Newsletter March 2000
 

February Meeting

The first meeting for the year 2000 was held on 9 February. It was nice to see a mix of old and new faces. Some points from the meeting are:

• A subcommittee was formed to look at a plan for the year contact Lyn Shiels, Roy Bray or David Lillis if you have any ideas
• Dick Johnston reported that Environment ACT can be contacted on 62076376 (George Dimetz) to arrange for hive inspections. Dick also drew attention to the availability of a forum on the Bindaree Bee website (www.bindaree.com.au) where people can ask questions about bees and beekeeping. It also has a calendar of events
• Dick also noted that an article on member MV Srinivasan and his research on bees at ANU was featured in the Canberra Times.
• New members said they would like more "hands on" activities

March Meeting

The meeting to be held on March 8 at 7.30 pm at CIT Weston includes the Annual General Meeting. There will also be a wrap of the Canberra Show including a display of the honey judging entries. For entrants the judges have prepared comments for all entries so come along and learn how the results were decided. Your presence to provide input as to what we should be doing for the year is vital for a successful association.

Reminder Annual Fees are due

Annual fees are due from 1 January 2000. Pay at the next meeting or send to the treasurer, PO Box 1482 Woden ACT 2606.

New Members

Welcome to Judy Burgess of Lyons, Janet Gablonski of Chisholm, Paul Hooper of Wanniassa, the Malmberg family of Wanniassa and Dominic Staun of Bungendore.

Canberra Show

Well, the curtain has closed on another Canberra Show, and what a show it was!

Thursdays setup started with having to move from our original site to a smaller one across the way because a large milk truck was in the way. Luckily it was by the door and we still had the through traffic. Lyn and Pat Shiels donated an empty nest from a feral hive to display so we hung it up high to attract attention with toy bees attached to the wax.

Friday started with John Parry delivering a glass cabinet of bees and Cec Mercer and Roy Bray opening the stall. Cec sold honey and Roy promoted his new domestic pollination service. Lyn Shiels was there to supervise and answer onlookers queries during the day.

The highlight of the show, no doubt, was the commencement of the inaugural honey judging contest. Entries were slow at first but some late entries boosted numbers considerably and the judging commenced at 4.30 pm. Judges, Robert and Margaret Gardiner, entered into a marathon four hours of looking, smelling, analysing and, of course, the best bit, tasting nearly 20 entries in the various categories. The judging took place in the middle of the pavilion for all to see. Interest from onlookers was steady. Half way through the proceedings the lights went out for ten minutes but Rob, undeterred, simply reached for his trusty eveready and continued without missing a beat.

Cec won overall Best of Show for his entry in the best of any three jars class. A close second was Kim Pearsons honey glazed popcorn in the cookery class. "Yummy" the judges agreed as they gobbled it up. Thanks to Robert and Margaret, their recently acquired judging training in Scotland being put to the test.

The winners and placegetters were displayed at our stand. Cec put this to good use by promoting his best of show card win to boost honey sales on Saturday. Unfortunately we were too late to secure a glass display cabinet from the Show Society.

It turns out the public were not the only ones showing interest in our efforts with the honey competition. The organisers of the horticultural section have invited our association into their arena and will include the honey judging in next years program. Discussions were held with the Chief Steward and further talks will take place during the year. I look forward to keeping members posted.

Saturday saw Roy and Cec holding the fort until other help arrived. There was a constant flow of people passing all day, lots stopping to sample and buy honey. The honey straws supplied by Neil Gows family were a great hit amongst parents, good for keeping tired, fidgety kids happy. (Honey straws are drinking straws filled with honey and tied at both ends.) By the end of the day Graham Turner had nearly sold out and Cec went home with one 1 kilo tub.

Sunday, being a cooler day, brought welcome relief for both stall holders and spectators. Crowd movements appeared strange all day with lots of people one moment and almost none the next, like cars waiting at a road works traffic lights. This gave us some free time to browse outside. Kim Pearsons honey popcorn sales were a good magnet for the rest of us.

As the afternoon progressed the day got cooler and crowd numbers diminished. Come five oclock sales were down to a trickle. All in all Roy, Kim, Richard Johnson and myself had a successful day. I personally feel that our stall was the best value for money at the show.

Overall the whole weekend was a grand success and I would like to thank everyone for their help, assistance and enthusiasm. A special thanks to Derek Butler for arranging the site and organising passes for all volunteers.

I look forward to seeing you all in the near future, hopefully at the next meeting, which by the way, just happens to be the AGM. So come along and lend your support.

PS - The winners and placegetters entries for the Honey Judging will be on display at the March meeting. See page 5 for results.

DAVID LILLIS, President

For Sale

5 hives, 8 frame triples including excluders. Ring Neil Carlyle on 62873653

Latest Bee People "Research"

An article in the Scotsman suggested that the propensity to violent behaviour increases in direct proportion to the amount of contact with others. Thus, while postal workers can often engage in shooting massacres, beekeepers never do!

Science notes:

The following interesting article taken from the "Australian" newspaper is by Greg Roberts:

Bee plan a potential disaster: scientists

Natural history experts have warned that a proposal by NSW Government scientists to introduce European bumblebees from Tasmania to the mainland would be an environmental disaster. They say such a move would lead to the colonisation of most of NSW and all of Victoria by bumblebees, and that after the disastrous introduction of. rabbits, foxes and other species, it should not be receiving the serious attention it is getting.

The bumblebee is a native of Europe but has spread through much of the world, arriving in Tasmania in 1992, apparently when a single queen was introduced illegally. The yellow and black insect is popular with greenhouse produce growers. "Buzz" pollination by bumblebees increases the weight of produce, especially tomatoes, and saves growers the trouble and expense of pollinating by hand or electrically.

The Federal Government has circulated to the States a proposal from two scientists with the NSW Department of Agriculture, Ms Marilyn Steiner and Dr Stephen Goodwin, to establish a commercial bumblebee-rearing facility. The pair operate a private company, Gosford IPM Services.

Mr Tim Low, a Brisbane biologist specialising in exotic weeds, said bumblebees would pollinate and spread previously contained weeds such as foxglove, and solanaceous weeds, which can be poisonous to livestock. "These weeds would be able to spread viable seeds for the first time," Mr Low said. "It would not be long before bumblebees are swarming all over our national parks. The last thing we need is another invader." Dr Katja Hogendoorn, a research scientist with Flinders University and an authority on native bees, said bumblebees would compete directly with Australia's 1800 native bee species and other insects. She said bumblebees would also compete with honeyeaters, lorikeets and other nectar-feeding birds. The bees are active very early in the morning, draining flowers of nectar before native wildlife reached them. In New Zealand, where bumblebees were introduced early last century honeyeater populations have declined sharply. "There is already competition from European honeybees and this would aggravate the competition", Dr Hogendoorn said. Ms Steiner, however, said there were very good economic arguments favouring an introduction. "In Canada they are used standardly for pollination and they have been a major benefit," Ms Steiner said. "Some of these people complaining don't want to see the other side of things."

Reference Library

Herb Waldie has kindly prepared a list of the Associations books, which are in his care. A further number of titles have not been returned by previous borrowers, so if you still have any or know anyone who does, please see that they are returned to Herb. The list is as follows:

• "Beekeeping in Australia" (Bailey, 1982)
• "About Pollen" (Binding, 1980)
• "Honey" (Bord, 1983)
• "In Search of the Best Strains of Bees" (Brother Adam, 1983)
• "Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey" (Brother Adam, 1975
• "World of the Honeybee" (Butler, 1974)
• "Hive and the Honey Bee" (Dadant, 1975)
• "Bees and Honey" (Dept. of Ag., NSW, 1945)
• "Beekeeping" (Eckert and Shaw)
• "Bees and Mankind" (Free, 1982)
• "Dancing Bees" (Von Frisch, 1953)
• "Healing Power of Pollen" (Hanssen, 1979)
• "Honey Bee Brood Diseases" (Hansen)
• "Practical Beekeeping" (Howe, 1980)
• "Australasian Bee Manual" (Hopkins, 1986)
• "Arthritis and Folk Medicine" (Jarvis, 1961)
• "How to Keep Bees and Sell Honey" (Kelley, 1983)
• "Eucalypts", Vol. 1 (Kelly, 1969)
• "Eucalypts", Vol. 2 (Kelly, 1978)
• "Contemporary Queen Rearing" (Laidlaw, 1978)
• "Practical Beekeeping" (Mace, 1977) (2 copies)
• "Comb Honey Production" (Morse, 1978)
• "Rearing Queen Bees" (Morse, 1979)
• "A Year in the Bee Yard" (Morse, 1983)
• "Native Trees of the A.C.T." (Nat. Parks Assoc. of ACT, 1983)
• "About Honey" (Norris, 1970)
• "Trees and Shrubs in Canberra" (Pryor and Banks, 1991)
• "Starting Right with Bees" (Root, 1976)
• "500 Answers to Bee Questions" (Root, 1978)
• "Swarming Its Control and Prevention" (Snelgrove, 1981)
• "Protein Content etc. of Honeybee Collected Pollens" (Stace, 1996)
• "Honey Houses" (Stace)
• "Honey Cookery" (Stadtlaender, 1967)
• "Beekeeping" (Woden TAFE)
• "Honey Hunters of Nepal" (Valli and Summers)

Bindaree Beenotes:

Contact Dick for all your extracting requirements. Drums, jars, strainers, extractors, uncapping gear, veils and gloves for handling those stroppy autumn bees, you name it - if it isnt in stock hell get it in for you.

Dont forget to check the web site to ask about bees and beekeeping.

RESULTS OF THE CANBERRA SHOW HONEY JUDGING COMPETITION

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