PRESENT: Frank Lindsay (Pres.), Mary Ann Lindsay (Treas.), John Burnet (Sec.) and 42 members as listed in the attendance book.

APOLOGIES: Gary Murphy, Andrew Yung

NEW MEMBERS & VISITORS : Don Bell (Pres NBA), Tim Leslie (Exec Sec NBA), Paul Bolger (MAF Biosecurity Authority)

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: Minutes of 8 April meeting as detailed in the May newsletter were confirmed.

MATTERS ARISING:

Varroa Workshop: Frank advised the Varroa Control workshop for the Wellington hobbyist beekeepers would be held on Fri 14 June in the Khandallah Hall. The workshop will take three hours and all beekeepers should take their copy of the green "Control of Varroa" book plus pen and paper to tale notes. MAF will send full details to all registered beekeepers within the next few days.

Varroa Mesh : An offer to supply mesh at $860 per roll (which would cover 150 hives at $5.73 per hive) was discussed and the purchase of one roll for club members’ use was agreed upon (Beach/Scott).

Varroa Video : The Club had received from MAF a copy of the video "Control of Varroa" and this would be shown to members at a future meeting.

NBA LEVY DISCUSSION :

The NBA executive was introduced and they presented details of NBA’s proposal to introduce three new industry levies – a beekeeper registration or base levy, a hive levy (which would apply to ALL beekeepers) and a Commodity Levy (which would apply only to beekeepers with 10 or more hives). The proposed base levy was $16 and the proposed hive levy was 90 cents. This would mean that small hobbyist beekeepers would pay approx $20 per annum while a commercial beekeeper with, for example, 650 hives would pay $601. The Commodity Levy was proposed at 70 cents per hive.

Considerable discussion followed and all feedback and concerns were recorded by NBA and a summarised copy will be distributed to all beekeepers after all workshops have been held throughout NZ. All beekeepers were encouraged to write to the Minister of Biosecurity before 30 June detailing their concerns or support over the proposed Biosecurity Levy (Base/Registration & Hive Levy). Beekeepers affected by the Commodity Levy will be requested to vote on the proposal before 8 June.

HONEY COMPETITION :

Due to the smaller number of entries, the judges (Frank Lindsay & Julia Brooke-White) decided there would be one prize-winner in each section - the winner of the Liquid honey section was Fritz Fuchs and the winner of the Creamed honey section was Ken Breden.

The meeting closed at 9:00 pm with the usual supper and refreshments.

The AGM will be held next month. The usual business will be conducted, including

• President's Report
• Presentation of Accounts
• Approval of AFB compensation claims
• Election of new committee
• Any other Business

Come along to the meeting - don't be put off by the possiblity that you might find yourself on the committee. For one thing, being on the committee is not an onerous task (there is not much responsibility) though there is lots of opportunity for doing things that are near and dear to you! In addition, anybody can decline a nomination to stand for a position, if you really do not wan to be involved.

Members of the 2001/02 Executive Committee are:

• President: Frank Lindsay
• Past President: Richard Hatfield
• Vice-President: Andrew Beach
• Secretary: John Burnet
• Treasurer: Mary-Ann Lindsay
• Committee Members: James Scott,
  Vaughan Kearns
  Wrae Duncan,
  Vicky Alexander
• Newsletter Editor: James Scott
• Librarian: Fritz Fuchs & Max Aston

All of these positions are subject to nomination and election. If you would like to offer yourself for the committee, then please contact John Burnet or Frank Lindsay. If you think that another member would make a great contribution to the committee, then please arrange to nominate them (with their agreement of course :-).

The wonderful weather has continued in our district while those in the south have had snow and those in the north weeks of rain. Bees along the coastal strip are now working Banksias, Tree Lucerne, and Black Wattle, while those along the bush fringe a working Kohekohe and the last of the Rata.

Bee activity in the inland valleys has almost ceased. Ice from morning frosts takes an hour to clear, and inside the hive the bees have settled into a winter cluster. Along the coastal strip the bees are in a different climate. The three weeks of fine, still weather has induced the bees into thinking spring is here and the dribble of nectar has stimulated brood production. A month ago these hives there were patches of brood about the size of your fist on three frames. Now this has expanded to almost three full frames. Several hives that I thought had plenty of stores now only have three quarters of a super left and will need feeding in the spring.

I have been putting out the last of my queens and have been very surprised at the number of hives marked for replacement queens that have done the job themselves. Downy young queens with a good brood pattern and bee numbers in some hives have doubled. Looks all very positive.

  While tidying up last year's nucs I came across a feral hive I had introduced into a super. The hive was originally in an overgrown Kiwifruit vine. The owner didn't want the bees destroyed and they were nice gently yellow bees so I decided to cut around them and remove them. I placed the bundle of wax and bees in an empty super and added a honey super on top and left them to it. The majority of the feral hives that are put into framed hives abscond next day or loose their queen and therefore after a month tend to die out. Those that do succeed take over the second super and when the queen is laying up there, the access to the feral comb in the bottom super is blocked by a queen excluder so the bees gradually leave the wild comb and take over the top super. Later the wild comb is removed and you have a hive in a movable frame unit. Unfortunately I missed out the queen excluder step so the hive developed in both supers and stored honey in the top super, so they still occupy some of the wild comb (see photo). All I could do is cut away some of the old comb and leave the rest in the bottom super. Hopefully they will remove any remaining honey from the wild comb and cluster in the top super. In the spring I should be able to be removed this and replaced with another fully drawn super.

A few of my hives have telltale wax at the entrance (see photo on next page), which is an indication of a night visitor. I have been a bit lax at putting on entrance reducers, as most of the hives will be part of the Southern North Island surveillance programme to determine the Varroa mite's spread. Rather than close all the hives up, I have been leaving a plastic container with 4 Talon brodifacoum bait tablets in the yards for them. With luck the mice will eat the bait and leave the hives alone. Each time I drive past these apiaries I replace the tablets until they stop taking them. I use a small opening on the container to prevent birds and hedgehogs getting at them and so the rats (if they are around) have to eat the tablets rather than transport them home and store them.

  Down south and in bush areas, rats can be a nuisance. Any little hole in a super or a wide entrance is enlarged overnight. By spring they will have eaten out the honey reserves and the bees and will be well on the way to producing another generation. To protect their hives, some beekeepers fold a 75mm wide strip of tin plate 90 degrees lengthwise so that it sits across the baseboard runners and up the front of the bottom super. This forms a slight tunnel and prevents the rats enlarging the entrance.

  So far this autumn I have found 6 hives suffering from advanced Nosema (see photo at left). Look for dead bees and dying young bees outside the entrance just as though they have been poisoned. I have treated these hives with Fumidil B and marked them for later action. If they do not recover in the spring, I'll shake the bees on to new frames and treat the old combs to remove the spores.

Bee work now turns indoors. Sort dark frames and those with drone comb out for melting. Any frames you can't see light through when held up to the sun, or those that just feel heavy should be put aside. As stated last month if you don't want to melt them down, they burn well or can be composted.

While sorting frames it's a good idea to scrape off the propolis and any burr comb from the frames and the supers. Apart from propolis bringing in money, cleaning any future brood frames is essential so that the bee space between frames is maintained. If propolis is allowed to remain on the end bars, the bee space gradually increases to an extent that it takes double the number of bees to maintain the brood nest temperature (very inefficient for the bees). The bee space between frames (centre to centre) is 33 mm but those who remember Bill's article on 11 frame hives last year, could reduce the bee space to 31mm if they want to experiment with a single brood nest configuration.

May our long spell of fine weather continue and you have fun beekeeping.

(This page is blank because I am still waiting for your article J )

Membership of the Wellington Beekeepers Association runs from July to June of the following year. Subscriptions are due at the AGM, held on the second Monday of July each year.

Membership of the Beekeepers Association provides regular opportunities for learning about all aspects of bees through meeting and discussion with other enthusiastic beekeepers. It doesn't matter whether you are a beginner or have years of experience - there are plenty of opportunities to learn from and to help others with similar interests.

The club produces a monthly newsletter with articles of interest and notices of relevance to members. There is also a comprehensive web site (www.beehive.org.nz) containing a significant wealth of material, including articles and information from old newsletters.

The Association has a very active disease detection and prevention programme in the greater Wellington region. Education of club members to recognise disease and to develop management practices that will prevent hives succumbing to diseases likely to be present is a key object. In addition, the club provides support for beekeepers who have hives destroyed following detection of AFB disease.

Complete the application form below and send to the Club Treasurer with your cheque.

Complete the following from and send with your subscription payment to the Treasurer, Mary-Ann Lindsay, 26 Cunliffe Street, Johnsonville (ph 478 3367)

$20* subscription for the 2002/03 year, due July 2002.

Received From:

Name:

Address:

E-mail:

Phone: Enclosed: $20* Cheque / Cash

Date: Receipt No: _________________

(* If you would like to receive newsletters via e-mail, you will be entitled to a discount of $5 on the membership fee. Please supply a valid e-mail address).

You should all have received a notice about this workshop, to be held in the Khandallah Hall, 11 Ganges Road, Khandallah on 14th June at 6:15pm to 9:45pm.

This workshop is free, but please bring the "Control of Varroa - A Guide for NZ Beekeepers" book that was recently sent to all registered beekeepers. A notepad and pen is also recommended.

Contact Byron Taylor of AgriQuality, on 07-838 5845 or 021-918 400 with any queries about the workshop.

The AGM of the club will be held next month. Refer to page 3 for further information. The current committee all look forward to seeing large numbers of members attending this important event.

The Club maintains a fund for disease management and control. One of the purposes of this fund is to provide some compensation to members who have had hives destroyed during the year as a result of AFB infection. Any member wishing to make a claim on the fund for such compensation must submit their claim in writing to the Secretary prior to the AGM on July 8^th. Write to John Burnet, Secretary, 21 Kiwi Cres., Tawa, Wellington.

The club has ordered a roll of stainless steel mesh suitable for making mesh floors as part of a varroa management regime. When the roll is received, it will be cut into hive sized pieces and sold to club members. Please contact Mary Ann Lindsay to place an order. You will be notified when the material is available. Help may be required to cut the roll.

The club reserves the right to restrict the quantity ordered by any individual member if there is demand for more mesh than is available from a single roll.

The committee is always looking for interesting and/or relevant speakers for future meetings. If you have any suggestions please contact our secretary,
John Burnet on 232 7863 (or secretary@beehive.org.nz).

• July (8th): Annual General Meeting
• August (12th): (to be advised)
• September (9^th): (to be advised)