, several people who are considering bees as one possibility on their hobby farms and many people who were just interested to learn more about bees. One family told us about a tree on their property with a feral hive in it. When the bushfires came through the tree burned like a candle for several days but when it finally went out they were astounded to see bees still coming and going from it. Members also spoke with an Afghani man who had been a freedom fighter against the Russians. He spoke about robbing wild bees in the mountains to help feed their group. They scooped the wax and honey out of the hive with their bare hands.
Thanks are due to all our volunteer explainers and also to everyone who helped with setting up. Thanks also to Paul Hooper, Peter Macnicol, Bob Shaw, Cec Mercer and Derek Butler who transported the larger items to the show or helped pack up and transport everything home again.
Thanks to Cec for once again providing the display of live bees and to Paul, Judy, and Herb for items for the display and Dick Johnston who again provided a hive set up and extractor. Bruce Fragar from Narromine again spent many hours on the stall explaining various aspects of bees and beekeeping.
Bindaree and Ridapest Pest Control once again sponsored the Apiculture section of the show. Thank you to Dick from Bindaree and Les Lefevre from Ridapest. Please give these businesses your support in recognition of their support of the show.
Congratulations to Bob Shaw who once again has taken out the Most Successful Exhibitor Ribbon with Paul Helliwell the runner-up. Two of our new exhibitors achieved first place ribbons, a great encouragement for them. Thank you to Judy Burgess and Rob and Margaret Gardiner for judging and stewards Pat Shiels and Linda Hyslop.
A list of ribbon winners will appear in the next newsletter.
Lyn Shiels
We were privileged to have Brett Rowley as guest speaker at the February meeting. Brett spoke about managing 400 hives of bees and the history of his involvement with bees.
Brett’s grandfather was a beekeeper and Brett began keeping bees at fourteen years of age. One of his high school teachers helped him start off with one hive. Later he built up the numbers of hives.
In 1993 he finished his HSC and went to work for Stirling Kershaw and was there for six years. He continued to build up his own hives slowly and then bought a truck and hives from a commercial beekeeper near Gundaroo. During this time he was still working for Stirling and found managing his own hives quite difficult; it was not always possible to be on time for the various honey flows.
In 1999 Brett reluctantly left Stirling and concentrated on building his own business. At first he and his parents, Ray and Lynne, sold their honey at local markets, sometimes going to three different markets on the one day. Later he joined Capilano and now sells his honey to them. Recently the honey plant has had to be upgraded to meet quality control requirements. Stainless steel equipment and coolroom panelling for the extraction plant were among the improvements.
Brett believes that weather conditions are one of the major influences on bees. Understanding the weather conditions and knowing the honey producing and flowering patterns of plants is vital for successful beekeeping. Brett manages his hives as triples with one brood box and two honey supers. He uses wooden frames with plastic foundation and renews two to four combs every Spring replacing them with comb drawn in the previous Autumn. Empty boxes are always undersupered with the almost full box going to the top.
The seasonal pattern is to winter the bees in the coldest place available to minimise their honey consumption over winter. They then are taken to canola out near West Wyalong in Spring, usually taking off a box of honey before they go. Next they will go to Patersons Curse near Jugiong or Gundagai. For swarm control it is important to keep removing honey and check the brood box regularly, ideally every four or five days. When swarm problems are over Brett requeens as needed, replacing any queens showing signs of aging. If a hive has swarmed and there is a young queen laying well he will usually leave her until Autumn. The hives are treated with antibiotics in Spring to control European Foulbrood. The withholding period must be strictly observed.
The bees are then moved to various locations depending on flowering patterns and during Summer and Autumn may be on Spotted Gum at the coast or at Holbrook, Bluegum or Bloodwood on the Clyde, Apple Box or Stringybark at Tharwa or yellow box in various locations. On some flows the bees may need to be given pollen patties as a supplement. At this time new frames are introduced to draw comb ready for Spring replacements. Comb is drawn in honey boxes with a new frame flanked by two good drawn frames. If you try to draw foundation next to damaged frames the bees will duplicate the uneven shape of the adjoining combs.
Autumn is a good time for a careful disease check although you should be watching for signs of disease all the time. If there is any doubt about the disease status of a hive Brett makes a slide and sends it off for testing. New plastic mats and sloping bottom boards are used to prepare the hives for winter. Moisture in the hive is the killer rather than cold.
Members present at the meeting asked many questions and conversation continued over coffee. Many thanks to Brett for such an interesting talk.
Lyn Shiels
Jeanette Lynch of the Bushfire Recovery Task Force would like to hear from anyone about issues concerning losses in the recent ACT bushfires. Her phone is : 6207 9107
A
DAY AT THE BEEKEEPERS STALL AT THE ROYAL CANBERRA SHOW
FATHER: Bees are just like snakes, if you stand still they won’t chase you. (A visit to the excellent snake demonstration nearby fresh in the mind )
YOUNG ADULT: Oh, look at the cicadas. (On a beekeepers display?)
FATHER TO YOUNG SON: They’re all males except the queen. (No they’re not mate, they’re all women)
YOUNG WOMAN: I’m scared of bees because when I was young I went into the creek to do a wee and wasps bit me and I had a big bum. (OK and you’re not scared of wasps, just bees)
YOUNG WOMAN: My favourite honey is pink wattle. (Haven’t heard of that one)
Is it true that because of the drought there’s a bacteria in honey and you shouldn’t give it to kids under two years of age?
MAN: How do I get rid of bees coming from a hole
in the ground in my backyard?
PAT: If
they’re coming out of the ground they’re wasps.
MAN: No
they’re definitely bees because they stung me.
PAT: Wasps
sting too mate and bees don’t nest underground.
Ten minutes later, some literature on European
wasps and man is convinced, (we think)
PAT: The
queen lays up to 1500 eggs a day. She’s
just an egg laying machine.
YOUNG WIFE TO HUSBAND That’s just like me!!
LADY I
hate lavender honey. I put lavender
oil in the honey and it tasted like soap. (I’m not surprised)
LYN The queen is the mother of all the bees in
the beehive and the kids do all the work.
YOUNG MUM TO FOUR YEAR OLD. What a good idea.
CEC: You put a wax mould under your pillow and
the bees sing you to sleep. (What an incurable romantic!)
DISSATISFIED CUSTOMER: This honey is no good.
BOB: That’s
because you bought a wax mould.
MAN: I
come from Victoria and they’ve got better laws than NSW. (Oh yeah)
SEVERAL YOUNG WOMEN: I can’t come near the bees because I’m allergic to them.( Well they
are in a sealed box so I think you’ll survive.
COUNTLESS SMALL BOYS: Do you let them out at night? (Only when we’re ready to run)
Can I let them out? (Fortunately, no)
Why can’t they get out? (Because we’ve locked
them in so they can’t sting you)
MAN LOOKING AT CHUNK HONEY: What do you do with
the wax when you’ve finished chewing it. (Well there are limited options
available)
PAT: Would you like to ask any questions?
WOMAN: No,
my Uncle kept bees, I know everything about bees and honey. (Something for
all of us to aspire to)
BOY: This
tastes like original honey. ….. Just like you buy in the shops.
BOB: Drones are not able to do anything for themselves.
WOMAN: Just like my husband.
MAN: Does canola honey have more fat than other
honey?
BOB: No,
honey doesn’t have any fat.
MAN: But it tastes like canola oil.
BOB: That’s because of the plant esters from the canola.
500g thick fish fillets such as ling or gem
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
2 teaspoons teriyaki sauce
1 tablespoon honey, melted
4 zucchini, sliced thickly
125g baby mushrooms
1 red capsicum cut into square pieces
Cut fish into lengths approximately 2.5cm wide, and place in a bowl. Combine lemon juice, garlic, marjoram, teriyaki sauce and honey, pour over fish and cover. Marinate 2 hours.
Thread fish and vegetables on skewers and grill for 3 minutes on each side, basting with remaining marinade. Serve with rice.
Serves 4.
From
Australian Honey
The
Australian Honey Board
|
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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