Apiculture NZ conference 9–11 July 2017
JULY 2017 | VOLUME 25 No. 6
It’s conference time! Karin Kos Leptosperin: a chemical marker Steve Howse
New South Wales conference reports Frank Lindsay Apimondia Oceania President’s report Jodie Goldsworthy We don’t know how lucky we are Jody Mitchell
See you at the 2017 APICULTURE Conference
At Comvita we value the relationships we have with our partners. We’re delighted to welcome our apiary operation, Kiwi Bee, and the Manuka Farming team to our stand. Visit us at Stand 58/59 to chat with us about partnership opportunities. comvita.co.nz/supply
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
It’s conference time!
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Agri-Women’s Development Trust wins national governance award
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Leptosperin: a chemical marker being used to authenticate manuka honey 7 Factors shaping bees’ reward preferences 10 Woolly thinker’s brain turns into a hive of activity 11 We don’t know how lucky we are 15 AFB control: time to think ahead 20
NSW conference reports
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Apimondia Oceania President’s report to industry
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From the colonies
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Wiring in honey houses
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Hive maintenance over winter
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Front cover: View of Government Gardens and the Rotorua Museum. The Apiculture New Zealand National Conference is being held from 9 to 11 July at the Rotorua Energy Events Centre. Go to apicultureconference2017.co.nz for registration and other information.
EDITORIAL/PUBLICATION (excluding advertising): Nancy Fithian 8A Awa Road, Miramar, Wellington 6022 Mobile: 027 238 2915 Fax: 04 380 7197 Email: editor@apinz.org.nz ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: Certa Solutions, PO Box 2494, Dunedin 9044. Phone: 0800 404 515 Email: beekeeper@certasolutions.nz PUBLICATIONS FOCUS GROUP: Frank Lindsay 26 Cunliffe Street, Johnsonville, Email: lindsays.apiaries@clear.net.nz DEADLINES FOR ADVERTISING AND ARTICLES: Due on the 6th of the month prior to publication. All articles/letters/photos to be with the Editor via fax, email or post to Nancy Fithian (see details above). Articles published in The New Zealand BeeKeeper are subject to scrutiny by the Apiculture New Zealand Management Team. The content of articles does not necessarily reflect the views of Apiculture New Zealand. Wellington 6037 Ph: 04 478 3367
The New Zealand BeeKeeper is the official journal of Apiculture New Zealand (Inc.). ISSN 0110-6325 ISSN 2537-8058 (Online) Printed by Certa Solutions, PO Box 2494, Dunedin 9013, New Zealand ApiNZ website: www.apinz.org.nz
© The New Zealand BeeKeeper is copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the Publisher, Apiculture New Zealand (Inc.). CONTACTS TO THE NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPING INDUSTRY: Rex Baynes, AFB PMP Manager PO Box 44282, Lower Hutt 5040 Email: rbaynes@ihug.co.nz Ph: 04 566 0773 American Foulbrood Management Plan www.afb.org.nz
MANAGEMENT TEAM: Chief Executive Officer Karin Kos Email: ceo@apinz.org.nz Communications Coordinator Hannah Amante Email: info@apinz.org.nz Accounts and Subscriptions Pauline Downie Email: memberships@apinz.org.nz PO Box 25207, Featherston Street,
AsureQuality Limited Phone: 0508 00 11 22 www.asurequality.com EXOTIC DISEASE AND PEST EMERGENCY HOTLINE 0800 80 99 66 www.biosecurity.govt.nz
Wellington 6146 Ph: 04 471 6254 APICULTURE NZ BOARD REPRESENTATIVES: Dennis Crowley
Pollinator Incident Reporting Form: http://www.epa.govt.nz/Publications/ Pollinator_incident_reporting_form_2014. docx
Barry Foster Stuart Fraser Sean Goodwin John Hartnell Ricki Leahy
Peter Luxton Russell Marsh Paul Martin Bruce Wills (Chair)
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IT’S CONFERENCE TIME! CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT Karin Kos, Apiculture New Zealand Chief Executive The start of winter heralds the season of industry conferences and field days, including ours this month. I see that this year’s Mystery Creek field day attracted 133,588 people, the biggest number in the history of the four-day event.
NZ honey export volumes down but record prices continue So how did our industry fare to June 2017? As you would expect, given the 2016 poor honey season, export volumes of honey are down 16 percent this year. However, average export prices have increased eight percent to reach $38.50 per kilogram. This is the eighth consecutive year of record prices, driven in part by the market success of New Zealand mānuka honey. Our challenge is continuing to grow our value over the long-term. How we tell our New Zealand honey story across all our wonderful honey varieties will be a key part of that success, as will having a robust definition for New Zealand mānuka honey. Looking ahead, MPI says it’s difficult to predict the size of the honey crop for 2017 because climatic conditions have varied considerably around New Zealand. However, lower production in 2017 may not necessarily have a direct impact on exports in 2017 and 2018. Stock held over from previous years can be used to maintain export volumes.
Traditionally our top three export markets are Australia, China and Hong Kong, which combined usually make up around 50 percent of New Zealand’s honey exports. However, in the first nine months of 2017, the volume of honey exported to these three destinations is 41 percent lower than for the same period in 2016. In contrast, export volumes to Japan and the UK for the first nine months of 2017 are around 40 percent greater than exports for the first nine months of 2016. The volume of honey exported to Japan has been growing strongly since 2015. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues.
This year’s ApiNZ conference in Rotorua is expected to attract well over 1000 attendees, and support a sizeable trade show. These numbers are reflective of the growth of our industry and support the positive outlook for the primary sector and the agribusiness sector, generally. The strong growth story is also reflected in the Ministry for Primary Industries’ latest Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries report (SOPI) to June 2017. This report comes out every quarter and is a useful insight into how we are going as an export industry. Link to SOPI (June 2017): http://www.mpi.govt.nz/ document-vault/18443 Bumper year forecast for primary sector The report forecasts a bumper year ahead for the primary sector, after some challenging past seasons of wet conditions, earthquakes, cyclones and volatile global commodity prices. MPI is forecasting that primary sector exports will grow to $41.6 billion in the year to June 2018—this is an increase of 9.1 percent and would be the highest level ever.
Some of the trade displays at Conference 2016. Photo: Barry Foster.
See you at conference I look forward to meeting those of you attending this year’s ApiNZ Conference in Rotorua (9 to 11 July). Make sure you come and meet me and the team at our industry-good stand, along with members of our ApiNZ Focus Groups who will also be available to talk you through the work they are doing, and answer any questions.
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LEPTOSPERIN: A CHEMICAL MARKER BEING USED TO AUTHENTICATE MANUKA HONEY RESEARCH Steve Howse, Executive Director, Analytica Laboratories
This article gives a brief overview of the background to the discovery of leptosperin and why it is useful for authenticating mānuka honey.
Overview Leptosperin is a naturally occurring chemical compound found in mānuka nectar, which makes its way into honey made from that nectar. It is sometimes referred to as a ‘chemical marker’ for mānuka honey, with higher amounts of leptosperin in a honey indicating that a higher amount of mānuka nectar has been used to make the honey. Testing is able to be carried out quickly and inexpensively by laboratories, along with the other tests normally carried out in mānuka honey. Leptosperin is not included in MPI’s proposed group of mānukamarkers. It is used by the Unique Manuka Factor™ Honey Association (UMFHA) as a part of the UMF™ grading system, and they require any honey labelled with a UMF™ grade to contain at least 100 mg/kg of leptosperin. Leptosperin was first discovered by the Japanese researcher Yoji Kato The first scientific work on mānuka honey was carried out by the late Professor Peter Molan of the University of Waikato. This research focused on mānuka honey’s function, particularly non-peroxide activity (NPA). Over time, it was found that the NPA in mānuka honey was closely linked to the naturally occurring chemical compound methylglyoxal (MG), and later that MG in mānuka honey was formed from another naturally occurring chemical, dihydroxyacetone (DHA), which came from mānuka nectar. Focus then turned to identifying other unique chemical compounds found in mānuka honey. In 2014, a Japanese research team led by Professor Yoji Kato announced (and patented) the discovery of leptosperin—a
Figure 1: Chemical structure of leptosperin.
with the DHA or MG concentration in honey. This means you can’t use a leptosperin test result as an alternative to these for working out the grade of the honey, but despite this, it can be used as an indicator of the amount of mānuka nectar in the honey. Figure 2 shows the average concentration of leptosperin found in the nectar of some of the more common plants used for honey production in New Zealand, arising from UMFHA research carried out in 2013/2014. You can see that while there is no evidence of leptosperin in species like kānuka, kāmahi, and rewarewa (among others), it is found in mānuka. Australian research has shown that leptosperin is also found in the nectar of some Leptospermum species which grow in Australia. In general, if honey is from New Zealand and if there is enough leptosperin in it, you can be confident that it is mānuka honey.
naturally occurring chemical compound found in mānuka honey but not in other types of New Zealand honey (Kato, Fujinaka, Ishisaka, Nitta, Kitamoto, & Takimoto, 2014). This was confirmed soon after by the UMFHA-driven Mānuka ID project, and has been agreed with since then by other international researchers. Leptosperin is a complex chemical compound (Figure 1) that has been shown to be found in mānuka nectar, and makes its way into mānuka honey via the nectar collected by bees. Leptosperin is not a reactive compound, and therefore its concentration remains fairly stable over time. An incubation experiment carried out by Analytica, where honey was stored at 20°C and 27°C over nearly three years, showed that leptosperin concentrations reduced by less than 5% per year. Leptosperin concentration in mānuka nectar does naturally vary between plants and regions, and is not always directly correlated
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Chloe (Laboratory Technician) loads prepared samples onto the Thermo Ultimate 3000 UHPLC for leptosperin analysis. Photo courtesy of Analytica Laboratories.
Average Leptosperin Levels in Different Floral Nectars
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MPI has not included leptosperin in its proposed GREX MPI has been carrying out a science programme over the past few years to come up with a way of defining mānuka honey for international markets. There are a number of resources related to this on the MPI website (www.mpi.govt.nz). MPI has included laboratory testing for five attributes in honey as part of their proposed General Requirements for Export (GREX), with four of these tests being for chemical markers. MPI has not selected leptosperin as one of these markers, and have explained their reasoning for doing so in the documents released in April 2017 that describe the proposed GREX. Reference Kato, Y., Fujinaka, R., Ishisaka, A., Nitta, Y., Kitamoto, N., & Takimoto, Y. (2014). Plausible authentication of mānuka honey and related products by measuring leptosperin with methyl syringate. Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 62 (27), 6400–6407.
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Pōhutukawa Rewarewa
Tawari
Blue Borage Honey Dew Kāmahi
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Figure 2: Concentrations of leptosperin in nectar from different species. The nectar data was generated from research carried out by UMFHA.
Testing honey for leptosperin The UMFHA has licensed the right to test for leptosperin from Professor Kato, and use the test to authenticate mānuka honey produced in New Zealand. UMFHA has given permission for the test to be set up at commercial laboratories in New Zealand and overseas, and the test is available for anyone to use. We see a wide range in the concentration of leptosperin in commercial honey samples. From all samples tested by Analytica Laboratories to date, the average concentration
is about 300 mg/kg, and the highest result was about 1800 mg/kg. Around 80% of samples fall in the range of 0–500 mg/kg. Beekeepers marketing honey to UMFHA members may find it worthwhile testing for leptosperin to improve its value. Some initial work also shows that leptosperin, in conjunction with another mānuka chemical marker, has potential for use for in- field or in-factory screening of samples using a portable device.
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FACTORS SHAPING BEES’ REWARD PREFERENCES BURNING QUESTIONS Paul Burgess
This photograph shows a foraging bee on white clover (Trifolium repens) with an extended proboscis and khaki-coloured pollen load. The photograph raises a series of questions: is this a dual-reward worker? Just how well informed are we as to the controls on pollen versus nectar foraging? I imagine that internal influences (within the hive) and external opportunities are governing factors, but what shapes reward preferences within certain bees? Is there periodic switching or lifetime specialisation? And how prevalent is the collection of both nectar and pollen on a single trip? How do the various stimuli determine the quantity of pollen that is stored? Witness those colonies where an abundance of pollen encroaches on an otherwise convincing brood area and where newly introduced foundation becomes clogged as it is being drawn. Reply from Frank Lindsay Thanks for your question, Paul. I don’t have a degree of any sort, but I do have a curiosity and fascination with bees. These days you can find most anything on the Internet. You may also need a good library or access to a library with good bee books, such as the Apiculture New Zealand library in Ashburton administered by Linda Bray. I had it in my mind (I have either read it or heard it at a lecture) that the amount of nutrition fed to the brood while they are developing will stimulate those bees when they emerge to be either pollen gatherers or nectar gatherers. In a paper on PLoS ONE (Siegel, Freedman & Page, 2012), it’s actually the size of the worker’s ovaries that determine this function, and this relates to nutrition. According to Siegel, Freedman & Page (2012): In honey bees, ovary size (measured by counting ovarioles, the egg producing filaments of the ovary) is determined during larval development. Honey bee foragers with larger ovaries (more ovarioles), a reproductively associated characteristic, are biased toward protein collection compared to those with smaller ovaries (fewer ovarioles).
Photo: Paul Burgess.
(Amdam et al. 2006; Amdam et al. 2007). We conclude that the response to selection on honey bee pollen-hoarding behavior could be brought about by modification of early developmental processes. Trophallaxis, the exchanging of food and pheromones between bees, provides information about the colony’s energy status and food needs to the field bees. Some of these pheromones are given off by the young brood. The greater the amount of open brood, the greater will be the stimulus to gather pollen. The pollen-foraging bee packs the pollen into pellets that are carried back to the hive on the bee’s corbicula (pollen basket) and she deposits these directly into the cells around the brood nest. Pollen gatherers will keep doing this for as long as pollen exists in the
Amply fed bees will be pollen gatherers, while those with reduced nutrition will become nectar gatherers. Again, it depends on the needs of the hive. And as Amdam, Page, Fondrk and Brent (2010) reported: We found significant differences in JH [juvenile hormone] and ecdysteroids levels between high and low pollen hoarding strain bees during larval, pupal, and early adult life-stages. Our data strongly suggest that artificial selection on honey bee food-storage behavior acted on the genetic basis of JH expression to influence the larval retention process of ovarioles and the adults’ovary size. Ovary size may in turn dictate adult ecdysteroidogenesis. Correlations between worker ovary size, adult hormone sensitivity, and foraging biases are already established
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WOOLLY THINKER’S BRAIN TURNS INTO A HIVE OF ACTIVITY MEMBER PROFILE Dr Jenny Nelson
flowers within flight range. Some flower stamens open just once a day in the morning but others, like pear trees, have stamens that continue to open during the day. Nectar-foraging bees also get covered in pollen from some plants. Like pollen foragers, they will pack it into their pollen baskets and bring it back to the hive, but their loads tend to be much smaller in size as the bee is limited in just how much weight it can carry, being mostly nectar. You can see the difference in the type of foragers on the flowers also. Pollen foragers tend to dance across the flowers’ anthers, gathering pollen on their body hair, but will also take a little nectar as fuel for the journey back to the hive. At the hive entrance, watch the bees entering the hive. Pollen foragers’ abdomens won’t be as distended as those of nectar-foraging bees. Linda Newstrom-Lloyd of the Trees for Bees team has written several articles for the journal on trees that produce good-quality pollen; those with 25% protein are best. We know we can add pheromone strips to hives to get bees to collect more pollen, which stimulates greater brood production. These strips mimic the brood pheromone. The dynamics of the brood nest are very interesting. So what sort of bee is produced from pollen supplement? It’s food for thought as well, as we know that we can’t raise bumble bees on this alone. It shows the importance of having natural pollen available to the bees. Now what causes bees to become water carriers and undertaker bees? Start digging. References Amdam, G. V., Page, R. E., Fondrk, K., & Brent, C. S. (2010, Sep–Oct). Hormone response to bidirectional selection on social behavior. Evolution & Development, 12 (5):428–436. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-142X.2010.00429.x. Siegel, A. J., Freedman C., & Page, R. E. Jr. (2012). Ovarian control of nectar collection in the honey bee (Apis mellifera). PLoS ONE 7 (4): e33465. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033465 Further reading Winston, M. L. (1987). The biology of the honey bee . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
It never crossed my mind that bees would become part of my future.
Yes, as a child I would have to sit and prick frames of combs before extraction. I had a very eccentric uncle who had a small farm on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. I would spend whole summers with him learning about self- sufficiency. He would make me take a crochet hook and pull out pollen-filled cells from the frames of his beehives. This pollen was stashed away in jars for ‘medicinal’ use. My uncle was one of the first vets to use homeopathy and acupuncture in both large and companion animals, and he refused to use antibiotics as he foresaw antibiotic resistance occurring long before it ever did. However, the honey was a side product that did not interest me much. The bees were not very interactive—not like the goats or sheep! Now they really fascinated me. As I grew older I wanted to be either a riding instructor, or a sheep shearer. (I also wanted to play rugby for Scotland, but in the mid 1970s that was never going to eventuate.) Unfortunately these options did not come up in the school career test. These tests told me that I was best suited to being a scientist. Both my parents were scientists, and that did not appeal to me at all! I did not want to be a scientist, and I pretty much rebelled. I learned to shear sheep at the age of 15. Women shearing sheep was pretty much unheard of then, and I went shepherding. However, there was a thirst for knowledge that pushed me to go to university. Here the sheep shearing came in handy, as it was a skill that pretty much paid for my tuition. Not content with just having book knowledge though, I also put myself through agricultural college in the North of England. There I learnt old traditions like crook making and dry stone walling, as well as modern shepherding techniques.
The college also did beekeeping courses— did I do one? Nope. Not interested in bees— just sheep, dogs and horses. One weekend, there was a National Beekeepers Conference held there. I remember a friend and I laughing because when we walked into the college dining room, the beekeepers’ talking sounded like the hum and drone of bees. The years went by and I worked my way through the ranks, and continued to gain university accreditation—I was literally dying by degrees! I worked with some of the world’s top veterinary scientists all around the world and honed my specialities. I had a rare mix of book and practical knowledge, so was able to gain respect from farmers at the grassroots and also from academia. As a scientist, I worked on several major projects including transgenic sheep. In 1995, I finally landed my dream job as
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Ella Nelson (aged 8) with her observation hive. Photos by Dr Jenny Nelson.
Sheep Scientist for the Meat and Livestock Commission. The MLC, as it was known, was recognised as being at the forefront of research in agriculture in the United Kingdom. I had a large budget at my disposal and commissioned research in all sorts of fields— many of which are just being picked up in New Zealand now. In 2001, a Foot-and-Mouth disease outbreak occurred, and the devastation of its aftermath to the countryside was immense. I was stuck in an office, and basically my job was put on hold. Farmers who were my friends lost their entire livelihoods. I asked for, and was granted sabbatical leave so I could “pop down to New Zealand, and have a look at what they are up to”. I duly popped down to New Zealand, met a man, got married and never went back. The man and I met in Southland, but returned to the King Country where he hailed from. We farmed in the King Country for a couple of years, managing one of his family’s farms. We had hives on the farm. Did that spark an interest in bees? Nope. But my husband and his parents were interested in bees, and producing honey. With large-scale farming, the use of bees as pollinators to help clover production appealed to them. The three of them went on a beekeeping course, and started to dabble with a few hives. Was I interested or tempted to join them? Nope! Still no interest there. The beehive numbers grew. I would avoid their conversations and excited chats about apiary matters. I tried to stay out of it, and to leave them to their growing sideline. Yet, of course, I got sucked in.
with some hives in the garden. I got myself a really good hive tool and smoker. I made an observation hive so, of course, the kids got interested. They got suits and hive tools. We would go out as a family and look in the beehives. The kids got jars of drones to play with. I started to dabble more and more. We reared a few queens. I read more, I learnt more. I went to the annual conference, and got a bit more excited. I would look forward to The New Zealand Beekeeper journal coming through the mailbox. It became more and more of an addiction. I read more and more, just wanting to absorb everything I could. My scientific brain that had lain dormant for a while started to kick in again and I actually regretted not having looked into this before. All the signs and hints from the cosmos had been there for me; I just hadn’t picked up on it earlier. I saw an ad in the Beekeeper journal for someone to help with proofreading. My addict brain jumped at this chance, as it meant I could read the content a fortnight earlier. What a nerd! The science of beekeeping is immense. Just perfect for a woolly thinker like myself! [Editor’s note: the Publications Committee is very pleased that Jenny jumped at the opportunity to assist with the proofreading starting in September 2015. Thanks for your ongoing contribution and for sharing your story: bees are such little seductresses!
It started with my husband asking me how to melt wax. I never gave it a second thought but told him to get a tin can, put the wax in the bottom and put the bottom of the tin in a pan of hot water till it melted. I thought he was going to make a candle. Off he went. Then he came back about 15 minutes later.
“It’s not enough,” he said.
“Not enough for what?” I asked.
He replied,“Do you have an electric frying pan? That would be big enough”. (I think I swore audibly at that stage, as he had interrupted my Monday night television extravaganza of “Criminal Minds”/”CSI” double bill.) I went out to the garage. There were blobs of wax over the top of the dog meat freezer. I was not impressed. He had a small paintbrush and a plastic frame. “There must be a quicker way,” he said. The next day I became the official frame waxer. I devised an uber-fast way with a wee production line that involved melting and rolling, turning the frames over, rolling and melting. I progressed up in status to assembling bee boxes. Gradually, I started to get slightly interested in bees. At first, it was basic stuff. Just stuff, so I could keep up with their conversations. Of course, like any good addict, I could have given up at any time at that stage. I read a few books and learnt the basics, the do’s and don’ts. Then I found myself enrolling on a beekeepers’course, which I thoroughly enjoyed to my surprise. I got myself a suit and I started to dip into the practical side. I would find myself playing
Do you have a tale to tell about your entry into the bee industry? If so, e-mail editor@apinz.org.nz ]
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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JULY 2017
WE DON’T KNOW HOW LUCKY WE ARE OUT AND ABOUT Jody Mitchell, Kaimai Range Honey
Having the right weather is a big thing in beekeeping. Although we think this season has been a challenging one for us in New Zealand, the past five years have been relatively straightforward.
Many new beekeepers have entered the industry over this time, have bought reasonably good hives and have been getting high-value honey, often in spite of anything they have done themselves, as any honey has been easy to sell until now. beekeepers. Statements like, “it’s the easiest money I ever made” have been heard, often over beers from a new beekeeper who has another income stream. Every man and his dog have rushed to the industry in the hope of gold and glory. With an attitude where making money is the prime motivation and bee welfare is way down the list, many forget that if their hives aren’t in good condition, neither will their bank balance be. Things might seem easy until trouble strikes—cold, wet springs, poor matings, varroa, lack of good pollen and nectar sources, farming practices not conducive to beekeeping, difficulties finding good sites, compliance costs, rain and more rain. Welcome to the world of the Great British Beekeeper for the last decade. A little over a century ago, in 1900, there were a million beehives in the United Kingdom. But now, a drastic decline of 73% has numbers at just 270,000 hives, with UK beekeepers only producing about 14% of the honey their domestic market consumes, compared with a European average of around 60% production for domestic consumption. Apprenticeship schemes have been started in recent years to encourage young people to become beekeepers. The average age of a UK bee farmer is now 66 years old, with fewer than 100 of the 638 commercial bee farmers working bees full time in the industry. Their commercial beehive numbers are declining fast, putting their industry and its bees under threat, with 70 different crops dependent on bees and bumblebees for pollination. There are many reasons for this decline, but the The danger here is that many with little experience believe they are awesome
Ralph Mitchell, Robin Ratcliffe and Murray McGregor.
an actual apiary site, we didn’t see honey bees flying around. So, I will give a rundown of a few highlights from our trip regarding bees. England First, I got to judge a honey competition at the Royal Three Counties Show, which is one of the largest remaining agricultural shows left in England, and met a lot of beekeepers. We also got to catch up with the lovely Phoebe Lamb, who first came to us on the UK bee apprentice scheme in 2015 and again in spring/summer 2016–17. Isle of Man (IOM) We were invited to stay with long-time friend Robin Ratcliffe out on the gorgeous Isle of Man. The IOM has only 80,000 permanent residents and over 80 registered beekeepers, with about 800 hives. It is one of the few
changing weather, including diseases and the Varroa destructor parasite, alongside increased land use and chemicals used in farming, have decimated the population of British honey bees, and wild honey bees have almost disappeared. Weather and farming practices have had a big impact over the last decade especially—it has been colder and wetter than the previous decade. One of the problems we heard about that is farmers are now producing silage instead of hay. They cut the grass several times a year, before any flowers get a chance to open in the fields, so there is nothing for the bees. In the past, a good variety of flowers grew in the pastures and the bees would get to utilise them, then at the end of the season the farmers would cut it once to make hay. In June/July 2016 we were based in Cornwall, and also got to check out hives in Norway, England, Isle of Man and Scotland. Regardless of where we went, unless you were close to
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Steve Hoyne Tauranga 021 020 38366
Graham Waugh Tauranga 021 190 6358
Andrew Farrell Waikato 021 909 702
Jared Keenan South Auckland & Franklin 021 2420145
Peter Jefferies Eastern & CBD Auckland 021 314 590
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Tom Delany North Shore 021 483 056
Shane Ward Northland & Rodney 027 486 1288
*Truck may vary from that pictured.
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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JULY 2017
places around the world where honey bees are not infected by the Varroa destructor mite nor either of the foulbroods, American (AFB) and European (EFB). IOM beekeepers are now on a quest to improve the Manx Dark Honey Bee genetics and to gradually eliminate the influence of foreign strains by careful selective breeding. The original Manx Honey Bee is regarded as resilient and supposedly easy to handle, but they still have some aggressive throwback traits, as we found while checking out some rather aggressive apiaries. In 1988, four years before varroa was detected in the UK, the IOM government banned the importation of bees, and later stopped any previously used beekeeping equipment being brought in. commercial beekeepers in Scotland make a full-time living from selling honey. Currently the Scottish Beekeepers Association has 1400 hobby members, with around another 1000 hobbyists who are not members. Thanks again to Robin Ratcliffe, we had the opportunity to spend several days with him and the UK’s largest commercial bee farmer, Murray McGregor of Denrosa Apiaries in Perthshire, Scotland. With 2500 hives, Denrosa specialises in heather honey production throughout the Highlands and exclusively has hives on the Queen’s Balmoral Estate. The Queen was in residence with security everywhere, so we were a bit limited as to where on the estate we could go, but Murray and Robin took us all over the Highlands, checking out hives that had just been put onto apiary sites after coming back up from England. The guys use ex-army Unimogs for moving hives up into the heather moors—one had bullet holes in the roof. We also got to hang out with Denrosa’s queen rearer Jolanta Modliszewska, who showed us her queen breeding and nucleus production setup. When we arrived in Scotland the bell heather (Erica cinerea) was flowering in bright crimson pink patches, and the ling heather (Calluna vulgaris) was just starting to colour up. As we travelled from site to site, you could see the countryside changing colour from green to a soft pinky-mauve colour that brightened by the day, although we were probably a week or so too early to see it in full glory. The potential was there for a really good heather flow, if only the Highlands weather would be kind. Scotland It is estimated only a dozen of the 30
Tamara Mitchell at Denrosa Apiaries.
Above: Checking hives in the Cairngorms National Park, Scottish Highlands (polystyrene hives).
Below: 1980s ex-army Unimog.
continued...
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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JULY 2017
Above: Bees on Highlands heather. At left: Ralph Mitchell and Murray McGregor. Photos: Jody Mitchell.
APINZ BOARD ELECTION RESULTS The results of the election of the Market sector Board members have been announced and they are Sean Goodwin of 100% Pure New Zealand Honey and Tony Wright of Comvita. BruceWills, Chair of ApiNZ, welcomed Sean back to the Board upon his re-election and congratulated Tony on his appointment. Bruce also thanked Stuart Fraser for his outstanding contribution to ApiNZ, particularly in the areas of education where he has forged productive relationships with the education sector, and made significant inroads into the apprenticeship scheme with the Education and Skills for Jobs Focus Group. Bruce also congratulated Russell Marsh, who was elected unopposed to the Board for the Commercial sector. The ApiNZ Board will have its first meeting with the new Board members on Monday, 21 August.
The Publications Committee welcomes photos for the journal. Pop a camera in the truck and snap away when you find something interesting. The safest way to supply a digital file is in a high-quality jpeg format. If you’re thinking big (such as a potential front cover photo), these need to be as large as possible (300 dots per square inch (dpi) at the size they are to be used, in portrait format (vertical rather than horizontal). Regular digital photos are only 72 dpi, so are not suitable for the front cover. Please provide a caption and the name of the photographer so we can credit them. WE WANT YOUR PHOTOS!
It was heartbreaking to see the pressure these beekeepers are under, after season upon season of poor to disastrous crops over the last decade. They had the worst season in 80 years, then while hoping for the next season to be better, were hit with the worst season in 100 years (Scotland lost a third of their managed hives in the winter of 2012–13). The 2016 yield of honey ended up only 60% due to a “virtual total failure” in the middle of the year, and including the later heather crop, beekeepers in the UK produced only 26 lbs (11.8 kilos) of honey—an increase of 5 lbs (2.7 kilos) over last year’s crop. And now, Asian Hornet queens have been discovered in the Channel Islands, central UK and Scotland, posing a serious threat to the honey bee population, so everyone is on the lookout. So far only hibernating queens have been found, so hopes are they may not establish due to the colder climate. We hope they are right, and our thoughts are with them.
Email photos and captions to editor@apinz.org.nz
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AFB CONTROL: TIME TO THINK AHEAD PEST AND DISEASE CONTROL Frank Lindsay, Life Member Over the next two years, MPI will be updating and revamping the AFB regulations. This will entail tidying up a few loose ends such as adding to the database so tracing is improved (why have two databases?), allowing for better surveillance and tracing, and changing the financial charges to account for large apiaries.
Diagram of a cobalt-60 sterilisation plant. Photo: Frank Lindsay. Source: http://barc.gov.in/bsg/ftd/faq2.html
It was acceptable to burn woodware and wax but now the majority of our hives have plastic frames to some extent, as this has made the extraction of mānuka honey so much easier. But under the Clean Air Act, we shouldn’t be burning plastic. Regional councils are becoming more concerned with this activity as they are getting complaints from the public. Warming of our climate could exacerbate storage issues of disease equipment by having longer periods of fire bans where we can’t burn anything. Is cobalt-60 sterilisation the answer? Perhaps we should look at encouraging the establishment of a large cobalt-60 gamma sterilisation plant in New Zealand. We already have two very old, small units in the Hutt Valley, but is too small to handle bee boxes and have a 10-week waiting period.
Australia has three modern plants which beekeepers use to sterilise their hives. Diseased hives are packed two supers high (the weight limit is 25kg because they have to be manually handled), double shrink-wrapped and strapped and put through the plant on racks. This process sterilises everything: nosema spores, chalkbrood spores and AFB spores as it passes through the plant, so that the equipment can be reused. Bees bounce back in equipment that has been sterilised; it’s just like putting bees in new equipment. Cobalt-60 sterilisation costs about $A350 for a pallet or about $A10 a box, including frames. Not bad when full replacement costs are about NZ$45, but you can’t have honey in the frames. Even though no heat is involved, honey expands and will start to run everywhere, so we’ll also have to change our regulations to allow honey to be extracted from the supers of infected hives.
New Zealand has an aim to eradicate AFB from managed colonies by 2030 but the growth in the industry and today’s beekeeping practices have made it more difficult to achieve this aim. Whereas years ago AFB was a rarity, today you hear comments that beekeepers now seeing more AFB. In 1996 it was estimated that AFB losses were $2.9 million, according to the AFB website. Hive numbers have doubled since then; yet we have just about the same percentage level of infected colonies, which tells me that the actual number of hives being burnt has also doubled. At the same time, the price of a hive has gone from $250 for a four-high colony to $600–1000 for a single box. The price paid to beekeepers for mānuka honey has tripled since this time, so this disease is now a major threat to the industry’s profitability. Somebody with more time on their hands than me can work out the maths but it’s now probably triple the old figure.
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The question of whether beekeepers set up a small separate hobby unit especially for this purpose, or just do these AFB honey boxes at the completion of the year’s extracting, would have to be worked through with each beekeeper. Disposal of the honey is the next thing. It could be sold to the baking industry as is done in Australia, dumped down the drain (after suitable dilution with water so it doesn’t clog the pipes), or it could be sterilised as well and used in the medical industry. These options are up to the industry to sort out, but it could eliminate a huge amount of waste and losses to the beekeeping industry. A number of beekeepers in Australia also sterilise dead-outs as well as infected boxes. The sterilisation plant can be used by numerous other industries (e.g., wound dressing and other medical industries), so I believe the plant would be financially viable. Australia has sited these plants in the industrial areas of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, so are very safe. The cobalt-60 rods are kept in water when not in use. Let’s get a representative from Steritech Australia over here to talk to industry leaders, MPI and the Government in order to sort this out so it can be incorporated into the new regulations. AFB has cost me a fortune over the last six years. I can recover boxes by paraffin dipping, but I’m not a happy camper. We’ve got to up our game as far as AFB is concerned—use every tool in the box. When a test indicates high spore levels on bees, instead of waiting 18 months for it to break out and then burn it, why not take proactive action, dispose of the bees and get all the gear sterilised? The hives could be back in production again within a couple of months with a fraction of the cost.
LAND USE AGREEMENTS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE Apiculture New Zealand has developed two Land Use Agreements that will be available to members at a significantly discounted price.
The two land use contracts now available for purchase from the ApiNZ website are: • Apiary Land Use Agreement – Land Owner/Beekeeper Profit Share: For those beekeepers offering a crop share arrangement. • Apiary Land Use Agreement – Site Rental: For those beekeepers paying a set apiary site rental or per hive rate to the land owner.
The agreements will be $195 +GST for ApiNZ members and $455 +GST for non-members.
These can be found on the ApiNZ website here: http://apinz.org.nz/land-use-agreement/
The agreements will be personalised to the purchaser, so on application you will need to answer some questions which will be added to your document. Once payment is received this document will be sent to you via e-mail. If you have any questions, please contact the ApiNZ Management Team on 04 471 6254 (Monday to Friday 8.30–5.30) or e-mail info@apinz.org.nz.
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AGRI-WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT TRUST WINS NATIONAL GOVERNANCE AWARD BUSINESS/IN THE NEWS Media release from the Agri-Women’s Development Trust, 22 May 2017
Work by a charitable trust to develop the governance, leadership and business skills of women in primary industries has been recognised with a national award.
programme, Escalator, have now progressed to governance roles that they did not have before, including many as chair. They include three of Māori corporation Paraninihi ki Waitotara’s seven elected directors and three Environment Canterbury’s ten Zone Committee chairs, as well as a fourth Zone Committee member. The two elected women board members of New Zealand’s two largest meat companies are Escalator Alumni. Three of the Dairy Women’s Network’s eight board members are AWDT Alumni. Eight Escalator Alumni were elected to nine local body governance roles in 2016. Since it was established in 2010, AWDT has provided eight different programmes across primary industries with participants coming from arable, dairy, deer, goats, honey, horticulture, and sheep and beef. Ms O’Shea said the support provided by industry organisations for the trust’s work has enabled an inclusive approach to women’s development, making programmes available to women at highly-subsidised or no cost. They included ANZ, Agmardt, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, Dairy NZ, FMG, the Red Meat Profit Partnership and Cashmanager RURAL. Women on Boards Chief Executive, Linda Noble, said the increase in the number of entries received on last year’s awards confirmed that many organisations and individuals in New Zealand are consciously working hard to ensure that the issue of gender diversity is addressed. “The 2017 Women in Governance Awards provided the perfect opportunity to acknowledge those organisations and to celebrate our women gender diversity champions.”
The Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) won the Outstanding Pathway to Governance Leadership category at the 2017 Women in Governance Awards held in Auckland on Thursday, 18 May. AWDT chair Charmaine O’Shea (left) accepts a 2017 Women in Governance Award from Netball New Zealand chief executive Jennie Wyllie at the awards ceremony in Auckland on 18 May 2017.
An initiative of Women on Boards NZ, a business unit of Governance New Zealand, the awards recognise and celebrate innovation, excellence, creativity and commitment to diversity by organisations and individuals. The award received by AWDT recognised the organisation that has provided a pathway that aids progression of women to governance leadership roles. The judges’ comments described the trust as “strongly aligning its focus on leadership and governance with key programme offerings at many levels. It has positively benefitted New Zealand in their sector by developing the skills and confidence of 1,800 women who are now making an impact at all levels—from grass roots to the boardroom”. “This award is an acknowledgement not only of the trust but of the women who have completed our programmes, stepped up and are showing the leadership needed to transform primary industries,” said AWDT chair Charmaine O’Shea. “AWDT is changing how women view their contributions and how the sector views their potential. It has also changed women’s aspirations for themselves and their farming businesses, communities and industries. “When women gain the right skills, support and confidence and discover where they can add value, they find purpose and meaning and contribute more strongly.” AWDT graduates are contributing across multiple spheres including industry organisations, farming businesses, Māori agribusiness, environmental and community.
About half of the 84 alumni of AWDT’s 10-month governance and leadership
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