Jeff discussed how to make a bee escape board when reducing your hive to one box of brood one box of honey and a feeder for winter.
Pests to watch out for when storing your frames over winter.
Greater and lesser wax moth and their eggs.
Franklin Clubs excellent page on wax moths
Varroa – making sure you put in your treatments for varroa and alternate the type of treatment to make sure your treatment has the greatest effect ridding your hive of varroa mite.
- If you have honey to take off you can store it as comb in the freezer over winter.
- If you have rogue comb, how to extract the honey simply and easily.
- If you have weak hives or lose a queen at this stage the best thing to do is to marry up the hives using the simple newspaper method
basically the same here in NZ– without having to go into the hive to remove paper.
- Feeding your bees in the winter:
- Sugar syrup feeding over winter:
- Pollen patties:
Disease recognition- why check in winter? Your bees will reduce in number with the change in season and they rely on us as beekeepers to check they are healthy and well.
Hive Beetle Trap Surveillance
We are taking part in the hive beetle trap surveillance
- The new small hive beetle project is another example of a project based on biosecurity threat priorities. While small hive beetle isn’t known to be present in New Zealand, its proximity to our country means it’s a threat worth being prepared for.
- This new project is unique in that it calls on volunteer beekeepers from the community to maintain traps in one of their hives. The exotic beetle traps are primarily checked by the volunteer, with the Biosecurity New Zealand surveillance team offering support. If they come across any suspect organisms during their routine checks, they will report these right away.
- Beekeepers interested in joining the small hive beetle surveillance programme should visit the project page.
Small hive beetle is not present in New Zealand. It is a notifiable organism, which means sightings of small hive beetle should be reported as soon as possible to Biosecurity New Zealand by:
- calling the pest and disease hotline on 0800 80 99 66, or
- using the online report form
The larvae of small hive beetle cause the most damage. They tunnel through comb and consume honey, brood, and pollen. The larvae also spread a yeast, called Kodamaea ohmeri, which ferments and spoils honey and may pose a risk of causing infection in humans.
How small hive beetle could arrive
Small hive beetle could reach New Zealand as a hidden stowaway on a range of goods. Pupae and larvae can slow their own growth which means they can hide out for long periods of time – weeks to months – before they emerge as adults. Adult beetles are capable of flying up to 15 kilometres, so could easily move between apiaries.
Download the small hive beetle (Aethina tumida) fact sheet [PDF, 657 KB]