Meetings are held on second Monday each month (except January), at above venue

PRESENT: Richard Hatfield (Pres.), John Burnet (Sec.) and 35 members and visitors as listed in the attendance book.

APOLOGIES: Mary-Ann Lindsay (Treas),Cliff Hulston, Ray Baker.

NEW MEMBERS AND VISITORS: Jeff Smith (Levin) Sue Mossman (Sydney).

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: Minutes of meeting held 9 November were read and confirmed.

MATTERS ARISING: Diseaseathon: AFB discovered in two hives at Waikanae, and one at Akatarawa. Evidence of a good nectar flow with swarms everywhere. Hive inspectors indulged in some ad-hoc requeening where appropriate. Club membership application forms left with non-member beekeepers. One new beekeeper recommended participating in the Diseaseathon as a worthwhile learning experience.

CORRESPONDENCE: Secretary advised that the Johnsonville United Church had increased the hall rental by $2 to $27 per month.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Current account balance was $2,194.47.

GENERAL BUSINESS: Issues discussed:

Ivan Pederson & Richard Hatfield recited some entertaining swarm stories.

A flowering hedge was identified as Escalonia and other plants currently in flower were NZ jasmine and flaxes.

Bumble bee nest removal

Frank Lindsay advised he had collected 99 swarms in 3 months - 3 times last season’s figure.

Alan Paterson sought suggestions for hive sites in Napier.

Local council attitudes to urban beekeeping were discussed.

James Scott requested members return any longoutstanding library books.

Frank Lindsay advised a site at Reikorangi was available for any interested beekeeper.

Jill Cornish advised she was moving to Nelson.

Les Solomon showed members a full plastic frame and advised he had obtained 14 kilos from 8 plastic 3/4 frames.

PRESENTATION:

A video was shown detailing the African Honey Bee’s escape from Rio de Janiero and spread north to Los Angeles and its effect on local people and beekeepers.

Meeting closed at 9.45 p.m. with Christmas supper, Ivan’s mead and Maryanne’s punch.

For a full range of Ecroyds Beekeeping Supplies

Phone 0800-5BEEHIVE (0800-523344) or 06-324 8224

We will trade Honey, Beeswax or Pollen for Gear

Contact Marjorie or Kevin Kibby
for further details or to place an order

As an alternative, members can meet at the car park adjacent to the silverstream New World supermarket in the shopping centre on the eastern side of the Silverstream Railway Station and share transport to site - departure time 1:00 pm. If bad weather causes a postponement, the same arrangements will apply on the following Sunday (28^th February).

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.

Now that the honey harvest has come round once more, it would be a good time to try making some mead. If you are pleased with your results, remember to save a bottle to enter into the club's annual mead competition in July.

Ingredients: Honey, Water, Nutrient Salts, Tannin, Yeast.

Initial proportions are 2 litres of water to 1 Kg of honey (or any multiple of these quantities).

Heat the water and dissolve honey. Stir constantly while adding honey to avoid honey burning on bottom of receptacle. Bring mix to simmer. DO NOT BOIL!! Skim off any impurities what rise to surface and discard. This can take some time, but it is essential to ensure the best quality of the finish product.

When all impurities have been removed, cool some of the mix and check specific gravity (s.g.) with a hydrometer. The reading should be 1120 - 1130. If lower, add more honey to the mixture (called the "must"). Only add small amounts, checking the s.g. after each addition. When desired s.g. is obtained, allow must to cool to 20oC - 25oC. Add tannin at 1 teaspoon per 4.5 litres (mix it first with a small amount (50 - 60 ml) of hot water, add nutrient salts at 2 teaspoons per 4.5 litres (also easier if first dissolved in small quantity of warm water). Start yeast as per instructions on packet and add to must.

Fit airlock to fermentation vessel and place in warm place. (I use a wardrobe with a small thermostatically controlled fan heater to maintain a constant 24oC). Fermentation time will depend on temperature, with lower temperatures taking longer. Yeast becomes dormant at 10oC (50oF). At completion of fermentation (i.e. when there are no more bubbles passing through the airlock, check the s.g. again. The drop in s.g. between the original reading (1120 - 1130) and the reading taken after fermentation, divided by 7.5 will give the alcohol content. For example, if the first reading was 1130 and the second was 1010, the difference of 120 divided by 7.5 indicates an alcohol content of 16%.

After fermentation, if mead is considered too dry to suit individual palate, honey may be added to obtain the degree of sweetness required. Mix honey and water 50/50 and simmer to remove impurities as before. Ad in small quantities to mead, taste testing as you go, until acceptable taste is obtained. A further s.g. reading at this point will give you the level that you can work towards obtaining in any mead that you produce in the future.

Mead can now be left to clear naturally, which may take some considerable time, or finings can be added to the mead to clear the drink in 1 - 3 days. If mead does not clear, it is probably because not all the impurities were removed from the initial honey/water mix, or from the mix used to increase s.g. after fermentation.

Mead can be drunk at any time after fermentation has stopped, but will improve with age.

Yeast (Gervin Wine Yeast Varietal E Strain K1), Tannin, Nutrient Salts, hydrometer, fermentation vessel and airlock are all available at a reasonable price from "Great Expectation" in Wellington or Petone, or from any other brewers supply outlets.

The business of requeening, by an interested bystander.

Meet at the appointed time - the Queen Breeder (who shall be known as "B"), the client (we'll call him "L"), and the interested bystander. All pile into one car and head off to the hive site. Return one hour and unknown kilometres later to uplift the queen who is still tucked up snugly in her Queen cage in the hot water cupboard. Lesson No. One: When on a requeening mission - don't leave home without your Queen!

Set off again - hive is quite visible from the road - but is approachable only through five farm gates, unless you own a vehicle with the prowess of a mountain goat. Lesson No. Two: Beekeepers are a unique breed possessed of an uncanny ability to find remote and inaccessible hive sites, often positioned where man has never set foot before.

Remove hive lid and its "Action Stations"! Greetings by thousands of the little black varmints (or whatever the female equivalent is - interested bystander hears many interpretations - none of them printable), who in less time than it takes to write this story, investigate and advise in stinging terms of the weakness, design defects, and improper zipping-up of hive suits. The inadvertent dropping of a frame does nothing to alleviate the mood of the black fiends, and it becomes almost a "short straw" job to get down and sort amongst the writhing mass of dropped bees, in case the Queen to be replaced is amongst them. A decided lack of interest in making the personal acquaintance of 60-thousand close relatives to the hornet sees the interested bystander elect to carry boxes to the middle of the paddock, shake each frame clean, and rehouse them. The hive is rebuilt, complete with queen cage in place, and a hasty retreat made. Unfortunately, nobody bothers to tell the bees of the proposed departure, and they decide to hasten the process. Lesson No. Three: It is not recommended that vehicle windows be left open when dealing with relatives of the African Killer Bee.

Return four days later - B, L, and the interested bystander, who has learned one lesson from the previous session and so is wearing several layers of clothing (of course today is the day it choses to be 30oC in the shade!). Plan the escape route and park facing home some distance from the hive. Unfortunately, four days have also given the bees time to plan, and they greet all in the most intimate manner as B, L, and the bystander hop out of the vehicle, and just as quickly hop back in. Rearrange suits, then approach hive in close formation. A thick covering of bees gives an impression of escapees from the Black and White Minstrel show, not helped by B tripping over the electric fence and fetching the hive a belt. If you ever want to announce your arrival with style, this has to be the way to do it. Similarly, a gap left between hive suit leg and gumboot is a sure way to watch a new version of St. Vitus's dance - purely as an interested bystander of course. Quickly disassemble the hive down to the queen cage, only to find that those black varmints have dealt to her in a terminal manner. L and bystander stand (in B's case hop), around the queenless antisocial hive debating the pros and cons of requeening or a quick job with a can of diesel. The (rapidly dis)interested bystander goes for the diesel option, but is overruled, and so there is another quick trip home in the vehicle, together with, it would seem, half the hive! Collect a second queen, return trip and the bees are waiting at the road to greet in their usual familiar fashion - the bill for the replacement queen will probably equate to the bill for squashed and flattened bees and loss of production. The landowner also comes to the gate, but beats a hasty retreat when the varmints check out his shorts, bare arms, and farm dog. However, the muffled cries and slapping noises are ignored and our intrepid trio plough relentlessly on. A quick check for queen cells (heaps), and placing of the replacement queen cage, re-assembling of the hive and yet another hasty retreat. B and L elect to walk back down to the road doing peculiar arm and body motions en-route, while bystander gets to drive back together with a buzzy fan club.

On a scale of 1 to 10 for aggressiveness, B and L decide that this hive warrants a 20+. The interested bystander makes a mental note to be unavoidably otherwise engaged when it comes to releasing the replacement queen, no matter what day it is!. Lesson No Four: Don't answer the phone, or else plead inexcusably busy, to any combined exercise proposed by B & L.

Four days later; B, L, and the (screaming) bystander are en-route to the hive site once again - the adrenalin mounts during negotiation of the five gates and freshly bulldozed goat track, and surreptitious parking below the crest of the hill. Surreptitious is not in the Black Bee Directory - or else they haven't read the book yet. The bystander muses upon a recently drawn life insurance policy, and wonders whether venturing knowingly, but unwillingly amidst wild bees becomes an exemption under the suicide clause! This time it is L's turn to leave an air space between the top of his gumboot and bottom of hive-suit, and gyrates off into the paddock waving the smoker madly and incurring the wrath of several thousand more of the little sods in the process. B and bystander plug on steadfastly, dismantling the hive box by box, frame by frame, searching for and destroying queen cells in the process. Breaths are held as the queen cage is inspected - is she alive or isn't she? SHE IS! Cut out the release on the cage and replace on the frame. Down to the bottom box, where one queen cell lurks, then reassemble, again closely inspecting each frame. A stray bee has found its way into B's hood, but he waves away the bystander's efforts at face-swatting and L's attempts at asphyxiation with the smoker, declaring he would rather be stung! (that remark is borne in mind for future reference). The hive is rebuilt and a hasty retreat beaten to the middle of the paddock. There our band discovers a large cluster of bees in the grass where the frames were dumped on the second visit, four days ago. A hands and knees inspection of the clump reveals the elusive Queen - not marked as per the original, but a stray black job who has infiltrated. Lesson No Five: Nurture your gold Queen - she's the kind of girl you (and your neighbours) want in your apiary.

L produces a spray bottle of soapy water and the bunch is drenched, as are B and the bystander, when they happen to put themselves between the spray bottle and alone bee. At that point it is decided that walking to the gate is the preferred option, with L left to his spray ministrations. - a strong resemblance to the Statue of Liberty is noted as he holds the bottle upwind and pumps furiously dowsing himself in a fine mist. Reassemble at the roadside, do the usual strip act, to the bemusement of several passing motorists, then a beeline for home. Lesson No Six: Do not tell stories like the above to those not smitten with the beekeeping bug - not if you want backyard beekeeping to remain a legitimate activity in your neighbourhood.

A field day will be held on Sunday 21^st February, starting 1:15pm, at Whitemans valley. This will be a practical demonstration of Queen raising and Queen introduction. Enquires to Bill Allan (938 1377) or Richard Hatfield (528 7780). See page 3 for additional details.

The Wellington Beekeepers Association has two extractors for hire by members. Contact MaryAnn Lindsay (ph 478 3367) if you wish to arrange to use one of these.

The Wellington Beekeepers Association is over 50 years old. It would be really great to get some material or stories from the early days of the club to post onto our web site. If you have, or know anyone with any suitable materials or stories to tell, contact James Scott (565 0164) or (editor@beehive.org.nz) to organise for collection of the information.

You should all have received explanation papers and a form for completion in respect of the new pest management strategy. These came from AgriQuality New Zealand as agents for the National Beekeepers Association. Please bring any questions about these papers or forms to the meeting to ensure that everyone fully understands what this is all about, and what our obligations are. This topic will be discussed at a future meeting, and the club is currently investigating opportunities for every member to become an "approved beekeeper" who is allowed to inspect their own hives.

The committee is looking for interesting and relevant speakers for meetings this year. It is hoped that Andrew Matheson will be available to talk to one meeting. If you have any suggestions please contact John Burnet on 232 7863 (or secretary@beehive.org.nz).