Beekeepers to meet here

Press, 20 July 1979, Page 6

Beekeepers to meet here

The Under-Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, Mr R. L. G. Talbot, will officially open the annual conference of the National Beekeepers’ Association of New Zealand, which begins in Christchurch next Wednesday. It is expected to bring together about 150 persons from all parts of the country.

Early in the proceedings the introduction of the honey bee to New Zealand will be recalled when Mr R. C. Overton, of Raumati, Scargill, will present a copy of the portrait of his great grandmother for safekeeping by the Canterbury Museum. Miss Mary Bumby, who married the Rev. Gideon Smales, brought the first honey bees to the country when she arrived at Hokianga in the James on March 13, 1839. A brother, the Rev. John Bumby, was an early Wesleyan missionary. The conference will be preceded by a seminar at the Russley Hotel next Tuesday following enrolment and morning coffee beginning at 9.45 a.m. Topics will include pollination, trees and bees. One of the speakers will be Mr Bruce White, the assistant principal livestockofficer (apiculture) in New South Wales, who is the principal apicultural officer in the state. He will be talking about European foul brood, a serious disease of bees in Australia that affects bee larvae and ultimately results in the complete destruction of hives. It is a disease that New Zealand happily does not have.

Mr Andrew Matheson, apicultural advisory officer with the Ministry of Agriculture in Nelson, is also

due to speak to the seminar about the varroa mite, which is becoming a major problem of bees in Europe. It builds up into big numbers before it is realised that it is present and there is so far no cure for it. It has the effect of debilitating the bees. New Zealand is also free of this pest and while no-one would wish to benefit from the misfortunes of others, this could further enhance the fairly sizeable export of Queen bees already established to the Middle East.

A display of hive moving equipment will be a feature of the lunch break during the seminar. It will include electronic and radio controls for hydraulic loaders designed by Staveley bee-keeper, Mr John Symes, 30ft boom loaders, tail gate loaders, motorised barrows and a motorised conveyor belt for loading honey on to trucks.