Sailabee

What rips my ration book is that now, as the beekeeper has to put their beek rego on any advert for sale of bees on Trademe, we have people with less than two years beekeeping experience mass producing 'queens' it is obvious as we all know where the numbers are relative to the year they registered and they have maybe even 10 hives. They are blissfully unaware a reputable breeder would usually have hundreds to pick a breeder queen from, after seeing how that queen and her daughters went in hives. Gullible people post on Backyard beekeeping looking for a queen have suppliers suggested, but those recommending suppliers have no real idea about the experience or AFB status of those they are suggesting, much less the type of characteristics the breeder thinks are great. I well remember one who believed that aggressive bees were a good sign in bees as they would produce more, but selling those types of bees to urban hobbyists was a recipe for disaster for not only the beek, but the neighbourhood that copped one of these queens, never mind that gently bees are just as productive.

Easy enough to keep square if each beekeeper must use Rego number to vote - would be better still if only those with a DECA number to quote could vote - must be easy enough to stop multiple votes that way without outside gouging.

Thanks @M4tt - I knew there was a lot up north, but news to me that it is still moving south at such a rate - still well north of Auck on the East Coast, but there is more out West Coast than there was. In the days when I was on a dairy farm - 50 years ago, pretty much everyone raised the bulk their own replacement stock - much like beekeeping, factory farming engenders migratory stock raising - the far north has often supplied outsourced heifers raised and sold as near calving to all and sundry, and also bulls are mass raised there to mop up what the AI misses.

I think that is a standout suggestion as it would show where the oa/gly mix actually goes to - and in autumn, it would not affect the honey crop, and would perhaps provide hard evidence of irrefutable fact. I would try a fair dollup of food dye, mixed with some glycerine, and then heating prior to adding the oxalic acid. There is always the risk that the dye is degraded by the oxalic, so try with a small amount for a start. If that happens, try using one of the opaque cake decorating specialist colourents. I would be tempted to try the gold - but that us perhaps my weird sense of humour.

Your isolation gives a limited view unfortunately - up here, there was an utter scoundrel who spread AFB incredibly widely badly with managed rentals on ones and twos and numbering well in the hundreds, who refused to believe that just removing the frame with visual AFB. They spend years trying to eliminate that fellow, and the infected gear kept on turning up and being sold under a range of aliases. If there was a buy back, I think the same thing would happen - beek would be paid out, but would not burn all the gear. Think about the gear suppliers - they would suddenly have little or no market, as there would be used gear free for the taking, or else, someone would have to go out and euthanise thousands of hives, and burn the lot - I wouldn't want to do that, and I think it would cause an uproar in the media.

Glycerol is hydroscopic, so I would think that in making them at this time of the year - particularly where there is high humidity, they could indeed absorb more water.

Possibly also the fires have made it unlikely that local honey will cover local market for this year.

Exactly - the orginators of the infection used the slack monitoring to spend 2 years intentionally spreading it to avoid detection - many in the industry know exactly where it all started - an extremely huge rich, powerful dairying family which had a head start and was extremely politically powerful - much like the timber treatment farce.

Yes, and if Comvita doesn't make more sales to cover gift, impact on bottom line and will affect profit - and any possible payout to shareholders - although that looks like it won't be anytime soon. Personally, would have preferred that they had dropped the cost of the same dressings in NZ to something that made them affordable - last time I inquired for a friend, pharmacy's have to order them in when a customer orders them, as too expensive for most at $25 each, so too slow moving to be worth carrying stock.

Heard a speaker who is one of the local stock carriers in Kumeu etc - know he goes as far as Kaukapakapa, so speaking for a fairly large circle - there are now no dairying farms really near me - Len Brown - lecherous Len managed to get one of the surviving dairy farms at Waitoki's rates for 360 acres up to over $100,000 - literally rated out of the business to beef/lamb - rural Rodney etc hugely subsidises urban cultural events and lifestyle.

Entitled scum - out at Karekare Beach a month or so ago, after ransacking and stealing from lady in late eighties, they moved down two houses, and took a brand new large Surf Life Saving vehicle, and off they went - police smartly put photo and details online, so caught - already painted another colour within a couple of days - words fail me at what these druggies (and they are inevitably destroying peoples assets and lives for them) are prepared to do because that takes precedent. Heard a senior police officer address a group last winter, and they literally never arrest a burglar/car converter whose car and place of residence isn't strewn with empty little zip lock bags.

Up here, still MBV free, but dairy farms have been advised to put electric perimeter boundary fence to stop over the fence exchanges - wonder how viable that would be for extensive beef runs, which are often far larger, and the country rougher going?

That is the difference between climate and weather - climate is the long game, weather is the short one, and because we are a small dot of land all by ourselves in the middle of a lot of water, NZ is one of the harder countries in the world to forecast the weather for.

Exactly, Alastair, if it is toxic to humans when applied, it will continue to pose the same threat in the honey if it has the prerequisite conditions for the bacillus to grow - that's as I remember the micro-biology.

Yep.