I have a couple of questions for Australian Beekeepers in this thread:
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Do Aussie beekeepers have problems finding locations to place hives?
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If you could find new locations for your hives, would you own more?
Thanks, Keith
Hi Keith, Q1: I donāt think Aussie beekeepers have trouble finding locations to place hives. I guess it depends on how hard one wants to look.
Q2. Personally I wouldnāt make more hives up if I had more places to keep bees.
A free ad on Gumtree might yield some locations, not to mention notices on community notice boards. Then thereās door to door knocking in semi rural areas.
With this latest swarm, probably from my own flow hive, this makes four and I am out of equipment. Lots of honey but not a drop in my flow super I just pulled it and put it back in storage. Still active in Kauai. This is the second swarm in this bush in the past couple months.
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So my bees are determining what I am doing. Nature is producing swarms probably my own bees. Luckily they are going to a bush right next to my hives. Easy capture. My flow hive numbers look like it was them and I removed the flow super. It was just a SHB hang out. Just caught 2nd swarm in the same bush last week. Not sure where these came from. So now 4 hives in different levels of maturity.
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Yesterday it was hot and humid. I measured 31 decrees celcius at the hive site at 5pm. Some of the bees were gathered at the entrance, presumably to get some relief from the heat.
Spot on with your reasoning about the bees hanging about the entrance Keith. My hives that I have put a vent at each end of roof donāt show the signs of bearding from heat like the few I have yet to add vents to. Some of them have now gone thru two of our Winters and havenāt gummed up the vents, so it might be worth considering doing.
Cheers
as Peter said ventilation can reduce bearding- and with flow hive roofs i have taken to covering the inner hole with mesh- and then putting some vent holes in the peaked roof. I also do this because there can be a bit of a build of damp in the roof over winter if it isnāt vented. Even with ventilation if bees get crowded they will beard on hot days- and for this reason sometimes I put an ideal on a flow hive along wit the flow super t give the bees more room- especially if spring. The advantage of this is you can make some really nice comb honey in spring as well.
Having said all of that: bearding is not a major problem for bees- itās what they do. Hives in trees will often beard in hot weather too. It can be a problem though in absolute heatwaves- the bees have to beard- but those int he beard van be exposed to very high roasting temps in the full sun. For that reason i put shadecloth or wet towels over my hives if they are exposed during heatwaves. I am talking temps over 40C.
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Adding vents to the roof to release heat in hot weather sounds like a good idea. I have noticed condensation in the roof in winter so it might help with that too. Thanks for the tips!
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It will help a heap with both of those issues Keith, I bought plastic kitchen cupboard plugs like your mum had when you were young, about 35mm round. An augur bit in a power drill and a dab of paint to seal the wood at the drill hole and the job is done. My hives are drier in Winter and up to 8c cooler under the roof in Summer with less fanning at the entrance. A few years ago I was told the bees would gum up the vent but that didnāt happen and so pleased with the result I fitted two vents at each end with a few to see what would happen. Even better results. One of my better experiments gone right.
Cheers
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Just wanted to let you know I have completed my first harvest. Thank you all for your advice and support through the year. Happy new year to you all!
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Wonderful!! Congrats and thanks for sharing - itās a nice vision to start off the new year and coming spring here 
Well done Keith after all the dramas. You were close to another one, looking at the clip and see the āgluggingā of the honey coming out the tube, the frame was so close to flooding back into the hive.
Cheers and a good result mate
Thanks @Peter48 and @Eva. Despite lots of questions during the year, as a beginner I assume thatās normal, I didnāt really experience any real dramaās. Thereās so much to learn and I guess Iāll continue learning and leaning on the expertise in this forum to progress. I hope to be helping one of my friends to start his new hive this year, so will introduce him to this forum too.
@Peter48, I only opened half a frame at a time but and in the beginning it flowed freely. Only once it slowed did I open the rest of the frame. Next time I might do it in quarters. Thanks for the observation!
Interestingly the honey from the āwinter framesā; i.e. those in the centre of the super produced darker honey with a richer flavour. The outside frames produced a much lighter honey with more subtle flavour. Itās quite interesting how the seasons, and flowers available at the time, effects the honey.
I have marked my key into 5 sections after having had minor flooding when I opened 1/3 at a time and found honey on the cor-flute. I have not had an issue since I adopted 1/5th as my standard. I suspect that capped honey can be āwetterā on the coast than inland, but that is as I say, a suspicion.
The flavor and color of honey will vary depending on what the bees are foraging on dramatically, it is a part of why bee keeping is so interesting.
Did you get around to adding to your hives ventilation and if so how did you do it?
Cheers Keith
I dropped the cor-flute to the bottom slot which, along with cooler weather, did the trick. Iām going to add the ventilation to the roof with gauze to cover the inside of the holes. I just havenāt got around to it yet.
Iāll try your 1/5 approach next time.
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