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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, MARCH 2017
hives, especially when money is short in the spring. I think we can add controlling varroa as an equally important consideration nowadays. Cut spending on everything else but maintain your stocks. Empty boxes don’t produce much honey. Formulate a plan and set yourself a budget. Depending upon your debt level, your bank manager may fund you for another season, but it is going to take a few years to get your head above water and the bank manager off your back. Start talking to your neighbouring beekeepers and coordinate mite treatments so they are effective. If there are hobbyists in the area, talk to them also. It only takes one hive breaking down with varroa to create a ‘mite bomb’ that will take down your apiary in winter. Go to field days and get a discussion going on beekeeping through a drought. Combining hives can reduce your feeding bill. These strong hives will winter well and should be able to be split in the spring to get your numbers back to normal. Order queen cells early and hope that we have have a warm, fine spring so the queens mate. Remember, you also must have drones and these are only produced when colonies are well nourished, so plan to start spring feeding of drone colonies early. Some will be working off-farm winter jobs to supplement their income so they can feed their bees. Some will have put away money from the previous years to carry them through. Reduce the number of hives in the apiary. I remember talking to Life Member Terry Gavin about his early experience of beekeeping in the Far North. Droughts were not uncommon. When Terry first started, he had apiaries of 200 hives but by the end of the season, half were dead. He reduced the number by half and still, half were dead at the end of the season. Over time, he found when he got to apiaries with only 20 hives, all produced honey, the bees were more pleasant to work as they weren’t robbing all the time and beekeeping became easier. When budgets are stretched, beekeepers have to look to alternative sources for finance. Diversifying your income sources When budgets are stretched, beekeepers have to look to alternative sources for finance. Most just rely on honey for their income (which, if it’s mānuka, has proved to be very beneficial over the last 10 years) but times are changing. Some people are getting more aggressive, forcing other beekeepers from their traditional sites. Pollination offers guaranteed income and provides an early cash flow, provided you can get your hives up to the size standard required and pass the audit. It’s better that the beekeepers have some sort of hive lifting equipment, which is required if only one person is involved. When you start paying for labour, most of their time is spent sitting in a truck so isn’t cost effective. Most pollination work is carried out at night, so everything must be planned carefully and all safety hazards must be taken into account; e.g., low wires and support posts that seem to jump out at you when you are backing. The apple, kiwifruit and avocado industries are expanding. Each has different requirements, so the amount of time that hives are in pollination will vary. Some hives will need feeding to support brood rearing; others don’t require much attention. Seed crops are increasingly being grown, all needing pollination.
Don’t expect a honey crop. Screens affect the bees’ ability to navigate. Farmers and horticulturists sometimes apply sprays to protect their crop. Fungicides can affect the anthers of flowers, and the surfactants added to make the product stick to the plant are lethal to bees in most circumstances. All of these factors must be borne in mind when negotiating a price. Everything must be by contract with all the responsibilities of each party laid out. Contracts are available on the ApiNZ website. Work out your own costs: hives may have to be fed earlier, and include travel costs and keep within the rules on driving hours. Don’t try and undercut another beekeeper—that’s a quick way to ruin. Ask other beekeepers or the horticulturalist for guidance. During the day, look at the distribution of bees on the target crop. For some crops, it’s two bees per square metre. If there are fewer than two bees per square metre, more hives may be required. Pollen trapping is another option open to beekeepers. In areas where bees collect excess pollen, it can be collected and sold to the bumble bee industry. This is a huge industry in Turkey, requiring tonnes of pollen, and this industry is growing in New Zealand. Specialist equipment may be required, such as front entrance traps and under-hive traps. Some Australian beekeepers around Perth have built their pollen traps into their bottom boards. Perhaps these traps could be put on during pollination. They are likely to stimulate a hive to collect more pollen and therefore increase pollination. The downside is that the trays must be emptied quickly in humid areas to stop fungi spoiling the pollen. Some Australian beekeepers carry a small deep-freezer unit on the truck to put collected pollen as it’s removed. In drier areas of New Zealand like the East Coast, trays don’t have to be emptied as often. There’s no need to go to the expense of purchasing a dryer as the bumble bee industry wants pollen wet; i.e., as it comes off the hives. Propolis mats are another potential income source. Bees produce propolis most of the season to seal cracks in the hive, but more so in the autumn when the bees seal everything down for the winter. Some companies offer the mats free to beekeepers. The companies continue to own them or the beekeeper can pay them off over time, provided the beekeeper continues to use them. There’s no real outlay to start with, other than purchasing plastic bins to put the mats in. Beekeeping is all about nutrition. Sites with good sources of spring and autumn nectar and pollen are important. Nutrition is key Beekeeping is all about nutrition. Sites with good sources of spring and autumn nectar and pollen are important. Feeding supplements can be effective for a month or two, but it’s far better and more cost effective in the long run to have or plant good sources near your hives. Fast-growing tree lucerne, pussy willows, and five mature willow trees flowering at different times can make a real difference. (See Winning with Willows http://www.poplarandwillow.org.nz/documents/winning- with-willows.pdf.) Look at the size of the willow cuttings that are hammered into the banks along the rivers. When planting willows, they must be firmly in the ground as the roots shoot from just under the soil. A wobbly cutting will fail to take.
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