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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JUNE 2017
NELSON/UPPER SOUTH ISLAND
CANTERBURY
Mid-Canterbury: Autumn has been very mild, with atmospheric dew at night and sunny days, resulting in the bees being very active and continuing to bring in lots of pollen. Colonies look healthy and are wintered down well. South Canterbury Field Day: (see page 37 for report). This was an excellent day. It has been over 15 years since there was a field day in Canterbury, and decades since a field day in South Canterbury. Our Hub probably covers the biggest hub geographical area in New Zealand, and whilst we knew we would get a bigger attendance nearer Christchurch, the Hub Executive thought it would be good to travel to one of our peripheries. On the day feedback from those local, and those who commuted from Christchurch, West Coast, Otago, and Southland was excellent, along with positive electronic feedback the next day.
Given the recent cooler evenings and weather, winter must not be that far away. Most beekeepers appear to have wintered down hives with autumn mite treatments in place. While most hives have gathered some stores for the winter, others will need to be watched to make sure they don’t run out over the later part of winter. The Nelson Beekeepers Club had their annual honey competition. Over 40 different jars of the sweet stuff were tasted in two groups: Town/Urban or Country/Rural. The inaugural photo competition was run on the same night. There were four categories, including Apiary–Working with bees and Scenic. A wide range of photos were submitted, with the Close-up section the most closely fought category in the competition, whereas the Bloopers provided the most laughs and humour. The combination of both these two competitions made for a fun and very social night at the club. This was possibly helped by some members bringing mead along to taste. Thanks to all those who participated in either or both competitions. The local ApiNZ Hub had a small social gathering in April. There was some good discussion on all things beekeeping, including the recent mānuka standard. It will be useful to hear more about this standard at the upcoming regional meetings. It was great to talk and catch up with fellow beekeepers in a relaxed atmosphere. Thanks to Murray and Nicky for organising the gathering. I look forward to the next one.
Next Hub Meeting Tuesday 27 June, Federated Farmers Building, Unit 8, 35 Sir William Pickering Drive, Christchurch at 7.30 pm. Usual agenda.
- Maggie James, Hub Secretary
- Jason Smith
WEST COAST
And there lies the end to a rather short, and what many will be referring to as a somewhat unsatisfactory honey season. To have predominantly finished the bulk of our beekeeping chores by the end of April feels most unusual. Generally we would still be doing winter shifting, and even removing honey from inland sites; however, the short season has made for noticeably less work. Autumn temperatures are just starting to bite at the toes with our first glimpse of frost at the beginning of May, although thankfully not yet to the degree of crunchy puddles. As the brood nests are condensing with the drop in temperatures, we are having to jiggle strips over a little to ensure they remain in good contact with the bees. The bulk of our work is now addressing the accumulation of maintenance and clean-up tasks that tend to stack up during the madness of spring and summer. Once everything’s ticked off, it will be just about time to sit back and enjoy the delights of winter.
SOUTH CANTERBURY
South Canterbury has experienced a lot of rain for March/April (150–200 millimetres; i.e., 6–8 inches). Some reasonable crops have been collected despite the wet. The exceptional flowering of Viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare) translated into some good crops in the Mackenzie Country, but clover was not producing so well, if at all. Many vegetable seed crops were badly damaged, if not lost altogether in South and Mid-Canterbury, because of the wet conditions. Earlier radish and cabbage crops produced some honey and were harvested before the main deluge of rain arrived. The hives still have plenty of bees, some brood and drones, and are showing signs of robbing when opened up on sunny days. It has been wet but not all that cold, with frosty mornings in early May. We have had some nice, sunny autumn days amongst it all. Hives are quite heavy going into winter and bees are still collecting pollen (for example, ivy).
- Carla Glass
Photo: Jo Telfar.
- Noel Trezise
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