Moby Duck

Nab- I agree, but what gamma plant, the only gamma plant in NZ was closed when we went nuclear free under the Lange government. The only treatment available in NZ now is heat treatment.

I was just about to offer free on this site, 14 boxes, some 3/4 size, and a nuc box, used and new wood and plastic frames, and all other bee gear including full suit and gloves and various tools. Nothing more than 6 yrs old, all purchased new and only ever been sited in Takapuna. Mites got the bees, I fought them with proper approved chemical mite strips but the mites won. Neighbour is an organic/no real treatment believer, and no matter what I did my hives were continually re-infected with mites. His "organic" bees died too, surprise, surprise. Never saw any sign of AFB in my hives. I have just been diagnosed as diabetic and I am taking heart medication that makes me susceptible to anaphalactic shock, so no more honey or bees for me. After seeing the opinions of most people on this site I guess I will have to get a permit to light a fire and burn the lot of it. I am now wondering if hive doctor floors and plastic frames and foundation make toxic smoke, and if so how will I safely dispose of them in an urban environment. As for the spread of disease, how is it that most people are happy enough to buy wax foundation where the wax has been sourced from multiple suppliers, from who knows where? As hot dipping boxes in paraffin wax does not kill AFB spores then surely heating wax for foundation processing doesn't kill the spores either, and yet wax foundation is freely spread around the country by only a few suppliers.

Have a neighbour that helped a friend into bee keeping and supplied him with bees and advice. Bees were doing well and suddenly died. Neighbour inspected the hive and there were no apparent disease issues and it was all a bit of a mystery. After some more questioning the newbeek volunteered the fact that the only thing different that he had done was to give the hive a good spray of crawling insect residual fly spray, to get rid of the cock roaches. He no longer keeps bees.

I would agree that it is supposed to have skin healing properties, but honey has been used world wide for skin healing, for centuries. Perhaps Manuka is better, but they don't all seem to agree.

Did anybody see the TV programme a couple of weeks back, "Trust me I'm a Dr", I think it was called. Apparently extensive testing done in UK and not one scrap of evidence to show that Manuka Honey is good for anything at all apart from tasting good on your toast. Went as far as saying that all such medicinal claims were made by NZ beekeepers, who funded the research and as such had a vested interest in the results. The claims were not scientifically supported and were purely a marketing ploy. At 60 pounds sterling for a small jar in the UK, and lots of fake product labeling, NZ has done itself no favours.