M4tt

Catsear. I’ve got Paddocks full of it

Catsear. The only real source of ‘Rukuhia Gold Honey ‘ It’ll flow with the moisture of a morning fog and is a highly valuable source of protein for cattle when it’s too harsh for anything else to grow . I love the stuff 😊

Light amber is the colour . Liquid tastes like that warm waxy smell of a hive when there is a flow on. ( probably because it’s a Catsear flow). Creamed tastes different . Mild to strong honey flavour . Of course I’m struggling with my description because I don’t know any different . Very hard to beat in my opinion

Yep. Catsear is all my bees have got this year. Far too dry for clover including my Persian Clover . I took some off yesterday and it’s exactly the same as my December take

Who said there was none North of the Harbour Bridge ?

I have no idea if this is correct or not . Someone would need to do a Thesis on the theory to prove it . The point is , it actually doesn’t make any difference as we really don’t know how it’s distributed ( by feet , body contact or perhaps even by bees mouthparts ) AND we don’t know how it works . The important bit , that you described perfectly , is treating the nurse bees that are working the brood . This line of thought has stimulated some good conversation

Yes you are quite right . Good perspective 😊

We’ve always treated per box of bees , as you first suggested . I’m suggesting that may not quite be correct in ongoing management of hives with staples . Just throwing it out there to provoke thought .....

It’s a theory at this stage that I’m keen to play with . I think my hives are at a point where they haven’t been infested with mites over summer , so I’m starting with healthier hives , albeit , I’m still a month away from treating , so that may change . With that in mind, if I don’t have mites infesting bees, I shouldn’t need to come down so heavy handed. There is anecdotal evidence that a full dose of staples can kill bees in large numbers, for reasons yet unconfirmed. We also know staples in brood can sometimes affect the laying pattern of the queen underneath them . In a months time, I will pull out my Queen Excluders and let the queens free range over 4 X 3/4 boxes . At the same time I will sugar shake , AFB check , and place staples around the outside of the brood , in a conservative way, instead of 4 to 5 staples per box through the middle of the brood. I see this new approach as a maintenance type of preventative treatment where I am protecting the brood from varroa invasion , rather than killing varroa on the way out after bee emergence .

I’m going to suggest that the dose rate is more importantly matched to the amount of brood in a box, not bees .

I attempted some sugar shakes today but there is too much fresh nectar getting put next to brood . The bees get drenched in nectar upon dumping in the container , so it will have to wait till nature winds the tap back . Of course , this wouldn’t matter with an alcohol wash but I’m not that callous

Oh if it was that simple . NAIT continually undergoes ‘improvements ‘ to try and make it user friendly . Personally , I’m very good with it , but it’s a pig of a thing to drive , and they’ve never taken on board the suggestions I’ve suggested . You need to be relatively computer literate and many many people aren’t . There is also an extreme delay in closing the gates on possibly infected farms by MPI . It’s improving , but it’s still very slow , allowing business as usual until authorities tell them to stop . Farmers I know have stopped trading straight away without being told to , but even then , it’s been a couple of months since the random tests had been taken and the results sent out . That’s a long time and many movements happen in that period . There are faults everywhere . There is no point blaming one group . I’ll give you a bit of insight into why there was a fair bit of resistance to tagging cattle with Electronic Identification Tags (EID). Years ago , there was no recording of movements . Then some department decided that all cattle should carry individual bar codes on ear tags , which would be scanned at the freezing works to provide traceability back to origin . These new tags cost , and as far as I know , most farmers were compliant . This probably went on for at least 10 years , after which , we were told it never worked and they never scanned the bar codes . I did wonder why animals were getting mixed up at the freezing works despite being diligent . Then came along NAIT and scannable EID tags . Initially to many , it seemed like another new expensive scheme which wouldn’t work . Would you believe , even now , with EID tags in my cattle , there are still mistakes at the freezing works and the wrong cattle get assigned to the wrong owner . Yes , there are older farmers that struggle with technology , but the system is far from perfect . As to where the disease came from , there is speculation and fingers been pointed , but I’m not at all convinced . 1. There is no proof . The strain we have is not traceable back to anywhere else in the world 2. There is anecdotal evidence from vets that cattle with mBovis type symptoms have been in NZ for years , prior to it being discovered in the South Island . Remember , it’s extremely difficult to test for and the test is unreliable , and back before it was discovered , no one was looking and it wasn’t tested for . It’s an interesting disease which will keep us amused for quite some time . Overnight elimination just was never possible

I’ve just taste tested the first of this seasons creamed honey. It is stronger and darker than usual, probably because there is no clover in it because there has been hardly any around this year. A darn nice drop if I may say so Tomorrow I will take some Persian Clover honey off ( it was supposed to be Crimson clover , but there is not a single plant of that in the sward). It has virtually finished flowering now , so it needs grazing . Apparently the seed will germinate in cow dung after its been through the cow

On farm biosecurity has become second nature now as a result . That’s not going to change . Perhaps that’s why there are no known cases of infection from dirty vehicles . Stock truck operators must have done a very good job to reduce risk

No . As far as I know there has been no spread from indirect contact . It has to be animal to animal