Christchurch Beekeepers Club

Field Day
2024-02-03 09:30 - 12:30, 2024-01-13 09:30 - 12:30, 2023-09-02 09:30 - 12:00 (Pacific/Auckland) | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand

Field Day Xmas eddition
2023-12-02 09:30 - 12:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand

Working bee
2023-11-25 08:30 - 12:00 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
Firstly Thank you so much to everyone who has volunteered their time and nergy to making the club grounds look as good as they do.
And thank you also for the volunteers and helpers at the A & P show. The stand looked great and it couldn’t have been done without all our wonderful volunteers.
This Saturday at the club, we plan to load up Jeffs truck and trailer with all the weeds and tree stumps that are still there
.
Other important jobs will be
Windbreaks to be secured.
Sump to be cleared out
Sorting shed space
Sorting out library
If you have a weedeater please bring it along, plus spades, shovels, forks, pruning tool etc.
Just as a reminder folks
Subs are due for the 2023/2024 season – please submit $45.00 online via the club website. The account details are on the website – just Press the Join Button.

Thanks

Please contact me on 027 721 4338 if any queries.

Lee Carmichael

A&P Show
2023-11-15 - 2023-11-17 | canterbury show grounds, 102a Curletts Road, Hillmorton, 8042, Christchurch, New Zealand

Field Day
2023-11-04 09:30 - 12:00 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
Shout out for help with our library- can you help we need librarians to help our members access our excellent books. Let Jo know if you can help 021 410429.
Please park on the road, the field is unavailable.
A small plate of food to share is always welcome.
Brian Pilley will be up this week if you need gear contact him asap at Beeline Supplies.
We will be waxing frames, checking for disease in our 4 hives this week to complete our COI-Lindsay will supervise.
Mead and mead making is our focus with honey comb cutting -ready for Christmas gifts.
Our next working bee will be on the 25th early start early finish.
A&P Show -helpers see Allan Patterson and Jo
On sale we have: $3.00 Sticky boards
$10.00 -hive tool
$15.00 engraved hive tool.

Field Day
2023-10-07 09:30 - 14:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
TO DO FOR THIS WEEKEND 9.30 START
BEELINE SUPPLIES/ Brian Pilley will be here with bee gear for sale.

BEEKEEPING HEALTH and SAFETY

Walk around re health and safety

Remember re cleaning their gear.

SWARM TIME and how to deal with it, catching swarms, splits and disease and treatments and spring dwindling.

Jeff showing
9.30am- 10 am-showing waxing frame demonstrations (wiring and embedding). pollen trap is set up.
Plate to Share

Beginners Course Part 2
2023-09-09 09:00 - 16:00 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
2 day Beginners’ Beekeeping Course
22 July & 9 Sept 2023 – 9:00 – 4:00
Part One: Planning your Beekeeping for Pleasure or Profit

What do you need to know before you begin
Costs
Your legal requirements
Where’s best for your hives
The time it takes to beekeep
Plants to grow
Diseases and downsides

Part Two: Building and creating the hive and equipment you need

Build your hive
Learn how to maintain it
The best tools to use and why
Products you need and what you do with them and where to buy them
Clubs and organisations locally and nationally that will support you

Cost $50 for members- non-club members $95.00.
Prepay to register using the Club’s bank account,
Number 03 – 0767 – 0323307 – 00
Remember to put your name and BEECOURSE in the details and contact Kerry Kearney to confirm 021 120 0135
Additional contacts for details of the course are the tutors:
Gordon N 027 538 9568 or Jeff R 021 073 4148.

AGM
2023-08-19 13:30 - 17:00 | Catholic Church Holy Trinity Hall, 108 Jefferies Rd, Bryndwr, Christchurch
All members are welcome to attend.
The Silence of the Mites-
Our speaker is Rose McGruddy whose study into varroa mites will be of interest to us all.

We are also calling for expressions of interest in the role of club secretary please get in touch with any of the committee or directly with Jo if you think you will be able to help.

Field Day
2023-08-05 09:30 - 12:00 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
We will meet wet or dry.

Beginners Course Part 1
2023-07-22 09:00 - 16:00 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand

Disease Recognition Course
2023-06-18 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
run by Lindsay

60th Anniversary Dinner
2023-05-27 | Canterbury
Order your tickets now through David Spice – pay Kerry.
David Spice spiced28@gmail.com027 360 1398
Kerry Kearney kkearney594@gmail.com
Club’s bank account, number 03 – 0767 – 0323307 – 00
Please put your telephone number and Dinner in the reference field when you make the payment.

Christchurch Hobbyist Beekeepers Honey Show
2023-05-06 09:30 - 14:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
The 2023 Honey Show will be held at the Club Site on Sat May 6th 2023, so do come along and enter your hive products.
All members, novice and experienced, can participate in the Honey Show. Follow the rules posted, to be in to win one of the two Club Shields -the 2023 Novice or the Experienced Beekeepers Club Shield. Prizes to be announced later.
A shield is awarded to the entrant with the most points overall and a novice shield is awarded to a first or second year beekeeper. (This must be stated at the time).
General Rules:
• Members may only have one entry per class. If required, guidance will be given as to which class your entry should be exhibited in. The judges decision will be final.
• Exhibits must be delivered at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the judging.
• Liquid and creamed honey must be in standard 500 gm square”round” plastic jars with white lids.
• No labels on jars.
• Only exhibits from Financial members will be accepted.
• Write your initials (which may be on a small sticky label) on the BASE of the exhibit.
Classes:
1. Dark honey creamed
2. Dark honey liquid
3. Light honey creamed
4. Light honey liquid
5. Wax blocks 500 gm minimum weight
6. Mead 750 ml clear glass bottle
Details of each class
1 & 3. Dark creamed honey or light creamed honey
The entrant is to decide which class to enter.
The judge will take notice of flavour, colour, fineness of grain and freedom from foreign material. Please remember to obtain standard show jars. The reason for this uniformity is that different types of jars have varying light densities depending on the thickness of the glass.
2 & 4. Light liquid honey or dark liquid honey the same criteria as above.
5. Wax
Each exhibit must be at least 500gms in weight and from this season. It must be presented as tipped from the mould; points will be lost for chipping or scraping.
The Judge will look for colour, texture and purity. No restriction as to the shape of the mould.
Entrants are advised not to heat wax in iron or enamel containers as this can discolour the wax, for preference use an aluminium container. Do not overheat the wax; strain through stocking or similar; cool very slowly as this makes for uniformity of texture and freedom from cracking. Avoid propolis as this tends to darken the wax. Pure bees wax only to be used. One tea-spoon of vinegar helps to clarify wax.
6. Mead 750 ml clear glass bottle with removable cork or screw top.
No labels on bottle.
Write your initials (which may be on a small sticky label) on the BASE of the exhibit.

Club day
2023-04-01 09:30 - 14:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
At 9.30 there will be a practical session where you will get to learn about how to select, take out, and clean up old frames.
We will answer questions and demonstrate methods for what you can do with the waste wax, honey, pollen or nectar.
We aim to cover these topics and to answer your questions during the main session.
Points covered will be:

Putting wets back on your hive.
What is happening in your hive now what you need to attend to this month in your hive.
A reminder about treatments & completing your AVR on HiveHub.
There will be onsite learning – with our regular inspections of the Club’s hives. Do we need to feed them? Remove and replace any frames?
Upcoming courses and of course a reminder about our 60th Anniversary Dinner.

Club day
2023-03-04 09:30 - 14:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
9.30 am Saturday 4th March 2023 Field Day Timetable

This Saturday is Gadget Day. The best Gadget will be judged -by Brian Pilley from Beeline he will award prizes for 1st, ($50.00 voucher) 2nd, ($35.00 voucher) and 3rd, ($25.00 voucher). Brian is up this weekend so please send him your order by the cut off of Thursday lunchtime.
Are you the going to be a winner in our gadget competition? It doesn’t take much to come up with a little something that helps you as a beekeeper, if you have that little something -please share it with us.
Gordon will be demonstrating how to make oxalic acid strips -: Making oxalic acid strips from a pack- hiveworld.
60th Anniversary Dinner is coming up (see menu included)- please see Kerry if you have any questions. This is our one time opportunity to celebrate together, an evening where both our new beekeepers and older more experienced beekeepers can relax and talk about the Club and what it means to you. We’d love to have as many people along as possible.
If you need any plastic jars for honey we have bags of 50 jars for $30.00 for sale at the Club site.
Don’t forget we will be exchanging honey with our special 60th Anniversary Label on it between club members. (See Gordon for jars or a place to put your honey).
We will be providing tea and coffee as always and you are welcome to bring a plate with something to share. Bring any medication or your suits, we recommend you carry any medication you think you may need – no point in it being locked up in your car in the paddock. If you have borrowed a suit and accidentally taken it home, we love to have them back so we have plenty available for everyone to use on the Field Days.
Together we will open all the hives to: check for disease, varroa, look for food and brood and check if we need to remove any manky frames or move them to the outside of the box ready to be replaced when empty.
Looking forward to holding another successful Saturday or week day working bee. Check board for the date.
1-day Beginners’ Course was run on Saturday 18th February is was very successful and we are looking at dates in April for doing something similar.

We look forward to seeing you all there.

1-day beginners' course
2023-02-18 08:30 - 16:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
Another 1-day beginners’ course will be run in the new year on Saturday 18th February starting 08:30am and finishing 04:30pm at the club site, at the cost of $50.00 for club members and $95.00 for non-club members.
To register your interest please contact either Gordon N or Jeff R, whose details are listed on the committee members list.
Committee

Club day
2023-02-11 09:30 - 14:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
9.30 we will be offering a NUC for our fundraising raffle, tickets are $2.00 each. (Offered to registered beekeepers of course). So, Sat is for you to bring along your questions, queries and $2.00 coins of course.

We will be demonstrating how to make oxalic strips -: Making oxalic acid strips from a pack- hiveworld

Collect your bee gear from Beeline – they will be there this Saturday.

Committee members on site are available for any questions you may have.

If you need any plastic jars for honey we have bags of 50 jars for $30.00 for sale at the Club site.

We will be providing a BBQ and tea and coffee of course and you are welcome to bring a plate with something to share. (Gluten free sausages offered as well.)

We will go over how to open your hives safely and get to the bottom box happily. All hives will be opened.

Working Bee
2023-01-28 08:30 - 12:00 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
So what needs doing? Can you spend an hour or so helping out to do just one of these tasks? I know you want to help so here’s our dream list to get done:

Hoeing the gardens.. Keep those weeds down
Staking up trees
Helping with framing and prep for pathway
Tidying/cutting up and moving garden waste
Weeding
Raking up

garden waste

pathway

Staking up trees

Hoeing

Weeding

Raking

Club day
2023-01-14 09:30 - 14:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
Happy New Year! This Saturday we will be focusing on how to make the best of your honey harvest and all that extracting honey entails. What makes a great honey harvest? How bees make honey?
We will be covering: what you can do to protect your bees against wasps, how important a good source of water is for your bees, what food bees need to produce a good quantity and quality of honey, harvesting honey, honey extraction, comb cutting, storage of honey frames before and after spinning, how to store extra honey, creaming honey and how to deal with crystallisation and what to check for when opening the hives. Committee members on site are available for any questions you may have.
If you need any plastic jars for honey we have bags of 50 jars for $30.00 for sale at the Club site.
There will be a raffle this Saturday for a NUC (to registered beekeepers only-continued from Dec), tickets are $2.00 each.
Bringing a plate with something to share for morning tea/shared lunch would be really appreciated.
We will go over how to clean up your boxes and frames and rewire them ready to use.
A reminder that next month, February our Field Day falls on Waitangi weekend and will move to the second Saturday of the month, Saturday 11th February.
Looking forward to another Saturday or week day to have a working bee, cleaning up the whare ready for painting and to help in the gardens.

Club day
2022-12-03 09:30 - 14:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
Christmas Party.
How to spin your Honey.

All times are weather depending. If the Hive will be opened.
Happy Season.
Hivemaster Gordon.

Field Day
2022-11-05 10:00 - 15:00 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
Timetable

10.00am
Education, the following main topics will be covered:

Swarm Control
Splits

11.00am
Opening of hives, please bring your beesuit/veil, no other equipment required

12.00pm
Friendly chatter and socialising with a tea or coffee and barbeque, please bring a salad or plate of something you would like to share

Note that Beeline will be there this Saturday with stock for you to purchase.

Build your own Hive
2022-10-15 08:30 - 16:30 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
Build Your Our Own Kitset Hive, beginners day.
Contact Gordon Nairn 027 538 9568 to confirm your place.
Bring your own lunch, and some tools, tea and coffee provided.
$50.00 members $95.00 non-members
Held at the Club site -Cashmere Rd

Field Day
2022-10-01 10:00 - 15:00 | Club, 681 Cashmere Road, Christchurch, Canterbury, 8025, New Zealand
All members and visitors welcome.
Details to follow
Field Days
