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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, FEBRUARY 2017
incursion. For the South Island varroa incursion, an 18-page document was produced for beekeepers to trace hive movements. A similar document may be produced for an exotic incursion like small hive beetle. The longer it takes to retrieve your records, the longer your hives may be at a standstill. If you see anything unusual in your hives you cannot identify, call the Exotic Disease Hot Line: 0800 80 99 66. Personal security and safety Think of your own security also. We often travel alone. One of the nice things modern cellphones do is to track where you have been. If you have an iPhone, your significant other can see where you are by using your ID to track your phone’s location. FarmSafe used to promote a notepad with a message on it. You left it at the farmgate with your intentions and expected time of departure and recovered it when you left the site. This is to be replaced with an app that allows you to notify the farmers before you get there and when you leave, but I haven’t seen it and don’t want to pay $10 a month for a farm package I’ll hardly use. If you don’t have this technology, put a GPS tracker in the vehicle. It doesn’t work if you are out of cellphone range, but you can buy boosters to put in the truck to boost the cellphone reception. Just make sure that any device purchased overseas works on all four frequencies so they will work on our 4G network. Does your health and safety package include a magnetic sign you put on your vehicle to notify the public that you have dangerous goods on board? In Australia, you can purchase magnetic signs that say ‘live bees in transit’. Finally, please net your loads. Clearing bees from your honey supers as you go back to the plant can attract a $600 fine for insecure loading. Think about the cyclist you just passed and what happened to those angry bees you leave behind. End of sermon. Things to do this month Check for AFB before removing any honey. Extract honey and if you are in a built-up area, place the wet supers back on the hives after dark for the bees to clean out or refill. Remove comb honey as soon as it’s capped to prevent travel stain: bees have dirty feet. Rear autumn queens, introduce purchased queens and produce replacement nuclei. Put on entrance closures to make the hive easier to defend. Don’t allow robbing to start when the flow finishes by leaving honey exposed for too long. Treat for varroa with an alternative to your spring treatment. Treat to knock numbers down if you are going to do a full treatment later. Keep an eye out for wasps. I haven’t seen many yet but they are out there. Nests are found in ditches and in banks within 500 metres. Kill them with a little insecticide powder down the entrance before they start producing new queens. It’s also a good idea to put out mice baits in a plastic bottle so birds can’t get at them. Rats and mice can do a lot of damage in a hive, so keep their numbers around the apiaries low. Collect batch samples for tutin testing.
BEEHIVES FOR SALE 1500 situated in Waikato & BOP
2 Storey, Full depth available singly or entire lot
Please email zerbywerby@gmail.com Ph: 027 372 0842
Quality Italian Queens Nucleus Hives Single Box Hives
info@blueskybeekeeping.com 027 248 9410
CARRICELL INCUBATORS & CABINET INCUBATION EQUIPMENT Cells, Queens & Nucs are no longer available
John & Judy Dobson 67 Poporangi Rd RD1 Hastings 4171 New Zealand
Ph: (06) 870 7070 • Fax: (06) 870 7077 • Mobile: 0274 494 396 Email: beeline@xtra.co.nz • web address: www.carricell.com
POLYSTYRENE MATING NUCS Easy to use • Cost effective • Proven results 1-100 $14.00 plus GST 100+ $13.00 plus GST Phone Steve, Apiflora NZ Ltd 07 543 0984 027 4923 937 ITALIAN QUEEN BEES Southern Sun Queen Bees Email: gary@southernsun.co.nz Telephone: 027 2489419
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