Podcast

Stinking Success – KM114

Posted on by Gary Fawcett

This week we are talking about new weed killer causes a stink, criminal elements, and New Zealand beekeeper found not guilty. This is Episode One hundred and Fourteen of our beekeeping podcast.

Welcome To the kiwimana buzz..

Bethells Beach

Hi, it’s Gary and Margaret here, We are beekeepers from the hills of the Waitakere Ranges on the Wild West coast of West Auckland in New Zealand. Our podcast is about beekeeping, what we have been up to, with a bit gardening and politics about environmental issues affecting beekeeping and bees but we’ve also been known to go off on tangents about other issues.

Thank you for listening to our show, we know life is busy for you and appreciate you and that you have taken the time to join us today

Awesomeness banaNas !!!

What’s Happening at kiwimana

Gary

  • The Beehive was killed in a Rear End Crash last week 🙁
  • Top Beekeeping Podcast Update: Show is back from the dead “Hive Talk with David and Jon” is back after a three year break. Check out our list HERE
  • Released how to install the podcast application post with videos, that is HERE
  • NZ had a election, congratulations to the NZ First party? The only party that is guaranteed to be in power.
  • First Meeting of the Bees Knees Club “Was it a Knees Up?”
Beehve 2000-2017

Margaret

  • Students finally came over for a practical day – took 4 months to finally get this part of our beekeeping course completed – thanks, Simone, Darryl and Dave for their understanding. We ended up going to the education apiary – Kiwimana HQ still an absolute mud-fest so we just showed the students the different types of hive-styles, top bar, long bench hive the LIFESTYLER, 7 frame box size and nucleus boxes, showing how to manage with hive stands.
  • The education apiary girls are really thriving, nectar is flowing over there but the most wonderful sight when looking at the wax comb is seeing how yellow their wax is. They have a few flying drones, but there are more drones coming, the cells of the drones we opened had about 4 mites in so treatments on-going…looks like this is the norm so don’t get caught out, especially if you are looking after your hives in an organic way. Next job is to split these girls.
  • amaZngly ! …..LifeStyler girls still hanging in there much to my surprise, checked them over the weekend and there she was Queenie and she was laying and had some eggs, larvae – added some girls from the education apiary colony and it seems to have really help – warning – disease risks and health of hive you are taking from needs to be considered before making this kind of move; I should have had more faith.
  • This proves to me that Honey Bees are awesome and actually do know what they have to do
  • The lawns are needing a mow …oh well I will get a cuppa sit on the deck and contemplate ….as I watch the forget me knots, dandelions, clematis, and daisies popping their flowers up above the blades of grass
Sunrise at kiwimana 2017

Blog Recap

Top three Blog Posts Last Month

  1. Top 10 Plants For Bees During The Winter Months
  2. Bee Breeding Season Starts in NZed
  3. Bad Beekeeping with Ron Miksha

Beekeeping News

Incredibly stupid things a beekeeper can do

A great post by Rusty from Honey Bee Suite, story that most beekeepers can relate to when harvesting honey, love the quote “Words I didn’t know I knew taint the air.”

The worst beekeeping mistakes come from putting off what you should have done yesterday. Somehow, problems inside a beehive don’t get better by themselves. I keep thinking they will, but they don’t.

Incredibly stupid things a beekeeper can do

Your Feedback

Tracy Robinson – Omg that is soooo funny, I don’t feel quite so daft for some of the things I’ve done after reading that 🙂
Noel McPharlin – The amazing thing is, she remembered it all.

Is this the new Langstroth hive? Made out of concrete!!

An idea from South Africa that may solve the hive thief issues around the world, concrete Beehives? Are these a great idea or just a pain in the back.

Beekeepers in Johannesburg, South Africa, are facing the same declining bee populations that are being seen in the United States. Not only are South African honeybees affected by the usual diseases and pesticides, they are also threatened by fires, honey badgers, and even vandals and thieves.

Is this the new Langstroth hive? Made out of concrete!!

Your Feedback

Paulo Jmd Silva Terrible idea, wood hives are already too heavy so concrete ones must be really bad for people to lift unless you also buy a truck with a crane. Also, have my doubts about it having better insulation than wood but there are not enough details on the specifications to compare with regular wood hives.

Another issue is durability, drop one of those on the ground and it will break easily, do the same with wood ones and no damage is done.

To finish my comment, also have to say that such photo is the perfect example of bad beekeeping if there’s one wildfire on the area you will lose the hive. Concrete won’t protect the bees from extreme temperatures and the wax will melt and catch fire.

Georgie Hape Just what I was gonna ask!.. how do the bees like living in concrete walls??! As ‘Anastasia’ (from The Ringing Cedars of Russia, books) recommends we create a hive home similar to one that they would naturally create…
Paul Scholten – …best get the location right first time round then !!
David Pepper How do you check the lower boxes and harvest honey? With a front end loader?
Debi Jacka ACC are gonna love these sort of claims..
Rowan Crawford Average beekeeper using this:-

Margaret Groot Geez my back started aching just looking at it
Lyle Cairns Since concrete contains known carcinogens, I wonder how much silicon in the honey is acceptable until it’s considered unsafe for human consumption?

This piece of news was brought to you thanks to Graeme and Amanda

Graeme and his lovely other half Amanda are our Patrons who have been supporting the kiwimana buzz since July 2015

hope all is well with you both.

Taranaki beekeeper creates technology to trace honey to hive

Brett Mascull from the Naki New Zealand has come up with a great idea to allow consumer to track where their honey came from.

Using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) – a system that uses radio waves to read tags and cards for identification – the Hivetech system allows for “pot to hive” traceability

  • Brett was recognised with the Roy Paterson Trophy for Innovation at the ApiCulture New Zealand Conference in Rotorua early July.

Taranaki beekeeper creates technology to trace honey to hive

Organic weed killer proves pungent success

The Christchurch City Council is using an Organic weed Killer to reduce the use of glyphosate/Roundup products in their parks. This sounds like a great idea, wouldn’t it be great if Auckland Council Followed suite?

An organic weed killer being used by the Christchurch City Council is proving effective, as Council moves to significantly reduce its use of the potentially dangerous weed killer glyphosate.

Council voted last year to limit the use of glyphosate, commonly sold as Roundup, and move to an organic alternative, along with hand-pulled and mechanically removed weeding.

  • Its combination of natural pine oil and fatty acids. It is a non-residual and non-selective herbicide.
  • Its was Kiwicare’s organic “Weedfree Rapid” article HERE
  • BioGro® Certified Organic for use in organic gardening
  • More information about this Herbicide is HERE
  • Available at Mitre 10 and Placemakers

We tried it a couple of weeks ago, it worked really well on the side of our driveway. Here the photo we discussed:-

Kiwicares organic Weedfree Rapid Result on Driveat

Organic weed killer proves pungent success

Your Feedback

Karl Warr Good on you Christchurch council, doing good is contagious keep it up
Graeme Lundie Gary, any idea what they use ?
Rachel Dell And where to get it?
Phil Chandler White vinegar works.
Jasley McSaveney Nature’s Way spray at Mitre 10 works well too. Based on fatty acids. Has clove oil in it which you can smell. Organic.

Bees die in the cold after vandals open and kick hives

Wellingtons Local Flavour Urban Honey’s Cenna Lloyd has had hives kicked overexposing them to the elements. Sounds like kids but that doesn’t make the loss any better.

Twice this month, vandals have opened the hives in the Berhampore community garden, killing about 10,000 bees in one hive by exposing them to the cold.

Bees die in the cold after vandals open and kick hives

Your Feedback

Gareth Bellamy asse holes
Margaret Groot Blimmin’ b#“st#ds

Are we helping you?

Do you think that you have received even one piece of information from our work that has helped you in your beekeeping?
Do you think that information was worth $1 a month?
If so you can help us to help you by becoming a Patron and your $1 will make sure you keep getting heaps of stuff coming to you

Easy to do here : http://kiwi.bz/banana

New Zealand beekeeper found not guilty of smuggling cocaine hidden in suitcase

Roy Arbon who was accused of smuggling cocaine has won his case and will be returning back to New Zealand.

A 68-year-old New Zealand man has been found not guilty of smuggling more than two kilograms of cocaine into Perth.

We hope Roy settles back into normal life again and gets back into his beekeeping.

New Zealand beekeeper found not guilty of smuggling cocaine hidden in suitcase

Your Feedback

Stephen Stewart Rather expensive powder to use for varroa testing?
kiwimana Roy is a Treatment free Beekeeping Stephen, that is why I knew he was innocent of this crime. Great to see he got off and is heading home soon.

Questions from you

Ian Openshaw asked a question

Hi, Margaret.
I hope all is well?
I know that you’re a big fan of oxalic acid.
I’ve a brood box that’s been regularly treated throughout winter with Apivar, I’m told.
I haven’t taken a count yet, but was thinking of starting an acid course, prior to taking a mite count after the first week.
What are your thoughts?
Apistan has been suggested, also?

I’m determined to declare war on them mites this year!
Regards, Ian.

If you have a question, email us at [email protected] and will answer it on the next show. Or visit our speakpipe page HERE and leave a question

If you have a Urgent Question, please check out our Bee Knees Facebook group here:-

Random Review

We Love Cake!!!

As a small thank you to our customers we ask for a ‘product review’ and from there, we randomly select one product review each month so they can go in to a draw for a $30 kiwimana gift certificate – a prize you can use !

But the draw winner must – Get in touch within 2 weeks – of the podcast release date to claim your prize.

Feedback from you guys!!!

Facebook

Hayden Northcott from South Waikato

Hi Gary & Margaret!
I was wondering if anybody knew of a beekeeping club in the south Waikato? I’m based in Te Awamutu, and the Waikato club meets too far away from me & too late in the day for it to work for me on a school night (work night).
Thanks in advance!
PS. Loving the podcast! I enjoy your lightheartedness and humour. I listen to it while at work and it helps the day feel a little lighter!

Check out the Waikato Domestic Beekeepers Association

The Twitters

@TulipTreeHoney has some great advice this month

The Bonus Show

In this week’s Bonus show we talk about Varroa Mites have genetic holes in their armour and a handy Chart of bee growth. The bonus show is for our Patrons.

The Bonus show can be found HERE

The Next Show

Practical Beekeeping With Roger Patterson

Roger Patterson has been beekeeping since 1963, he is from West Sussex in the United Kingdom. He is also the author of the book “Beekeeping – A Practical Guide”. He is a practical beekeeper, concentrating on the basics and keeping things simple. He is also the current president of the Wisborough Green Division of the West Sussex Beekeepers Association

This will be released on 11 October for our Patrons and 18 October for the rest of the world.

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Show Times

  • What’s Happening at kiwimana 01:16
  • Blog Recap 11:57
  • Incredibly stupid things a beekeeper can do 15:39
  • Is this the new Langstroth hive? Made out of concrete!! < > 18:13
  • Taranaki beekeeper creates technology to trace honey to hive 23:37
  • Organic weed killer proves pungent success 25:28
  • Bees die in the cold after vandals open and kick hives 30:18
  • New Zealand beekeeper found not guilty of smuggling cocaine hidden in suitcase 34:35
  • Questions from you 36:57
  • Random Review 41:02
  • The Bonus Show 44:08
  • The Next Show – Practical Beekeeping With Roger Patterson 44:29

Media Credits

Avatar photo
Gary Fawcett

Gary is the web designer and chief Propeller-head at kiwimana. He enjoys designing products which solve problems and is passionate about saving the Bees and encouraging urban beekeeping. Gary loves to write about issues that affect the Bees and our environment. He is one of the hosts of the kiwimana buzz Beekeeping podcast.

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