Pinnacle

Zero effect for me on spring buildup. I have noticed a substantial effect when using formic acid, depending on timing. Haven’t decided yet on the answer to your second question - I have some data on this but need to analyse it a bit harder. Cheers

I’ve got a few T if she wants it, wonder if she has facilities to handle 200L drums

Dan, you follow some interesting news articles...

I agree it’s frustrating - not least because it tars all sellers (including me) with the same brush. The problem with finger pointing with regards AFB is where do you draw the line. How soon after sale could a new hive or nuc theoretically contract AFB from its new location. Of course all experienced beekeepers will have a view on that, but it would be an interesting one to defend in court. for us we’ve only had one instance where we were notified by the new owner of an issue, some 8 months after purchase. They destroyed those hives and we replaced them free of charge as a matter of course. I wasn’t at all confident it was our issue, couldn’t find AFB in any nucs from the same location, but replaced them regardless as part of looking after our customer. No issue reported with the replacements. Like anything in life, there are those trying to build a business (which if you want it to work long term you have to act responsibly) and those who see an opportunity to make a quick buck. Caveat emptor for sure

Thanks your point about NZ Beekeeping Inc potential to be a voting bloc within APINZ is a really interesting one. I hope someone from NZ Beekeeping Inc takes this on board and has a serious discussion on it. i could imagine this as a useful fallback position for them if the levy goes ahead - mop up all the smaller and disenfranchised beekeepers and operate as a voting bloc on levy matters...

Same here

John I guess my main concern is that the interesting ideas or longer term projects starting to bear fruit get starved of funding because whatever is the hot topic of the day gets all the attention. My fear is that those with a longer term view incl many of our scientists, will get drowned out by those with the loudest voice. in saying that I don't really have a smart alternative, so maybe I should leave it at that 😄

That is my understanding from reading the info also. in the year prior to any vote taking place, if you produced 0.02% of the honey per records received from extractors, you will have paid 0.02% of the levy and therefore get 0.02% weight for your vote. i invite APINZ to correct me if I've got that wrong?

If I was a massive corporate (I’m not!) and I was paying a levy on say 500T of honey harvested (what is that - $50K?) frankly I would expect to have a more weighted vote than some fella down the road with 20 hives producing 1T of honey being levied $100. I appreciate As smaller producers (mostly) that we look at it the other way around, but if you put yourself if the big producers shoes, you would probably feel the same. imagine if it was 1 beekeeper 1 vote - all the little beekeepers could decide that long hives were the future or we should be relying on thymol for varroa control - imagine if our hard earned dollars were spent on that. for my business, I’m relatively comfortable that the research a big corporate votes for is likely to be of some value to my business. Not always what I would want to see the money spent on but overall probably useful. And as a small producer I probably can’t ask for much more than that. im less comfortable with the admin proportion and the possibility of people sitting comfy on a nice salary working 9-5 while I’m out in 35 degrees harvesting all hours in a beesuit. but life is not perfect - I’m still voting yes.

Sorry @frazzledfozzle I obviously need to pay closer attention. Agree with your points above

Interesting thanks - certainly common themes. id be prepared to bet the relative importance changes year to year though 😁

There are 2 big challenges here with this method for setting research priority (and Matt touches on it above): the first is that at any point in time when you survey beekeepers, Whatever is the issue du jour will stand out as needing the most research focus. This can easily change year to year. Secondly one beekeepers issues may not at all be a reflection of another’s. Frazzledfozzle above comments that marketing is of lesser interest than some other issues such as beekeeper education/behaviour (hope I’ve got that right, apologise if I don’t). Personally other beekeeper behaviour/education has minor impact on my business so it really wouldn’t worry me at all if zero funds were spent on these. However I see research into special uses/qualities of other NZ mono floral honeys and, yes, marketing, as being crucial to the future of our industry - grow the returns received. some years ago I was involved in the avocado industry - at that time they were annually surveying growers for research priorities - if it was a wet year previous, everyone wanted money spent on preventing diseases, if it was a bad mite year, everyone wanted money spent on mite control, mites were often worse in the far north compared to BOP growing regions, so there would be a split of demands there. The next year, a new survey and it all changed again - frankly it was a shambles and made it difficult to make any real progress anywhere. As per usual the loudest voices at any point seem to have the most influence. As John F and others will no doubt tell you, a lot of the big issues require work year after year to make progress. Surveys are a useful piece of info, but in reality? A 5-10 year plan at least has to be set and perhaps reviewed every couple years. and regardless of how the money is set, APINZ (or whoever holds the purse) will NEVER keep everyone happy!

And Hawkes Bay

I would have thought those depending on $7/kg returns would have the most to gain from research, both into hive health/productivity and marketing, particularly developing markets for non-Manuka honey?

For me, I’d rather we have some shot at producing some useful research that may help to push the industry forward. the proposal may not be perfect but it is a lot better than nothing. I’m voting yes also