Camping, photography and other ramblings
After a change in my Easter holiday plans, I found myself with leave booked but nowhere to go. So, a couple of calls later and I had a travelling mate, the intrepid Bushy (aka Dean). We decided to take a Read More …
On the 18th of Dec ’21, we did our first full harvest of the flow-frames. In just 5months our hive has expanded from the four-frame NUC of around 6000 bees to a thriving colony of something like 40,000 bees. As Read More …
As has happened previously, we grabbed the camera to capture the moments of our New Years’ Eve celebrations. Which, despite some of the later pics looking pretty messy, was actually a relatively well-behaved evening. There were no excessive drunks but Read More …
Everyone that knows the Budgies, knows that we spend each summer holiday down at Augusta, in the South West of W.A. Like many families, you have those places which evoke good vibes and feelings. The place doesn’t have to be Read More …
The Perth summer has well and truly settled in now, with a couple of week-long periods of daytime temps sitting above 36OC. Whilst we know many beekeepers just plonk their hives in the middle of farmland, with no shelter from Read More …
Approximately 6weeks after installing the super and flow frames and we’re ready for our first harvest! We’ve been monitoring the super and have been excited to see the honey levels, as viewed through the front window, increasing daily. With three Read More …
If you’ve read my previous bee blog post about water here, you’d remember that Perth is now, finally, entering our long and hot summer. With temperatures hitting the high 30’s (centigrade) we’ve increasingly noticed the bees “bearding” outside the hive, Read More …
Today, being the 27th Nov ’21 is the hottest day by far of what has been a very mild spring. A warm’ish 37OC and we’ve been watching how the bees react to the warmer weather. Water, shelter, and food are Read More …
Echoes of Willie Nelson singing “On the road again” permeate our being. Yep, Goldy our van is fixed and we’re off on its maiden voyage post ‘the big one’, back in August (read here in case you missed it). Not Read More …
We’ve now had the bees for about 2months. During this time, we’ve watched our four-frame NUC of about 2000 bees grow into a colony of probably 30,000 bees, possibly more. We’d been keeping an eye on the bees every few Read More …
With the successful relocation of the four NUC frames into the brood box, it was now time to sit back and bask in the engineering glory that was my bee chimney. If you recall from earlier posts, I’d preempted bee Read More …
If you’ve read my previous post, Confessions of a novice beekeeper – Part 4, you’ll know we’ve procured our NUC of bees. So, after allowing them to orientate for a couple of days, it was relocation day, where we move Read More …
Ok, so I have a brand new, beautifully painted hive in the backyard but no bees. Unfortunately, beekeeping isn’t like Kevin Costner’s “Field of Dreams”. So, despite having an empty hive, it’s very rare for a population of bees to Read More …
I placed my order for a Flow Hive 2+, the third major iteration of the product, in May ’21, receiving my hive in June. It comes flat-packed in a couple of environmentally friendly protected boxes and the setup is very Read More …
What is, and why Flow Hive? To really understand what the Flow Hive is I suggest you check out the Flow Hive website or simply Google them. But, as a quick intro, the Flow Hive comes with a preformed plastic Read More …