Hive mat needed with crown board?

[fffffred]

Pete, Natasha is in the hills of Perth:

Slow build up of colony?

Thank you Webclan, lots to digest there. I’m east of Perth, Mundaring. More native bush, less urban gardens. How do I know whether flowers have nectar? I was wrongly assuming that if there are flowers, they are feeding the bees. I do see activity at the entrance, I say it is pretty average, with bees leaving and landing regularly, but not very heavy traffic. I will try to take photos of frames next time I open it up as I’m not sure yet how much pollen and honey is enough. I cannot give them…

@anon20442494 , most people block up the hole to stop the bees from building in the roof space. Given Perth can get hot, the bees will need ventilation. The alternative then is to mesh up the hole and let the bees dictate how much ventilation they need.

Given that you have a small colony at the moment, a hive mat wouldn’t hurt. A piece of old lino or 0.5mm transparent vinyl from Clark Rubber would suffice. Make sure there is gaps at the periphery to allow adequate ventilation.

Welcome to the forum. There’s a Perth thread here and you’ll be able to work out who’s near you:

Perth (WA, AU) Flowhives and honey flow

Hi, I’m what I will term a ‘first year beekeeper’. I got my flowhive and Nuc at the end of summer (late Feb) so I managed to get my colony established before the cooler months mid year (and the colony appears to be in good health). However, looking at other posts from around AU there are some flow users that are already enjoying the honey flow. I was wondering what people around Perth are experiencing??? Currently, my bees haven’t yet started to shift into the “flow” super so no honey yet for m…