General meetings

The meetings of the Ipswich and West Moreton Beekeepers Association are held on the first Tuesday of each month (except January) at the W.G. Hayden Humanities Centre, Cnr. South and Nicholas Streets, Ipswich commencing at 7.30pm.

All welcome.

BUDDIES

If you are just starting out in beekeeping our volunteer buddies - "fonts of knowledge" - Ray Goldsworthy, Bill Wells, and Phil Geeves (and no doubt others) will be only too happy to help you.  Just give them a call.

REGISTRATION

Before the meeting ALL members are requested to pay a $1 registration fee.

CLUB SHIRTS, BADGES AND CAPS

If any of the newer members of the club are interested in having a club shirt and badge please see Secretary Noela. The price of shirts is $16.50 and the badge is $8. We now have the club caps available for sale at $15. Buy one at the next meeting.

SUPPORT THOSE WHO SUPPORT YOU

You will all no doubt have noticed that the IWMBA has been very fortunate to benefit from the generosity of both Noel Hutchinson at Quality Beekeeping Supplies ph 3376 5404 and Rod Palmer at C.B. Palmer and Co ph 0417 796 257.  Please remember these very good friends with your business.
 Also don’t forget that should you require troughs to make your own beetle trap bottom boards Lou Uljarevic ph 5465 8130 still has them available.
Thanks also to Councillor Trevor Nardi for photocopying your newsletter.

LIBRARY

As a new facility, all our videos are now available on DVD.
 Library books, videos and now DVDs  are able to be
 borrowed for one month at a time.
 If you wish to keep the book, video or DVD for another month,
 bring it back and it can be re-issued to you.
Any books, videos or DVDs lost or damaged will have
 to be paid for by the borrower.

PRESIDENTS REPORT

Hello everybody. It was great to see so many members at our last meeting along with a couple of visitors 55 in total. Thank-you to Trevor Weatherhead for coming along and talking to us about whats happening in the Q.B.A. and also a big thank-you to Rod Palmer for coming along and showing us some of  his latest products. Unfortunately we run out of time to talk about our planned topic of nosema we have rescheduled that for our April meeting.
We also had a great roll up to our practical day at Pine Mountain approximately 32. We welcomed some visitors there as well. Great to see. Thank-you all for coming along. Some of our newer members and inexperienced beekeepers enjoyed some hands on experience with the club hives. We have installed a variety of small hive beetle traps kindly donated by Rod Palmer, these traps will be removed and looked at on the Field day.
Planning for our Field day March 6th is coming along nicely. Please keep that date free we'll be needing plenty of help on the day with setting up starting at 7.30am, kitchen duties, selling raffle tickets, club hives through-out the day and packing up in the afternoon, if you can help at any stage it will be much appreciated.
Don't forget the honey competition at our March meeting. Hope to see you there.   

MARCH MEETING

Tuesday 1st March
The March Meeting is the in house honey competition between Members.  The honey schedule is included with the Newsletter. Trevor Weatherhead will be the judge.  Members only need to supply 1 bottle for each class.  If you have not entered before go ahead and give it a go.  Trevor will also give some tips on entering honey in shows when he reads out the results in each class.

FIELD DAY

Field Day - Sunday 6th March
Members are asked to keep Sunday 6th March free for the Club's Annual Field day at the Pine Mountain Hall, Pine Mountain Road, Pine Mountain.  If  Members are not sure where to go ask some of the Members.  A programme is included with the Newsletter.  There is also the honey, cake and biscuit competition between the other beekeeping clubs in the area for the Inter-Club Trophy.  The Ipswich Club is currently the holder of the Trophy and don't want to lose it so Members are asked to enter the competition.  The schedule for the honey competition and the recipes for the cake and biscuit competition are included with the Newsletter.  Entries for the competition need to be entered by 9.00 am if possible with the opening of the Field Day at 9.15 am.  Members are asked to be out at the hall by 7.30 am as it takes sometime to set everything up for a successful day.  Many hands make light work.  There will be a food and drink tent.  Quality Beekeeping Supplies (bee equipment), Ensystex (a pamphlet on their small hive beetle traps are included with this Newsletter), Peak Crossing Craft Group (craft goods) and Moore Bee-J Products (beeswax based products eg face cream and soap etc) are some of the stalls that will be present on the day.  Entry for the day is $2.00 which includes a lucky door prize.  There will also be a raffle with many prizes.

DATES TO REMEMBER

1st  March                        Club Meeting
6th March                        Club Field Day
7th March                        Committee Meeting
5th April                          Club Meeting

COMMITTEE MEETING

The next committee meeting will be held on Monday 7t  MARCH  at secretary Noela’s home at 7.30pm. All members are welcome.

SUPPER

March      -    Matthew Cooper and Phil Dunlop
April        -    Ken Freiberg and Elizabeth Finney

                                                                              FLORA

According to the DPI Wagon Wheel we should be seeing in March:  Blue Heliotrope, Brown Bloodwood, Gum Topped Box, Molly Red Box, Pink Bloodwood,  Pumpkin, Red Stringybark, Silver-Leaved Ironbark, Turnip Weed, Blackbutt, Grey Gum & Paper bark Tea Tree

                                                                                                                                                    
HONEY BUCKETS

Pails at cost - $3.50 for 15kg and $6.00 for 30kg.  Unfortunately we are no longer able to source the 22kg size.  George can obtain these for you.

BOTTLES

If any member requires 500gm. bottles for competitions they are available, also the club has 1kg. Plastic bottles. The latter are priced at 60cents each. Phone Vice-President George to place an order.

MEMBERS DETAILS

If any members have changed their contact details, phone, email etc., can you please contact Phillip Geeves, 3282 3989.

ASIAN HONEY BEE (Apis Cerana)

In the Sunday Mail on 20th February, page 13 then continued on pages 42-43 is an extensive article on the impact of the spread of the Asian honey bee as the funding by state, territory and federal authorities have decided that the eradication program is to be axed as it is deemed to be no longer technically feasible.  This article and the effect of the spread of this pest will be discussed at our next and no doubt future meetings.

                                                        
SHOW DATES

6 & 7 May                   Marburg
13 to 15 May               Ipswich
20 to 22 May               Boonah
27 to 29 May               Esk       
3 & 4 June                   Lowood
10 & 11 June              Toogoolawah                                           
17 & 18 June              Kalbar
24 to26 June               Rosewood
1 to 3 July                   Redcliffe
9 & 10 July                 Laidley
23 & 24 July               Mt Gravatt
11 to 20 August          EKKA
9 & 10 September       Beaudesert

An article on Showing Honey at Agricultural Shows by kind permission of Bruce White is included with the Newsletter to give Members some hints on preparing and showing honey.

QUEENS

To help Members who lost hives in the floods, the Club is going to do a once only order of queens so other Members can split their hives and help these Members affected.  Exact numbers are required at the March Meeting or if not able to attend the Meeting please phone Secretary Noela with the number of queens required before the Meeting and depending on the queen bee supplier the delivery date will be either the 11/03/11 or 18/03/11.  The price will be confirmed but should be around $15.00 and $16.00 for a marked queen.  Members wishing to participate in this must bring along a clean box with 10 frames with foundation to the March Meeting.  The excluders were taken off the 2 hives that Ian Workman kindly donated to get the queen laying in the top box and these hives will be used as well.

The following story is from the Sunday Mail (February13)

Myrtle rust here to stay.

Professional horticulturists, gardens and environmentalists have had their worst fears realized with official confirmation that the South American myrtle rust (Uredo rangelii) is now widespread and impossible to eradicate.

The fungal disease, first detected in NSW in April last year, has resisted containment and eradication.  This may be the most serious imported disease to ever enter Australia.

The disease is characterized by yellow pimples that explode to release thousands of airborne spores.  All myrtaceous plants are potentially susceptible.  This means bottlebrush, gum trees, Geraldton wax flower, golden penda, lemon myrtle, lilly-pilly hedges, paperbarks, tea-trees and many less common species.

And it is not just garden plants that are affected.  Native bushland is at risk too.  Myrtle rust destroys new foliage, stunts growth, and in some cases, kills the entire plant.

Suspected infestations of myrtle rust must, by law, be brought to the attention of government authorities.  Infected plants should not e removed nor should attempts be made to destroy plants as to do so risks spreading the disease.  If you see plants you suspect are infected with myrtle rust fungi, contact Biosecurity Queensland on 13 25 23.  For further information on the disease and to see images of infected plants, go the www.dpi.qld.gov.au and enter “myrtle rust” as your search term.

Excerpt from Gardening Australia Magazine (March 2010)

Bees in America
Following the collapse of honeybee populations in the US,
there is now a decline in native American bumblebee populations.  
A nationwide survey completed recently showed that four species
of American bumblebee have declined by up to 96 per cent.

SWARMS

Many swarms are being reported and following are just two examples.  The first is from Trevor Nardi:

These bees were 20 feet up a tree in a back yard at Newtown, Ipswich.  As you can see they were well established (maybe a year or two).  It took about an hour to set up and retrieve.  They were amazingly quiet, maybe they wanted a better home.

The following swarm was collected by Ray Goldsworthy:  The container had sat in a yard in Rocklea for several years and the swarm was discovered when they went to move the container.