The Club has recently agreed to join with fellow beekeeper and Professor of Entomology Phil Lester from Victoria University to survey 20 – 50 samples of honey from various urban and rural sources around Wellington.

As you may be aware Government is seeking more information around glyphosate use in NZ through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is the first step in a process that could
lead to the reassessment of the herbicide’s use in NZ. EPA is seeking information on how glyphosate products are used across different areas including public spaces, farms and private gardens, as well as evidence of effects of the products and views on the impacts of the herbicide on the environment, economic social and cultural well-being of NZ. We are fortunate that Phil Lester currently has some funding and resourcing available and has offered to analyse honey samples from Wellington beekeepers. If you would like to participate in this research programme please note the following terms and conditions:
• Beekeepers must be registered (this is your Hive Registration number).
• Honey samples must have been collected from your hive within the last 12 months.
• Samples are limited to one per beekeeper.
• Samples are to be submitted in standard plastic screw-top medical specimen jars.
Specimen jars are available from:
    - John Burnet – phone 232-7863 (Tawa),
    - Tricia Laing – phone 528-5805 (Upper Hutt),
    - Jane Harding – phone 499-4123 (Wgton Central) and
    - James Scott – 565-0164 (Lower Hutt).

You can also use the standard medical specimen jars that are freely available from most medical centres. Each specimen must be accompanied by a questionnaire which requires Beekeeper name, address, contact details, Registration number and GPS co-ordinates of hive site.

You can get your hive’s GPS co-ordinates from your information on Hive Hub or from Google Maps. Just pin point your hive site on the screen and co-ordinates will then appear.

The questionnaire also requires a description of the hive site e.g. inner city, suburban, rural and nearby landscape i.e. likely predominant bee-foraging sources e.g. flower garden, native bush, pohutukawa trees, intensive horticulture or pasture for grazing animals etc.

The questionnaire also requires name of varroa treatment used prior to honey harvest.

Label the jar with your name and Registration number and forward this and the questionnaire to one of the above members or bring to the Club meeting in Sept (assuming we will be out of lock-down by then!).

Participating beekeepers will be advised of Vic Uni’s findings as soon as possible. 

The questionnaire can be accessed at: https://docs.google.com/forms/...

Any questions to any one of us.

Cheers
John