I have a hive at Poison Swamp West Australia. In the past there has been regular honey available. Its nearly summer and there is plenty of flowers around but no honey in the flow hive or in the roof space at the top of the hive where the bees have built honey comb.
There are bees and they look heathy enough (visual only no in depth consultation).
Any suggestions - could the local vegetation be lacking in what they need this year?
AB
Yep it appears that most areas are experiencing a dearth rather than their normal nectar flows at this time of the year. I have hive scales on a couple of my hives in Bunbury and both have been slowly going backwards or breaking even over the last couple of months. It is normally a time when I would expect to see steady weight gain and would normal do a harvest. The Peppi trees are almost devoid of nectar, the paperbark has not really flowered and for some reason our weeds/wildflowers didn’t produce a lot.
Several other Beekeepers in WA have shared their scale data with me and are seeing the same things in the greater SW GinGin down the coastal plain and out your way. The only one who saw some weight gain was @skeggley who is Perthish based.
Hopefully it turns the corner and we get enough to see the hives through to what will hopefully be a good Jarrah and/or Marri flow, but sings aren’t looing good for them either at this stage.
2 Likes
Adam
Thx for sharing I was slightly concerned there was other issues but at Poison Swamp I am isolated from all but wild bees (which exist in the area).
Rgds Alan
1 Like
Hi guys, you’re confusing me with someone else Adam, I’ve not got scales, I’d like some however my bee funds are exhausted unfortunately.
I am in the Perth hills area and am not seeing much happening in the supers either. Being predominately reliant on the native flora it’s been a bit of a fizzer even though there’s been a fair bit of flowering. The colony’s are populous just not excessively productive and my records show that this time last year I was harvesting, likely over winter honey.
I’ve written off Jarrah as I’ve not seen a good flow from it in my area since beginning although I still see it for sale at markets… Marri, with the kind weather we’ve been having I’m expecting a good flow but having said this we’ll probably have a good Jarrah Flow and Marri will be a dud…
Since beginning keeping bees I’ve learned never to assume anything bee and each year can be markedly different.
2 Likes
Correct I’d say.
I had seen weight gain. Tapered off now, with even a slight reduction.
1 Like
I don’t have scales either just mildly sun damaged skin
3 Likes
Close but no cigar, I get confused easily with non normal names. Sorry Dawn I hadn’t thought I’d tagged you as I know you are in the Nth Hemisphere…
Wait what! You’re saying SnowflakeHoney and skeggley aren’t normal names?
Inconceivable.
1 Like
Yep, enough to confuse me. I knew it was Allan who had shared the hive data with me…
I’ve now got 17 scales I can look at from GinGin to Margaret River. It is a really interesting data set…
3 Likes
You don’t have to tag me in order for my nose to go poking in all over the place!
3 Likes