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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, NOVEMBER 2016
Claire Hall, Mark Goodwin, David Pattemore, ApiNZ Research Focus Group VARROA CONTROL RESEARCH: BRIEF UPDATE FOCUS GROUP REPORTS: RESEARCH Over the last couple of months, we have reported on your priorities and ideas for approaches to varroa control research. Based on these suggestions, we submitted a Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF) funding proposal to develop the priority components of a varroa IPM programme. We received pledges of support from over 60 individuals and organisations—thank you! If successful, the programme will start in July 2017 and we will update you early next year.
Pollen In the common edible pear (Pyrus communis) the anthers open sequentially to present pollen all day long, so you will see bees buzzing in the flowers gathering pollen at any time of day. The high density of flowers plus the numerous whorls of stamens in each flower add up to generous quantities of pollen per tree. Nectar Pear flowers have the classic ‘open dish’ shape with nectar produced by the nectary, which is located in the centre of the flower in the space at the base of the pistil. The nectary is surrounded by whorls of numerous stamens—the epitome of easy access. The other pipfruit species (apples, crab apples, edible quinces and flowering quinces) have almost identical flowers with the open dish style allowing easy access to nectar. Planting advice Pipfruit species are used in a variety of situations on Trees for Bees demonstration farms, from orchards to shelterbelts to paddock shade and shelter. They are flexible in that they can be managed for fruit production, or left to be more ornamental. Growers will need to be careful when planting near existing orchards that they don’t introduce pest and disease problems, and to check that the species aren’t included in any noxious plant lists. Pipfruit are most commonly used for on-farm orchards, where a mixture of fruit species provides not only a variety of fruit for consumption, but also pollen at flowering times from early to late spring. Pipfruit species can also be incorporated into shelterbelts, where the windward species are evergreen bee feed (e.g., some Michelia, Camellia and Laurel species) to provide low shelter, with the pipfruit blossom species planted on the leeward side and ideally facing the sun. If you have enough space (i.e., more than five to six metres of shelterbelt width), you can also include tree species for high shelter. In this case, fastigiate form trees of Quercus robur, Liriodendron tulipifera, some Fraxinus species, and Alnus cordata are particularly useful. In addition to shelterbelts, larger species of pipfruit trees can make suitable paddock shade specimens when protected with a tree guard. You can also turn this into a small copse of trees by enlarging the tree guard and including a mix of smaller shrub species (e.g., crab apples).
We have been seeking more information and ideas through a SurveyMonkey questionnaire. The response has been very low, so we are unable to provide a summary in this issue. We know that as busy beekeepers, it’s not always easy finding time for questionnaires. So we have planned through ApiNZ a whole range of different co-innovation and extension activities as part of the SFF that we hope will work for you, including workshops, field days, articles, videos and podcasts. By now most of you will have started treating colonies for varroa or are about to treat. Many beekeepers in the north of the North Island, and possibly elsewhere, have found it important to check varroa levels
in hives when the treatments are removed, as there have been increasing problems with varroa developing resistance to the chemicals we use to control them. The best way to test varroa levels is to use the sugar shake method. When carrying out a sugar shake, make sure the icing sugar has not absorbed moisture and become lumpy, and remember to shake very, very hard. We don’t have good post-treatment varroa thresholds that we can provide at this stage. It is hopeful that the SFF programme will provide these. However, as a best guess, if you find more than 10 varroa mites in a sugar shake after the spring treatment, you will need to either treat again in the spring or at least aim to treat early in the autumn.
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