The Novice Beekeeper

A winter solstic update

2011-06-21T14:03:00.005+10:00

We'll its been a while between posts but things have been going well with our small apiary.

We still have four healthy hives - and we're still harvesting plenty of honey from them.

Just this month we harvested 30kgs from them and they quickly sold at our local markets on the weekend.

Collecting our frames in a sealed box is working a treat too - instead of taking them from the hives and placing them in a super in a wheelbarrow, we instead place them in a sealed plastic box. See the photo below.

This means we can get the frames inside the house with no bees on them and no chance of us being stung.

With the cold snap we've had, we added a layer of polysterene over our native bee hive to keep them warmer and we've also reduced the size of the entrance of our honey bee hives to keep some of the warmth in too.

Happy beekeeping,

Sonya

Great reading for all bee keepers

2011-01-21T14:36:00.002+10:00

Here is a link to a great article by David Holmgren (of permaculture fame) about the future of bee keeping and its important role.

http://www.holmgren.com.au/DLFiles/PDFs/Apiculture3.pdf

Happy beekeeping,

Sonya

Pale golden honey

2010-12-31T11:20:00.005+10:00

On December 15 we had an opportunity to get out and harvest some honey from our hives so we went for it.

It's been raining here pretty much all year - I'm not joking!

Miserable for us stuck inside and miserable for the bees too I imagine. The rain washes the nectar and honey from the hives and they just don't get the runs of fine days to work their magic.

But the break in the weather gave us the chance to harvest many kilograms of honey from their hives and still leave plenty for them.

We used the plastic tub again with the lid on it to move the frames from the hives inside for spinning and that worked really well. With two people you can keep the bees out, which makes the whole process so much more pleasant.

You can see the fully laden frames - with all the cells capped.

On the left is our other batch of honey - this is a very diverse blend from our permaculture garden with honey from vegetables, flowers, herbs, fruit and nut trees, legumes, ground covers and much, much plus the added bonus of the surrounding rainforest and bush.

On the right we have honey that is predominantly from the Mexican Tree Fern. Its much lighter (this batch still needed to sit for a while to settle) and the taste is lighter too.

And here is our wonderful bargain hand spun extractor - working a treat.

cheers,

Sonya

The Novice Beekeeper

Finally - a bumper harvest this week!

2010-10-21T13:21:00.012+10:00

Finally we've had some clear weather to get out and harvest some honey from our hives.

It's been a pretty miserable winter for the Sunshine Coast, lots of rain and when it wasn't raining it was either overcast or windy - or both. None of it good for beekeeping.

I have been keeping myself busy though making soaps and I even made some honey soap. A basic soap mixture with raw honey added.

It gave the soap a very natural colour (that's cacao in those lines through the soap) and it smell of honey - very delicious and with extra butters and oils added, it will be lovely and creamy too and good for our skin.

Since I last posted we did have a swarm in our backyard which we endeavoured to capture.

We didn't have a nuc box ready to go, so we got busy making one (they come in flat packs from the suppliers)

Here it is finished but unpainted.

But unfortunately the swarm had moved on before we got to it. Oh well, we're prepared now for the next time we find one.

This week though, we were able to get out and harvest honey. We've been checking the hives in between times and maintaining the small hive beetle traps, but we just haven't had the time to do a proper job of extracting the honey and the frames hadn't been full enough either.

Here is our first frame of the day being uncapped. We use a steam knife attached to a pressure cooker on the stove to cut the caps of the cells of honey.

And this time we tried something different to bring the frames in from the hives to the house.

Normally beekeepers put a super box (just one of those white boxes you see on beehives) in a wheelbarrow and move the full frames in that with a lid on.

Problem is, as soon as you move a frame from the hive you either get bees from that hive following you wanting their honey back, or you get robber bees chasing you wanting the honey.

Putting the super in a wheelbarrow left a lot of gaps underneath for bees to get in to the box and you end up with frames with still quite a few (angry by this time) bees on them when you bring them inside.

This is when you're most likely to stung - and you don't want bees around you when your extracting the honey as you usually have your safety gear off by then.

So instead, we put our frames in a plastic storage tub with a lockable lid. We brushed the bees off and quickly got the bee-free frame in the box and shut the lid. We did this for all six frames and it worked a treat.

We were able to bring the frames inside with no bees on them at all, making it nice and safe for us and no bees suffered in the process either.

Here you can see a small hive beetle trap on the left placed in the honey super of the hive. These seem to be working very well. We've had the hives for nearly a year now and despite the rubbish weather, the beetles haven't got out of control.

Another shot of the busy bees. All the native plants we put in as bee forage plants are doing really well too. In a couple of years we'll have flowers, nectar and pollen on tap all year round for them.

And here's the stored honey. We have two of these honey pails full of yummy honey. Around 40kgs in total.

Now we have a day of sterilising jars, decanting the honey into the jars, labelling and storing them for the next local market.

Cheers,

Sonya

The Novice Beekeeper

Hive maintainence day

2010-07-13T10:23:00.007+10:00

The sun was out today and we were both home, so we took advantage of the break in weather (its been overcast and or rainy here for months) to check out our hives. We do try to get out there at least once a fortnight to take a look at them.

We also change over the small hive beetle traps we have set (pictured ABOVE) that grate on the top is big enough for the beetles to crawl into the little trough held below it - which is filled with Diatematous Earth, which kills them but not the bees.

We have those in the honey box (the top box) between the frames and another 'mouse' type in the brood box (which is the name for the box on the bottom which contains the larvaes, the Queen and the drones.

Aside from checking and replacing the traps (which seem to be working well), we also use the time to check on the hive activity and health.

We also check to see when and if we need to do a honey harvest too.

This frame (BELOW) is ready for harvesting - you can see the capped cells full of honey. Any frame with more than 3/4 covered in cappings is ready to harvest.

Just look at that golden honey with the sun behind it...

We haven't harvested from the bees for quite a while. This is because of the weather. They need sunny days to forage for pollen and nectar. When it's overcast and or rainy (as it has been here) they eat the honey, so harvesting from them is taking their food, which in turn will weaken the hive and we need them strong and healthy to fight the beetle.

Other beetle strategies include having our hives on gravel with weed mat under it (the beetles breed in soil) and also limeing the area around the hives - beetles don't like soil too alkaline (apparently).

But just like designing and maintaining a permaculture garden you need an integrated approach - not just one solution.

Seems to be working though, the number of beetles in our hives were reduced from the last time we checked them.

We're no experts in this, just willing to try different things and keep going with the things that seem to be working.

If you're thinking of getting bees, it pays to join your local beekeeping association and read as many good books as you can on how to care for them.

If this fine weather keeps up, we'll also be able to harvest honey soon too.

Cheers,

Sonya

The Novice Beekeeper

2010-06-26T14:04:00.004+10:00

Here is some information about a common tree found here in Queensland, the African Tulip Tree - it's in flower now so you can spot them easily. Just click on the image above to enlarge it.

Seems they are deadly to our native stingless bees. If you have one of these - please get rid of it - it doesn't belong here and our bees are more important than it is.

Cheers,
Sonya
The Novice Beekeeper

A day of hive maintenance

2010-04-27T14:13:00.013+10:00

After weeks of rain we had a sunny day, so we made the most of it and headed out to check the hives. We'd decided to try to get out there (weather permitting) once a fortnight just to check the small hive beetle traps and to see how they are going and if they need harvesting.

It also gives us time to build our confidence working the bees, to see what's normal for them and hopefully to be able to spot any problems early on.

Because of the rain, not a lot of the frames were ready for harvesting, but with a few sunny days, we'll be able to have another harvest of honey.

These are the gloves I use. They are from Quality Beekeeping Supplies and seem to be doing the job (protecting me from being stung) quite well.

Another benefit of checking the hives regularly is that hopefully the bees will get used to use being around and with being handled.

Getting the smoker to lit and then to stay smokey seems to be our biggest challenge so far. Like a lot of beekeepers we use sheoak needles and hessian bags.

It's my job to keep it going throughout the time it takes us to check all four hives.

We have small hive beetles in our hives, but they seem to be being kept under control (fingers crossed) using traps filled with diatemaceous earth.

We use two types of traps - the one BELOW can slide in the entrance and provide some protection for the brood box (the box on the bottom), or it can sit on top of the brood frames just below the Queen excluder.

There have been some reports of bees getting in these traps, but we didn't find any in ours - we did find dead beetles though.

The other type of trap we use is one that fits between the frames in the honey super (the top box). We find the bees quickly block this up with propolis - which they haven't done to the one ABOVE - so each time we check the hives we take new, cleaned traps to replace the old ones, then take them inside when we're done, clean them and refill them ready for next time.

This has meant buying two sets of traps, but it's worth it for the ease of swapping them over.

They sit neatly between the frames and we find dead beetles in these too.

We always record our findings in our Bee Book - keeping a record of how the hives are going, how the bees are behaving and any maintenance work that needs to be done - for instance, we found one frame where the wire has come out, so next time, we'll take a spare frame with foundation and replace it.

it's wonderful to see the bees close up and we're getting a little better at beekeeping each time we go out there. It's good doing it together too, you can bounce ideas off each other while we learn and a spare pair of hands can come in very handy sometimes too.

We are coming into our winter here in Australia and we're in the subtropics, so we don't need to over winter our hives, in fact winter will probably be a better time for them, less rain, more sunny days, more blooms in our vegetable garden.

Next time I'll write about which native plants we've added to our garden as bee forage and what we've observed in relation to bees' drinking behaviour.

Cheers,

Sonya

The Novice Beekeeper

The many benefits of raw honey

2010-04-11T14:32:00.003+10:00

Honey is a wonderous product - particularly raw, untreated honey.

It has so many health benefits and I was reading some stories courtesy of Tricia's blogspot here.

There was a story on Catalyst on the ABC (a public television station here in Australia) - Catalyst is a science show - and they talked about how honey helps heal wounds here.

Which was very timely, because just last night I burnt my finger getting something out of the oven - I immediately put honey on it, then aloe vera, which I keep a pot of near the kitchen, just for such incidents.

And it worked, this morning I had to go looking for where the burn was and could barely see it, needless to say it doesn't hurt anymore either.

I use our honey on cuts too - being out in the garden a lot, I'm forever getting small cuts and grazes on my hands and applying raw honey to them heals it very quickly.

We also keep a small jar of raw honey in the propagation house too to use when we are planting up cuttings - dipping the end in the honey will prevent infection setting in. BELOW is a selection of plants taken from the garden ready to be propagated - and dipped in honey.

This is all focusing on the external application of honey, but don't forget the good honey does you when you eat it too.

You can see in the first image we have our home honey pot with honey comb in it too - this means there are a lot of bits n pieces floating in the honey - all good for you - propolis, pollen etc.

Now I've had someone asks about using honey to treat pollen allergies - they said they had tried it and it didn't work - but I'd suggest (and I'm not medically trained, it just makes sense to me) that you need to be eating fresh, local, raw honey to yield the benefits of treating allergies.

The theory is, if whatever is causing you grief with your allergies, if you can be eating honey with some of that particular type of pollen at that particular time of the year, you will reap the benefits.

So raw honey it is - we are endevouring to keep our product as close to natural as possible - unprocessed, untreated, no heating, just straining - all good.

What other uses do you have for honey?

Cheers,
Sonya
The Novice Beekeeper

Market Day :: Maintenance Day

2010-04-10T07:48:00.008+10:00

We took our bottled honey harvest to the local markets and were very pleased to sell 15 kilos of it on the day.

The theme of the markets was Autumn Leaves and (BELOW) this is our honey display, complete with autumn leaves. We also had beeswax candles for sale too.

We hope to have homemade beeswax furniture wax available at future markets too and homemade honey soaps too.

I've been observing the bees in the garden to see what they like best. Cosmos (BELOW) is popular - both the yellow and orange varieties. I wonder if this is one of our bees, a wild bee or one from the nearby strawberry farm hives?

We choose a fine morning this week to do some hive maintenance. We plan to get out there at least once a fortnight, if not once a week to check our four hives over.

We are looking for any changes or anything 'strange' going on. We're only new to this, so we ask "Is that normal?" a lot - then head inside to look on the internet or in one of our bee books to see - or we email a photo to beekeepers we know.

So far so good and things seem to be quite normal. We have small hive beetle in our hives (as most hives in Queensland do) but not to a level that it's starting to damage things - yet. So we are keeping up the maintenance on our beetle traps - we use the traps with Diatomaceous Earth and we've observed dead and dying beetles in these traps so they do work.

In the photo below you can see we're sliding one through the front of the hive into the brood box.

We've ordered extra traps, so when we check the hives we take clean, new, fully laden ready to go traps out with us, so we can easily swap them over there and then while the hive is open.

The bees also quickly fill up the trap entry points with propolis, so they need to be removed and cleaned regularly. I use boiling water to clean the equipment thoroughly (this is on advice from the DPI via the local beekeeping group). We also need to get set up to set fire to our hive tools using methylated spirits to sterilise them too.

While we had the hives open we cut off some comb and kept it aside, brought it inside then added it to a jar of honey we have... you can see it in the top of the jar - all that golden goodness!

So everyday we can add this honey to our breakfast and enjoy the unfiltered honey with all the health benefits that entails.

I've also been researching the best native plants to plant here - we need to revegetate some areas of our permaculture garden, provide some screening for privacy in some areas and while we're doing it, we thought we'd ensure all the plants we bring in to the property are bee friendly.

I'll write another post soon about what we've discovered and how we are starting to go about writing up our bee forage calendar for the year.

Cheers,

Sonya

The Novice Beekeeper

Our second honey harvest

2010-03-27T13:47:00.008+10:00

We took advantage of a rare fine day this week to harvest honey from our remaining hives.

Looking left to right in the photo ABOVE we have hives 1-4. Numbering hives and keeping good records of hive health and vitality and harvest is important.

Hive 1 showed a lot of activity, the bees were fiesty, very active and noisy. We harvested four frames from that hive and extracted probably around eight kgs of honey.

While we had the hives open we checked the small hive beetle traps and topped them up with Diatemaceous Earth. We saw a few beetles but the traps seem to be keeping them in check. We also cleaned up the hives as best we could removing built up wax on the tops of frames using a new paint scraper bought for the job.

You can see the hive activity in the image below and you can see the black trap between the frames to the right of the box.

We also took four frames from Hive 2, which in contrast was quiet, happy and cooperative, but still very strong with loaded frames heavy with honey. You need to be pretty fit and strong to keep bees, it's heavy work. We harvest probably 12kgs of honey from those four frames. Giving us a total of 20.5kg from one harvest of two hives.

ABOVE - here is our capping set up - frames are rested on the wooden bar across the top (as you can see in the photo BELOW) - and using a hot knife, the caps are removed to allow the honey to flow.

You can also see in the image BELOW that almost all of that frame is capped. Any frame with three quarters or more of the cells capped can be taken for harvesting. You can also see how the frame rests on a screw on that wooden board allowing you to keep it in place using just a couple of fingers while you use the hot knife to take those caps off.

We are only taking four frames from each because we don't want to strip the hive of honey - its the bees' food - and we need to keep the frames in even numbers as our extractor BELOW needs two frames at a time to work.

The extractor worked really well, but doing it by hand is hard work.

Today we went to our first meeting of the Sunshine Coast Beekeepers Association - which is a really well attended vibrant group by the way - and we saw one of these extractors set up with a motor - great idea!

And here is our bounty - 20.5kg of honey settling for a few days before bottling up.

We will endevour to set up a regular maintainence program for our hives and keep an eye on them.

Cheers,

Sonya

The Novice Beekeeper

Honey Harvest

2010-03-20T12:16:00.008+10:00

We managed to find some fine weather between torrential rain and cyclones to harvest the honey from one of our hives. We took four frames from the hive and brought them to our honey house to extract the golden honey.

It was wonderful to be able to see our own home grown honey coming off the frames and into the extractor.

We then packaged it all up in shiny glass jars, added some labels and we're ready for our first local markets.

When we get another opportunity, we'll get out there and do the rest of the hives, but in the meantime we have our own honey in the kitchen and plenty to give as gifts to friends to celebrate our first batch.

Cheers,

Sonya

The Novice Beekeeper

A poem or two while we wait for the rain to stop...

2010-03-13T17:24:00.003+10:00

The Bee Meeting by Sylvia Plath

Who are these people at the bridge to meet me? They are the
villagers-----
The rector, the midwife, the sexton, the agent for bees.
In my sleeveless summery dress I have no protection,
And they are all gloved and covered, why did nobody tell me?
They are smiling and taking out veils tacked to ancient hats.

I am nude as a chicken neck, does nobody love me?
Yes, here is the secretary of bees with her white shop smock,
Buttoning the cuffs at my wrists and the slit from my neck to my knees.
Now I am milkweed silk, the bees will not notice.
Thev will not smell my fear, my fear, my fear.

Which is the rector now, is it that man in black?
Which is the midwife, is that her blue coat?
Everybody is nodding a square black head, they are knights in visors,
Breastplates of cheesecloth knotted under the armpits.
Their smiles and their voices are changing. I am led through a beanfield.

Strips of tinfoil winking like people,
Feather dusters fanning their hands in a sea of bean flowers,
Creamy bean flowers with black eyes and leaves like bored hearts.
Is it blood clots the tendrils are dragging up that string?
No, no, it is scarlet flowers that will one day be edible.

Now they are giving me a fashionable white straw Italian hat
And a black veil that molds to my face, they are making me one of them.
They are leading me to the shorn grove, the circle of hives.
Is it the hawthorn that smells so sick?
The barren body of hawthorn, etherizing its children.

Is it some operation that is taking place?
It is the surgeon my neighbors are waiting for,
This apparition in a green helmet,
Shining gloves and white suit.
Is it the butcher, the grocer, the postman, someone I know?

I cannot run, I am rooted, and the gorse hurts me
With its yellow purses, its spiky armory.
I could not run without having to run forever.
The white hive is snug as a virgin,
Sealing off her brood cells, her honey, and quietly humming.

Smoke rolls and scarves in the grove.
The mind of the hive thinks this is the end of everything.
Here they come, the outriders, on their hysterical elastics.
If I stand very still, they will think I am cow-parsley,
A gullible head untouched by their animosity,

Not even nodding, a personage in a hedgerow.
The villagers open the chambers, they are hunting the queen.
Is she hiding, is she eating honey? She is very clever.
She is old, old, old, she must live another year, and she knows it.
While in their fingerjoint cells the new virgins

Dream of a duel they will win inevitably,
A curtain of wax dividing them from the bride flight,
The upflight of the murderess into a heaven that loves her.
The villagers are moving the virgins, there will be no killing.
The old queen does not show herself, is she so ungrateful?

I am exhausted, I am exhausted -
Pillar of white in a blackout of knives.
I am the magician's girl who does not flinch.
The villagers are untying their disguises, they are shaking hands.
Whose is that long white box in the grove, what have they accomplished,
why am I cold.

and...

The Arrival of the Bee Box by Sylvia Plath

I ordered this, clean wood box
Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.
I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.

The box is locked, it is dangerous.
I have to live with it overnight
And I can't keep away from it.
There are no windows, so I can't see what is in there.
There is only a little grid, no exit.

I put my eye to the grid.
It is dark, dark,
With the swarmy feeling of African hands
Minute and shrunk for export,
Black on black, angrily clambering.

How can I let them out?
It is the noise that appalls me most of all,
The unintelligible syllables.
It is like a Roman mob,
Small, taken one by one, but my god, together!

I lay my ear to furious Latin.
I am not a Caesar.
I have simply ordered a box of maniacs.
They can be sent back.
They can die, I need feed them nothing, I am the owner.

I wonder how hungry they are.
I wonder if they would forget me
If I just undid the locks and stood back and turned into a tree.
There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades,
And the petticoats of the cherry.

They might ignore me immediately
In my moon suit and funeral veil.
I am no source of honey
So why should they turn on me?
Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free.

The box is only temporary.

The Apprentice Beekeeper

the bees are here!

2010-02-24T06:58:00.003+10:00

We picked up our four new beehives last night!

Finally we have bees - and very (very!) soon we'll have our first harvest of honey.

It was quite an event picking them up - we packed our beekeeping suits, gloves and boots - bought plenty of straps and emlocks for the hives.

We charged the torches and headed off at 4.30pm. We arrived and helped wrap the straps around the hives, we waited until just on dusk and then the owner tacked in a block of wood over the hive entrance to lock them in for the trip home.

We packed up the trailer with four hives and we packed four wooden stands, two honey storage buckets and boards for the tops of the hives in the car.

Strapped in tightly so they wouldn't move, we headed off to try to get home while there was still a little light left.

I had also copied the phone numbers from the DPI Queensland site of local beekeepers who will come out and help if you break down or heaven forbid have an accident while transporting bees.

I was really pleased to see that at the place where we picked the hives up from that they had a native bee hive in among the European bee hives - and had done so since 1987! So they can co-exist - which was great to see as I was a little worried about our native bees being pushed out or attacked by the honey bees.

Anyway, we arrived home after a slow trip and suited up, lit the smoker and started unloading them. It took a couple of hours to do - each hive had to be strapped onto a sack truck and carefully transported cross country to the bee pad my husband had built for them.

They were very, very heavy - already loaded with honey so we'll be harvesting that soon.

We finally got back inside at 8.30pm, exhausted I must admit. I always find it stressful to move things like that - I worry about everything that could go wrong, but with some good planning (and emergency phone numbers in my pocket) we were fine and it all went well.

Although it was hard heavy work and had to be done by torchlight.

My husband only suffered one sting (on his hand) - which I thought was very good given we are absolute novices, it was dark, there were four hives and we had sweat running into our eyes within our suits - don't get me wrong, the suits we have are excellent and I've highly recommend them.

So our beekeeping adventures have begun in earnest. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Cheers,

Sonya

Bees are coming!!

2010-02-22T12:14:00.008+10:00

Well [finally] our bee hives are on their way - just waiting on time and weather now.

We were lucky enough to hear about some complete hives being sold by a local beekeeper who is reducing his hive numbers.

We've prepared a place for them in the garden, away from traffic areas and with morning sun.

And very soon I'll be posting images of our own hives in our own backyard.

I can't wait.

cheers,

Sonya

The Novice Beekeeper

Another day spent learning about beekeeping

2010-01-29T06:54:00.014+10:00

Yesterday was spent doing some very hands on learning about beekeeping. My husband and I got up early and headed out to meet with the beekeeper and we were straight into it spending the day checking the hives and harvesting honey.

We got there early because it was going to be a very hot day with a storm predicted for the afternoon (this is mid-summer in the subtropics) and we needed to tend to the bees well before that started to impact on them. Apparently bees get cranky when storms are coming and we didn't want to be disturbing bees when they were cranky.

We suited and gloved up, got the smoker going, got all the tools and spare hive pieces ready just in case and headed out. (Can you spot the Queen in the photo above?)

We smoked the hives, carefully removed the lids, checked the small hive beetle traps, killed any live beetles we saw and gently lifted the frames to see what was happening - was there enough honey to harvest or not?

You can see in the image above that there are no capped cells - they are all open. So this frame was left in the hive.

BELOW - you can see in the frame below that some of them are capped - when about half are capped, they were removed from the hive, the bees gently brushed off of them and then put in a spare super (the top box of a bee hive) which was in a wheelbarrow with a lid put on them to keep the bees out of them ready to head to go to the honey house to extract the honey.

We were shown how to methodically number the frames to ensure they are returned to the same hives, systems are important in beekeeping, recording honey flow, strength of the hives (population numbers and bee-attitudes) what's going on with broods, queens, pests and bee-activity in general. It helps you manage your hives and also lets you know what to expect when you crack open that particular hive lid.

ABOVE - The landing platform for the bees to access the hive and launch themselves from in the search for honey.

A frame after it has had the caps removed. You can see (and you could smell) the golden honey within.

The uncapped frames are then placed in an extractor where centrifugal forces draw the honey from the cells. This was an electric four frame extractor - we have a hand driven two frame one for our hives when we get them. We bought it at a 'tip shop' from one of the rubbish dumps here.

And there it is - the beautiful sweet golden honey, ready for straining and bottling. No heating, no processing, just pure honey straight from the bees.

The cappings are also collected and these are melted down to produce wax for cosmetics, candle making and for other goodies like furniture polish.

We also learnt how to put our nucleus hive together (it arrived in a flat pack with no instructions - nothing like a challenge!), so now we'll assemble this, paint it, choose the perfect place to locate it in the garden, prepare the site and set it up for it's new Queen and her colony.

It was a bit of a puzzle when it arrived and we had an idea of how it might go together, but we weren't sure. On the day we do assemble it, I'll take lots of photos and post them here in case anyone else has the same problem we had.

We'll get our new bees around October, so in the meantime, we'll keep learning as much as we can about beekeeping, how to do it properly, how to really care for the bees and how to do it all organically and wholistically.

There is a lot to learn, but if we can get a quiet hive that will be tolerant of a couple of learners we should be okay.

We'll also work on creating a bee fodder calendar to ensure we have food for them year round on our block.

Cheers,

Sonya

The Apprentice Beekeeper

Australian Native Stingless Bees

2010-01-03T15:07:00.009+10:00

Well, it's not entirely what we orginally planned... although we've always wanted to get some Australian Native Stingless bees... we just thought we'd get our European Honey Bees first.

Now I have it on good authority that both will live happily in our garden - provided there is enough food for them - which I'm sure there is. And I've already observed both native and introduced bees co-habitating and co-feeding on our vegetable, herb and flower crops.

So introducing The Trigs - Trigona carbonaria - native stingless bees.

We picked them up late in the evening and sealed the hole with some gauze for the trip home.

We fitted the hive to a pre-prepared star picket with a bracket attached - and in the morning we removed the gauze and they took off and spent the day working - settling in very nicely.

We've positioned their hive under a mango tree where it will get morning sun, but good protection from afternoon sun.

Like with honey bees, keeping the hive cool is a priority. And, like honey bees they don't like being moved, so put them in the right place first time.

Here is a close of up of their tiny entrance door to their hive. They are only the size of ants - tiny.

Another shot of them hard at work.

They quickly made themselves at home.

Our hive is an OATH design - an Original Australian Trigona Hive. It is able to be split too, so this hive can be propagated.

We look forward to learning more about these interesting little creatures and about bees in general. They are quite fascinating to watch and I can much time spent just watching and observing and trying to work out what it is they are doing.

Cheers,

Sonya

Nucleus Hive arrives

2009-10-23T08:47:00.003+10:00

Very excitied to find a note in the letterbox that I have a parcel at the post office to pick up.

Marked 'Beekeeping Equipment' I took the package home and unpacked
1 x Nucleus Hive
4 x new frames
4 x foundations (the wax that goes in the frames for the bees to start working on)
1 x smoker - went for the good stainless steel one
and 1 x belt so now the hand-driven extractor we scored at the dump works properly!

Next steps - undercoat and paint the box - in a light colour to help keep the bees cool, put the box together using strong wood glue, galv or stainless steel nails, find the perfect spot for it in our garden and get some bees.

Cheers,
Sonya

Bargain find at the Tip Shop

2009-10-12T14:26:00.006+10:00

We were lucky enough to hear about a great beekeeping find at the local tip shop. Like a lot of rubbish tips nowdays, there is a resource recovery shop attached, where saleable items are resold back into the community - this is where we found our treasure.

We called up to make sure it was still there and got them to put it on hold for us.

So - here's the bounty...
1 x hand driven two frame honey extractor (needs a good clean and a new drive belt)
2 x pairs of leather gloves (need new elastic in the sleeves)
1 x heavy duty hive tool
1 x normal hive tool
3 x veils to fit over hats
1 x capping bag to fit the extractor
1 x bee brush

All that for only $50!

To buy all this new, it would be over $800.

What a bargain, we're very happy with ourselves indeed.

And, we visited the local DPI beekeeping section and got hold of this book.

Next steps, a nucleus hive, a full beekeepers suit and a smoker.

And some bees of course!

Cheers,

Sonya

Backyard Beekeeping Part 3

2009-09-30T17:15:00.017+10:00

And so it continues… more from the day spent with Max Lindegger learning about bees and how to keep them healthy, happy and productive.

This post I’ll cover;
Hives
Frames
Honey extraction
Hands on practice
Where to find resources, information and materials

HIVES
Max took us through how hives are constructed, set up and what the best materials are. You can get budget boxes, but it seems that good quality material like Hoop Pine is the way to go.

Like anything, you get what you pay for and its important that your hives can stand up to the harsh elements. Last thing you need is the hive rotting out because of cheap timber, falling over and all your bees leaving in an angry huff.

Hives consists of a base, two supers (the bottom one is a brood box, the top one the honey box) and a lid. You can have two honey boxes on top of the brood box, but it’s getting high and heavy to lift – pays to keep it manageable, again you don’t want to be dropping the super or the frames – bees really don’t like being dropped - they get, you guessed it, angry!

New hives can be bought as a flat pack and put together at home and painted up. Max recommends an undercoat and then four top coats of a good quality outdoor paint. We plan to use an eco-friendly, low fume exterior grade paint for ours.

Hives are often painted white, but any colour that will reflect heat and keep the hive cool in summer is fine, I'm thinking a splash of lemon and lilac.

It’s best to use galvanized or stainless steel nails for construction too – again to avoid cheap nails rusting out and the hive falling apart. Also a good idea to use a very strong wood glue too.

The lid also must have ventilation holes for the bees to breathe and to prevent condensation.

You can also add a layer of insulation to the lid too, and they are sometimes made out of galv, then painted so you can write on them to keep a record of what that hive is producing. Keeping records is an important part of beekeeping too.

Between the brood and honey supers you’ll need an excluder (see BELOW). This keeps the Queen and the drones in the brood box, only the worker bees make it up to the honey super and the do all the honey collection.

Everything needs to be well built and strong – honey is heavy, honey. The base could even be made out of Cyprus Pine to prevent termite problems too.

FRAMES
It pays to number and date the frames, that way you know how they are circulating through the hives.

An average super box holds 10 frames, but some bee keepers like to have eight or nine in there instead.

Frames need to be cleaned and repaired when they have had the honey extracted from them. This is done in a honey house – a place that keeps the bees out as robber bees will come looking for the honey if you take it away from the hives.

Cleanliness and good management are important in beekeeping, particularly if you intend to sell the produce. Aim for the highest quality and level of production in your ventures.

Rewiring the frames (ABOVE) and melting on another foundation sheet of wax (BELOW).

BELOW - frames ready to be cleaned up and rewired

HONEY EXTRACTION
The frames are uncapped using a hot knife. Either an electric one or a normal knife placed in hot water to heat up. With raw honey, this is the only time heat is applied.

I’m thinking of getting together with some other locals who want to keep bees and starting a co-operative to buy the machinery, so we can share it rather than all buying our own.

BELOW - hot knifes, drainage and other tools for uncapping the honey

Once the wax caps are taken off the cells, the honey flows freely and Max then places the frames in the centrifuge to extract as much as possible from them. The honey drains out a tap at the bottom of the electric machine (SEE BELOW) and runs through three strainers – just to remove the bee’s knees – before it is bottled in sterilised jars ready for market.

You can get a hand operated extractor for about $200.

HANDS ON PRACTICE
We then put on our protective suits, hoods and gloves and headed out for some hands on practice.

We lifted the lids, removed frames, held them and felt the weight, worked with the bees buzzing around our heads and we also had a go using the smoker to calm them before we made any moves.

BELOW - more hands on practice

WHERE TO FIND RESOURCES, INFORMATION AND MATERIALS
The Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries has a lot of information about beekeeping and is a good place to start.

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dpi/hs.xsl/27_124_ENA_HTML.htm

A good info sheet is here http://new.dpi.vic.gov.au/notes/agg/ag1146-hobby-beekeeping

Check with your local equivalent agency.

A recommended supplier of beekeeping equipment is John L Guilfoyle Pty Ltd. Unfortunately their website isn’t working at the moment, but their phone numbers are:
Brisbane – (07) 3279 9750
South Australia – (08) 8344 8307
NSW – (02) 9623 5585

The next post will be on how I intend to get started…

Happy beekeeping,

Sonya

Bee Keeping course part 2

2009-09-25T11:52:00.018+10:00

Some notes from the course I attended a couple of weeks ago with Max Lindegger. We covered a lot, so I'll break this post up into:

before you begin
location
tools and equipment

If you are interested in learning about bee keeping, email me at backyardbeehives@yahoo.com and I'll put you on the database for the next course (held on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia)

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Well, it would pay to do some type of course if you can. Get hands on with bees and see if it's for you before you start investing in equipment or taking on an unkempt hive - which is a big job - it might seem like a bargain, but taking on someone else's problem hive is not a good way to start out.

Join a beekeeping club or group.

Check with the Department of Primary Industries or equivalent in your area. They often have courses, information, websites you can check out. They can also advise you on how many hives you can have.

Here bee keepers need to be registered it only costs about $15 a year, but you are kept up to date with disease outbreaks and information.

Buy a good book. DPI also have a range of books - (Warhurst and Goebel are recommended).

Visit a beekeeping supply shop/website. John L Guilfoyle Pty Ltd are a key Australian beekeeping supply place. They have outlets in Qld, SA and NSW. Their phone number is 07 3279 9750 for Queensland.

LOCATION

Hives need to be checked regularly, so have them somewhere close to your home, yet set away from traffic areas (cars, people, children, pets, horses, ducks). They can cohabitate with chooks which may also help keep pest problems low.

Aspect - northerly aspect here in the southern hemisphere. Good to get early morning sun (so open to the east) so the bees start work early.

Bear in mind whether you'll need to go in to mow in front of the hives too. This will really anger the bees, so again having chooks in the system will keep grass and weeds to a minimum.

Shelter - bees need morning sun, but protection from western and full summer sun. Plant out the area with things that will provide summer shade, but let the winter warmth in. This is where good permaculture design principles can come in. A shady spot will also make it more pleasant for you too as you work with the bees. They don't like human sweat, so keep it to a minimum in a shady spot.

Cane toads - love to eat bees, so make sure the hives are up high enough to stop them eating all your stock.

Ducks will eat bees whole, but will probably die from a sting to the throat - so again, chooks are best.

Air flow - hives need good ventilation - particularly here in the subtropics, they don't like humidity, so make sure they are in a well ventilated, airy spot. But they still need to be protected from strong westerly and southerly winds.

Honey house - also plan for where you will transport the frames to uncap them and to harvest the honey. You need a closed in honey house nearby to harvest all the honey.

Spacing - place hives 1 metre apart. Placing a 1.8 metre high fence (can be chain mesh) will direct the bees up and over the fence, making it easier for humans to walk past without being stung. Give the bees some space to between the front of their hives and the fence - say 6 metres if you have it. A fence is also good to keep chooks in if you are integrating the two animal systems together - Max had his chook house at the back of the hives, so he could get in there, tend to the chooks and not disturb his bees.

Water - Max observes that his bees prefer to drink from the mud around the dam, rather than any water he leaves out for them nearer the hives.

Food and forrage plants - more about these in a later posting, but bear in mind how you are going to feed your bees year round.

ABOVE - a photo of Max's hives - semi-shaded, north facing, this was taken from behind the fence line.

TOOLS & EQUIPMENT

Bee keeping requires a fair amount of equipment and tools to get started. I'll be honest, it's not cheap, but it is a profitable hobby - people pay good money for local honey and beeswax.

Max took us through the equipment and great set up he has at his place.

Here (BELOW) he is showing us a Nucleus hive - used to start off a new colony, or to capture a swarm. This is what we are getting to kick start our own colony of bees. After a year, we'll move them up into a full sized hive (more on them later). A nucleus hive will cost about $50, and then you need to buy the frames (5), foundations (the beeswax to get the frames started) and the Queen. You can buy Queens bred specifically for their temperament, or quiet disposition. This is waht we're going for, making them easier to handle for beginners like me.

BELOW - a hive tool. Used every time you visit your hives. To take off the lid, lift up the frames and lift them out of the super box.

BELOW - products from the hives - honey, beeswax and bulk buys. So you'll need containers and food grade storage for your produce.

BELOW - another necessary piece of equipment - the smoker used to quieten the bees.

BELOW - a full range of tools, hive tools, paint scrapers (to clean the frames with), soft, soft brushes to gently remove the bees from the frames when you need to harvest the honey.

BELOW - the full hive - the type you've probably seen before. You need to buy a base, two supers (the boxes) and a lid. You'll also need a Queen excluder between the two to keep one as a brood box and one as the productive honey box. We plan to start off with two of these, and if we enjoy it and it works out well, we could have up to 20 hives (given our land size) or we could even apply for more through the DPI. Beekeepers also place their hives in state forests too.

BELOW - each time honey is harvested from the frames, the frames need to be 'reset'. This involves cleaning them thoroughly, rewiring them, and reapplying the beeswax frame to get the bees started again.

BELOW - once the honey laden frames are removed from the hives, they need to be uncapped, that is the beeswax the bees have placed over the top of each cell needs to be removed to allow the honey to flow. A hot knife is used to do this - either electric or a large knife dipped in really hot water. With raw honey, this is the only time heat is applied to the product.

BELOW - and then the frames are placed in this centrifuge to remove all the delicious honey. It runs out the tap through three varying sizes of strainers and finally into a bucket.

BELOW - and finally a very important piece of equipment for a novice beekeeper such as myself - a really good beekeeping suit. This one worked a treat, the bees can't get in and I felt confident handling the frames and being surrounded by bees.

Bees don't like wool, dark clothes (they'll think your a grizzly bear coming to steal their honey), strong perfumes or odours or sweat. Also note the gloves. These are long sleeved gloves with calf hide which makes them soft and pliable so you can really feel the frames and there is little chance of dropping the frame and really annoying the bees.

BELOW - Removing a frame from the hives you can see some of the cells are capped (they are the white ones) and the rest are showing the honey flow - which is pretty full on at Max's at the moment.

And finally, nothing will replace learning how to do it by doing it. See if you can get along to a course or apprentice yourself to an experience beekeeper as I have. Gain the confidence to become an excellent beekeeper with high standards and you could just fall in love with the beauty of working with bees.

Cheers,

Sonya Wallace

Bee Keeping course part 1

2009-09-14T09:26:00.011+10:00

I had a fantastic time at the bee keeping course on Saturday at Conondale. I learnt so much and I'm now inspired to get started on our own bee hives.

The full day course covered so much information I've decided to break it up into sections to post - tools, hives, bees, etc.

But here are a few photos of the day to whet your appetite.

Bee hives behind a fence - keeps people from walking in front of the hives (bees don't like that) and also allows chooks to be released to free range in the area which keeps weeds under control (so you don't need to mow in front of the hives) and also helps keep the Hive Beetle under control.

I learnt the value of buying a good suit - this all in one suit keeps the bees out which reduces the chance of being stung.

There are jacket and hood versions too, but I think I'll go for the full suit.

This is the smoker we used to calm the bees as we checked the hives.

The logo on the smoker.

Some of the tools used by bee keepers.

I'll write up my notes in more detail to post here in installments.

Cheers,

Sonya

Things are still happening...

2009-08-22T13:30:00.002+10:00

I haven't given up on the bee hives, next big thing is a day spent learning all about bees and managing a hive - that will be on September 12, so please check back after then.

I'll be taking a lot of photos and notes and will post them here.

Cheers,
Sonya

Latest developments

2009-06-03T13:34:00.008+10:00

I'm still very much on the steep learning curve of beekeeping - I guess like most things, you never stop learning about it. Today I rang the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries to talk to the local apiarist. He put me onto some local resources including the local amateur beekeeping group based in Eumundi.

He also told me about the 'Bee Book' - a book about keeping bees relevant to the subtropics and explained that when we have hives and they are registered with DPI, we'll be notified about upcoming workshops.

He put me onto Queen Bee breeders and a person in Gympie who does local shows with bee displays.

The Beginners' Guide to backyard beekeeping workshop I've organised for September is booked out - just through word of mouth so hopefully we'll have more workshops in the near future.

Interest in backyard beekeeping is growing - which is great to hear.

Preparing for Bees

2009-05-19T12:14:00.004+10:00

I’m researching how best to fit our beehives into our existing permaculture system, so I’m busy reading up on all the books sitting quietly on my bookcase.

Firstly, from Introduction to Permaculture. The idea is for any animal introduced in the system to be able to self-forage. That way you don’t need to expel energy or money feeding them. They move around and feed themselves. A diverse diet and exercise moving around finding food leads to animals that are healthier and more robust than those kept contained and fed concentrated feeds.

Permaculture teaches us to firstly look at that particular animals needs, then it’s characteristics to see how they fit – what they need from the system, what they bring too the system and what products we can yield from them.

For example, chickens scratch up mulch, geese graze on grass… you get the picture.

So what about bees?

From the system – bees need food. They need specific plants and flowers to forage among. Bees travel about five kilometres from their home hive.

The book Permaculture Plants recommends a permaculture system having both nectar and pollen producing plants for bees. In permaculture we look at how many uses we can get out of one plants so being a provider of food for bees is an important use we can seek out when selecting plants.

Planting out a year round diet is also important – having something available all year round for your bees to forage.

Bee forages to consider include natives such as grevilleas and acacias, pasture crops such as Lucerne and clover, orchard trees such as citrus and herbs including lavender, borage, comfrey and rosemary.

Other plants include; tagasaste (for down south – not suitable for the subtropics), fennel, raspberry, sage, thyme, carob, cowpea, and various gums.

Rosemary Morrow’s book the Earth User’s guide to permaculture recommends the following;

Bees need shelter (hives located in protected areas, safe from flooding and strong winds),
Food, water, warmth (place hives in a maximum warm area – will need to bear in mind the harsh strong sun we have here in summer), and people to be calm around them!

They yield honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, pollination (leading to higher yields) and broods.

Placing the hive 50-100m away from the main forage area also allows nectar to dry off on the way back to the hive and prevent it turning into alcohol.

Hives also need to be about one metre off the ground to prevent predators getting in and in an area away from where people might walk into the flight path of the bees, this makes them cranky and they sting you.

Permaculture – A designers’ manual recommends clumps of forage, rather than sparsely planted foragings. It also says that crops within a mile of hives will outyield crops in bee-deficient areas by a factor of three to 10 times.

Planning a calendar of year round food is the go, so I’ll take a look at what we have and start mapping out our bee menu plan.

Cheers,

Sonya

The story so far...

2009-05-17T12:27:00.007+10:00

I first really became interested in bee keeping a couple of years ago when I did an afternoon workshop as part of a permaculture course.

The idea of firstly being able to see thousands of little workers buzzing around their hives in our garden appealed to me, as did the idea of increased yield thanks to their pollination role and firstly, the idea of having our own blend of honey - all this roled into a romantic notion of having our own bees and beehives.

Bees are often integrated into permaculture gardens and I like the idea of having these armies of workers helping us grow our food - we have a worm farm and plenty of worms in the soil - we have chooks and bees were a natural inclusion for our small holding.

I was inspired after the workshop and while I wasn't ready at the time to take on learning bee keeping, I feel that I am now - but where to start?

Where to learn, where to get hives, what type of hives, how to avoid being ripped off, how to keep bees healthy and happy, what do they eat, how do you manage the hives, how do you get the honey from the bees onto your toast in the morning?

It's all these questions and many more I'm sure, that I hope to answer and share here on this blog. I figure I'm not the only person keen for bees, but stuck with how to get started.

So my plans in coming weeks are to; visit the local DPI (Dept of Primary Industries) office at nearly Nambour. To find a good Australian book to start reading and to use as a reference guide on bee keeping. To research on the internet about bee keeping. To study the bees in our garden and try to get to know them - what they do, how they behave, to observe them going about their daily tasks. Also I'll visit a bee keeping supply shop at Morayfield.

What I have put in place is - I've approached someone I know who has 10 hives in our local area and asked him to run a workshop on bee keeping - which he has agreed to do in September. Bees are happier in spring - so there is one thing I've learned already.

He's had a look at our place and thinks it's perfect for bees - we have a permaculture garden and lots of vegetation of varying heights, which apparently bees like.

I've also started planting out some bee forrage plants in the vegie garden. Lavender, buddliea, rosemary, and lots of orange flowered cosmos and marigolds.

I've also set up some bee friendly water bowls - shallow and with rocks in them so bees and other small insects don't drown.

I've also been photographing a lot of bees in the garden - both honey bees and natives to get to know them all.

So this is my story so far, planning, designing, researching, reading and learning how to get started.

Cheers,

Sonya

About this blog

2009-05-17T08:02:00.000+10:00

Hi and welcome to my blog,

You're invited to join me as I learn how to keep bees at home - a challenge for me, I love bees and the work they do, but I'll admit they scare me a little.

I'm worried about being stung, but I guess it's going to happen if I'm going to persist in my dream of having our own busy bees pollinating our vegie garden and harvesting bucket loads of honey from our own hives.

Wish me luck,
Sonya