Perth (WA, AU) Flowhives and honey flow

Fingers crossed!! :slight_smile:

1 Like

Well Perthites its hard to believe its winter with our mild temps

Called yesterday into Malaga and caught my 1st ever swarm which had made itself a new home in a Cleanaway bin

Went swimmingly well and got pretty much 99.5% of the bees in the FH 8 brood box. Dont ask where the 0.5% went lol

5 frames had drawn comb and some excess honey that didnā€™t drain from a previous harvest and 3 frames fresh with foundation only. That should help to settle them down and hopefully keep the queen there.

Ill have to put in 1 frame of brood from an existing hive and at least 1 frame of sealed honey tonight. If they havenā€™t taken off since last nite ???

Can you guys confirm this is correct, Ta

2 Likes

@Rodadon Iā€™m assuming you have removed the super and only have the brood box? Even though our winter is currently mild and dry Iā€™m guessing the brood box is not 80+% full with bees?

The Queen needs space to lay, which you seem to have provided. What suburb are you in? Any citrus trees around you in bloom? Wattles/Acacias? Calistemons? Iā€™d be inclined to put a frame of honey in but in two minds about the frame of brood. It wouldnā€™t hurt though.

1 Like

Cool, well done.
Where did the drawn frames came from?
A frame of brood will keep them in the hive and Iā€™d imagine with how the weathers going Iā€™m sure weā€™re in for more rain even though weā€™re past the solsticeā€¦
Well I hope thereā€™ll be more rainā€¦
As Snowy says a frame of stores wonā€™t hurt although thereā€™s still plenty of forage around for them but a week of rain can change things dramatically.

My friends down in mt Lawley are still harvesting but here in the hills the supers are near empty although the bees are more than covering each frame in the brood boxes I just need to start working out the brood frames that were banded into frames during the cut outs. Iā€™m wondering if I should remove the supers and put a box above the qx and move the banded frames up there after shaking the bees off and replacing with foundation frames but not sure the bees will draw comb on them this time of year? I lost a swarm from one colony earlier this year on the first fine day in spring so Iā€™d like to be proactive.

@aaron_y how are your bees going?

Hi skeggley

The girls are still bringing in the nectar and pollen, from the looks of things. Check with my mentor about the heavy honey frames and he suggested to harvest it. So I took 5 frames from 2 hives. I reckon each frames weigh about 2kgs each

His reasoning is that in the suburbs, there are more sources of food for the bees. The bottlebrush opposite my house is blooming again. Lavender is coming online again.

It has been raining since late this evening but this weekend looks ok. Looks like Iā€™m done and closing up shop for winter. LOL

Yes I only have the brood box in place atmā€¦And yes the brood box isnt 80% full yet, good amount of bees in it though.

Im in Stirling and watching the other hive over the weekend during warm weather, bees were bringing in pollen and nectar so mealtime isnt an issue for them currently.

Given the cold weather and constant rain over the last day or 2, Iā€™m hesitant to go in opening hives up. Bees do get rather cranky so i placed a Boardman feeder at the new hive last nite with some sugar syrup.

Skeggley the new brood box is sitting nearby a lemon tree, almond tree, bottlebrush and various other natives that i cant identify, there is plenty of established trees nearby.

Even though ive not put a frame of brood or honey inside, they havenā€™t left. I feel because there is plenty of drawn comb and some left over honey, its keeping the bees there as its probably no point moving on since its so cold.

I was watching bees bring out dead bees and completing hive maintenance last niteā€¦ Gut feel is they have settled in, possibly over the weekend looking at the forecast i might transfer a frame of brood and honey, milder weather.

Thanks for the replies folks

1 Like

@rodadon, Typical right? No rain until you want to do somethingā€¦and then we had 60mm in one nightā€¦

1 Like

We do need some rain though, but a pita when you want to do an inspection with howling wind and driving rain.

Oh well at least my vege patch is going great guns and the garlic is growing at pace.

Ill have another peak at the hive on Sat arvo and most likely Iā€™ll put in a frame of sealed honey and leave it at that. Bees thus far aint moving as they have a brand spanking new hive to build in.

It seems 1 Flow Hive isnt enough.

2 Likes

Up to 25% off on Flow supers at the moment, even more if you ask nicely. :wink:
Iā€™ve just received a few more supers to work on thru winter, yeah Iā€™m hooked.
If anyone wants another Flow key or spouts just let me know as Iā€™ve way more than I need!
Stoopid bargainsā€¦
And @Rodadon, yay veggie patches, everyone should have one, could I talk you into Aquaponics? http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17149&sid=5928551e64659cd674c955f717e7243d
Whatcha growing at the mo?

1 Like

Growing a whole bunch of purple garlic, bok chow, pak chow, snow peas broccoli, broccolini, cauliflower, a few variety of salads, baby carrots, kale, spinach, thai chilli, planted some mint and coriander for the cheese n kisses ( i detest coriander, lol).

There is some other stuff in there but cant remember.

Aquaponics, no way lolā€¦I have so much on my plateā€¦Work 6 days a week, play sport, bees, have a couple of Bajaā€™s (rc buggies), ride a bike, and trying to keep the lady of the house happy, a job in itself, hehe, i just wouldnā€™t have anymore time to do anything else.

Saw some worker bees bringing in pollen so looks like the queen has well and truly settled in, happy with my 1st swarm catching effort for the newb

2 Likes

Given your garden success you seemingly donā€™t have a puppyā€¦

1 Like

A pup is even more responsibility, no way lol

Bees r great leave them for week or sometimes 3 when things get hectic and they are still there, perhaps a lil cranky if a bit cramped but rotate some frames, check for nasties, close them up and yr away

Dogs are a 24/7 job plus who will pick up there little treats they leave everywhereā€¦

Rain coming Thursday/Friday, weird weather here atm

Yesterday (wed) was sunny and about a warm as it will get for the next week or so. Quickly put the suit on, no smoker, pry the top of the FH and extract a frame of honey from the middle super

Damn, its coldish and the bees think the same, out come the stingers through a bee suit and long sleeve hard yakka work shirt, copped 3 of the best stings Iā€™ve had for some time. The middle super is chock o block full of honey too. I didnt go into the brood box given they were so aggressive, another day perhaps.

Anyways close the hive up and walk away for 5 mins to let my girlfriends calm down ,and they did.

Go over to my new hive which is still getting acquainted with me. They didnā€™t like being opened up also, even with me dropping a fully capped frame of honeyā€¦Ungrateful girls and for my troubles they also start having a go at me, very grumpy indeedā€¦

As a side note ive got fully capped frames in the middle super and the FH is also full, as its damn heavyā€¦Given our mildish winters would u guys recommend i extract SOME of the honey from each super ?? say 50%ā€¦Hive is still quite good on numbers running as a triple

yr thoughts are welcomed

1 Like

Hi Aaron & thank you @skeggley, sorry for not replying earlier. If you have another hive, I would just borrow or steal a frame of brood from it to give to the queenless hive. As long as it has fertile eggs, the bees should make a new queen. Donā€™t be too worried about drones. If that frame of brood doesnā€™t work, give it another one in a few weeks time & so on. they will eventually make a new queen that will get successfully mated. If not now, it will happen in the early spring.

As long as the donor hive will manage without those frames every 3 weeks, theyā€™ll be right. Just donā€™t replace the frames with foundation, fully drawn worker comb will be ideal. Keep the brood together, place that frame next to the outer frame of brood.

Even if the receiving hive doesnā€™t make a queen until early spring, itā€™s population will be boosted by those frames of brood.

3 Likes

Yesterday was a very cold evening, so we thought weā€™d get outside and try out our thermal imaging camera to try and answer the questions of a) do our bees cluster in <10 ā€¢C? and b) do they move up to the top of the hive where it is warmer?

We are running 3 hives this winter, 2 as a double deep (1 Brood box, one full honey super) (we removed the queen excluders from between the boxes about 1 month ago), and one as our standard summer configuration - Brood box QE Full super, Flow super (mostly empty).

Whilst Iā€™m not sure we answered the queuing of whether the bees cluster, very happily they are most definitely staying in the brood box, which gives me confidence that the hive with the Queen excluder on should make it through winter just fine. Our ideal will be to simply keep the QE and hopefully flow frames in place all year to reduce storage and juggling in spring.

Happy bee keeping :slight_smile:
Julia

1 Like

Sorry the photos are strange, let me try again.

And this one :slight_smile:

Thermal imaging is certainly fascinating. However hard to get an idea of what you have actually taken without a reference.
Where in the box are the photos. Is the top photo Super, bottom Brood? Would love to see the shot of the whole hive.
Cheers.

@Jingles what camera are you using?

If you click on the photo you should be able to see the whole hive (sideways) :). No idea why it came out like this, but I canā€™t get it to appear properlyā€¦ The bees are in the brood box

It is a seek camera attached to an iPhone. We thought it would have many uses (bees, lame horses, sore people etc), but TBH is is really just a toy at the moment. I canā€™t get the photos to look as nice as they do in Other parts of the world but I am putting that down to less temperature difference (only +5 not -40 and snow :)). I am also not convinced they cluster at all in our hives.