Tag: news

Hello everyone

Spring has certainly started with a bang – already beekeepers are out and about checking hives, finishing off treatments and preparing for what we hope is a strong start to the Season.

At this time of year treatments, patties for improving/growing brood and foundation/frames/total frames for increasing hive numbers and honey supers, are the name of the game. So here is to being organised!! LOL

New Zealand Beeswax Ltd continues to offer Christchurch Beekeeping Club Members Varroa Treatments at special Club rates. Remember to rotate your treatments.

The following Treatments are available at special Club rates:

• Apivar – 2 x Strips per brood box – Various pack sizes. 4 Strip Packs at the special rate of $32.00 (normally $38.77). 12 Strip Packs at $75.00 (normally $83.66). 60’s packs at $360.00 per pack (normally $418.34)
• Bayvarol – boxes of 20 strips, individually packed in lots of 4 strips / 4 x strips per Brood Box. Priced for Club Members at $65.00 (normally $72.22) each box of 20 strips (800 strip boxes also available to Club Members at the 12+ carton rate of $1955.00)
• Formic Pro – 2 dose pack for 2 Hives. Organic treatment gets below capped cells. Best used in Spring/Summer. Requires 3 x consecutive 10+ degree days. Special Club price $30.00 (normally $37.38)
• Small pottles of Oxalic Acid (300 grams) at $9.00

Additional Club Specials

Bees are awake and hungry – make sure you maintain their food source as changeable Spring weather can knock hives back. Many Hives risk starvation at this time of year.

Order direct to tanya@beeswax.co.nz or ring us on 03 693 9189 ext 1 (Caroline) or 2 (Tanya)

• Easy Checks; (The genuine Easy Check!!) @ $30.00
• Fondant – $9.00 per pack
• Megabee Patties 5 kg Box (made at our Orari Premises) with/without Hive Alive additive. Can be frozen.
5kg Megabee Patties (Standard) @ $47.00 (normally $52.90).
5kg Megabee Patties with Hive Alive @ $52.00 (normally $59.80)
• Hive Alive 100mls (proven bee gut health and stops sugar syrup from fermenting. $30.00

As always – NZ Beeswax can supply all your Beekeeping requirements. Foundation, Frames, Feeders, Storeys etc, as well as the best bee nutritional products and varroa mite treatments.

Order early and I can deliver to your next Meeting on October 5th to save additional courier costs

Deca Holders
A refresher course will be held at the club site after Club Day on 4th October.
To book in, please go to the NZBB / HiveHub and add your name to the list so we know you’re attending.
The refresher will be run by Lindsay. If you’re unsure or need more details, contact Lindsay on 021 116 6713.

Gardening & General Help
We’re looking for volunteers to help with gardening and other tasks around the club. If you can lend a hand—whether during the week or on weekends—please get in touch with Dave on 027 782 2416. You might be surprised at how you can help!

Riccarton Rotary Market – Sunday 28th
The club will have a stall at the market, and we need beekeepers to chat with the public about bees. This is a free event, and you might even learn something new yourself!
If you can spare even a couple of hours between 9am and 2pm, please contact Jeff Gibson to add your name to the roster.

• The last field day of the season we’ll be having a BBQ, please bring salad or appropriate. The day will end with a short planting session, a mini working bee.
• Help create our new hedge, we are asking you to bring your gardening gear to help with putting in a plant or two at the end of the session.
• Saturday is all about good Queens, the best way to winter down and food for your bees oh yes another reminder to check for disease and investigate the new HiveHub.
• Show Day Wed 10th – Fri 12th  is coming up where we present to the public and we’ll need folk on the stand to help during the day.  Can you offer a whole or half day? We start our preparations on Tuesday afternoon stacking the truck to take down our stall to the Show Grounds and have it up and ready to go for the start of the show on Wednesday. We also rely on club members to help to heft gear back on the truck and bring it to back to storage at the Hive Site on Friday afternoon.
• Dinner out together -Be in quick to book your place at the dinner on Thursday 13th of May at 6.30pm  – Visions Restaurant three course meal $45.00 per person, drinks available but at your own cost. It’ll be great fun, we’d love to see as many of you along as possible.  Give your name to Dave Spice who’ll be cooking the sausages.
• Mid winter meeting will be at Ara 1.00pm Sunday June 13th – watch for more details to be posted on the website.
• AGM will have Marco speaking and there will be a Honey Show as well.
• August 7th will be our first Field Day
• Keep checking in to our website for any additional announcements – look out for a beginners course in June/July or a working bee in-between.

3 Course Dinner $45
(Gluten Free & Vegetarian Options)
Thursday 13th May
Visions on Campus Ara
6.00 – 6.30 PM Arrival

For bookings contact: David Spice
027 360 139
spiced28@gmail.com

What unbelievable weather! What a change from last year. The bees are loving it and the flowers are thriving on my property.
For all that I have still been feeding syrup and am popping down to Gordon’s to buy some bee patties to put in the bee burgers!
Why syrup at the moment? Because I simply do not trust our weather and the past experiences had in some districts, mine in particular!
I want to fatten them up for wintering over so they generate more heat at minus 6degC.
For the purists amongst you, I simply want to get the bee numbers up in each hive.  I will be leaving a near full box of honey on each one with 4l of syrup to boot!
Come winter, they will have a Jeff Robinson insulating wrap around them. They are also perched on pedestals about
250 mm of the ground. The horses feed right up to, and under them, but never touch the hive. The bees don’t seem to mind!
They are in an open paddock and exposed to the frost and low cold mists, so, for the first time I got through last winter without problems.

WELL next Saturday is our field day, there is a full agenda and the changes are slowly taking take effect.
The committee is starting to see fruition of many hours of talking planning and arguing! They are all putting in amazing hours behind the scenes.
I shake my head in wonderment at their dedication to the club.

Beeline: Just confirmed they will be at our field day, so, get in your order as they will bring up stuff freight free on Saturday!

Working Bee: Was a great success and thank you so much to those who turned up. The hedge is gone, put through the chipper, a tedious, dusty operation. Followed by an equally backbreaking task of the physical removal of the remaining root system.
The toilet linings and vinyl floor covering layed, much wall sheeting done and the sewer connected. Really just the water and cubicles (M&F) to be completed. What terrific effort by the 14 members who turned up! Which reminds me, the paid up membership is now 175!.

Sewer Pipe: Would some of you bring along a good shovel and spend 15mins collectively filling in the sewer trench. With a number of hands it will make the work lighter and quick.

Great Deal! Kerry, our esteemed treasurer, is offering 200 Bayvarol Strips for Varroa treatments in packs of four (enough to treat one hive) $10.00 per pak, that’s $2.50 per strip available on the field day. This is a great opportunity on a first in first served bases.

Dinner Deal! Ara has made a fabulous offer to the club. They are offering a full sumptuous meal to members in their Vision Restaurant Thursday 13^th May 6.30 p.m. at $ 45.00 per head. Bring your family!

Tap on this link: Visions Restaurant   for choices of food: Ring David Spice (027 360 1398 or spiced28@gmail.com) for details the link will take you straight to the website where you can check the menus and food choices etc. BUT, the great news is that all monies will be donated by ARA to our club. Thanks committee man David!.

Queen raffle: Maggie James is offering a queen to raffle, the proceeds are being donated to the club. Thank you so much Maggie, this is a great help to much needed funds.                         .

Club Day Programme:
Hive cleaning on how to remove detritus carefully and safely. This is hands on.

Replacing dirty frames, putting in foundation in frames, general information on MPI pollen sampling and sprays.

Plus general information and hive inspections and other stuff.