Today I went along to the Natural Beekeeping Conference in Ramarama.

It was arranged by Graham Wheeler from Frankin bee club and Janet Luke “Green Urban Living“. The focus was keeping bees in a more natural way.

We were asked to come along and share our Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies that we use with our bee Colonies.

The day started with Janet talking about Alternative methods of Varroa control. There were some good ideas shared here. Sorry Janet I was so nervous about my talk, so forgot to take any notes :D.

Our Talk at the Natural Beekeeping Conference

Then it was was our topic “Integrated Pest Management strategies”, we discussed the five things that we do:-

These being:-
• Location
• Meshboards
• Treatments
• Managing Drones
• Good Genetics
• Splitting Hives
• Recycling Combs

Here is our presentation with slides and Audio…If you didn't make it have a listen…

Then Lott Larsson gave a talk about Queen Raising for Hobbyists, which was a great talk and inspired me to give it a go next spring. It would certainly make doing hive splits much quicker.

We then had a great lunch followed by Grahams demonstration of his method of honey extraction. Which is a great method if you haven’t got an extractor?

The Conference Convoy

We then moved in convoy to the Apiary at the Franklin Bee Club for some more demonstrations:-

Daniel showed his new Warre Hive and I showed people how to use the Robinson Vaporiser.

Then Janet showed people how to inspect a Top Bar Hive for American Foul Brood, which was very interesting indeed.

Thoughts and Thanks

Thank to Cally for lending me a camera memory card, I left mine at home. I must be more organised when I go out on these adventures. Thanks Cally you are a star.

All in all a great day and conference, I can see this event becoming more and more popular in years to come. Where people can share alternative methods on how to keep bees. Especially as a lot of Commercial Miticides are becoming less effective.

It was great that some people that read our blog, came by and said “Hi”. It’s great to hear that people are out there reading are our work. Thanks to all of you.

If you missed this year’s conference be sure to get along to the next years ones, location to be determined.

Did you go along? What did you think? please comment below:-

Here are some photos from the day…

• About
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Gary Fawcett

King Bee at kiwimana Beekeeping Supplies

Gary enjoys designing new kiwimana products which we sell through our on-line shop.He 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 also into tramping/walking in the beautiful New Zealand bush.

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