How fortunate we were last Wednesday at the Club meeting to have a speaker from Sri Lanka explain the main differences in beekeeping between New Zealand and his home country. His talk was captivating and helped by Jo, whos fabulous work with the slide show, made for a very entertaining evening. As interesting as it was I think I will stick to the NZ way!!

Well done to everyone who helped extracting the honey from the club hives last weekend. I believe the grand total was 6 1/2 buckets. Thanks to Ian for all your hard work and Jo and Bruce for the lovely BBQ.

A lovely time was had by all at the Helensville A&P Show, even the weather could not have been any better. Gillian did an amazing job showing the live hive frames to passers by. Who by the way had be rounded up by the ever amazing Jo. Thanks to everyone for your help not only for the day but for helping set everything up. Scott also brought two frames of bees from home for the observation hive. Jo and myself also indulged our inner child and had a craft stall running at the back making bee brooches and tissue flowers.

After a lovely Christmas break it was back to business with the hives at 1333 Old North Road.

All four hives are doing well and the bees are very busy bringing in lots of honey.

A small turn out but was expected as a long weekend but it didn’t stop us having fun and enjoying lovely BBQ thanks to Jo and Bruce.

A fantastic talk on splitting hives was held at last Wednesdays club meeting. A big thank you to Kim and Ian.

At last we were able to hold a field day at the Kaipara Coast Garden & Sculpture Centre.

A beautiful day to inspect the hives. Well done team!!!

6 to 10 Feijoas depending on size, scoop out flesh

50 grams butter

1 cup water

1/2 cup Honey

1/2 cup Suagr

mix together, boil for 5 minutes, then cool.

once cool add

2 cups flour,

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 beaten egg

mix well, put batter into greased muffin tins, bake at 180 for 20 minutes …keep an eye on them may need longer depending on size of muffin tin etc. Makes 12 to 18

If you have a couple of kilos of spare honey lying around, Ian has provided us with his recipe for mead. Cheers Ian!

Scale:

3.8 L of water and 1.59 (1.6) kg of honey will make about 6 L of mead.

To make more, multiply the quantities above.

EG: Want to make 18L, 18 / 6 = 3 so multiply by three, 3.8 * 3 = 11.4L of water and 1.59 * 3 = 4.77 kg of honey

This recipe will assume you wish to make 24L of mead, using 15.2L of water and 6.36 kg of honey

Ingredients:

• Honey (measured as above)
• Water (measured as above)
• Water (additional, about 3 cups)
• Yeast (I used a wine yeast CL23)
• 3/4 cup of sundried raisins, chopped (no preservatives)
• 4 dry tea bags
• 3 oranges,

Other equipment:

• 2 x 30L containers (carbouy) with airlocks
• Hydrometer
• Mangrove Jack’s No Rinse Sanitizer
• Tube Syphon

Instructions:

1. Sanitize all equipment with Mangrove Jack’s No Rinse Sanitizer
2. Hydrate/Activate the yeast if required with one cup of water
3. Remove the peel of the oranges, cut the peel into quarters and add the peel to a pot without the flesh. Then add the raisins, tea bags and some water. Place it on a high heat until it boils, leave for 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Pour honey into a 30L container and add some water – then shake to mix. Repeat adding more water each time.
5. Add the raisin, tea, and orange mixture, and mix again
6. Add the yeast mixture, and mix again
7. Take a hydrometer reading and note it. Around 1.100 should produce 13% alcohol. If the reading is too high, add water. Too low, add honey
8. Place an airlock on the container, and then store somewhere away from direct sunlight
9. After six to eight weeks, rack the mead into another container, using a tube syphon and ensure that you leave the sediment at the bottom untouched.
10. Measure the racked mead’s specific gravity. It could be as low as 1, but it might be higher based on the yeast or the temperature
11. Reattach the airlock and store for a further six to eight weeks
12. At this stage fermentation will likely be winding down. A quick sip will tell you if there is any sugar left, and if there are bubbles then it is still fermenting. Regardless, you should rack the mead back into the original container and re-attach the air lock
13. After another six to eight weeks, if the mead is stable (no fermenting) then replace the airlock with a solid plug and allow it to age
14. It will take a while, likely longer than six months for the strong alcohol taste to fade. Test it every month or so after four to see when the taste has smoothed out. In general, the longer you leave it, the better it will taste. When you like what you taste…
15. Bottle it! Well done.

Editor’s Note: After making your first batch of mead, feel free to try experimenting with the flavours during the process. For example, adding fruits or herbs during the aging process will add almost a flavour-colour profile to the mead. If you prefer it to be sweeter, then it is possible to stop the yeast early to create a sweeter mead. It can be very artistic if you want it to be!

Upcoming Field Day , November 23rd, see you all there

Market Day at Kaukapakapa Library featuring bees and beekeeping!
Rodney Beekeepers Club
Live display hive, info on beekeeping, trees for bees

Sunday Nov 17th at Kaukapakapa Library (next to KKK Fire station)