I’m new to this forum and also new to beekeeping. Ive always had a interest and after lots and lots of research trying to get as prepared as possible to take on beekeeping and joining gcabs i have finally got my 10 frame langstroth hive and a Nuc of italian bees coming tomorrow.
Pretty excited to get everything going. i spent my last days off painting the hive, wiring frames up and putting foundation in them all. Already had my first encounter with SHB as it appeared in the frames just with the foundation in there.
There has already been a mountain of good information that i have gathered from this forum. some different opinions but always good to have more than one approach to tackle an issue
Good to hear you have done your research first before getting your bees John.
There are two main reasons for the variations of how we do our bee keeping.
Climate dictates to a great extent. I lived at Richmond west of Sydney where double brood boxes was the normal and up here now on the Sunshine Coast you would probably not find a double as a single works really well for the bees and less lifting of a box of bees for me.
The other reason is simply that if something works for you then stick with it, be open minded to others ideas and be prepared to try something new, bees are pretty forgiving of a mistake, so I have learnt.
Cheers
After reading plenty about cold weather i am glad i most likely wont need a double brood for the cool weather as it really doesn’t get that cold here.
I was actually just reading your response on feeding the bees with the chicken feeder in the top box. as i want the bees to have a good start i think i will make some syrup for them and setting up the feeder for them so they can build comb quick and get ahead.
One question as i have now had a few different answers from different sources.
Picking up the Nuc tomorrow night. i was going to sit it on the base board and open up the entrance as soon as i got them home and in position. then transfer them the next day into the brood box. The bee shop i went to on the weekend said leave them for a week in the Nuc on the base board?
Your climate isn’t cold for bees even on a winters night so there is nothing to worry about. A single brood box is perfect.
When I do a split I give them syrup for a week even when there is excellent foraging just to give them a boost and it also aids in comb building.
When you get the bees home leave them for an hour or two so they settle down from the bumping about. I’m guessing you will get them home after dark so suit up when you open the nuc, the bees will be angry and won’t fly at you but they will crawl and sting if they get a chance. DON’T use a white light torch as they will fly and attack the light source – your hand. Tip, bees can’t see a red light.
I would transfer the bees the next day after getting them home, give them some syrup and leave them alone to settle in and orientate to their new location. Watch and learn, there will be a lot of bees flying close to the hive so it will look like they are swarming but they aren’t, they are just flying close to the hive to get their bearings.
Don’t put a super on the brood box as they won’t need it and there won’t be enough bees to get the internal hive temperature warm enough with the extra space.
Cheers
Thanks for the advice Peter. Much appreciated. I will definitely do all that. Looking forward to it. going to be a long day at work tomorrow waiting thats for sure. I will do the transfer the following day and give them a bit of sugar syrup as a kick start. fair bit flowering around me as i back onto a reserve but doesnt hurt to help them along and settle in.
I was down at Beechmont and Cararra a few weeks ago helping beginners out, Looking good down there and not the damage from the bush fires as much as up here.
Cheers
So Ive got my very very calm bees in their full brood box now. set the nuc up where i wanted them and opened them up and now transferred this morning. was a very good laying pattern. ive put a zippy bag syrup feed in the top for them and also have a chicken water feeder with big chunks of bark a few meters from the hive to give them a source of water on these hot days. i also just set up a tiny shade cloth to try and take a tiny bit of the sting out of the midday sun. the bees bearding has descresed since putting up the shade and are more just relaxing outside without much flapping of their wings. i will open it up again in 3 days time to replace the syrup and also i will have a look through all the franes again and see how they are going and try and get some more photos close up. (as it was my first time thought i should get the hang of things first before i start trying to get too many photos)
It went really well Thank you Eva. Im now up to 4 hives at this stage. robbed my first little bit of honey last week. didnt want to take too much as its been a bit up and down the season. plenty more to learn and do. i cant wait for the years to come.
Thanks for the update John and the excellent pics. It is looking like a very mild Winter down there and some extracting happening with a good nectar flow happening from what others on the Gold Coast ate telling me.
Cheers
It sure is Peter! thats why i didnt want to rob too much from them incase we do get a fair bit of rain and cold days as predicted. I’m in no rush for honey so i can wait.
I definitely think the paperbarks have been working their magic the last couple months. ive just noticed looks like either gum/ironbark/mahogany are starting to flower around us here (still struggling to identify but working on the exact types)
