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)

Meeting

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday 13th November at 7.30pm, at CIT Weston.  Our guest speaker is Mr Michael Hornitzky speaking about his work with bee diseases.

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

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President’s Note:

It is good to hear hives in town are doing well despite the dry conditions.  This, however, may change if water restrictions are introduced in the ACT.  Beekeepers further afield are doing it tough as the canola finished early and the curse dried up in the windstorm a week or so ago.

Swarm collecting is under way and so far things haven’t been too busy.

Thanks to this Association’s Secretary, Mark Hoskings, we were able to reach agreement with CUPPS to collect swarms on public land.  This involved a few committee members attending a traffic management course and drawing up a temporary traffic management plan for walk ways and cycle paths (minus the tutu) and displaying the appropriate signs provided.

Our bee course at CIT Weston is progressing well.  Thanks to the organising committee.  We have twelve participants in all.

Last month’s speaker was Sue, a hobby beekeeper from Tasmania visiting Canberra.  Sue answered questions about beekeeping in Tasmania.

This month’s guest speaker will be Michael Hornitzky.  He will be talking about microbiology and AFB testing in the lab.

See everyone there.

David Lillis

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Small Hive Beetle Found in Australia

A pest, provisionally identified as the exotic Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida), has been detected in two apiaries in Richmond, western Sydney.

Small hive beetle is native to South Africa, where it causes little problem in apiaries.

The pest was found in southern USA in 1997-8, where the larvae contribute to colony death and damage stored hive materials.

The beetle is spread mainly by the movement of bees and beehives by beekeepers.

The beetle pupates in the soil, so the movement of soil from apiary sites could also possibly spread infestation.

The newly emerged adults can fly, but it is not known over what distance or whether this is a potentially significant form of spread.

Control in endemic situations is mainly by good hygiene and management. Some pesticides have been registered for use in the USA.

Diagnosis

Samples submitted to NSW Agriculture's entomology unit at the Orange Agricultural Institute were identified as Aethina species and referred to CSIRO Entomology in Canberra who identified small hive beetle.

Samples have been sent to a retired CSIRO entomologist who is a world expert on this insect and arrangements are being made to also send specimens to the British Museum for reference.

Control Measures

The original identified apiary (1IP - 100 hives), and one traced in-contact apiary on which beetles have been detected (2IP), have been quarantined.

Inspectors are undertaking routine hygiene between apiaries.

All contacts with infested apiaries are being traced, inspected, and quarantined if beetles are detected.

All 15 registered beekeepers in the district (approximately 5 km radius) are being contacted and their hives inspected.

All NSW apiary inspectors have been advised to look for small hive beetles during routine inspections for other bee diseases.

Queensland authorities have been advised of a tracing to their State.

If the pest is confirmed to be the small hive beetle, the feasibility of control and eradication will depend on how long infestations have been present in Australia, how widespread infestations are, and whether it is feasible to eradicate the pest from all apiaries and their environment.  Confirmation of the diagnosis, movement controls on known infested apiaries, tracing, surveillance, and technical advice are key elements of the response at this stage.

This information comes from a paper issued by Regina Fogarty, State disease Control Headquarters Director on 8 November, 2002

For more information see

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/bees/small_hive_beetle.htm

http://doacs.state.fl.us/~pi/enpp/ento/aethinanew.htm for pictures.

or contact State Disease Control Headquarters

Locked Bag 21, Orange NSW 2800

Phone (02) 6391 3660 or Fax (02) 6391 9976

Small Hive Beetle  (Photo: NSW Agriculture)

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Empty Super Story

I decided that I would do my spring swarming control (moving brood frames up into the super above the brood box) when I got the first swarm call.  When the call arrived it was from a lady with a swarm in her backyard which her husband had not controlled.  The caller – my wife.

Roy Bray

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 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS

HONEY WANTED

Stay in honey production without the hassle of conforming to the new food packaging regulations.  Gardiners’ Wee Jasper Honey is buying comb or liquid honey in any quantity.  We can extract it from the frames or you can do your own if you have extracting conditions which fulfil ANZFA standards.

Contact: Margaret & Rob Gardiner 

PH  6231 0383

MOB  0402 294 303

FAX  6231 3991

EMAIL  gardiner@apex.net.au

BACKYARD SPACE FOR A HIVE

Betty Allsopp who lives in Chisholm would be interested in having a hive or two in her backyard.  Any member who would like to place one or two of their hives in her yard could phone Betty on 6291 9996.

Small advertisements such as the above are published without charge as a service to members. Advertise in the newsletter if you have equipment for sale, are looking to buy or any other matter of interest to members. Ed

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90-year-old Survives 1000 Stings

LINZ, Austria, 9 JULY 2002

A 90-year-old beekeeper was recovering in a hospital today after suffering 1,000 bee stings, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Hermann Danner was stung a week ago when he approached his two hives without protection gear.

“It was a battle that lasted about half an hour – but it was unsuccessful,” Danner was quoted as saying by APA.

Danner was barely moving when a neighbour found him and alerted medics.

Doctors counted about 1,000 stings on his body, said Guenther Watzl, head physician at the hospital in Kirchdorf an der Krems, a small town about 190 km west of Vienna.

“At such an old age, a couple of hundred stings could be deadly,” APA quoted Watzl as saying.

Danner was expected to recover fully.

Thanks to Shane Gray for this wonderful story.  Shane thought that several hundred stings could be considered potentially fatal at any age.

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Forgetful Beekeeper

A few years ago, on a cold November day, I was trying to fill a 5-gallon pail from a 40-gallon bottling tank.  The honey was coming out in a trickle it was so thick and cold.  I figured I could do something else and check back in a bit.

Several weeks later, around midnight, I bolted upright in bed, grabbed a flashlight, and went out and looked in the honey room.  Yep, around 30 gallons of honey on the floor.  Closed the door and went back to bed.  By spring it was granulated and easier to clean up.

Mike Tooley posted this empty super story on BEE-L@listserv.albany.edu

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Collecting Swarms and Feral Hives

From australianbeekeeping@yahoogroups.com

I picked up my first swarm this weekend.  A lady called me to remove it from a bush at the side of her driveway.  They had been there about two weeks and had built quite a bit of comb in amongst the branches.

I figured my best way of getting them was to cut the branches and get the whole lot (bees and comb) into a ten-frame super.  That plan worked out well!  I managed to stuff the bees and accompanying comb into the super with a couple of frames either side of the colony.

I now have the hive at home and have put a box of frames on top to try and get the queen to come up and start laying.  Then I’ll have to sort out all the branches and wax in the bottom box.  Any advice would be appreciated on how I should best go about this.

It feels pretty good getting my first swarm without any dramas involved.  The swarm was easy to get to and pretty quiet really.  A few days earlier a truck had knocked the bushes and colony (swarm was right beside a driveway) and the truck driver copped a few stings.

The colony is quite large too!  They were hanging out of the single ten-frame and look like nice Italian bees although I haven’t got a look at the queen yet.                                            Graham

Reply to Graham’s letter

Congratulations and good luck to you!  The drought has kept me from catching a swarm for twelve months!

You are on the right track with your method.  That queen will probably love to move up into that top box.  Just put an excluder under it when she does and then in three weeks you can remove the natural nest.  If it should happen to fill up with honey you may want to encourage them to remove the honey to the combs rather than just throw the lot in the melter.

This can be done in several ways, but unless there is a big honey flow on the easy way is to just put some distance between the brood box and the honey, like an empty super (or maybe one of empty combs if there is much nectar about), and they will usually move the honey back to the brood box.  It also helps to insert a divider board of some kind (even a sheet of plastic) between the boxes with only a small (25mm) hole in it.  This gives them the message that their honey is in ‘another’ place and they had better get busy and secure it.

Who knows?  That swarm may include someone’s breeder queen. I trust that she and her team gather you a good crop of honey.              John

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Beekeeping Course at CIT

The course is now almost finished and has been running well.  The Saturday morning practical sessions have been popular.  Most of the twelve students in the course are beginning in bees although some already have one or more hives or have kept bees in the past.  All are keen to learn and get started with their own hives. We will have a full report on the course next month.

Roslyn and Elaine examine a frame.	Paul talking to the group before looking at hives.