Beekeeping

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks,

Had a couple of hives that were slow in the spring build up due to the dry weather, lack of flowering and small numbers of bees coming into the spring.

As you can see, the hive was not hammering. Yesterday I swapped its location with a strong hive that was full of bees. By doing this in the middle of the day, any foraging bees will come back to the spot that they started from. (In this case it was the weaker hive for most of the bees) The hive will let the new bees in as long as they come in with pollen or nectar and there wont be any fighting. Some of the bees from the strong hive will also go out the following day and return to where the hive was originally located. The net result is an equalisation of bee numbers. The weak hive becomes stronger (allowing the queen to lay more eggs) and the strong hive weakens slightly (reducing the swarming urge.)

Had to take the photo from a distance (using the zoom on the iPad) as the bees were not happy to see me. Note an extra box was placed on the hive to accomodate the increase in bee numbers. The larger hive that was weakened, still had plenty of sealed brood that was ready to hatch. Its numbers will recover quite quickly. Performed this task on three other hives to improve bee numbers. Hopefully there will be some iron bark blossom in the next couple of weeks. Its then that the liquid gold begins.

Cheers

Les

 

[Goldfreak]

dumb question self edit :8, just saw the strap in your pics.

 

[Guest]

Great setup, how much honey do you get from your hives Les?
Do you sell your honey?

 

[Lesgold]

Hi Trusted,

The amount of honey can vary considerably from season to season and area to area. Im not interested in moving my hives to follow what is flowering so what I pull from the hives is very much dependent on what is happening locally. Last year was a bad year and some hives were not robbed due to the lack of nectar coming in. I had some hives located in a different area about 15 km away and they gave up about 40kg each. It is important that the bees are left with enough honey to get through the cooler months where there is limited flowering occurring. This being said, some areas produce well during the winter. The bees will work if there is a nectar and pollen source available. I have had hives produce 80kg each but that is a rarity in my area. If you are prepared to travel, 100kg per hive or more can easily be achieved in a season.

I sell my honey locally as there is a niche market for pure, natural, Unprocessed honey. Its a hobby that compliments prospecting and gives me enough money to buy the little goodies that we want in our hobby. Im saving for a 7000 at the moment. It will take a couple of years but thats OK.

Cheers

Les

 

[Straya]

Lesgold check the one fourth from the left
Do this and you might cut a year off your wait for the 7000

 

[Lesgold]

Double brood box and two queens?

 

[Straya]

Yep. But keep the brood boxes close to the ground. Ive had it 5 supers on top of the brood boxes. Filled 3 supers of stickies on a flow in 4 weeks...... lucky Im 6 foot 6

 

[Lesgold]

Good onya mate. You know how to make work for a bloke. Have to build one now to try it out.

 

[Lesgold]

Hey Straya,

Didnt sleep much last night. Kept on thinking about that hive of yours. Lol. How about running us through what you did to build and set it up. Is it one large brood box with a divider or was it just two blood boxes sitting together? Cant really see from the photo. Couldnt really see how you kept the water out of the brood boxes. Did you use some form of flashing? Really interested to know.

 

[DrDuck]

A bloke I used to work with kept bees here in Goulburn.

He was a nice bloke, but very careful with money. For example, he used to hang up is tea bags over the sink (we had old fashioned exposed chromed pipes in that room back then) and reuse them numbers of times to get all the value out of them. The last couple of cups looked like milk and water!

Any way, one year he put his bees near some flowering willow. It made very nice honey, but the old people he gave jars to all said it helped their arthritis.

That's not too surprising, since willow contains salicylic acid, which is related to aspirin, and willow bark is regarded as a natural pain killer and anti-inflamatory.

In fact the name salicylic acid is derived from the scientific name for the genus willow (Salix).

That willow honey might be effective does not surprise me, since honey has other well known anti-bacterial and health properties.

Unfortunately, as a diabetic, I don't eat any honey (or sugar either).

 

[Straya]

1 big base helps to hold both together with 4 cleats with beetle mod
Start with 2 standard brood boxes with opposite facing entrances, must requeen with same age queens.
When ready to super them I make a spacer, 2 half lids and a standard lid. The half lids I bend the piece of tin upward which helps repel water on the inside edge only. On the queen excluder I run 50mm grey tape wrapped in the Centre so the queens will never get close. You can acess the 5 outer frames on each brood box without lifting supers :Y: Then hang on during a flood and give them an extra box because potentially they can work 3 times quicker than standard.

 

[Straya]

I have also done it with a single brood box with divider and opposite facing entrances. But can be a bitch checking B.B.

 

[goody2shoes]

Honey in the morning cut of tea yummy :Y:

 

[Lesgold]

Hey DrDuck,

Top info on the willow honey. Havent heard that one before. Thanks for that.

Good onya Straya. Thats some helpful info. Was wondering about the queens. Time to make a couple of splits and get into the workshop. Will let you know how I go.

Make sure its a big spoon of honey googy2shoes. So much sweeter and youll help us beekeepers become one step closer to becoming millionaires. Lol.

Cheers

Les

 

[Skip]

Nice hive set up's boys. LES great idea on the gable roof. My sister lives in longbeach and was wondering how bees would go. I'll tell her about your set up.
As a kid I used to nail bee boxes together to help out my mate who's dad was right into bees in Ulladulla. We'd take the boxes around depending on what was in flower.

I grew up on a property out the back of Milton NSW with a native hive. Not sure what kind of bee but they were big furry buggers and got pissed off easy if you got up in their grill.

I love bees but I'm ellergic to stings so now I just watch and take photos

Ps if I ever find some of my bee shots I'll post them up

 

[Lesgold]

Hi Skip,

The bees do well in the Bay. Got a beekeeping mate who gives me heaps. Calls me Les of green gables It takes me less time to make a slip on gable than it does to fold up a gal lid. The water runs off the hive and the eve gives a little more protection to the boxes. As I dont move my hives around, its a good option for me. Your sister is more than welcome to come and have a look if shes interested. Just let me know and well sort something out. Would love to see your bee shots.

Cheers

Les

 

[Skip]

Few years ago I was quite heavily into photography, and with new lenses came new objects to shoot.
Think most of my bee photos are on my old computer. Tho I do have a few on slides too

 

[Straya]

One of my queens being born.

 

[Lesgold]

Top shot Straya. Are you breeding your own or was that queen produced in a split?

 

[Straya]

Split