PRESENT: Frank Lindsay (Pres.), Mary Ann Lindsay (Treas.) John Burnet (Sec.), and 18 members as listed in the attendance book.

APOLOGIES: Andrew Beach, Cliff Hulston, Vicky Alexander, Claire Brown, John Pallenson, John Wallace, Bob Porter

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: Minutes of meeting held 10 May as printed in the June newsletter were confirmed.

• Varroa Update: Horowhenua hives were currently experiencing varroa resurgence due to re-invasion from feral hives. This re-invasion could continue for 2-3 years until all feral colonies had died out. Black bees had proved to be more resistant to varroa than yellow Italian bees.
• Varroa is now reported as rife in Karori and was just starting to show in other south Wellington suburbs such as Lyall Bay and Hataitai. At this stage Miramar and other eastern suburbs were still clear.
• Recent media reports advise varroa has been found in Oxford, Nth Canterbury, however as it was only one mite and further checks had found nothing, the discovery was likely to be the result of laboratory contamination. Confirmation of this is expected within the next few days.
• The Wairarapa hive movement control line is likely to be lifted shortly and is not being policed.

• Visit by Dr Pedro Rodriguez (retired US Dept Agriculture scientist): MaryAnn reminded members of Dr Rodriguez’s talk on using FGMO to control varroa will be on Sat 3 July at 1pm in the Johnsonville Community Centre. All members were encouraged to attend - admission was free as the Club was meeting all venue and speaker costs.

• Ivan’s new products: Ivan advised he had developed and produced at a consumer’s request honeycomb soap and he passed around an example for members to inspect. Using an old tapered tubular table leg as a mould, Ivan had also recently produced a beeswax candle about 70cms in length.

• Seasonal Management: Kermadec pohutukawa, tree lucerne, kakabeak currently flowering (& kowhai in some warmer areas). Frosts will now knock hives back and brood will cease.

Meeting closed at 8:45 pm. and members then enjoyed the usual supper

CAMP RANGI: Please note: if
we don't get enough people registering to attend the Camp Rangi weekend
in August we will have to cancel.

Applications and money to P J Ferris, Happy Ferris Apiaries, P O Box 255, Masterton.

It is of course that time of year when we nominate people we think have a worthwhile contribution to make towards the running of the Wellington Beekeepers Association. Sadly, MaryAnn Lindsay, who has served as our very competent Treasurer for more years than I can recall, is stepping down. While her shoes will be hard to fill, we will be calling for a new Treasurer for the Club.

Other position holders have also indicated that they will be stepping

down, particularly our president, who has served his two terms. Those members of our Club with a yearning to make a contribution – now is your chance to ensure that our Club continues its high standards of beekeeping advice and information which it has previously been noted for.

NOW is your chance – make sure you attend the AGM and make your contribution.

ARKANSAS Beekeepers battle mites to stay in business – local honey supply dwindling.

According to folklore, people suffering from allergies should eat local honey. Just the local kind – the theory is that local honey helps with the pollens the bees have stored in that honey.

Local honey however, can be hard to find these days. The Arkansas bee population has been in crisis for decades. Most Arkansas beekeepers do not have honey to sell as they did before bees were almost wiped out of the state. In the early 1980s 2 different types of bee mites – varroa and tracheal - invaded the state, causing major health issues for the bees and nearly killing the entire bee population. "99% of all wild bees in the state died and a lot of the domestic bees too".

Some estimate that as much as 60% of the bees kept by local beekeepers were killed. Before the mite there were 2,000 beekeepers in the state. The mites dropped this to around 700, though it is building back up to 1500 and more are needed. While it may not have seemed like a serious problem to the average person, Arkansas currently ranks 8^th in the nation in honey production, although the ranking dropped as low as 16^th in recent years.

Besides the food issue, the decreased bee population also hurts the gardener for the same reasons. Fewer bees can mean fewer flowers to enjoy.

The State employs inspectors, since bees are so vital to agriculture, for annual hive inspections. These inspectors are also on call for those having problems with their bees, speaking at civic groups, teaching classes and working with several third world countries. "The bee is the only insect that makes food that humans consume, and honey is the only food that will never spoil or mould. However, the folklore about local honey is overblown. It does seem to help, but with bees travelling up to 5miles (sic) it is hard to say what pollen they have been gathering and where they got it".

(by Al Collier, The Daily Citizen) courtesy of Ivan Pedersen

Dr Pedro Pablo Rodriguez, during his recent talk to the Wellington Beekeepers Association on the Varroa fight.

On Saturday 3 July ‘Dr Pedro’ spoke to members of the Wellington Beekeepers Association, and the following is a summary of the wealth of information and knowledge he very kindly shared:

"When I was a kid, perhaps 7-8-9 years old, I already knew I wanted to be a vet and my parents let me keep all the crippled animals in the neighbourhood – I developed a reputation as some of those animals lived. When I was 9 my father gave me 3 beehives for my absolute care. This was 1937 and I was a 4^th generation beekeeper. A person with 3 hives was a ‘big shot’. Not a lot of money but I kept adding to those and by the time I was 15 I had 15 hives.

When I got out of Vet school I worked for the Ministry of Agriculture. 18 years later I went on active duty in the US Army and became acquainted with the many uses of Food Grade Mineral Oil. I retired from the Ministry of Ag in 1993 but didn’t want to become a couch potato and watch tv and eat – the brain starts going downhill. So I needed something to do. I had retired to Virginia on the West Coast and joined the local bee club. Through that I bought 49 hives and subsequently discovered these were full of apistan strips and resistant bees!

Mites were discovered in Asia in 1904, from where they migrated to middle Europe, Portugal, Spain and finally around the world to New Zealand

With memories of dosages of castor oil kindly administered by my mother (and spat out immediately once out of sight) and of how this same oil removed mites from infected chickens in my childhood ‘zoo’, I cast around for a similar solution to the bee mite problem. After some experimentation Food Grade Mineral Oil (FGMO) came to mind. From here I worked on ways to kill the mites without killing the bees and yet keep beekeeping profitable for beekeepers.

I started by replacing the apistan strips with waxpaper coated with FGMO, and it worked very effectively but the bees started chewing up the paper and it was going out the front of the hive like lint. I had already noticed the bee’s hygienic behaviour when they came into contact with FGMO when I had eye-droppered it on top of the frames so when I saw a fogger in a hardware store, my mind started to work.

The fogger dispenses at 15-20 microns which is exactly the size which will choke the mites yet the bees can breathe.

The next problem was to discover a method of killing mites which were still in the cells.

I talked to a petroleum company, since FGMO is a very very refined byproduct of petroleum, as I had an idea about applying the oil. As well as giving me $US3000, (the only money I have ever received for this research), they gave me a can of solution and, when this ran out, a second can. However, when I approached them for more, the company told me it was too expensive to keep giving me, but if they could patent my idea, they would provide me with the product free. However, I was worried that they might either attach a high price to my ‘system’ and put it out of reach of many people, or that they might hide it ‘under the table’. So I put my solution to the mite problem on the internet and made it available to everyone.

And the petroleum company hasn’t spoken to me since!

Later, while addressing a group and explaining my problem re killing the mites in cells, a pomade (emulsion) suggestion was given by a 12-13 year old in the audience. I worked on this boy’s idea and came up with the cord solution we now use.

Emulsion soaked cords are:

Homemade with natural beehive products

Have a lasting effect

Stimulate hygienic behaviour

Never use hemp – the bees will chew it into tiny pieces and it will get into the honey. Cotton cord, if chewed, will be deposited out front of the hive.

Later I found that the addition of 100g of Thymol added to my cord solution was totally effective in the mite killing fight. Thymol :

increases the death rate of mites

is non toxic to bees

is highly toxic to mites

To add Thymol to the cord solution: once the cords are in the solution in your container, add 100gr of Thymol and stir so that it will adhere to the cords. The effect of Thymol will last 12-14 days in the hive.

Cord solution is:

1kg of wax

1kg of honey

1 litre of FGMO

100 pieces of 1m cotton cord, 2 cords per brood box

Replace cords every two weeks and fog every week = varroa free hives!

Place 50gr of Thymol granules into a small glass jar with 50cc of FGMO, tightly capped, and place in a double boiler, bringing the water in the lower boiler to boiling. You will see the Thymol ‘disappear’ into the FGMO and you can hasten this process by shaking the glass jar. Then add to 950ml of FGMO and place in your fogger.

Result: low thymol concentration

Rapid evaporation

No residues in wax

- If your fogger blocks, use a copper wire and CRC to clear the blockage – wind the wire in from the nozzle end through the coils and out the other end & seesaw backwards & forwards to clear.

• - Never point the fogger down or it will turn into a flame thrower.
• - Aim the fogger from about 300mm away from the hive entrance (any nearer & you will damage yr bees and possibly blow the top of yr hive)
• - Squeeze the trigger 4 times while counting 1001; 1002; 1003; 1004
• Although I have not encountered any ill effects from breathing the fog, I would suggest that you try not to breath it and that you stay upwind or wear a mask.

Fog as long as the bees are flying. If you fog while they are in a cluster the fogging will break the cluster, and the bees will fall to the bottom board and die.

Ignore any advice to spray your bees with any kind of water solution – water has no place in the hive and it will lead to nosema and dysentery.

I have made myself very unpopular with the CEO’s of pesticide companies because of my approach to mite killing, and there are a number of products marketed by such firms which cost the beekeeper money and achieve little or nothing.

Honey bees have a mission of labour. If you can keep them happy they will produce more. Mites have an ability to make bees lose their hygienic behaviour and happiness. When the bees aren’t healthy, the ever present virus’s in the hive, always waiting for the hive to be low in health, take over. New bees are born without wings, or with wings turned into stubs.

A final suggestion to reduce labour for beekeepers with large numbers of hives is to make a 10mm deep ‘tray’, approx 300mm long and 150mm wide, into which the cords can be can be coiled, and the tray slid in the bottom board entrance. A handle on the tray allows the tray to be pushed in flush with the front of the hive boxes, and assists with removal.

Points if using a shim tray:

Reduces labour BUT

Gets cluttered with hive debris and

Interferes with mite count

SUMMARY: FGMO-Thymol application:

Reduced cost of treatments

Mite-free hives

Increased honeybee production

Stress reduction

Higher honey yields

No residues in honey or wax

I arranged to have an independent laboratory do a chemical analysis of my honey and wax after three years of FGMO-thymol treatment and there was absolutely NO residue of either product found."

Dr Pedro spoke for 2½ hrs and it was unfortunate that time constraints (and his hoarse throat) meant we could not stay longer. Those of us who attended also enjoyed a fogger demonstration and all went home much wiser and more confident in the fight against varroa!

From Farming News by Howard Keene:

Management of bees for pollination is going to be far more crucial because of varroa says bee researcher Mark Goodwin. Where previously pollination once involved farmers calling a beekeeper to put hives near the crop, now a more managed system was needed.

While managed pollination was common in some horticultural sectors like kiwifruit, it was less developed in sectors like Canterbury’s valuable small-seed industry. When varroa hit the South Island, managed pollination, with farmers paying beekeepers, was likely to be much more common, because feral hives were likely to be wiped out and commercial hives reduced. This would also eventually have a big impact on the pastoral grazing industry because white clover, a major component of pastures, was pollinated by bees. In future it would be necessary to manage what farmers were now essentially getting free.

For example, predictions were that the avocado industry would need 35,000 bee colonies in the next 5 years. Previously they used only those (bees) in the environment. Kiwifruit, for example, produced no nectar, while avocadoes produced no pollen. Some crops like citrus were attractive to bees, while others were not. Putting a few bee hives out works well with citrus, but something like carrot needs much more. Beekeepers will need to make sure there were plenty of nectar or pollen foragers, whichever was necessary to pollinate the crop. Growers needed to make crops bee friendly, including providing a warm location close to the crop and taking care with sprays.

Dr Goodwin said it would be necessary to set standards for management as had been agreed in other countries. He said varroa in the North Island had led to a 10% drop in hives. Before the outbreak, the cost to kiwifruit growers had been about $85 a hive. It was now $130-$140.

Out yesterday (mid June) in the rain.  Bees were flying from most hives.  Some were bringing in a lot of pollen - in the rain!!!

A hive in Ngaio had three full frames of brood and wet honey around the
brood nest.  Seems the mild April / May has stimulated brood production.
Members who took honey off early should check their hive's weight, heft
from the back using the top hand hole.  Should be able to lift it if its
full of honey.

Queens - Lottie Ferris in Masterton is producing queens - I'll find out
if she is going to sell any in the spring

SOUTH PACIFIC SEEDS at Methven is one South Island company that uses beehives commercially to pollinate hybrid vegie seeds. This seed industry is 10 yrs old and the requirement for hives has gone from 0 to about 3000.

In some cases 2.5 hives per hectare could pollinate crops attractive to bees, while for other crops 7.5 would not do the trick. Generally South Pacific Seeds has settled for 5 hives a hectare with the hives in the crop. "The economic distance for pollen collection should not be more than 400m – our aim is for bees to travel only 100m to 150m." The company reduces the use of insecticides during flowering, uses registered bee-safe products and sprays in the evenings when bees have stopped foraging.