Is any one experiencing a Dearth in the south west of Western Australia. It’s a tough year again 2018 was bad. 2019 amazing (due to the Karri and Marri bloom). This year is terrible again.
There isn’t much stores in my hive and I’ve unfortunately had to resort to feeding sugar water.
Be great to connect with Bee Keeper within my area to get a general consensus.
Regards,
The Hobbit
Yep, tough year through out the greater SW.
There is a Western Australian Apiarists’ Society group that meet monthly in Margaret River. They are also just setting up a hive scale on one of their demonstration/training hives at the high school.
My hives in Bunbury have been going backwards for a while now, my large ones losing 2-3kg each week for the last couple of months.
I’ve been feeding my smaller weaker hives/Nucs on and off for a few months.
Adam
The last month for one of my hives
This is another one you can see I made the decision to feed after Christmas. I’m hoping to boost it to capitalise on any Marri flow from Feb.
Also forgot to say this is a great SW thread to follow. It has some great information
Hi Adam,
Thank you so much for taking the time out to give me this great information!! Really appreciate it;)
Do you mind me asking how you have these graphs? Do you have some type of monitoring device on your hives, never seen it before - very “techie”
I’m definitely going to go to the bee meets!! Never knew about it so thank you!!
Shane
No worries, it is always good to connect people up.
Yes the graphs are mine. I’ve got some hive scales on a couple of hives. It is a bit techie but it helps me learn and assists my management.
http://www.wifihivescale.com/index.php
This is a photo of one I set up at the Greater Bunbury Region Training Apiary. I have installed a larger solar battery system for to run this scale and another. They both report through an old mobile phone.
If it helps as well, I have a BroodMinder weight scale and temp monitor. It is purpose built and easy to set up. Not a clever a setup as @AdamMaskew 
Here is the weight graph for the last 2 weeks, it has helped me trickle feed them enough to hold weight. Whenever I stop feeding for long periods they drop in weight. Ignore the first big drop, a super was taken off.
Karen, nice. I made mine complicated so I didn’t have to change batteries. Otherwise it is a simple unit with 3 x AAs.
Would love to see some photos of your LLs.
Adam
Having just come back from Busselton I saw plenty of Marri budding in Capel and even a few in flower so I think the dearth is about to break.
Provided, of course, that there’s nectar in them there buds.
Fingers crossed.
