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

PRESENT : Andrew Beach (Acting Pres.), Mary-Ann Lindsay (Treas.), John Burnet (Sec.) and 39 members and visitors as listed in the attendance book.

APOLOGIES : Richard Hatfield, Ken Breden, Cliff Hulston, Frank Clark, Andrew Yung, Marie Christofel, Robert Thomson.

NEW MEMBERS AND VISITORS : Peter Sorrenson (Tawa).

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING : Minutes of meeting held 13 September were read and confirmed.

MATTERS ARISING :

DECA TRAINING : Andrew Beach, Frank Lindsay and Bill Allan attended the training course in Hamilton on 2 Oct. which they found educational and informative. The Wgton club training course (likely to be held on Sat 13 Nov) will be 4 hours duration followed by a 10-15 min exam. There will be multi-choice questions and photographs taken from the NBA Disease manual .

TREASURER’S REPORT : Working a/c $1,764, BL a/c $2,009, Goal a/c $3,073.

GENERAL BUSINESS :

SWARMS : Members reported swarm season in full swing. With a mild winter and warm spring to date most hives had plenty of brood and this often led to overcrowding. This could be alleviated with the addition of another super added below any honey supers as the queen will not cross a super of honey or foundation.

REQUEENING : The importance of checking for queen cells at this time of the year was emphasised (looking first along the bottom bars of the upper brood box) It was also important to check for cells when installing or checking for the release of caged queens.

MEMBERS QUERIES : Issues discussed -

Making space in the broodnest, ensuring adequate stores (hives must have a minimum of 3 frames of honey), feeding hives (raw sugar, never white or brown, slows growth of strong hives, thick syrup for unaffected hive growth) moving hives, difficulty of introducing a yellow queen to black bees (easier to mongrelise hive with frame of yellow bees first).

DISEASEATHON : Procedures explained and participation recommended to new members in particular. Interest expressed by 20-30 members in participating in a diseasathon this year.

SEASONAL MANAGEMENT : Trees currently in flower - Cabbage tree, Rangiora, apple. Karaka when flowering is poisonous to bees.

Meeting closed at 9.00pm with supper.

The Club will be conducting a Disease Recognition and Destruction Course on Saturday 13th November 1999 in Room 1 of the Johnsonville Community Centre, corner of Frankmoore Ave & Moorefield Road.

The Course will start at 1.00pm, (please be present by 12.45 to complete application forms) and will be of at least 4 hours duration. There will be a refreshment break midway. At the completion of the Course, candidates will sit the exam. There will be 45 questions with an estimated completion time of 30-45 minutes.

The Papers will be marked by computer and the results forwarded directly to participants. All questions will have multiple choice answers and will be based entirely on information contained in all sections of the manual "Elimination of American Foulbrood Without The Use of Drugs" by Mark Goodwin & Cliff Van Eaton. Everyone who applied for a DECA should have received this manual.

There will be 5 questions on visual identification of disease from the coloured plates in the manual. A 100% PASS IS REQUIRED IN THIS SECTION. THERE WILL ALSO BE OTHER MANDATORY QUESTIONS IN THE PAPER REQUIRING A 100% PASS MARK. The overall pass mark must not be less than 70%. It is essential therefore that the manual is studied thoroughly.

Because of space limitation at the Course venue, it will be necessary to restrict this first Course to 20 individuals. Anyone intending to participate should contact Mary-Ann Lindsay on 478 3367. Registrations will be on a "first in - first served basis". Another Course will be held later, probably in February 2000.

The Course fee is $25.00 plus a $2.00 per head surcharge to cover venue, projector hire and refreshments. Fees must be paid before the commencement of the Course. Club members who were financial members or Life Members as at 31 May 1999 will have their Course Fees (not surcharge) paid by the Club provided they have applied for a DECA.

The Course will be conducted by Andrew Beach and Bill Allan who have both completed an Instructors Course administered by the NBA.

The only article that you will need to bring with you is a pen. You may bring the manual for reference during the Course. Naturally, the manual and any notes will need to be surrendered temporarily during the exam.

SUMMARY

Bruce Stevenson, the PMS Advisor, Introduced the concepts and reasoning behind the competency test requirements under the Disease Elimination and Conformity Agreement (DECA) scheme. For a beekeeper to maintain their DECA they must take a Competency Test designed and administered by the Management Agency, the NBA. The NBA has decided to contract this out to me so that it can be independently administered.

This article informs you how to go about getting your competency test completed as a part of the requirement for your DECA.

Process:  The process for completing the competency test is as follows:

Decide on where and when you would like to take the test. Many of the NBA branches and local clubs are arranging suitable venues and dates. Also AgriQual and other commercial operations are likely to be offering competency test locations with or without training associated with it.

Fill out the form below. The Proctor is an independent person that will administer the exam on the day. Your local branch should be able to assist you with this. Send the form in to me at the address below with a cheque for $25 as fee for the test. Please send the form back 5 days before the intended date of the test.

You will then receive confirmation of the exam with a GST receipt.

Attend the exam, where the proctor will provide you with all of the materials except a pen! The proctor will return the completed exams to me.

Computer will mark the exams and the pass or fail notices automatically generated. This will then be sent to you directly. AgriQual will receive a list regularly of all of the successful candidates.

If you fail the test then you will need to take a course approved by the NBA and register to take the exam at $25. The training provider will supply you with a certificate that you must return with the exam papers or the registration. You can take the exam as many times as you wish.

Start Date: Applications can be received from the 1st November 1999. Any received before then will be processed on 1st November.

Confidentiality: All personal information remains confidential and will only be disclosed to AgriQual or other PMS contractor that the NBA determines when the person has passed the exam. Personal Information will be aggregated and depersonalised when reported for any other purpose.

You may request a copy of your personal information held by the Administrator by writing to the address below enclosing a cheque for $5. You can have your information corrected by returning the form with the corrected personal information.

Cheques to be made out to Richard Hatfield and crossed with "account payee only".

You will receive confirmation within 10 days. If you do not please contract the Competency Test Administrator on 04 528 7780 or fax 04 528 7380

It had all the hallmarks of being 'one of those days' and the Interested Bystander should have known it when the cat wouldn't get off her feet at the end of the bed, and told her so, no claws sheathed. When the milk poured glob glob glob into her cup and the hot drink ended up on the tabletop, and when Les tried to cry off taking the boxes off his hives for extracting and the Interested Bystander talked him down. Some of us learn the hard way.

Up to Frank Clarke's place, where he very kindly lent the Interested Bystander his Range Rover to go mountaineering - it certainly beats pushing a wheelbarrow laden with hive boxes and associated bee paraphenalia up a 90° slope, even when you forget to push the diff lock in, and Les on the downhill side says "should I get out now?" Really Les, you should have more faith in women drivers!!

Three hives, two with lovely golden bees, the third a little more pro-active, but not to worry. Remove the box from and bee escape which we set up a couple of days ago, from the first hive - no worries. Remove the box from the second hive and Les does a little dance amongst the strings of the electric fence. Fortunately, the fence is only a sham to fool the stock, but the bees give a few electric shocks of their own, indignant at the removal of their hard won supplies.

Open the third hive and insert a queen excluder - about now Les points out to the Interested Bystander the importance of tucking bee suit legs into gumboots - the Interested Bystander finds the comment curious, but pays little attention until a couple of sharp pinpricks in the lower leg cause a hiatus in the conversation - a hiatus quickly filled with short gasps and slapping noises. Probably the Interested Bystander's fault anyway as, apart from being a female, it was she who reckoned asoker would not be needed with 'those lovely quiet bees!''

Back down the hill with Les electing to walk, despite the Interested Bystander's indignant claims to having never yet lost a vehicle (or a passenger!) A 'shoo bee' re-enactment as we transfer the boxes and passengers into Les' vehicle, then the Interested Bystander tips four squashed bees out of her gumboot, and decides to go home and put a bee escape on her own hive.

Isn't it funny how bees like to lull you into a false feeling of peace and sereneity?

Maybe 3pm isn't the best time to open your hive when you live near a school. The incredulous stares from waiting parents followed by the hasty winding up of car windows as comprehension dawns, probably means that the sign at the gate "Beware of the Dog" is superfluous.

Back to the porch and off with the bee suit. Squash a few of the Darlin's missed during the last change of attire, and sweep up the droppings. One, two, three … twenty-four and still counting! Taking off those boxes of honey is going to be another story.

What puzzles the Interested Bystander is, why is it always she how is stung - even when 100m down the section and still running, yet hubby can mow to within a metre of the hive and we still don't know yet whether he is allergic to bee stings.

Much more laughing out of him and maybe he'll find out sooner than anticipated.

A fielday has been organised on the 13th November to provide the necessary instruction to members who wish to take their DECA Competency Test. There is about four hours of training required, and this will be followed by an opportunity to sit the exam. More details at the meeting.

Shortly we will be getting calls to pick up swarms again. Usually we contact the nearest beekeeper but if any members wish to collect these, please contact Frank or Mary Ann on 478-3367 so your name can bee added to the list.

To avoid too many calls, place a spare super or a nuc box with the entrance restricted to about 1 inch, on a shed roof or high up some where. Swarms are attracted to established apiary sites and usually find their way into spare equipment.

The club requires a willing member to take over responsibility for the library. Very little effort required, other than regular attendance at monthly meetings. Please contact James Scott on 565 0164 for more information.

Articles are required for the monthly newsletter. These can be factual or fanciful, regular or casual. Please contact James Scott on 565 0164.

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).