New Zealand Beekeeper May 2017

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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, MAY 2017

REGIONAL REPORTS

WAIKATO FIELD DAY A GREAT SUCCESS

Pauline Bassett, Waikato Hub Secretary and Life Member

It seemed appropriate that the field day hosted by the Waikato Hub on 8 April 2017 just happened to mark the first birthday of Apiculture New Zealand. It was a very successful day, held in the Elim Church hall at the wharf in Thames and attended by approximately 230 people.

This was our first field day since the formation of the Hub and was a response to one of the requests (“more field days please”) from the Waikato members’ survey. Our focus was to recognise the new entrant beekeepers, both hobbyist and commercial. Hub President Kim Poynter (the MC on the day) very capably kept the audience and speakers on track, a big ask given the number of trades exhibits to be explored. The programme began with John Hartnell talking about maximising the value of honey, what we can get wrong and why. John was followed by a short address from Karin Kos, the Chief Executive of ApiNZ. Dr Mark Goodwin then presented on what we need to know about toxic honey. Mark spoke about toxic plants, particularly tutu and the associated passion vine hopper that produces the toxic honey dew that can be collected by bees. His props were a 300-kilogram drum, a 500- gram jar of honey and a teaspoon. Adjacent to the stage was a display of freshly harvested tutu, pamphlets and a photo board, set up by the organisers. New beekeepers at this field day should be in no doubt of the seriousness of tutin in their honey, and old hands would have received a timely reminder. After morning tea, Dr John McLean spoke twice; first about the impact of nutrition on worker bee roles in spring and winter—the“nine-week wonder”. Then before lunch, John enlightened us on the challenges that the giant willow aphid brings when beekeeping near willows. Between John’s two addresses was a talk by Fiona and Jeremy O’Brien (Fiona, our very capable Hub Treasurer, showing another side to her talents) on a year in the hive and how to manage hive hygiene. The combined knowledge of Jeremy’s 37 or so years as a commercial beekeeper plus Fiona’s experience in that business and managing her own hobby hives showed, as they were able to address issues faced by both commercial beekeepers and hobbyists. A lengthy lunch break was needed to do justice to the lovely home- cooked food supplied by the Elim church folk. There were lengthy queues for food and refill cuppas (apparently we went through 18 litres of milk on the day!). The other reason for the long lunch was the many tradespeople to meet, ask questions of, and make purchases from. Apart from Neil Farrer (Southern North Island), all the invited trades exhibitors were from within the region of Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Auckland. As it was, the exhibits area seemed to be overflowing but everyone was happy. The trades folk were also extraordinarily generous with their donations to the raffles and the attendees responded by buying lots of tickets, a good boost for Hub funds. There were nine draws in all and some happy punters as a result.

Graeme Harrison and Jeremy O’Brien demonstrating the alcohol wash test for mites. Photo: John Bassett.

Raffles donated by exhibitors (with church noticeboard as backdrop). Photo: Rachel Scrimgeour, AgriSea.

Kim managed to herd the crowd back (“worse than cats”, someone said) by 1.30 for the afternoon speakers. First up was Kim Kneijber on the practical aspects of managing AFB. Kim illustrated her talk with the various beekeeper tools of the trade, again talking about hygiene as a worthwhile part of beekeeping practice. Dennis Crowley then spoke about the challenges and risks in pollination, in his case kiwifruit and avocados. It seems there will still be opportunities for new beekeepers to take on pollination contracts while the kiwifruit and avocado industries continue to grow.

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