Beekeeping

Never thought of that Straya. Youd most likely have the bees working well nearly all year round. (When the spotted gum flowers down our way they work through winter as well.) I suppose it comes down to what is flowering. Theyll happily work if there is something to bring in.

All year

I would love to at least run 1 hive.
But would need to have an Epi pen handy.
I wounder what the Flow Hives would be really like. ?
That way I would not have to disturb the hives much
lowering the risk.

Hi Doug,

Had a bit to do with the Flow Hives. Even though they are well engineered, you actually need a good knowledge of bees to make them work for you. Regular Inspections and working of the bees is still required if you want this system to pay dividends. They can work well if there is plenty of major flowering periods throughout the season but during the quieter times there are potential issues. My advice to anyone wanting to play with this system is to have a couple of seasons keeping bees in the traditional way and then as your knowledge improves youll be able to make an informed decision as to whether you go down this path or not. I tend to advise people to look at top bar hives as the cheapest and simplest way of keeping a hive of bees for honey and garden pollination.

Cheers

Les

It's a pity that the Lantana weeds are destroying our forests and preventing flowering of the natives and preventing us to get out there with our pans and sluices.

I just love watching the Natives work and the no sting status is great; but when you get them aroused they can bite.

Take over swarms are nasty, as all the fighters end up dead and a hive can be so depleted that it can take some extra TLC to recover them...

Honey can bee had from them, but lots of different methods and lots of arguments as to the best way AND lots of carry on about can native bee juice bee called honey as it does not meet the Apis standard for pure honey... About moisture content...

Regardless, they are self maintaining / fun to watch / and the fertilization rate for all veggies etc is to rate and post little concern for those that might not tolerate Apis stings...

As a kid in the bush, the native stock-men enjoyed taking me as a kid on some raiding parties. Hands full of honey pots and dirt and then to collect any resin and propolis, as they used for for all sorts of things...

Have a hive on my deck and work with a mate to rescue and work with lots of hives and attach empty hives to a good one... They are all sisters, and like to work to set up a new home.. Then separate and you have 2 hives

Then you have LOTS of solitary sting-less bees and I love the Blue banded one and the Teddy bear bees.. So great to watch as they do their work... Blue Banded ones were the key for many farmers as they land on the flower and then vibrate at a specific frequency, which has become knows as Buzz pollination OR sonication.

And as the weather get warmer all the Male Blue Banded bees hang out together of a night... Roosting on thin bit of material...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amegilla_cingulata

Love to see a photo or two AM. Ive heard that the native bees dont travel far from the hive. Is that correct? If it is, I must have one close to my place. Like you l love to watch them on the warm days, especially when they are loaded up with pollen.

My thoughts exactly Lesgold. Regular inspections of the brood box is paramount to see if queen is laying, to check for any moth or beetle and if queen dies and doesnt requeen. Even more so for beginners

Lesgold said:

Love to see a photo or two AM. Ive heard that the native bees dont travel far from the hive. Is that correct? If it is, I must have one close to my place. Like you l love to watch them on the warm days, especially when they are loaded up with pollen.

Click to expand...

The Native Bee FB pages have lots of pics, but .......

How far do they travel and how did some one prove it LOL I see lots of numbers and all sorts of things and have learnt to Shut SHOP... As lots of stuff I saw and or was shown by my dad and other bushman - was obviously wrong in many cases if one was to believe FB LOL...

They say a range of 500M or 1000M but who knows to be exact; depends some what on where the Hive is and where the food/water might be... They are small and wind and other conditions can knock them about...

I would post more pics, but so many are at full res, having to downsize and then post just frustrates me. And then my drop box and Cloud storage gets full of copies of pics and it gets messy... Opps = sorry old man rant

My mates partner takes some of the best pics I have seen for no professional, and with a stupid phone... How she does it I do not know. Some of the good ones are on Instagram along with lots of hive and queen bee vid's...

No worries AM. One of the advantages of retirement is that you can step off the planet and leave a lot of that tech crap behind.

Here is a link we love as Alex and i also grow and roast our own coffee..

Toss in bees and old coffee pucks...

A match made in heaven.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BooPQL_h1V6/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1r6tm20p3fkrn

Thats amazing. What is it that the bees are after? Is it sugars that are released during the brewing process or is it the aroma of the coffee beans? Never seen anything like it. Ill start looking in the veggie garden to see if the same thing is happening at my place. (I add about 10kg of coffee grounds to my garden every day)

Not sure why, they pull the pucks apart...

They do not always go for it big time, but on occasions they seem to like like it.

Only seen them have a go at my place once.. out in the bush, a couple of times a year they seem to like the odd phuck or 2 lol.

They look like caffeine addicts going nuts over a hit to me!

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/A7La4M4AwY4[/video]

I would run those hives more full with bees. When I first started off I thought 4 weak hives would make me more honey... so I split 1 into 4 turns out they were too weak and hive beetle and moth were a problem. Another thing that could help would be to close off 3/4 or the entrance to help them regulate temp and for defense against moth. I have also done a mod to the bottom board mainly for beetle but works for moth. Routered a hole in the bottom board. Inserted a mesh small enough so bees cant get through and make a slot in base cleats so a standard cooking tray full of diatomaceous earth ... D.E, can be inserted.... D.E
Bees chase beetle or moth and it tries to get away. Goes through mesh and the DE dry bogs and the pest dehydrates. DE is also organic and sold at health shops.

Hi Nucopia,

Thanks for posting mate. I noticed that the video was taken in 2017. How did the hives end up performing? The flow hive would have been OK but I reckon the second hive in the video would have struggled. Straya is on the money as far as splits are concerned. If I do a small split it would be into a nuc to keep bee numbers concentrated and hive temp up. It will be interesting to see how we do things differently and compare notes. Straya, Ive done the same thing as you with beetle control. Made CD case traps initially but didnt like the idea of having any chemical in the hives. I now rely on a system that is the same as what you are using. I buy diatomaceous earth in bulk on eBay (2kg at a time) and it lasts for years. Will post some pics of my bottom boards today.

Cheers

Les

Thought Id throw in my one and only utube clip. I have made my own foundation for about four years now. I use the wax recovered from old frames for this purpose. Frames are steamed and sterilised and the recovered wax from one frame makes just over one sheet of foundation. For a couple of years I cast foundation using a silicon mound that I made. I now use an embossing roller to perform this task. Hopefully this clip will load.....
[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/Fjq-ilNd39M[/video]
Better get the camera out and take a few photos.

Cheers

Les

No harvesting for me this weekend. yesterday was a bit too chilly as is today and I have stacks on at the moment.
Next weekend forecast looks good.
Plus I have very angry bees due to slack hive management, healthy and strong colonies nevertheless and they get really pissed when I open the hive up. all 4 hives need to be requeened asap.
Thankfully getting help from one of the states top keepers to do this. Bit of a backstory to this.

Hope this weather warms up soon. Need to due the same. Ive often found that the angry hives produce good quantities of honey. They also love to protect it.......

Had a bit of sunshine this morning. The girls were out working.