Bee Keeping

[shortly]

Actually its more for the transmission of bacterial & fungal diseases as well as parasites like Nosema & possibly even SHB rather than the viruses, they tend to need to be transferred bee to bee. And yes bee's do suffer from fungal diseases like chalkbrood.

There is a bloke down the goldie that sells T hockingsi hives. if i can find his contact details i'l pass them on.

Edited February 2, 2013 by shortly

[Stillman]

Some hives

All these are pretty much Tim Heards Oath design or hybridized variations of. 2 bottom chambers one "super" Once the bottoms are full with nest the top is used as a storage for pollen and honey, they stash alot of pollen, and its nearly impossible to eparate honey from pollen when trying to extract. it. The wax is really soft and malleable so puncturing th elittle individual honey sacks and giving the whole thing a bit of compression seemed to be the best bet. Keep the honey in the fridge. Its alive and gives off gases when bottle. Theres heaps of studies on the medicinal potential of the honey and its "super food" qualities. A big hive will produce about 1.5 kilo of honey per year. Its not a good idea to rob them often unless you can provide steady food supply. If you are splitting hives and using a oath box. easiest way is to run a hot knife or wire straight through the middle. each part then goes on a corresponding empty half. Give them 18 month before you try to steal there honey.

Little side note if you have alot of Cadagi tree near your place don't have native bees. They are mental for the seeds. They will actually collect only the Cadagi and the seeds can actually block up there hive entrance. It's a weird addiction for them.

[Stillman]

http://www.zabel.com.au/cadgai-tree.html

[Bigred]

my colony often bring back small seeds to the hive, normally look like small fig seeds

morten bay fig mostly . wonder what makes them collect Cadagi it must be like

a drug for them .

[Davo]

I've got a good population of native bees in my area, due to the numbers pretty sure a hive would be relatively close, but can't as yet find it. any tips on hunting/locating wild hives?

[Bigred]

with European bees i heard you tie a piece of cotton to them and follow them back to the hive. But

with natives they are very hard to find most probably up the top of a huge gum tree good luck

[briliant_botanist]

I would love to keep bees but unfortunately I am severely allergic to their stings (is there any way to avoid this) as I'm seriously considering doing this as a serious hobby?

[Bigred]

Bee ( lol) warned its addictive and can get expensive. But with a good strain of european bee that are breed

to be more friendly . In regards to stings a good bee suit (you can get puncture proof grades) but I use overalls

never had a bite go through ( WHEN KING GEE WAS MADE IN AUSTRALIA now they are shit ) but i will be happy

to help you out along the way. in regards to natives if you have a lot of native bees around check out the

you tube vid" build it and they will come ".

[Bigred]

a good you tube vid on splitting native hives

 

[Bigred]

You get the idea looks like a great way to breed native bees. Will look into where to get

the foundation from.

 

[migraineur]

Check out this for links:

http://www.honeybee.com.au/beeinfo/assn.html

[shortly]

For the stingless bee enthusiasts

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[Bigred]

You rock shortly

[watertrade]

I went out to see my bees today, what a crappy year! I'm not sure they will even have the reserves to last the winter....

[shortly]

Might have to start feeding them as a supplement, just be careful of feeding commercial honey.

Not sure how true it is, but i was told Australia got chalk brood & foul brood from feeding imported honey to bees.

[watertrade]

I am feeding them sugar at the moment ( not syrup as I would prefer as I didn't have time). But I'm hoping they have enough time to store up some reserves before winter. I have heard the same about feeding bees honey . It's asking for the transmission of disease.

[Scarecrow]

sorry i had to

i'll leave the thread alone now haha

[Bigred]

I went out to see my bees today, what a crappy year! I'm not sure they will even have the reserves to last the winter....

you can buy a special candy wich has food and wax in it. I use it a lot on small hives for the winter

i can send you a chunk if you cant get your hands on any

[Bigred]

a nice vid with a few facts about bee's

 

[watertrade]

you can buy a special candy wich has food and wax in it. I use it a lot on small hives for the winter

i can send you a chunk if you cant get your hands on any

HI Red, do you have a link to somewhere that may sell this stuff. it may be better than sugar syrup over winter.

thanks

[Bigred]

the best thing would be to ring john guilfoyle . He is a ledgend and is such a nice guy will sort you out.

http://www.johnlguilfoyle.com.au/

[Shrooman]

i was just reading about top bar hives. They seem to be pretty simple to make, and then i wouldnt need a capping knife, extractor and stuff.

Are they any good?

I do something that is half way between a normal hive and a top bar hive.

Basically I've removed the wire from my frames, and put a 'starter strip' in each frame and run them similar to a top bar hive, where I don't use foundation, and harvest the honey by 'crush & strain'.

After some intial teething problems I have found it a very effective method to keep bees, with minimal time/money/effort as no buying/imbedding wax foundation anymore It just takes a little more time & effort to extract the honey than if you use an extractor.

[Jox]

I use to keep bees a few years ago (1 hive),

Anyway when I was out west a few weeks ago, a tree got knocked down & my job was to keep an eye out for native wildlife & remove & relocate it. The tree (a big old iron bark) was full of hollows, I had noticed European honey bees flying in & out of a split that opened near the top (25-35 meters). So I was watching closely as the tree was been pushed over, I had told the elderly man driving the D8 to be careful but to my surprise when the tree was down he jumped out of the dozer to inspect the bees, he walked strait up to them had a look & told me to wait. He got back into the dozer & used it to split the trunk of this be tree, he did it like he was a surgeon & left the hive perfectly intact, by this time bees were flying everywhere but this man jumped out & walked strait over to them again, stood there for about 5 minutes, then told me he love bees & had grown up with his father being a bee keeper, then he went back to work(I must add he never got stung!). Me being a bit more cautious wait an hour or two before moving in for a good look, they had settled a bit but were all still there, I remained calm & broke off a piece of honey comb(YUM), the bees weren't bothered by me & I got rewarded with some good photos & some beautiful iron bark honey.

Here are a few photos of how bees make there home in a hollow tree, not on frames in a box.

Cheers

jox

[Bigred]

do you want to keep the hive it looks like a big colony

[Jox]

No mate,thanks anyway thoughs bees would be long gone by now, I took the photos a few weeks ago. If I had found them closer to home I would of got them & put them in a box. In a few more years when my kids are a bit older I will be getting back into bee keeping .

Cheers

jox