Bee Photographs

Here’s a bee collecting propolis from an old frame I left outside. Nice to see them recycling. :slight_smile:

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Well done Skeggley, you’ll see a lot more of that as the days start to shorten & the temps start dropping.

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Meet the Apis mellifera capensis queen. Isn’t she lovely?!

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Yeah indeed, what a beautiful sight!!!

Hey…we haven’t even got to the longest day yet and we just getting to get the mercury above 25Deg C.:grinning:
Our long and hots are coming.:sweat:

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some of our bees at night while harvesting :slight_smile: just taken with iphone

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Mark Kate and kids

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I thought of @Dan2 when I saw this monster erupt (not my husband! :smile: ) from our front flower border:

It is an Agave attenuata, but the question is, do bees like it? So I waited and took another photo on a sunnier day:

So I guess they do, and as her corbiculae are not stuffed full, I presume she is gathering nectar. The plant actually drips onto the leaves too, so some lazy-bones bees go and suck up the drippings! :smile:

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That is bigger than the ones in Sydney for sure. The bees will love it.

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My husband is 6ft 2", so I am wondering if that plant is actually a Triffid! :hushed:

Whatever, the bees are clearly finding some nectar - almost a kilo in 5 days:

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Isn’t agave honey really unpleasant?

No idea. Where does that information come from? Agave “nectar” here is extracted from blue agave stems and used to make tequila, or for a high fructose (non-corn) syrup to sweeten Margarita cocktails.

Anyhow, we are going into winter here. I will not be harvesting any of this honey. If the bees like it, they are very welcome to it. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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WOW. What a plant. Hoping David came home safely after the photo shoot :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::dragon::cactus:

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Agave syrup is nice… not sure about the honey though.

Dawn, this is cool. I’m envious, as we haven’t seen nectar in months in west central Virginia!

Question – what hive scale are you using to get that readout?

Thanks.

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Thanks! It is an Arnia. We love it - really helps with decisions about when to consider harvesting, when to take the supers off (nectar flow is over) and when to feed (weight loss).

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Hi Dawn, my reading is that you must have mobile phone wireless internet with Arnia, to extract the information.
Am I correct, as I discarded thoughts of Arnia because mobile phone internet is not available and went with broodminder (not in use yet )which uses blue tooth. Our internet is satellite.
Can you download to your phone and move the data to your computer?

Hiya @busso,

The Arnia uses a 2G/3G SIM card to connect to a cellular data network. There is no bluetooth or WiFi option. So yes, you need an old-fashioned cellular network (4G and LTE won’t work), and WiFi or Bluetooth are not an option either.

Finally got my Arnia delivered. We will see if it works on 3G, my phone does if I set it to 3G. Reception here in the bush is pretty patchy.
There is a satellite option for the Arnia, but the annual fee is higher.
It keeps raining, waiting for a sunny day with the set up.

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Thanks Dawn.(and 20 characters)

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Pardon my absence, Dawn. Thank you for the info. Current life plan has us away from our summer digs in west central Virginia for 6 months. So I rely on friends from the Nelson County Beeks to check on my hives.
This, however, would let me REALLY know what is going on all the time, and would give me much greater peace of mind.
Did you compare the Broodminder option?

Also, while I’m on the subject of absentee beekeeping… this is my first winter. My two hives were populated by two nucs at the beginning of May, which is later than I understood for our location, and i learned that dearth comes earlier in the summer than I thought. So I am quite worried as to whether my hives will survive. I am prepared to start over with a package, but I understand that you need to order in January… if that’s true, how do I know if I need packages to restart my hives?

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Frustrated in Florida, where my friends in the Suncoast Beekeepers hum right along all year long, lucky dogs!