Beekeepers Associaton of the ACT

November Meeting

Our November meeting will be held on Wednesday 10^that 7.30 pm at CIT Weston as usual. Our guest speaker is Dr Denis Anderson of CSIRO Entomology, an expert on bee disease problems.

New Members

Welcome to new members Judy Burgess of Lyons and Ken Crane of Farrer.

October Meeting

At the October Meeting there was no formal business and members were treated to an excellent talk by Doug Somerville (District Livestock Officer (Apiculture)) from Goulburn.

As well as his livestock and bee inspection duties, Doug addresses beekeeping groups and field days, and carries out special projects, for instance compiling a report entitled "Floral Resource Database for the NSW Apiary Industry" (a copy of which he made available in our library).

Among his many instructive comments, Doug made the following points:

Spring is the busiest time of the year for apiarists managing their hives, in terms of equipment, starvation, diseases, queening, swarming, brood manipulation and swarming.
Dont be too pedantic about equipment. Whilst we use the Langstroth hive in

Australia, in Europe there are various forms of boxes and bees will happily nest in a hollow tree. Beekeepers have different views of the most suitable equipment, so listen to all and then form your own opinion.

When starting out (say for the first 5 years), look at your bees often. After that if you dont look often, youre probably not really interested. Also use the "right amount" of smoke, plenty at first while still learning, err on the side of over rather than under. Particularly in populated areas. Dont be shy about the amount of smoke you apply and spray with sugar syrup.
Dont be shy about covering up with protective clothing. Not being stung gives the new beekeeper confidence. Bee venom is not good for the immune system.
Group hives when in paddocks. This reduces the incidence of cattle rubbing against hives.
A couple of cold wet weeks can cause starvation in hives with little honey left and heavy brood with little nectar coming in, when the bees try to heat the whole hive. Check by lifting up the back of the hive. Add sugar or sugar syrup (50/50 sugar/water), say approximately 2 litres, 2/3 litre per week. There are lots of different feeders available. Australian migratory beekeepers truck their hives to canola, whereas US, EP, and NZ beekeepers & ACT backyard beekeepers feed sugar syrup. Always feed queen breeding hives.
Nosema reduces bee life and the effectiveness of old bees. To overcome, keep hives in a warm sunny position out of the wind
In general for brood diseases, white brood, raised caps on capped cells equals healthy brood. Sunken caps, shotgun appearance and greasy looks are indicators of unhealthy brood. Missing brood cells indicate possible disease or missing queen.
For European Foul Brood, check for yellowed grubs in the back of cells. But in more advanced condition EFB can look like American Foul Brood.
For AFB, use a match or stick to check for stringy dead brood but only in early stages. Do not mix up the pulpy brood before stringing. Other symptoms are sunken caps or black scale located in the bottom of the cell. The tongue may also be sticking out. However one symptom is not sufficient. A laboratory check is necessary for confirmation.
Brood dying from natural causes may look similar to the above.
Check for disease all year but check 100% cells in spring and autumn.
Always check weak hives for disease.
Replace at least 2 brood combs per brood box per year by moving to honey super and to recycling, more in a good year.
Requeen regularly, say every one to two years.
Position the hive facing North East and warm for winter out of the wind.
Nutrition is important "fat bees equals less disease" is a commercial beekeeping maxim.
To check using a slide, put ID on the slide first eg by marker pen, take 5 or 6 grubs and mash them, smear off the slide leaving a thin layer. Put rubbish in the lit smoker. Let the slide dry and send to Camden testing laboratory[Officer in Charge, Regional Veterinary Laboratory, Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, PMB 8, Camden, NSW, 2570, but not specifically to Dr Hornitsky. This is a free service (including ACT beekeepers). Dont be backward in requesting tests where you suspect disease.
Requeening is best done in autumn but if you need to do it when required. At least every couple of years. For hobby beekeeping requeening is not so much for production as for avoiding cranky bees. You must find the old queen. For example remove the 2^nd comb to check and provide space to withdraw combs without crushing or rolling bees then work across the box. Remove and kill the old queen or put the queen and combs in a separate box away. Put in new queen in mailing or other cage. Do not handle for 1-2 weeks then check for eggs. If the queen hasnt successfully taken and you saved the old queen, put her back.
Swarming is a natural phenomenon. It varies with different bees. Hives with older queens are more likely to swarm. Look for congestion including heavy drone cells, look for queen cells. Put in empty frames and if very full split into two hives and the put the two back together in late November. Merely removing queen cells is time consuming and unreliable and the hive might swarm anyway without raising the new queen. Basically the needs are to remove excess bees and provide plenty of activity in the hive.
Swarms are useful for repairing old combs. Put a couple of old combs plus foundation frames in the swarm box.
Old gear left out in prominence often attracts a swarm.
When removing honey, one-way escape boards are recommended for removing bees from honey supers but bees will not leave brood or uncapped honey. Escape boards work well on cool nights. Blowing spreads bees, brushing and shaking is labour intensive. Leave enough honey for the bees, to full box. Bees needs depends on the season. If in doubt, leave the honey on.
When manipulating brood, transfer the strong to the weak, but check for disease. Only do it when conditions are good. This is used by commercial beekeepers to have strong hives for flows.

Report from Robert Gardner

It has been a nonstop bee people chase ever since we arrived in Scotland. The first Saturday was taken up with the Scottish Beekeepers' Association Autumn Bee Convention at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. How about being in a garden that's 79 years older than our country??? The speakers were top class. Michael McGiolla Coda of Tipperary, Ireland told of how he keeps detailed records in order to improve his hives. His watchwords are Evaluate, Record, Select, Cull. He continually asks Hooper's 5 Questions: Room, Queen Laying, Development and Queen Cells, Disease/Abnormality, Stores. It's going to kill me to put things on paper, but it's the only way I'll ever be able to track my hives.He also spoke of the breeding group breeding group set up in his valley to improve the area's bee quality. This work involved requeening in concentric circle of 3.3km for each of three years and keeping a biometric record. This involved measuring Cubital index, Discoidal range and shift, Colour, Tomenta, Overhairs and Tongues. The work was done by projecting slides; three 14 year old girls won the Irish Young Scientists and came third in Europe for the study, which involved 22000 measurements!!!! Irish bees are predominantly dark; DNA studies show a clear relationship with Tasmanian black bees.

A very amusing talk on Beekeeping and Plant Science in the Millenium by Alan Bennell of RBG Edinburgh included a quote from Prince Charles: "We devote lots of time to working out what is possible, a little time to finding whether it is likely to be safe without considering whether we should be doing it in the first place." Given the white heat of the GM debate at present (copies of newspaper articles to follow by snail), it was about the most apt remark of all.

Norman Carreck of Rothamstead Agricultural Research Station was another fine speaker. He captured me from the moment he pointed out that superphosphate was invented there by John Bennett Laws around 1830; fertiliser royalties enabled him to endow the research station in 1843. The grasslands experiment has been going since 1882. Fertiliser has produced completely different plant assemblages. A study of visiting bees to the grasslands will commence next summer.The bee unit moved there from Oxford in 1922. Pheromone queen substance was discovered by Colin Butler, the first director.

The Bee Research Group currently studies Pollination Ecology, Bee Pathology and Apiculture.Some very ingenious experimental setups include artificial flowers with injectors of nutrients to study the effect of odours on bees; field work in insect proof cages with UV lights to simulate a summer's day. A lot of work is being done to find how far pollen can travel. Norman wryly said that the work is currently quite topical, which drew the biggest laugh of the day (see GM above). A major focus is on modern integrated pest management, aiming to reduce pests to an acceptable level, not blanket killing. Seed mixes (inc. cornflower, marigold, borage, buckwheat, mallow) are being given out free to farmers for use on field margins to provide food for insect vectors such as bees, butterflies and hoverflies. This parallels work being done in Tubingen Germany. Other studies include running patches of semi-natural vegetation among cropland.

The wonders of miniatures: harmonic radar can pick up signals on transponders attached to bees. In this way bumblebees have been tracked up to 6km from the nest; marked bees have been found to be very territorial and can visit the same flower many times.

I smugly mentioned to a member of the Bee Diseases Committee ( who told me she was chosen because she's a doctor) that we didn't have their varroa problem. Her answer: not yet. Denis Anderson gave a paper at Apimondia suggesting that it is not varroa, but secondary infections which cause the damage. Watch several spaces for more on this. Several local beekeepers told me that even in varroa-infested hives, production does not drop significantly. Curiouser and curiouser.

The Convention was a very well-run event, with ample time for talks, questions, trade displays and meal breaks. After that woe betide those who tried to overstay their generous allocation ( see President). This was a conference management model.

A week later Margaret and I were in Perth, learning to be honey judges. We were struck by the dedication to education and quality training for formal qualifications by an almost wholly amateur organisation. I will have to address the topic of beekeeping education in a separate article and talks, if anyone will have me. Suffice at this stage to note that we paid $25 each for a priceless day's training. We are not qualified judges; that comes after we win 20 prizes in 6 categories, including light, medium and dark honeys; comb and set honey; mead, cooking and wax products. We then sit an exam and demonstrate that we have acted as stewards at a honey show - heavy stuff, and the way to ensure that quality judges are on deck.We are going to stew, if that's the word, at the Dunfermline and West Fife Show (mainly novice entries) next month. Given our lack of experience with the local varieties, anything more would be presumptuous. We did notice that Australian honey loses nothing by comparison - moisture contents of up to 22% and accompanying fermentation problems are not uncommon. We picked the jungle juice easily - the locals didn't always notice it. Bell heather honey was nice though.

We made friends with a retired English bee inspector in the next village of Aberdour on the Forth. He invited us to help him do his varroa strip check. I thought that he must know what he was doing, and that lifting a hive without smoke was a new technique. Scots bees sting about as hard as Aussie bees under the same provocation. Only got me once though.

The biggest grizzle Scottish beekeepers have is about oilseed rape - good old canola. The bees love it to death, the honey tastes like resin and it granulates before your very eyes - they can't escape it either, as it is planted all over the place here.

What else? I gave a little talk in Cupar, Fife about the Spaceman in the Garden, an account of how we do it in our backyard. It stimulated interest, but they couldnae credit that we irrigated every plant in it. I guess that would be hard for them to cope with. We are going to visit a grand old man of the heather, who has written a book called Sixty Years With Smoker and Veil - he may know a little something. I'll be doing a little study in the Moir Library at Edinburgh, reckoned the best bee library in the world. Time to learn more about bee nutrition. Several lovely dinners are in the offing. Oh yes, we're also having a bit of a look at Scotland.

Swarm Collectors

Swarming has continued heavily through October. The 1900 Hotline has been reasonably successful when serviced by collectors but most have now reached saturation and withdrawn. Unfortunately this means that for many postcodes enquirers receive a "no collector is available" message and the system then tends not to meet peoples needs. If you can collect swarms, register with the hotline (see previous issues for details) or contact Dick Johnston at Bindaree or Derek Butler on 62865377. Environment ACT also have a backup collector list on 62074999.

Bee Diseases

It was reported at the Bee Diseases Steering Committee held on 22 October 1999 that:

NSW disease testing facilities are moving to charging for all diagnostic services. Tests for notifiable bee diseases will still be free, including ACT residents (AFB, EFB, Chalkbrood), and
Complaints about the condition of hives sent to Steritech for irradiation treatment have been investigated by NSWAg. Various solutions are being consdered to cope with stored hives having exposed honey, before or after treatment. All of the proposals would cost beekeepers more for preparation and transport or possibly result in the service being withdrawn or charges increased. So if you are getting hives transported to Steritech, make sure the hives are thoroughly wrapped and sealed against spillage and bee access. Remember if it is being trucked it may have to withstand severe wind loads.

Bungendore Show

Bungendore Show organisers have written to the Association to ask if anyone wants to mount a beekeeping display at next years show (January). If you are interested call Derek Butler on 62865377 for details.

For Sale

Three hives in full depth supers with top box plus twelve full depth supers with top and bottom boards and frames. Two frame extractor plus honey tank, steam uncapping knife, smoker etc. $850 ONO. Contact Mr Thomas Thorn, PO Box 5, Dalton NSW 2581 (Gunning Shire), 0248456236

In Goulburn, 2 frame extractor and 3 ten frame hives, plus miscellaneous equipment, part of deceased estate. Contact Doug Somerville on 0248230619.