Spotted Gum, which has had a long holiday, is budded in many areas but more rain is needed as severely stressed trees drop their buds. Most of this in the South Burnett is expected to flower in July and August.

On the Granite Belt, the New England Blackbutt and Red Stringybark started flowering in late December and are almost finished. Combined with dandelion or flat weed, there seemed to be a super of honey produced although most beekeepers missed the early part of this flow.

Narrowleaf lronbark has budded in many areas and should start flowering in July in the Burnett region and later for the more southerly stands.

Yellowbox looks very healthy and in general seems to have budded, but it has a long time before flowering.

Floods in the Warrego, Paroo and Bulloo Rivers should ensure a good budding on the Yapunyah and provided the rains
come again in April, May and June, good pollen should also be available from the shrubs and wild flowers.

Melaleucas on the coast seem to have been well watered recently so they may yield provided the rain stays away when they are flowering.

Again we depend on the rain but prospects for later in the year look very good so here's hoping for a good season.
 

• Identification of apiaries infected  with AFB.

• Control and eradicate AFB from  infected apiaries

Registrations

A $10 compulsory registration fee was introduced in 1996, enabling a chase-up of beekeepers failing to register, and some improvements to the computer database. There have been 157 new registrations recorded and 948 cancellations. Most cancellations were in the 1-39 hive group and included those who no longer kept bees, or felt they did not receive $10.00 value from beekeeping.

AFB identifications

During 1995 and 96 state-wide seminars were held to raise the awareness of AFB. Beekeepers were encouraged to regularly examine brood, and submit any suspect material for laboratory diagnosis. Some positive AFB cases resulted from this strategy.

In July 1996 honey testing was introduced targeting beekeepers in south-east Queensland with 1-49 hives (post in sample), and all larger beekeepers (via packers).

AFB results of honey testing.

1-49 hives    1138 tested  48 new positive cases
50 or more     304 tested   13 new positive cases

Some beekeepers in south-east Queensland have failed to supply a sample, and will be chased-up as a condition of re-registration this year. Beekeepers with 1-49 hives in the remainder of Queensland will be required to submit a bulk honey sample prior to re-registration in 1998.

It is pleasing to note that AFB in the 149 hive group is about half the anticipated rate.

Quarantine and Movement Control

At this time 148 apiaries in Queensland are under quarantine with AFB disease. This prevents sale of hives, and only moving clean hives after a thorough inspection for clinical disease.

Control and eradication

It is not possible for the Department of Primary Industries apiary field staff to undertake all hive inspections and supervise control activities. Three AFB workshops have been held in southeast Queensland for beekeepers with infected hives. At the workshop disease identification, control options and equipment sterilisation are fully covered. This allows the beekeeper to implement an AFB control plan with back-up and advice from the Department of Primary Industries.

There have been success stories with AFB eradicated from 11 apiaries, that have proved negative on hive inspections or repeat bulk honey tests.

Finally

The success of the AFB program rests with every beekeeper. The bulk honey test provides a sensitive detection tool, and control options do work but require commitment. As the AFB spore can survive for many years some set backs can be expected, but with regular brood inspections and use of sanitary beekeeping husbandry the bug can be beaten.

Q1 How many cells in a frame? (incl  both sides)
Q2 What is the average moisture content of honey?
Q3 What is the common name of Lopostemon confertus.
Q4 What is the optimum temperature inside a beehive?
Q5 What is the Botanical name of Grey lronbark?
Q6 How many bees would be found in a strong double hive?
Q7 How many drone bees would be found in the strong double hive?
Q8 How many registered beekeepers are there in Queensland?
Q9 What is AFB, a fungus, bacteria, virus, or microsporidia?
Q10 How many members does the Queensland Beekeepers Association have?

click here for the answers

It has come to our notice that some of you may be confused when you receive the Pathology Report for the honey culture test for AFB. The report contains words such as topography, aetiology, diagnosis, and bacterial colonies. These are scientific terms with which you may not be familiar.

Let us see if I can clarify some of these terms for you, and also explain the meaning of some of the comments which may appear on the Pathology Report.

The first confusing word which appears on the Pathology Report (below your name and address) is topography.
Topography is a term for the description of the organ, location or medium which was examined for evidence of disease. In this case the topography is honey.

The word diagnosis then appears on the report.

Diagnosis is a term for the identification of a disease or condition. If your hives are infected with AFB 'American foulbrood' will appear as the diagnosis.

Aetiology means the agent that is responsible for causing the disease. Again if your hives are infected with AFB, Paenibacillus larvae will be printed beside aetiology if a positive diagnosis of AFB has been made.

Some apiarists have also asked for an explanation of the meaning of the terms used in the comment section of the Pathology Report.

If your honey contains bacterial spores of P. larvae, colonies of this organism will appear on the culture plate after the incubation period. We allocate a category to the positive result according to the number of colonies grown on the culture plate. The categories are designated 1+,2+ end 3+.

• 1+ category means that the number of colonies of P. larvae counted on the culture plate was between 1 and 20.

• 2+ category means that there were 21-50 colonies of P. larvae counted on the plate.

• 3+ category means that more than 50  colonies were isolated.\

If we have not isolated P. larvae from your honey the Pathology Report will show No Diagnosis. This does NOT mean that we have not tested your honey.

I hope this information helps with the interpretation of your Pathology Report.

If you have any further questions you can always contact me on (07) 3362 9446 at the Animal Research Institute at Yeerongpilly.

Those of you who think you know him may just be in for a surprise after reading this.

I caught up with Duncan after the February QBA management committee and I asked him about himself and how he got into beekeeping
 

Q Do you have a family?
A No, only a brother.

Q What sort of jobs have you had in the  past?
A I worked in a variety of jobs after leaving school at 14 -including cutting sugar cane, a shunter in the railway in Roma St, fruit picking in Victoria and Tasmania, working in a flour mill - leaving one week before the 1974 floods!

Q How did you get into beekeeping?
A I've had bees as a hobby since 1958 after cutting bees out of trees in swamps. Then in 1972 I became commercial by buying bees-until that point I worked the bees travelling to Rockhampton every third week-end, between shifts.

Q How many hives do you run and what country do you work?
A About 350 and I work the Rockhampton district, the coastal ranges such as Jimna, sometimes the Burnett and the coast.

Q What type of truck do you run?
A A two tonne Mitsubishi that has a 5.8 m tray -that way I only shift a single layer of bees.

Q What hobbies or pastimes do you have?
A I had a recreational interest in diving during the 1960's- since then I've been involved in the administrative side of the sport for the past 25 years.  I've been the elected member for the State Council and a judge for this time as well.  On a more humorous note - I've been the champion bomb diver of Centenary Pool with a whopping 13.5 m tall splash!!  Also, I've been the best belly flopper in Brisbane, diving off a 5 m tower - and there is quite a lot of skill needed to do that. I've was excluded from the recent Gold Coast competition because competitors have to be over 114 kg.

Q Great industry achievements?
A Most of my work is still in the process of being dealt with, as I am the current QBA president - issues take a long time to be resolved.

Q QBA Presidency - likes and dislikes?
A I like the feeling I'm in the position to help the beekeeping industry.  I dislike things like the criticism levelled at QBA for not doing enough for it's members-then those very same people take the opportunity of lower truck registration fees that QBA have worked hard to negotiate.

Q What issues are of most concern to you?
A Floral resource.  We have to keep fighting for access and preservation - all the time, to maintain our viability.
Well Duncan is quite a surprise - and no rest for the man at the top, so I'll let him go now so he can make his next meeting.
 

This loader was purchased to aid me in the American foulbrood inspections, as I was beginning to crumble under the constant heavy lifting. The model is a 125R (split boom electric) which is a common size on small trucks and utes. It can lift 125kg-three full supers. It has a reach of 3.9 metres which allows me to work a number of hives before having to shift the vehicle. 

The advantage I have found with this particular loader is that it folds down, so that it sits not much higher than the ute cabin. This is good - it doesn't limit the use of the vehicle in the city, such as in car parks, etc.

My loader is wired to the main battery (no extra for loader needed), and being a 12 volt system is very steady in the lifting. I've found the 24 volt somewhat jurky when lifting hives.
 

Probably the most innovative component to this loader is the cradle. It has feet that clip in the side for cleats or clip into the base for lifting from underneath the hive.

The down side to having the loader fitted to such a small ute, is that an extra leaf is required in the spring, to stop the tray from sagging to one side.

Overall the loader is very well engineered and balanced, probably one of the best on the market, but for $5 650, including fitting - it would want to be!

Not all owners have been put under quarantine due to a clear inspection after a 1 + reading in their honey.

I suppose the best way of describing the situation generally is to say that we have a real mixture of owners ranging from hobbyists with only a couple of hives, to side line operators, to fully commercial beekeepers.

Each case has been different. Some outbreaks have been severe up to 60% of hives infected whist others two or three in one apiary.

I just can't emphasise enough the importance of putting into place a plan before one is diagnosed with AFB, and improving one's skill in identification {early detection}. This will save a lot of heartache!
 

AFB has been detected in other areas but is not rated a risk at this stage.