Hi Al, I spent the early morning checking hives for queen-rite. I found 5 out of 6 queen-rite. The rest of the day I spent blanching spuds to get ready for the freezer. I’ve got more to dig this afternoon, plus a heap more in the coming weeks.
I’ve been keeping the splits at home fairly weak after the queen cells have developed, however not weak enough in one case because it swarmed the other day. Wilma found it in the mulberry tree. I put that one in a box in between digging spuds.
I’m replying to my comment of Sep. 4th. I’m still waiting to hear from the owner of the Flow hive. It’s been over 9 months now without a word.
My question is: How long should I wait before I can say that the hive is mine?
We drove past his house the other day, & we could see that work had been recently done & completed.
I’d give him a call in a month and push for an answer.
Hi Daz, I don’t really want the hive. It’ll only join the first one that someone gave me a few years ago. I’m curious now to see how long before he contacts me, if or when he does.
I’ve been using 2 brood boxes for the past 8 or so years that belong to a bloke from Gympie. He also paid me a hundred dollars towards 2 nucs. Obviously he has lost interest in keeping bees. From memory, he was going to contact me once he got his frames organized. He did about 4 years ago, same story.
Hi Jeff, there are some “Interesting” people in this world. I scratch my head at times, wondering why some poeple do what they do.
My work takes me to many properties in the urban fringe and bush block homes in the country within 200km of Perth. This is something I see on a regular basis.
Just the other day I was chatting to a bloke that had a badly weathered original 2015 crowdfunding supporter flowhive sitting on an old rotting stool at the back of his yard. He said he still had the original bees he bought that someone put in his hive 6 years ago. Told him they probably swarmed a few times since then but was convinced they didn’t. He boasted how convenient it was to drain a frame whenever he runs out of honey in the pantry. Also, it’s unregistered just like many of the others I came across. I always ask.
I don’t know what’s it like in NSW but if we had the Varroa incursion here I’m 100% sure that the DPRID would have zero chance finding out all these unmanaged hives. The situation is out of hand.
I bought my own property a decade ago with an active neglected top bar hive amongst the overgrown bushes. The owner was elderly and in ill health so I’ll give him some slack. Most of the unmanaged hives I come across are young families with Flow or their clones that should know better. I know it is illegal to keep unregistered and unmanaged hives, but never heard of anyone being fined
Hi Stefan, it should be a law that we do some paperwork (just a little bit) on every hive we attend, or colony we sell, stating the owner’s name & rego number.
When I sell colonies to new beekeepers, very few of them ask for my rego number, which they need when applying to register their hive.
Registration for a hobby beekeeper in Qld. is free. However it’s amazing how many don’t want to get registered.
I know it’s only 18 days, however still no word from the owner. The good news is that the wax moths are doing a great job of cleaning up the Flow frames.
These photos are of both sides of the frame that the wax moths have done the most work on. I’m starting to see some bare plastic now.
Once their work is complete, all that’s left to do is to pressure hose the muck away, leaving nice clean frames.
Wow, I mean thats one positive. I took a Flow Super off and had it stored but the bag ripped and wax moth got in, after 24 hours in the chest freezer, I was actually able to vacuum pretty much all of the debris out of the Flow Frames (using a vacuum with a bag).
Hi Kieran, was that after the wax moth had completely finished their work? The vacuum cleaner will save me getting wet, which I suppose is not too bad on a hot day. The pressure hose cleans the channel out nicely, which the vacuum probably wouldn’t reach.
PS, the brood box is currently stored away out of the weather. After me taking a couple of splits, the colony got super aggressive (so were the splits), so I got the colony to make a new queen with good genetic brood. I sold the colony, before placing the brood box out of the weather, seeing as it is only Araucaria. I’ll give him a new colony if or when he wants his hive back.
Not completely finished, as they were quite fresh Flow Frames, but there was a presence similar to what you pictured on all 7 Flow Frames, the left over wax stayed in place, and any stubborn bits just required putting some pressure on the cells to open them up a bit more.
Three more months have past, & still no word from the owner. It’s over 12 months now. Nevertheless, the wax moths are still working on the Flow frames. I have 3 more photos to share:
This first photo shows one side, indicating that the plastic is more visible now.
This photo shows the other side.
The view up the channel (however blurred) really tells the story.
I’m looking forward to the day when I eventually pressure hose them all out.
PS. While returning that frame, I took a look at some of the others, to discover in this next photo, a definite line between a light section at the lower portion & a darker section at the top & down one side.
Baring in mind that brood was raised in most of these frames, it’s obvious to me that the wax moths were more interested in the leftover cocoons, than actual wax, which I’m sure that they will eventually clean up.
This photo is beautiful to me, because it show the natural world in progress.
Do you think the larvae would more easily be able to traverse the comb if the cells were open? If it is possible to open them…
Hi Alok, I’m not sure if it makes much difference, on account that these are what I think are called “Lesser Wax Moths”, which aren’t very big as recently hatched grubs.
I think that these frames could be pressure cleaned now, if I was going to put them in a hive, which probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, seeing as out the side of my house I’ve got a new colony in the brood box of this hive. I think I’ve talked myself into it.
cheers
PS. I’ve talked myself out of it again. It’ll be just my luck to get the Flow hive up & running with a strong colony, for the bloke to ring up & say that he’s ready for his hive to come back.
I’m torn between ringing him to find out what he wants to do with his hive, & wait to see how long before he rings me. I prefer the latter idea. I’ll check back in 3 months time.
It’s been 7.5 months since my last update, & still no word from the owner. Actually I dialed his number by mistake, before I aborted the call before he answered. I fully expected him to reply, on account that he should have noticed the missed call on his mobile, however no reply.
I’m using his brood box to house nucs. The Flow super with frames is in my honey room, ready for all the crud to get pressure hosed out of the frames, which should bring them back to almost new again.
