Hi Rob. I’m in Faulconbridge.
Really good spot. The mid mountains are really good for bees. I am in Woodford and the combination of gardens and bush gives the bees lots of forage.
Cheers
Rob.
Hi All,
Great thread. I’m new to bee keeping and would love to work with an experienced bee keeper in the Blue Mountains area to run hives on our property (50 acres near Blackheath). If interested, feel free to msg me 0427 278 224.
Jeff
Welcome to the forum where you will find lots of advise and help for bee keeping and there are some members here from the Blue Mountains. Bee keeping is funny, no matter how much research you do before hand you suddenly realize there is so much more you don’t know. This is where the forum can offer so much help and support.
Regards
Hey @Kristy, I’m also in Faulconbridge! How’d you go getting your hives setup? Do you know of any other locals who are keeping bees?
My wife and I just moved in to a house that we’re care taking for a while - it’s got 3 active hives on vacant block of land next door (which we also look after). Unfortunately the hives haven’t been maintained and are pretty stuck together with wax but I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to use them to get some more hives going and lots of honey!
Hi James,
I’ve set up the hive and will get my bees this week sometime. How are your hives going?
One of the active hives seems to have swarmed at some point, the honey super is full of honey but the brood box is pretty much empty - bees just go in and out from time to time making it look active.
The other two are going pretty well! I’m hoping to put a 2nd honey super on one of them this weekend as there’s stacks of bees in it! I only managed to finally get the top off yesterday - they’ve all needed a fair bit of work and TLC to get to a point where I’ve been able to pry the tops off after years of being left alone.
I’ve got to work out how to extract all the honey, but that’s a job for a few weeks away.
I remember bending a hive too that didn’t look like freeing the hive lid on a hive that I was asked to look over and take care of for an elderly lady. I ended up using a spade to get the lid off. Two days to get the super frames out. Lots of cussing and sweat went into the hive but felt it worth the scones, jam and cream when it was done.
Guess you August Westerlies are over now and the wattle is giving pollen, watch for swarming and may you run short of jars for the honey.
Cheers
Sounds like lots of work coming up. If you haven’t been able to get the stack apart try a guitar wire between the boxes like a cheese cutter. Lift the box and if there is no brood in it put an excluder board under it. Once empty just take it inside and pull it apart. Clean up the frames, if you don’t have any gear I would just crush and strain to get the honey then set the box up with foundation and repeat the process till you have gone through all the boxes and cleaned up the brood boxes. After saying that, make sure you leave them any pollen and a store of honey.
Cheers
Rob.
If don’t happen to have one lying around, nylon fishing line or dental floss work pretty well too. 
Another thought. If you get them down to a brood box with a fairly empty super with foundation you should have no problems. I live at Woodford and my girls are laying in plenty of nectar.
Cheers
Rob.
Fascinating discussion on here! I don’t have any bees yet, however have 4 acres in Faulconbridge I’m looking to lease out, and saving the bees was my first idea.
If there’s a co-op in the BM that’s looking for space or would you guys would like to start one? The LEP zoning is registered as bush-land residential with permission for infrastructure set up allowed for bee keeping. It has a naturally feed creek with permission for a dam, along with many old horse and cattle sheds, that can be modified or rebuilt for everyone to harvest their honey.
I’d be happy to discuss options in establishing eg required storage, systems and plot setups for each co-op member.
Contact me back here or shot us an email infoATmichaelelbridge.com
This all sounds very exciting!
Cheers,
Michael
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New to all this and stumbled on this thread. Is there anyone in the mountains with a flow hive willing to let me have a look and explain how to get started etc? Thinking of getting into it.
Or are there any groups established etc??
Welcome to the forum Alex, lots of great folks here happy to pass on advice. There is the Blue Mountains group in Katoomba and another group at Penrith, as well as guys here that are on the mountains at various locations.
Don’t rush into having bees till you at least have some knowledge and a little hands on experience. Local knowledge is worth gold to you as a beginner and a local group is where you can find it.
I moved from the Hawkesbury (Richmond) to the Sunshine Coast in Qld had to rethink bee keeping with the different climate.
Getting started is easy, but beware that it is VERY addictive.
Cheers
Hi everyone! I just came in to see how locals were finding the season so far? Before the fires last week my bees were almost finished drawing out the final frame in my brood box and some honey was being stored. Anyone else want to share?
Mine are doing OK but that is all I would say. Last year was a disaster but this year they seem to be building comb and storing nectar well. If we could get some real rain things would change but considering just how dry it is things are not too bad.
Cheers
Rob.
Hey Rob, I guess the best you can hope for is some thunder storms over Summer.
The drought has really hit up here, used to be lush and green on the coastal side of the mountains but it is so dry even the sand dunes holding some heath scrub has gone up in smoke right down to the beaches.
With some recent rain things are looking much better up here, enough that I have stopped feeding my hives and the bees are producing a mild excess now. Last November I extracted 22 boxes, this November has been a big zero.
Cheers
Yeh Peter. Its terribly dry everywhere, just back from the fires up near Taree/Wauchope and even there its tinder dry. As for the conditions in the New England, its a disaster! It should be wet and soggy 
Cheers
I was out at Warwick to help a bee keeper out, the paddocks were so dry there that there just dust and bare ground, not even dead grass. Very depressing to just drive thru the area. I have plans to go to Mittagong - when the Pacific or New England is clear of fires.
You watch your back on the mountains mate.
Cheers
Just seeing if this is still an active thread. I am in the Blue Mountains and have just started my first flow hive! 