Beekeeping

[goody2shoes]

I will bring a jar :lol:

Goody

 

[Mackka]

Forget the jar and take a bucket :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Lesgold]

There goes my first million dollars. Lol.

 

[goody2shoes]

OK got a bucket, :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh honey you no I like my honey :lol: :lol:

Goody

 

[Lesgold]

This might get you dribbling........... iron bark honey is comin in. Bring a drum.

 

[Lesgold]

Wanted to check a a few hives that Id supered (added an extra box to) about a week ago. Quite often the bees do not want anything to do with a new box and they can stay away from those new frames unless encouragement is offered. What many beekeepers do is to take a couple of frames (with bees attached) from a lower box and move them up into the newly attached box. The two spaces made in the lower box can then be filled with two, undrawn frames. This is what the top box looks like after a week.

You can see that the bait frames are almost in the middle of the box. I like to bring up frames that have unsealed brood in them. This means that young nurse bees will be up in that space tending the brood. It is also the young bees that generally make wax and build out comb. The inspection revealed that the empty frame placed in between the bait frames was totally drawn out and the adjoining frames were partly drawn out. In this particular box I was using a black plastic foundation. The hexagonal cell pattern is on the surface of the plastic to guide the bees. I normally use a paint roller to put a thin layer of molten beeswax on the surface of this foundation. This helps to attract the bees and gives them a little bit of wax to start drawing out the comb.

You can actually see some of the wax on this frame. The bees dont like the plastic foundation as much as the natural wax and will only work on drawing it out when there is plenty of nectar coming in. The centre frames were moved further out to encourage the drawing of the frames near the outside of the box.

This manipulation of frames can speed up the process so that the bees have somewhere to deposit honey. The work never seems to stop at this time of year. Anyway, time to get back into it.

Cheers for now

Les

 

[Flowerpot]

Wow that's so fascinating. Bees are really blooming awesome. Great work Les erfect:

 

[Campfish4x4]

very interesting topic keep the pics coming fellas

 

[Mackka]

Les I will never have bees but will ALWAYS have honey everyday in one form or other. I find this thread mesmerising and the story behind the photos is captivating.
I now appreciate the work that goes into every spoonful and for that I thank you and apiarists of Australia.
Mackka :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Lesgold]

Thanks Mackka, Campfish and FP. This time of year is very busy so its not much trouble to take a few photos and write up what is happening in the hives. Try to have a look at each hive about once a week at this time of year to make sure that they are not going to swarm on me. Will try to get a few photos showing what the specific parts of a hive look like ie. a honey frame, what pollen looks like in a frame, young larvae and sealed brood etc. Hopefully there will be a chance to do this before the rain comes in the next couple of days.

Cheers and thanks again.

Les

 

[Mackka]

Welcome
Mackka

 

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks,

Decided to go out for a swing with the stick this morning. Went up a gully and poked around for about an hour but the leaches got me and the heat and humidity drove me out. Just about to drive in through the gate at home and this is what I saw on a small shrub down near my hives:

Bugga, I was just going to meet up with a mate for a coffee and a pie. Well that was going on hold for a while.

To back track a bit. About four days ago I was inspecting a few hives and I noticed that one hive was particularly noisy and a lot of bees were starting to come out through the entrance. It was just about to swarm. Raced back to the shed and got a box ready to hive the swam, if it settled. In the 15 minutes that I was away, the weather turned suddenly. A cold southerly change came through with a strong wind. The sun had disappeared behind clouds and the temperature dropped dramatically. When I got back to the hive, a lot of bees were clustered around the entrance. Noticed a small ball of bees on the ground. When a few bees were moved, I saw that the queen was amongst them. Picked her up and sat her at the hive entrance and she walked straight back inside. The bees settled quickly and moved back into the hive within 20 minutes. Due to the cold weather, I didnt want to perform an artificial swarm. Instead I grabbed a four frame box and quickly added frames of bees ensuring that some queen cells, brood and food supplies were a part of the mix. This would eventually form a new hive. The plan was to get back to the main hive before it swarmed but weather and other work prevented me from doing so. The above picture is basically the result of my poor organisation. Now, Back to the swarm.

A box was placed close to the swarm. Three of the central frames were taken out of the box and placed next to the hive. You will notice that they have foundation attached. (The swarm will draw these out in about a week so that the queen will begin to lay.)

The branches that the swarm had attached itself to were lifted and a bucket was placed under the mass of bees. The branches were then given a bit of a shake and the large proportion of bees fell into the container. Literally poured the bees into the hive and put the lid on. At this stage about half of the bees were in the hive (hopefully including the queen) A small piece of plywood was placed at the entrance to form a ramp.

The bees all then started to walk into the hive. This is an amazing sight.

The whole process took about three minutes. Went off and had my coffee and came back about an hour later.

The bees had settled into their new home. Pinched a frame of unsealed brood from another hive and placed it in the swarm box. The bees will now stay and not abandon that brood. Will move this hive to a new location in a week or so and allow them to establish. Catching swarms is top fun.

Cheers for now

Les

 

[Campfish4x4]

cheers les how wonderfull is mother nature its mind boogling how smart those bees are

 

[goody2shoes]

Clever little Bee's,

Now your in your nice new home, so now make more honey, honey,

I need more honey for my tea, and for my carrots, yummy,

Goody

 

[Mackka]

Oh my goodness, Les , this thread just keeps giving and giving. How amazing are bees, unbelievable.
Great photos with the story mate, amazing.
Best Wishes
Mackka :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: erfect:

 

[Lesgold]

Thanks everyone. Its good to see the little critters take centre stage. A few years ago I got a call from the local council saying there was a swarm in the middle of town. I thought to myself this will be interesting. The swarm had settled on the centre pedestal of an outside table at one of the most popular restaurants in town. When I turned up, there was people everywhere and very few even noticed the swarm until I put the monkey suit on. All I could think about was public liability, law suits and my ugly mug ending up in the local paper when hundreds of people ended getting stung. What I did was to place my catching box (with frames in place) right up next to the swarm. A dustpan full of bees was then thrown down at the base of the bee box and then I stood back. I noticed that the people in the restaurant were all keenly watching. They were waiting for the drama to unfold. And then it happened. It was just like lemmings walking off a cliff. The bees all turned and in an orderly fashion, they all marched into the hive. I thought to myself gee youre a lucky bugger, this could have turned out ugly. Im generally quite good at making a goose of myself in public but this time, it may have looked as though I knew what I was doing. Only the dry cleaner knew exactly how I was really feeling. Lol. Wanted to show you folk a few detailed pictures of the inside of the hive. This may have to wait for another time. Ive run out of honey so a small extraction will have to take place next week. Ill post some pics. of the process that I use to give you a bit of an idea of my small time operation.

Cheers

Les

 

[goody2shoes]

Keep the story's coming Les ,

love them,

One day I will tell you my very bad experience with bee's,

Goody

 

[Lesgold]

Come on goody,

Cant leave everyone hanging..............out with it. Could do with a sympathetic giggle.

 

[goody2shoes]

Let me explain it from the beginning,

I was about 8 years old,

My 3 brother's and 2 cousin and I went out playing, like kids do,

All the boys said let's go and play around the dam just up the road a bit,

we might catch some frogs,

We all headed up to the dam,

When we got there one of the cousin said oh look 3 bee hive's,

Sitting next to the dam,

The boys said let's see if there are any bee's in the boxes,

They pushed one over and no bee's was home in the box,

I said don't hurt the bee's,

One said stop your winging,

I run behind a tree,

Then they pushed the other one into the dam,

Still no bee's,

They all was laughing at me hiding behind the tree,

Then my eldest brother pushed the last bee box into the dam,

Holly smoke it was full of bee's,

I poked my little head out from the tree,

Then all the bee's took to me,

I had bee stings all over my body, I was crying so bad because I could not stop the bee's from stinging me,

The people that lived down the road heard me crying and the boys yelling,

They came to see what was wrong, when they seen what was happing , they grab me,

Rushed me down to there house, put a blanket around me as I was in shock,

They sent the boys home to tell my mum that they was taking me to the hospital,

I had Sting's in places where you should not be sting,

Had to be placed in a ice bath for days, while they tried to get all the Sting's out of my little body,

The doctors told my mum that they don't no if I would survive,

Was in hospital for two weeks,

Lucky to be alive,

Goody

 

[Lesgold]

Yep. The old way of teaching respect. Lol.