The Beekeepers Club Inc.

Q4-2009 Newsletter (by John Kennedy)

PLASTIC HIVE BOXES, PROFESSIONAL BEEKING AND DPI RESPONSES

Three informative presentations highlighted the October meeting of the Club which drew a bumper attendance as our membership has increased to over 130 members.

Gippsland beekeeper Seamus Hasson (60 odd hives) related how he has developed his innovative Aussie Hives which are manufactured from food grade polymer to create a hive that he considers reduces hive disease, eliminates paint contamination, are water resistant, while retaining strength, are light weight and provide insulation.

Seamus manufactures them currently in only the ten frame size (which some hobbyists may consider a disadvantage) but he says the hive benefits from the insulation providing a better hive temperature, better brood development, reduced stress on the bees and increased honey production.

He also says he sees his own bees out at work earlier in the morning at lower temperatures!

Although they are expensive compared with timber – about $38 plus GST for a box frame plus complementary bases and covers are also available, Seamus detailed the manufacturing challenges and material choices he has investigated and especially the very high cost in having appropriate plastic injection moulds made.

Several Club members and other beekeepers both local and interstate are using the Aussie Hives so the proof will come from the results obtained.

Seamus has a website at www.aussiehive.com.au for anyone interested in more information or contact Seamus on 03 5664 8382.

Our next speaker was Elwyne Papworth the irrepressible VAA President and herself a member of a family with a significant generational commercial beekeeping heritage.

The Papworths run over 1000 hives from bases south of Echuca and at Hillston in western New South Wales.

Elwyne related how her family’s enterprise is strongly involved in numerous pollination projects from almonds to lucerne, orchard and horticultural crops and canola and others.

With the drought affecting traditional honey production Elwyne noted that her business now derives 85% of its income from pollination and the rest from honey production which is largely sold to Capilano.

She also raised her concern at the risks which crop spraying and the lack of investigation or consideration of beekeepers can provide, having lost 760 hives last season due to untimely crop spraying.

Elwyne indicated it was just a loss which they needed to a walk away from and that the pollination industry needs greater consideration by those who may impact upon it by their ill considered or untimely actions.
Elwyne also gave a detailed insight into the practicalities and returns from crop pollination, with current prices about $65 a hive for a 21 to 28 day stay on pollination duty.

She also emphasised the importance of young active hives and the need for regular re-queening.

Our final presenter was Daniel Martin the DPI’s relatively newly appointed Apiary Inspector based at Bendigo.

His presentation outlined the Department’s approach to varroa and biosecurity as well as beekeeper responsibilities to register their hives and understand the practicalities of American Foul Brood knowledge, management and reporting.

Daniel noted that Victoria has about 2,200 registered beekeepers with 2,000 having less than 60 hives, so there are effectively only about 200 commercial beekeepers.

In addition there could be three or four times the total number of unregistered or feral hives so his message was ‘Do the Right Thing’ and register as a beekeeper.

APIS CERANA RISK

A leading bee pathologist the CSIRO’s Dr Dennis Anderson has warned the Queensland Beekeepers Association at their annual conference that a new and deadlier form of varroa mite is primed to strike deep into the heart of Australia’s bee industry if conditions are right.

He said that a new form of varroa mite (varroa jacobsoni) that he discovered last year in European honey bee hives (Apis mellifera) in the highlands of Papua New Guinea have developed from a harmless form introduced to that country about 30 years ago on Asian honey bees (Apis cerana) which were imported from Java.

“The big question now for Australian quarantine authorities is can the new mite on European honey bees also live on Asian honey bees in PNG.

“At the moment this dangerous new mite is restricted to European honey bees in the PNG Highlands.

“If it can reproduce on Asian honey bees it won’t take long before it gets down here (north Queensland), with all the Asian honey bee incursions we have had over the past few years.”

The Asian bee is smaller than the European honey bee and tends to fly faster and more erratically.

Dr Anderson added that Australia sits “like a shag on a rock” so far free of varroa that has afflicted the European honey bees on every other continent.



SMALL HIVE BEETLE

A report in the Australian Financial Review (11/09) says that damage caused by the small hive beetle in Queensland is much greater than anticipated.

The Qld DPI is energising beekeepers after conducting its first survey results on the pest.

Fourteen hundred beekeepers responded to the survey to show according to Tim Mulherrin, the Qld Minister for Primary Industries, that damage from the small hive beetle is greater than originally thought.

The Ministers announcement says “Survey results show that beekeepers with one to five hives have lot 46 percent of their hives, those with six to 20 hives have lost 26 percent, those with 21-49 hives have lost 19 percent and those with 50 to 500 hives have lost 13 percent.

“The States largest beekeepers those with more than 500 hives reported collective losses of more than half a million dollars in 2008.”

The survey also showed that 3,000 hives were lost across the state at a cost of more than $400 a hive including clean-up, control and restoration.

Biosecurity Queensland is trialling a variety of commercially made traps as well as beekeepers on inventions to see which work best.

Of 11 different trap types placed in 55 hives some use vegetable oil, and others apple cider vinegar as an attractant.

The four best performing traps all used vegetable oil

Another research project co-funded by the RIRDC is looking at controlling beetles and their larvae with naturally occurring fungus.

Small hive beetles can travel up to 15 kms in a day but are more prevalent in warmer and more humid climates, but they have been reported as far south as the Qld-NSW border.


CHASING RAINBOWS

Over the last 50 years from his age of four when he was given his first bee swarm Tamworth based apiarist Tony Eden who trades as Australian Bush Honey has created a major enterprise which produces 80-110 tonnes of honey a season.

Tony says he has driven up to 11,000 kilometres to locate the right pollen and trees for his hives which prefer yellow box, white box, ironbark, coolabah and related varieties.

But he adds that nine years of drought have been tough on his business cutting production in half.

And with high fuel prices he says “it’s a risky business, it’s like chasing rainbows.”

He says pro-beekeepers are like mini-cattle stations trucking their bees over long distances.

Further he considers the set-up cost for a commercial beekeeping operation to require a $500,000 capital investment for what are currently very low returns.


FARMERS WATCH THOSE SPRAYS.

Well known beekeeper Gavin Jamieson heads the beekeeping section of the Victorian Farmers Federation and he has expressed concerns about chemical spray drift and its fatal effect on bee hives.

Gavin says that last summer one beekeeper engaged on crop pollination lost 760 out of 2,000 hives on a site due to chemical spraying.

Sometimes even losses have been caused by the hirer of the hives not understanding how far bees travel or how susceptible they are to chemicals.

With bees travelling up to 7 or 9 kms from their hives they can embrace an area up to 61,500 hectares of property and often many different owners.

There is a lack of public knowledge about the effects of chemical spraying on bees and lots of people simply don’t know how to interpret the labels of the chemical products that they are using Gavin says.

Prominent central Victorian beekeeper Bob McDonald has echoed similar views noting that there is often a problem near canola crops where bees are important for pollination and achievement of production levels.

He suggests greater contact between canola growers and beekeepers before the spring.

“Beekeepers are encouraged to put their contact details on their hives to make it easier for other farmers to contact them.

“Spray drift from insecticides is illegal and farmers must take into consideration the impact of inversion layers when applying chemicals” he noted.


CSU PATERSONS CURSE RESEARCH

Paterson’s Curse (also known as Salvation Jane or Riverina Bluebell) is usually a good producer for beekeepers, but is estimated to cost the wool and meat industries up to $125 million annually.

It was originally introduced during the 1880s from Europe as an ornamental plant but is drought tolerant, spreads rapidly after rain and overtakes crop and pastures from up to 30,000 seeds per square metre.

Charles Sturt University at Wagga led by Professor Leslie Weston is working on a project to identify the plant toxins which the Curse produces that inhibit the growth of other plants and lead to its dominance.

So far she has identified organic compounds found in relatives of the Patterson’s curse within the borage family, where some are potent inhibitors of particular soil microbes with their production stimulated by a range of stress factors.

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