Hive maintainence day

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

the bees are here!

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

Preparing for Bees

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...

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