I recently attended the induction workshop of the Climate Champion program. This program is run under the Managing Climate Variability (MCV) initiative, an Australian government initiative, funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) and Land and Water Australia. The Climate Champion program is funded by a collective of RDC’s – namely Grains (GRDC), Sugar, Meat and Livestock (MLA), Dairy and RIRDC.

The aim of MCV is to help Australian farmers meet climate variability challenges in a changing climate. For the Climate Champion program, farmers have been chosen from all over Australia, from all different sectors of agriculture, from sugar cane to grain, meat, and dairy and even viticulture and beekeeping.

(Ed. Note: Way back when, as a beginning beekeeper who had just started trying to make a go of becoming a commercial beekeeper, I was avidly reading as much material as I could lay my hands on. I was also attending Field Days, and heard Graham Kleinschmidt give the following address at the 1986 Tocal Field Day. I was very pleased that the then Editor of The ABK, Bill Winner, printed Graham’s talk in The ABK. To this day, I still regard this article as the one that made the single-biggest impact on my success as a beekeeper, and to that end hope someone else may obtain from it the same value.)

Colony populations exceeding 45,000 bees (3 hive bodies) promote high honey production. This population level should be attained two weeks before the flow. The hive should also contain 40,000 cells of brood (9-11 combs) giving the hive two life times – the young adults and the brood that will replace them as they die during the first month of the flow.

HOW

Maximising the population of an average two story hive requires 8-10 weeks for brood manipulation, a prolific queen bee to fully utilise the comb area, nectar to stimulate egg laying, pollen to promote long lived bees and good combs that allow full bee development and also minimise contamination with disease organisms.

The territory now occupied by the Republic of Uruguay was discovered in 1516 by the leader of a Spanish exploration party, named Juan Diaz de Solia. Uruguay in South America is boarded in the north and north eastern frontiers by Brazil and separated from Argentina by the Rio de la Plata river in the south and the Rio Uruguay in the west, the east is boarded by the Atlantic Ocean. Uruguay covers 176,215 square kilometres, there are no impenetrable forests or deserts regions or mountains the highest point is Cerro Catradel altitude 513 meters. The climate is similar to Australia.

Over 80% of the population lives in towns mainly on the Atlantic coast with 44-5% living in the capital Montevideo. About 17% of the population live in rural areas despite the fact the economy depends to a large extent on agriculture. The country side is ideal for livestock and cropping enterprises with many rivers criss-crossing the country. Property sizes are much smaller than in Australia with owners making a living from small holdings.

Held at University Of Western Sydney on 12th December 2009, the Bee Genetics Seminar was attended by approximately 100 beekeepers and academics. The Bee Genetics Seminar was sandwiched between the Sue Cobey Instrumental Insemination Courses (Beginner and Advanced) run by the NSW Apiarists’ Association and organised by Doug Somerville. The program for the Seminar was a joint effort between Max Whitten and Doug Somerville. Max was ambushed during the day by Doug, who announced that Max had become the latest recipient of the Goodacre Award, the beekeeping industry’s highest award for services performed for and on behalf of the industry (see separate article).