Wellington Beekeepers Association Inc. Our Next Meeting: When: Monday 11th May 98 at 8 p.m. Where: Terrace Centre, Union Church, Dr Taylor Terrace. Johnsonville Theme: John Burnet will talk about the Karori Reservoir Reserve Meetings are held on second Monday each month (except January), at above venue Wellington Beekeepers Association Inc. Monthly Newsletter - May 1998 Postage Paid Wellington NZ Permit No. 313 Return Address: PO Box 11-089, Manners St., Wellington (Ph 565 0789)
April s Meeting Present: Doug Purdie (Pres.), Frank Lindsay (Treas. & Acting Sec.) and 17 members and visitors as listed in the attendance book. Apologies: Ken Breden, John Burnet, and Graham Lustry. New Members And Visitors: Vicky Alexander from Wainuiomata Minutes Of Previous Meeting: Minutes of meeting were read and confirmed. Treasurer s Report: Current operating account showed a credit balance of $1,427.53 with one outstanding cheque of $36.80. General Business: James Scott had a nuc being robbed out, so moved it away and the bees left it alone. After a short time he moved it back and robbing started again - conclusion was that it was on main flight path path from his other hives. Bill Allen reported nucs being robbed out as described could be prevented by using a diversionary screen where the entrance would normally be, bu the real entrance was 100 mm to the side through a tunnel. Mice in hives? One member describe a one way door (similar to a cat flap) which let mice out but prevented (re-)entry. Fank Lindsay produced a frame with two large holes in it and asked what had caused this. It was two bullets through the box. Someone was using the hives for target practice. Apart from the holes in the frames, very little damage. John was called to a hive in a hedge (comb already present) which fell to bits when he tried to move it. Sugested that he use an onion bag next time to hold it all together (attach with dowels and staples). Take it apart later and put into frames tied with wool th hold them in place. Guest Speaker: Bill Yoon on Bee Venom use in Korea. Bill came to NZ 18 months ago, trained as a vet, but is now studying at university. Koreans have been using bee venom therapy for 2000 years for arthritis and acupuncture, applied to 360 points on the body by live bees. Bees are used today in sports medicine. Stings stimulate the adrenal gland which relieve symptoms. Most asians use acupuncture on themselves, they pay $1 per sting. Most who administer bee stings are not medical practicioners but specialise in apitherapy. (continued page 3) Page 2
Honey Chicken Kebabs 625 gram chicken breasts 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons lemon juice 4 tablespoons olive oil 4 tablespoons clear honey lemon wedges Skin the chicken and cut into bite sized cubes. Season with salt and thread onto skewers. Whip the lemon juice with the olive oil and honey until amalgamated and dip the chicken in it.grill or cook over a charcoal barbecue until golden just cooked through (approx 3 1/2 mins). Return to the honey mixture several times during cooking and turn constantly while cooking as the glaze burns easily. Serve hot with lemon wedges. Oriental Snacks and Appetizers, by Jacki Passmore April Meeting (continued from page 2) Bee venom can also be collected without killing the bees by use of an electric grid placed on top of the hive. It is possible to collec about 4 grams of venom per hive in 16 weeks (collecting one day per week), which can be sold for up to $500 per gram (depending on purity). Bill had a friend overseas who developed a better system of collecting using ultrasound. Perhaps there are prospects for NZ Beekeepers to get into this by-product. The meeting concluded at 10pm. Waireka Honey Centre For a full range of Ecroyds Beekeeping Supplies Phone 0800-5BEEHIVE (0800-523344) or 06-324 8224 We will trade Honey, Beeswax or Pollen for Gear Contact Marjorie or Kevin Kibby for further details or to place an order Same day shipping for orders placed by 10am SH1, RD 3, Palmerston North (24kms north of Foxton on SH1) Page 3
About The Apiary There is very little to do to your bees this month as they have gone into their winter cluster and will now only fly on warm days. Most of the drones will have been thrown out and the last lot of brood is about to emerge. Entrances should have been reduced to prevent mice and winter drafts from entering the hive. Keep the grass down and if you wish, provide an additional piece of timber in front of the landing board, so those bee coming in short of the landing board, can easily walk into the hive. Give the hives additional (but not too much) ventilation by putting a match stick in each corner, of the hive mat or crown board. Check in a month's time by removing the roof and looking under the crown board. If it is reasonable dry inside put back together and forget about it until September. If wet, give more ventilation by putting a slightly bigger stick under each corner. Check in a few weeks to see that it has dried out inside. It should be. Feed - If you are not sure how much food is in the hive - heft from the handle in the top box. The hive should be very heavy. If its easy to rock forward, it will need feeding, with sugar syrup, (thick as possible 8 litres?) or put on that box of honey you were holding in reserve. There is a trap here. If you had an old queen last season, there could be an awful lot of pollen (up to half a box) stored in the frames making the box feel heavy. You'll have to judge the weight for yourself. If you are not sure, put some raw sugar in the top feeder (if you have one) as emergency food, add a little water to the edge of the sugar and the bees will take it down into the super if they need it. For the rest of the winter, read some good books, and plan for next year. It pays to order new queens now, as well as replacement wood-ware. Winter is the time to get everything ready for the next season. Wasp Nests Killed any of these recently. Wasp numbers are dropping rapidly as the queens are no longer producing brood. (Well here in Wellington anyway). We had a call from a lady who had used carbaryl at the entrance but didn't kill the nest. There weren't enough flying to take it in. When I opened the nest up, it was full of semi-hibernating queen wasps, about thirty of them. These were dispatched and won't be a problem next year. Fly spray or a sprayer with a good squirt of dish washing liquid to a litre of water will kill most wasps, but wrap up before hand - their stings hurt for days afterwards. Page 4
Late Flow Autumn has been so warm that the bees have taken advantage of late flowering plant: Boxthorn is flowering, north of Wellington (dark honey), Lancewood (finished in some areas), Banksia (very good producer during winter), Inkweed, (the bees can have this stuff - it tastes awful), Scarlet Gums plus quite a few ornamental. It pays to plant a few of these trees in your garden or close by for your bees. Frank Lindsay Multiple Sclerosis (True story by Duane Perron) My name is Duane Perron. I am 65 years old and I have had Multiple Sclerosis since 1978. I was involved in a double-blind study in 1983 because things had gotten very bad. My MS is classified as Progressive-Relapsing MS. The treat-ment given was a mixture of ACTH and Cyclospasmal. It was able to hold my MS from getting worse for 5 years. I went for a second treatment but that was not effective. Since then I have been slowly going down hill. The newest aids out do not work on my type of MS and if it wasn t for my determination to ex-ercise each day and not give in to MS I would have gotten much worse then I did. I had read about Bee Venom Therapy and Acupuncture on the Internet. I tried to get involved in the first but the clinics that were giving the injections and the year of study were too far away for me to participate. So I decided to somehow try acupuncture. My primary care physician (Dr. Jack Chang) is Chinese so I asked him who to go to. His answer changed my whole life. He said that he did not know any acupuncturists in the area but he gave me the address and telephone number of the New England School of Acupuncture located in Watertown, MA. He said call them, tell them your problem with MS and ask for a name of a local acupuncturist to consult. I did and the next day they called back with the name of Cynthia LaBruzzo in Chelmsford, MA (the next town) and her phone number. They also told me that she had treated MS patients before with good results. I called her and made an appointment for that Saturday. That was 2 months ago and this is what happened. I told her all about my MS. She took my pulse and checked my tongue and asked a great many questions about my MS and what exactly I wanted treated. My MS is on the left side of my body from head to toe. The optic nerve in my left eye does not function. I cannot hear in my left ear. I have trigeminal neuralgia on the left side of my face. My left arm is weakened. I drag my left leg along when I walk (shuffle). I cannot lift my left foot or wiggle my left toes. I have spasicity in both legs but very much so in the left leg (to add insult to injury, I am 100% left handed). She has been treating me for 2 months with bee venom therapy. (continued on page 7) Page 5
The Lesson When circumstances permit, I take the opportunity to spend time working with Frank Lindsay to further my knowledge of the many facets of beekeeping, and almost without exception something new is learnt on each occasion, whether it is during discussions in the honey house, or in the apiary. Recently we were preparing to remove honey (ie. stripping down, inspecting brood for disease, then reassembling with a bee escape board in place so that the beeless honey supers may be removed for extracting the next day. It was while I was in that familiar head down and other bits up position inspecting brood that a dreadful banshee like wailing and screaming started up 3 metres to my rear. Naturally, I reacted like a fartled stawn and took off at high speed without a backward glance. When I realised that I was not being pursued, I cautiously returned to the apiary and there was Frank cavorting about in an extraordinarily energetic manner. The dexterity of his footwork would have made Michael Flately and the entire cast of Lord of the Dance green with envy. I also have no doubt that Luciano Pavarotti would have been proud to produce the same vocal range. Unfortunately what Frank was trying to impart was lost on me entirely. For all I knew he may have been coming into season and was engaged in some ritualistic mating dance (which in itself was frightening, as I was, to the best of my knowledge, the only living creature within a kilometre). Some three or four minutes had passed since the original howling had rent the air and Frank, by now exhausted, but finally coherent, with tears streaming from his eyes, explained that he had been stung in the scrotum. This of course started tears streaming from my eyes but for an entirely different reason. I think that it was at this moment that Frank realised that if he was after sympathy, he was talking to the wrong person. This then, was today s lesson: If you are going to wear boxer shorts for underwear, NEVER NEVER NEVER forget to tuck your trousers into your socks!! Incidentally, I absolutely refused to allow Frank to remove the sting in case by some outside chance we were observed. Lets face it - what would you think if you encountered two grown men in the bush dressed in funny suits and one of them, the one making the funny whimpering noises, was standing there partially disrobed holding his genitals in his hand. Frank had to endure the 45 minute drive home to the privacy of his own bathroom to remove the offending barb by which time of course, the venom sack had long since emptied its entire contents. Anonymous Page 6
Blue Mountains Apiaries Purchase Clean beeswax in blocks per kg $5.25 Dark beeswax in blocks per kg $4.00 15% off if Wax is dirty Richard will assist with your requirements for woodwork. He will also purchase your old wax as described above. Phone 528 7780. Multiple Sclerosis (continued from page 5) About 2 weeks ago my wife and I went grocery shopping and as we left the store I said to her, Stay behind me and watch how I walk. She did and she said, You are taking much larger steps, you are lifting up your left leg not dragging it, and you are standing up straight! I did the same thing at both of our daughters houses. Then that Wednesday I had an appointment with my eye doctor (Dr. John Capino) for a 6 month checkup and he said to me, I don t know the reason but in all the tests run today, the parameters on the results have at least doubled. That should not occur but it did! I also have cut down on the medication I was taking for trigeminal neuralgia from 4 tablets a day to 1 tablet a day. The only reason I am taking that is because my acupuncturist, Cynthia, didn t want me to stop completely yet even though I feel that I don t need any because of the needles she puts in my left jaw. But the best is yet to come. Over Labor Day weekend, my wife and I went away to the ocean for a bit of time off together. We stayed right on the beach. We walked around town, went out to eat some, did some cooking in the motel unit, read a lot, and each day we walked through the beach sand to the water and waded in the water and waves a number of times each day. Now I haven t been able to walk in the sand at a beach or let waves hit my legs for at least 12 years! But I did that week and I did it bare footed without my brace, just my cane for balance. On the last day, I walked down to the water alone and then down the beach at the water s edge for about 3 city blocks and then back. All this was again bare footed, etc. I thank God for ALL he has done for me and for leading me to Cynthia my acupuncturist. She has really been so helpful and caring. I also know that this will continue to improve. I had a friend tell me, Finding a good acupuncturist is like finding a good doctor...and it seems you have finally found your angel. Sourced from www.acupuncture.com Page 7
Wanted Our hitherto regular source for photocopying for the newsletter (Richard Hatfield supported by Wang) is no longer available to us, so we are looking for a replacement. If anyone can volunteer to produce 100 copies of the magazine (2 A4 pages each doulble sided), then please let James Scott (565 0789) know. Feed Sugar Anyone after sugar for feeding bees? I was quoted the following prices (all GST inclusive) when I phoned a couple of suppliers last week, but you may find better deals at other outlets: Davis Trading Co. - 25 kg bags for $23.50 (94c/kg) - open 7 days Moore Wilson - 35 kg bags for $31.62 (90c/kg) - late night Wed (7pm) If there was sufficient interest, then someone may volunteer to organise the purchase of a larger quantities of sugar for several members, with possibly lower prices than those quoted above for single bags. Future Meetings Our secretary, John Burnet, is currently planning some interesting sessions for this year. Please mark these dates in your diary and come along. June (8th): Gadgets and Gizzmos - Bring your favourite inventions along July (13th): AGM and Mead Competition (refer to recipe inside!) August (10th): If there are any topics of particular interest which you would like discussed at future meetings, or if you know of an interesting speaker who is able to talk about a topic of relevance to beekeepers, then please advise John Burnet. For Sale / Wanted Wanted: Nuc or small swarm unlikely to last the winter (to combine with similar one of mine). James Scott, 565 0789. Wanted: 2 pollen traps, OAC or equivalent. Ph Todd Lurman 526 5024 Don t forget when selling any used hive gear, the seller must inform MAF Palmerston North, so it can be tracked in the case of an exotic disease outbreak. Purchasers should sign the form supplied by MAF. Page 8