deejaycee

I truly hope they throw the book at this guy. He actually called me for advice before he started beekeeping, dropped a yard just 80 metres across the road from one of mine a year later, never attended a single field day/education/community opportunity that I can identify. And he replaced the frames he stole from hives with frames that were often USED. I also believe he may have been responsible for doing the same to other beekeepers locally... that, or we have two thieves with the same MO in the same area in the same timeframe. " A New Zealand honey giant fears a man who raided their hives may have also infected them. Basil Martin Lawry, 64, stole brood (eggs, larvae and pupae), honey and bees worth more than $2000 from Arataki Honey and Kintail Honey from 2016 through to 2018. He appeared before Judge Bridget Mackintosh in the Hastings District Court on Tuesday and admitted eight charges of theft. Arataki Honey's John Walsh said he was relieved Lawry had been brought to account for the theft but was concerned that Arataki hives may have been infected with American foulbrood (AFB) - a highly infectious bee disease - through Lawry." Read the article for more info. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=12217004&fbclid=IwAR000M9Jnf7_85DZ07LxrQ2bRctUhYGEEz_oAx7vo12nROK0NdLxnllVZU4

not in my case, tommy dave. I check all my filtered folders daily - because I'm in online retail I can't afford to miss a customer email due to an overzealous filter. It just wasn't received in my case at all.

I didn't get the other email it refers to either. Once I managed to get hold of a copy of that, this email suddenly makes a lot of sense. Here's the content of the email referred to: Frequently Asked Questions: Proposal to replace the American Foulbrood Apiary and Beekeeper Levy with a Hive and Beekeeper Levy With consultation on the proposal to replace the American Foulbrood Apiary and Beekeeper Levy with Hive and Beekeeper Levy underway we have been getting some good questions and feedback on the proposal. What is the Management Agency’s goal? To eliminate American foulbrood (AFB) as specified by the National American Foulbrood Pest Management Plan. Did the National Beekeepers Association implement the National American Foulbrood Pest Management Plan as proposed in 1997? No, the National Beekeepers Association did not implement the National American Foulbrood Pest Management Plan as was proposed to beekeepers in 1997: 1. 1997 AFB PMP proposal - The AFB PMP will enable the problem of beekeepers who fail to carry out their required disease control responsibilities under the Apiaries Act to be addressed. Reality – The National Beekeepers Association failed to address the issue of serious and ongoing non-compliance by a minority of beekeepers. These beekeepers were allowed to continue to propagate AFB and act as a source of infection for neighbouring apiaries for 20 years until the Management Agency announced that it had the capability to hold non-compliant beekeepers to account in December 2018. The Management Agency has taken multiple compliance actions since November 2018 to address serious cases of non-compliance. In each instance between 20% and 60% of the beekeeper’s hives were found to be infected with AFB. 2. 1997 AFB PMP proposal - There will be user-pays charges under the AFB PMP. Beekeepers who fail to submit a Certificate of Inspection, file an Annual Disease Return, destroy contaminated materials or who have apiaries under movement control will be charged. Reality – The National Beekeepers Association did not implement: default inspections for beekeepers that failed to submit a Certificate of Inspection or recover costs default inspections for beekeepers that failed to complete an Annual Disease Return or recover costs, or place high risk apiaries under movement control. Since November 2017 the Management Agency has: initiated cost recovered default inspections of apiaries owned by beekeepers whom failed to submit a Certificate of Inspection, placed high risk apiaries under movement control, and is proposing to initiate default cost recovered inspections for beekeepers that fail to submit an Annual Disease Return. 3. 1997 AFB PMP proposal - Honey spore testing will be used as a routine screening tool in audits of DECA holders who declare disease incidence significantly below the national average. Reality – The National Beekeepers Association did not implement honey spore testing of DECA holder’s honey whom declared disease incidence significantly below the national average. Consequently, seriously non-compliant beekeepers have been able to stay ‘under the radar’ simply by not reporting their cases of AFB. The Management Agency is seeking additional funding under the levy proposal to address this issue. Why is the Management Agency proposing that the apiary and beekeeper levy be replaced with a hive and beekeeper levy? The Management Agency is proposing to replace the apiary and beekeeper levy because a majority of submissions on the July 2018 levy proposal told us that beekeepers wanted the apiary levy replaced with a hive levy. Submitters were concerned that the existing apiary and beekeeper levy structure is: Unfair to beekeepers with low number of hives per apiary, and Promoted the formation of large apiaries that would increase disease risks. The Management Agency has listened to beekeepers concerns which is why we are proposing that the apiary and beekeeper levy is replaced with a hive and beekeeper levy. Which beekeepers should be concerned about the Management Agency’s proposed approach to compliance and enforcement of the National American Foulbrood Pest Management Plan? Beekeepers that are routinely inspecting their beehives for AFB and notifying and destroying cases of AFB have no reason to be concerned. However, beekeepers that are consistently failing to adequately inspect their hives for AFB and/or destroy infected hives are on notice. Unless they change their ways and take responsibility for eliminating AFB from their beehives the Management Agency will act to prevent their beehives from posing a serious risk to the hives owned by other beekeepers. You can obtain a full copy of the proposal here. Consultation closes at 5pm Friday 22 March 2019. You can make a submission by completing the online submission form.

There's definitely a shift happening/happened, and for the better. The last couple of years when I asked at the beginner's beekeeping course 'who's thinking about making some money/making a living?', half the class raised their hands. This year (a couple of months ago), maybe 10% raised their hands.

It is illegal. Report the listing to Trademe, and to MPI please.

Bindi on the left, Lily on the right. Both complete nutjobs. Neither goes beekeeping, because they are both prone to brain shutdowns, but both are avid beecatchers at home and don't care at all about stings. Bindi suffers from second child syndrome, in that this is the only photo I have of her. Early on, Lily took responsibility for feed quality control Fortunately she doesn't react to stings at all now - but she used to get a swollen lip ocassionally.

Meeting went ahead without you nab We didn't close down, but I have resigned as secretary as I'm just horribly overcommitted at the moment, and while we do have an incoming secretary, she doesn't have the capacity to organise field days and write newsletters as I did previously. As a result we'll be calling a public meeting for beekeepers with the aim of inspiring the formation of a local club. It's going to take me a while to get organised, and there are some key locals I want to attend, so please be patient. I'll get my last buzzsheet out in the next few weeks when we have the meeting plans nailed down. We'll notify the meeting through the buzzsheet, here, our facebook page and any other local news sources we can, so hopefully no-one misses out.

well, that's another 20 minutes of my life I ain't getting back. Although, have to say, the bees were even more impressively obnoxious than other Lusby bees* videos I've seen. * (sorry, I cannot bring myself to call them Dee's bees )

horrible.

pretty much ditto. General rule of thumb for us is Bayvarol in from 1 March, out by 1 May.

Camellias are certainly valuable for bees, and I know Linda Newstrom-Lloyd has found them so for pollen. How useful they might be for nectar I'm not so sure. It's a pretty big family, and whether some varieties are better than others I don't know, but if you do a google image search for camellia you can see the huge variety of flower morphology, from those with complex tight petal arrangements where you can't see a stamen, to those where the flower centre is wide open and stamens prominent. https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=camellia&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDzuqW1-PYAhUIlJQKHeAqDDEQ_AUICigB&biw=1242&bih=602 I do know our huge camellia tree (it passed 'bush' status a long time ago) on our front lawn gets a lot of attention through a large part of the year.

Give em a bit of time, Ruth. What Alastair said, and the weather is so up and down here at the moment with weird humidity and rain threatening every couple of days... that always sets them on edge. We've got three days rain forecast from this afternoon onwards... none of my girls get a red card for behaviour today.

This'll be going on our new ute later this year: https://www.topmaq.co.nz/shop/automotive/500kg-electric-ute-deck-swivel-crane/ Build a cradle for it to lift the hives, and buy a good quality sack barrow (solid, with fat wheels, long enough toe) to get the hives to the ute, and you're good to go. We built our own ute crane about 8 years ago for our first ute. Still does the job well. Cost about $800 to build the crane and cradle back then. The sack barrow was close to $300, but it's been worth its weight in gold.

Do you not go through Arataki? If so, you are being paid for it, but at the honey price.

Just wash with a bleach soak. For the hive tool, I don't like flaming mine too much, except in the field. -- scrape down and scrub and soak in bleach.