Beekeeping

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Good to see some honey coming in after the dry spell Harbourmaster. A bit of work there Id reckon. Looks like Ill be doing the same thing but on a much smaller scale. Rain has become a thing of the past in the NSW coastal areas. Could do with a drop to get things going. Will post again soon.

Cheers

Les
 
The son had me out working again recently we took honey samples from the bottom box. We done about 680 hives in two days , pul the hive apart take about 1/2 teaspoon or so of honey out a a frame of honey with a dessert spoon and put it into a jar. Each load was split in half and marked on the lid, eg property name and 1or 2 the sample in each jar is then stirred and a sample from that is taken and sent away for disease testing. Results back today AFB free so we're very happy :)
 
I just found this thread, I have currently got 7 books next to my bed to study Bee Keeping ! What is going on. Everywhere is popping up Bee's !!

I want to learn about this, what is AFB please HM ?

Harbourmaster said:
The son had me out working again recently we took honey samples from the bottom box. We done about 680 hives in two days , pul the hive apart take about 1/2 teaspoon or so of honey out a a frame of honey with a dessert spoon and put it into a jar. Each load was split in half and marked on the lid, eg property name and 1or 2 the sample in each jar is then stirred and a sample from that is taken and sent away for disease testing. Results back today AFB free so we're very happy :)
Click to expand...
 
Have swapped over from peanut butter and honey on toast for breakfast to honey in my porridge, yummo.
Bring on Winter.
Mackka :drooling: :drooling: :drooling: :drooling:
 
GH AFB american Foul Brood
Mackka love my honey also like it as sweetener in tea.Have you tried different varieties? I have people who love Blue Gum here in SA but got them onto Xmas Mallee now they don't want Blue Gum. I love Coolabah when we can get it, only a couple on known locations it grows in SA and then only produces maybe every 8-10 years on average but have got it 2 yrs out of 3 depends on mother nature. think thats why they call nature mother, can be a real bitch :) & time father steady and reliable Ha Ha Cheers
 
Hey HM, yes mate I try different types when I get bored with what I am tasting. Currently I am onto Beechworth honey. The family has been producing honey since 1880.
Mackka
 
Gee you wouldn't believe who's been buying our honey! Beechworth!! Mackka you on the best stuff there They come over and pick it up the son filled a B-double about 3 years back for the fist time and do you recon he was happy absolutely great people do deal with Jodie was telstra business woman of the year some years back very astute lady
HM
 
Hi Folks,

Havent posted for a while as the bees have been quietly doing their own thing. Back into extracting honey again. Need to pull off some surplus and make some space for a winter flow that should start in about a month. Well be away for a while so that means the honey must come off now. Pulled and extracted a couple of hundred kilos yesterday. Wasnt able to start until lunchtime due to a cool, overcast morning. That meant a late finish yesterday afternoon. Found one queenless hive that is slowly going downhill. No evidence of any disease, so Ill shake out the bees and pop the boxes onto other larger hives. The bees that lost their home will venture into neibouring hives which means there is no loss in real terms. Normally expect to lose about 10% to 15% of hives over the winter. This is the first loss for the season so Im travelling reasonably well so far. As I dont use queen excluders on my hives to contain the queen in the bottom box, the chances of killing her through my hive inspections and frame manipulations increase. Queens also die of other causes and become infertile with age. The end result is the same for the hive in the long run. Slowly running out of room in the shed to store the honey. Its been a cracker of a season following a number of mediocre years. Looks like Ill have honey for my toast for a number of years.

Cheers for now

Les
 
Morning Les, have you ever tried taking a frame of brood, with newley laid eggs out of another hive and putting in your queenless hive we do this from time to time if we don't have any queens banked. Often works and keeps hive numbers up but needs to be done before queenless hive gets too weak. The hive will even take an egg to an emergency queen cell if they don't want to build a cell of the new frame. Simply amazing insects and I don't believe we ever stop learning about them
HM
 
I do what Harbour master suggested. It may bee too cool down south to make queens at the moment
Another idea... take lid off a good hive. Put double thickness newspaper over top with a couple of stabs through it, same as the lady in the fish and chip shop does. Put the box with bees of struggling hive on top of paper and put lid on top.
2 days later bees have slowly chewed through with no fighting because pheromones have slowly merged.
*always put weak box on strong hive. Not the other way.
 
Hi HM,

Have tried this twice with this hive with no success. Once queenless for too long, I have found that it is much harder to get a hive to produce a queen from eggs. This particular hive is on a downward spiral. It used to upset me but these days I tend to accept what is going to happen once everything possible has been tried. I know that people like yourself and others out there have far more knowledge on this topic than myself. Always willing to learn and try something new. Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

Cheers

Les
 
Hi Gh_au,

Agree totally. This guy seems to run a good operation and has a good knowledge of beekeeping. Got to take my hat off to anyone who gets into this on a commercial basis. Bloody hard work for the mediocre return. Like all forms of agriculture, this can be a tough game when Mother Nature decides to work against you. Just finished rendering down about 10kg of beeswax from the last extraction. Looks like the girls produced nearly half a ton of honey this time round. Time for a bit of a holiday.

Cheers

Les
 
Hey all. Harvested about 7 frames from my hives last weekend. Currently processing it now.

I'll have plenty of honey for the coming winter. Probably sell a few kilos as well.

Colonies are healthy but I have not gotten around to requeening. Hopefully this spring.

1554894291_20190407_113148.jpg


1554894291_20190407_114311.jpg


1554894323_20190407_115804.jpg


1554894324_20190407_134352.jpg


1554894324_20190410_190328.jpg
 
Hi all have just got home from my sons place in the Clare Valley. Strata I had forgotten all about that one with the newspaper, don't know why, we used to do it a lot when we started out.
Les yeh some hives are just plain cantankerous and you can't help them all
Well done Hard Luck your getting honey when they build in the lid.
Well my son had a clearing sale Tuesday and every thing has been sold, including what I had left, he has taken a job in WA setting up an Apiary for a corporation with the aim of building up to around 3000 hives. They have already started planting leptospermum (Manuka) so this is a long term project and a very exciting future for my son & his family. He has always wanted to beekeep in WA as they get a lot of honey from a lot of floral resources there so he has his work cut out but I'm confident he can meet their expectations
 
Hi Folks,

Well spring is just around the corner and the days are becoming longer and warmer. Will be starting on some hive inspections in a couple of days to check the condition of each colony and do a little bit of housework. Each hive will be checked for disease, honey stores and the condition of the brood. Bottom boards will be cleaned and if some nectar is coming in, boxes will be swapped around or removed as necessary. New frames will be assembled over the next week or so in preparation for the upcoming season. Over the past week 300+ sheets of foundation have been made to replace some of the older comb in the hives. Shot some footage of the process today and uploaded it to YouTube. Nothing spectacular but it does show the work involved to produce these sheets. Hope you enjoy it.

Cheers

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

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