The honey flow is now tapering off which means we should now turn our attention to extracting the crop. However let's reflect on the season.

The warm winter allowed our bees to forage earlier than normal, which brought their populations to an early peak. Swarms started in mid -September, which coincides with the rewarewa flow. This was perhaps the best for many years and caught a lot of beekeepers out. They had not expected such a heavy, early flow consequently the bees filled the second box and swarmed. This was followed on by the usually kamahi flow (our main early bush flow). For some reason, the kamahi flow was patchy. IE. It was good at the top of Whitemans Valley, but not where Bill's hives are further down.

Then came the usual November dearth. Normally this isn't much of a problem in our area as the kamahi is usually flowering, but hives were already under stress following almost a month of constant rain (October) so it seemed to affect us more this year. Shortages of pollen reduced brood rearing. Some hives ran out of food and died out. November was unusually dry, and just like the East Coast, Wellington dried out quickly. This combined with a warm winter meant that the manuka had only a patchy flowering, (similar reports have been received from across the country). Most hives only collected between five frames to a super of honey.

Pohutukawa is the last of our major flows. Normally there is a massive flowering over a short period, (a month). This year, trees on the south side of hills had only a patchy flowering. The heavy October rain stimulated leaf growth instead of flower development, but unlike other years, the flowering went on and on. It's still flowering in Porirua at the moment, weeks after the Hutt Valley had finished. Hives close to Pohutukawa did very well indeed.

Further north (Waikanae) was a different story. Warmer mild weather allowed the bees to forage in the between the October showers (and floods), which brought hives to an early peak. That area, unlike ours, received sufficient rain, which brought on a massive clover flowering and a very good crop.

Populations are now building up again and are bringing in some of the late season flows: eucalyptus, penny royal, clover, blackberry and many others are still flowering. Extract your honey and return the wets to the hives late in the evening, but just before you do, put on a queen excluder above the second super. This will force the bees to store this late flow around the brood nest. If there is a surplus, the bees will put it above the excluder.

On the whole, hives in our area did very well if they were supered early enough. Much better than in other areas around the country. Apart from extracting, now is a good time to put on your pollen traps. Gorse has just started flowering, which is excellent pollen both for our bees and ourselves. Traps should be emptied every two days or just before rain. It takes a few days for the bees to get used to them and thereafter, pollen production increases. It pays to only trap pollen for a week and then change the entrance to allow the bees free access. Store pollen in the deep freeze until you want to use it or sell it.

Wasps are now making their presence felt and are now looking for a free feed of either bees or honey. Restrict hive entrances to about 100 mm so that the guard bees can defend the hives against these interlopers. Hives that have only produced a super of honey, have a spotty brood pattern, have swarmed, or are black and bitchy should be requeened (see page 5). This is the best time of the year to requeen. You get better acceptance when there is a dribble of nectar coming into the hives. To this end the Club has organised a field day at Bill's apiary where members will be given all the details and can get hands on practice.

Keep in mind the honey competition coming up shortly. Prepare a sample of your honey in a 400g glass coffee jar. If you haven't got any ask at the meeting. Bring your questions to the club meeting. If you feel embarrassed asking a question in front of other members, write it down and pass it to the secretary. It takes a little while to gain confidence.