Kev and I have a sideline operation (80 hives) based in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, and this is our first year in kiwifruit pollination. The first of our hives went into early gold pollination about three days before PSA was confirmed in Hawke's Bay earlier this month. Great timing as usual.
Kiwifruit Vine Health (kvh.org.nz) is the authority on PSA matters. Frankly I've not found their website easy to navigate in terms of readily getting hands on relevant, clear information.
However, where it stands for us right now:
The whole of Hawke's Bay's main horticultural area has been declared a "containment area" - basically a loose line has been drawn around the bay to surround all kiwifruit orchards with a 3 km buffer. There's a map on the last page of this document: http://www.kvh.org.nz/vdb/document/91354
Unfortunately for us, that grey containment area on the map pretty much covers the whole of our apiary locations.
The rule within the containment area is that hives must not be re-used, and should be spelled/rested outside the area - at least 5 km outside - once taken out of pollination. KVH is not clear on how long hives should be spelled for, but I spoke to an AsureQuality officer yesterday who said two weeks had been used in the Bay of Plenty last year and would probably still apply.
So for us, with our permanent apiary locations having kiwifruit within 3 km at all our locations, when our hives come out of pollination we'll have ot take them right outside the containment area for a couple of weeks before they can go back to their permanent homes.
Likewise, for those we are putting into pollination, we've had to hustle to get them physically moved away from the infected orchards (two of our apiaries were within 2 km of the original find) to spell them outside the area in the hope the flower won't break too soon and we'll be able to use the hives.
Realistically though, I'm leasing a third of our pollination contract hives from a friend outside the area as I know ours won't be ready in time.
For us with only two contracts/growers to serve, hygiene isn't too onerous, as we can effectively use one vehicle/set of gear for each, but we still observe washdown protocols, etc. Our growers aren't ready though - they haven't got hardstand washdown areas organised, so we're dealing with it ourselves.
Some added info from KVH:
http://www.kvh.org.nz/vdb/document/406
http://www.kvh.org.nz/vdb/document/723 - note, the picture of hives placed in a green field well clear of the vines is a joke - our kiwifruit blocks here are fully and tightly shelterbelted - enough that it's a tight turn to get the ute into the blocks and around the rows.
Our hives are spread right in the rows on one block, and right under the edge of the vines on the other. Avoiding 'drop' from the vines onto the hives or vehicles is impossible.
regards
Deanna Corbett
Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
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