Interesting advice there Mr.J.H… It makes sense if you think about it, if you have an air conditioned car and open the window, warm air gushes in. I think I’ll have to experiment cautiously and see what works in this part of hell. (41 today, 42 tomorrow, and we’re only November)
Water is not a problem I have birdbaths everywhere which I keep full for my feathered friends, and a frog pond.
Will that cause any problems with crazy comb? Remember I’m only at beekeeping kindy, and want to minimise my challenges at this stage.
I was thinking about that. Well, I planned in advance and four years ago I planted some Hardenbergia comptoniana, on the wire fence, but the place is too harsh. They succumbed.
Yes, familiar with it, the Black Pea. I planted that pea elsewhere, and it was so vigorous I had to cut it down before it reached for my fridge and grabbed my beer. It’s a local native too, which is what I want to grow. I don’t know whether it will grow in this location because it is pretty much granite, and I can only hand water.
The wire fence you see in the photo is as rickety as my grandma’s knees. The jumping rats wreck everything around here. Don’t know whether it will hold the K.nigricans in all it’s glory and whether it will smother the hives.
These are my doll houses:
Pete’s and Mr.Skeggley’s look more manly with those migratory lids. Mine are more girly with the gabled roof, I just realised.
Not in the past, this is the first year I have been able to extract from it, generally the full sun ones have been the better producers.
I have also noticed the vent holes in the lids are propolizes on some yet not on others, I’m happy to let the bees make their own choice.
Looks like a nice spot you have there too.
Go figure hey… You know what? If I learned one thing in beekeeping so far is that each beehive is different, and each behaves like an independent organism with a mind of its own. You cannot apply a general set of rules beyond the basics.
Like the Queen Bee herself @Dawn_SD would say: “it depends”.
I’m finding this stuff really fascinating. This Sunday the temps are supposed to drop a bit, and can’t wait to have a look inside those doll houses.
I have found that within my hive box they prefer the east facing side of the box and most of the building/ filling activity is biased towards that side.
My theory is that the morning sun wakes that side up first to promote activity. The west side of my hive is shaded my trees.
In relation to crazy comb, assuming you’re using foundation, you only get crazy comb if you don’t evenly space the frames. For example: if you jam all the frames tight on one side, while leaving large gaps on the other side. I have about a 3mil gap between the frame shoulders, as well as the side of the box.
We’ve got megaliths, me and you, Mr Skeggley. I swear my place was a temple 5000 years ago. I don’t feel I have the right to move them around or bulldoze them, but they seriously limit my ability to use the land. First world problems.
By the way, what is that second photo? I cannot figure it out. Are those dead bees on a bottom board?
I am using a quarter sheet, but on advice I’ve been given here, I might use a full sheet next time.
I was very careful to stack the frames with no gaps between them, to avoid crazy comb. Though, the nuc I stuffed up had one particular frame with comb so lop sided that I couldn’t have the timber sides of the frames touching. Inexperience.
No matter how slowly I stacked the frames, some bees just won’t get out of the way and may have squished one or two. Rest in peace, bees.
Give using full sheets of foundation and wired into the frames a try, over the years I have given the options a try but find full frames of foundation gives the best results in saving the time for the bees to build out the comb and no hassles with wonky comb and fractured comb in my electric extractor. I like to spend a minimum of time in my hive inspections and don’t enjoy working on the bees efforts to repair their work.
Beware the cheap foundation on EBay for example, it is made of a mix of bees wax and paraffin wax from China.
Cheers.
You’re right. That fence doesn’t look strong enough. And I hear you about cutting it back. I’m convinced some days my one grows almost a foot…
Have you thought about an Albany Woolybush? They anchor to granite so might do well. There’s a local Perth variety too. They grow reasonably fast. In about 3-4 years my one has grown from about 60cm to 2.5-3m. They are pretty dense, provide good shade and seem to be a good source of nectar (not copious amounts though), although the flowers are insignificant.
Thanks Alan. Wasn’t aware of a Perth variety of the Albany Wooly Bush. I’ll check it out at Zanthorrea. Probably to provide the shade I need I have to plant it outside my property though.
Hi Stefan, in relation to squashing bees: Just keep your smoker going and use a little bit of smoke to drive bees away from where you want to replace the frames. The same thing goes for replacing boxes & lids etc.
If hive beetles ever make it to your area, that’ll be a good practice to adopt because beetles will lay eggs in squashed bees if the colony can’t remove them quickly.
Hi numbatino, because I find your posts very funny and smart, i’m happy to offer you a bottlebrush seedling if you like. I grow these myself from cuttings and they are the local perth variety, not the hybrids. You have to promise me to water it every few days this summer, then it will take off with not much care at all. These are about 35cm at the moment and won’t solve your shade problem this summer, so you still have to find something temporary at least.
I’m in Chidlow near Lake Lesenaultia not too far from you I think. Send me a PM if interested.
Please keep posting, I like reading your posts and am learning a lot myself as a fellow beginner.
I agree with @anon20442494, you are funny and smart. Both @Numbatino and @anon20442494 are great additions to this forum, and you both seem to be learning very fast and having sensible thoughts about beekeeping. OK, enough with the touchy-feely stuff, it makes me feel awkward too.
Your are giving me more credit than I deserve, ladies. I’m just documenting my stupidity. I’m glad Ms. Nutz found my mishap valuable though.
Wow. WOW!! That is awesome Nutz. Yes, I think a bottlebrush will look fantastic there actually. Hopefully it will thrive. I will PM right away before you change your mind, haha. We take the kids to the Lake Leschenaultia most weekends.
