Historic: Apiary identification

[NickWallingford]

This article from the NZ Bkpr magazine in 1954 was calling for beekeepers to make apiary identification a bit easier for AFB inspections. I haven't specifically followed the issue, but might do so to see what both the NZBkpr magazine and the NBA Executive minutes had to say about the suggestion...

In 1969 the heading of 'Identification of Apiaries' went into the Apiaries Act. That 1969 consolidated revision of the Apiaries Act was the last major legislative change. Prior to that, the record keeping allocated a code number for each apiary. The 1969 law changed to 'code' to refer to the beekeeper, and required using it as an identifier for each apiary.

I guess the only place this issue lives 'legislatively' any more is with the Pest Management Plan, which carried on the requirement after the demise of the Apiaries Act provisions (late 1990s).

 

[John B]

When I started beekeeping 50 years ago there was still some sites marked with E1 stencilled on to aluminium and attached to a 2" x 2" post about 3 foot long. I think these were probably totara but they had definitely been dipped in hot tar to preserve them. They were sharpened on the bottom and driven in to mark apiary sites. I wasn't old enough to help with dipping totara floors into the hot tar but I do remember it being done and both those floors and the pegs were around for years. Some people even tared their boxes but they had to be aired for a long time before use. I very occasionally still come across an old tared box when I am scraping old boxes before repainting them and you can still smell the tar after I would think at least 50 years.