It makes me smile with the BOM forecast % expectation of rain. With what I have had so far over the past 4 weeks it is making up for the lack of rain over the previous 15 months. Yesterday there was a few periods when the rain eased to a drizzle with a 40% chance of rain !!!
Can’t wait for a patch of blue sky so I can get capped frames off the Langstroth’s and drain the Flow Supers.
What a turn around the welcome rain has made. Even some green tips showing the the bush that was burnt out last September up here.
Cheers
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That’s great to see those green tips Pete. I’ll rob again this week, even if it’s only a couple of boxes, I keep running out of honey & I can’t supply any large orders. One bloke got very upset because we couldn’t supply him with 30 kilos. Wilma offered him 4, he said he’ll go elsewhere, I wish him luck because yesterday another beekeeper phoned us chasing honey. I know of another beekeeper who’s buying honey in from a bloke in Landsborough just to fill orders.
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I’m harvesting some but nothing to what it was 2 years ago, last year I was down to feeding most of my hives, with the rain this past month I’m going ok and the hives are building up bee numbers. I’m getting enough honey for my regulars.
The puddles in the creek at my back fence are getting deeper with each day of rain. Happy days.
Cheers
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Hi Pete, I finished up with very light drizzle while putting the frames on the back of my truck. I finished up stealing some lids off hives to cover the frames. I have six boxes to extract after breakfast. A lot of the frames would have equal amounts of honey as ideals, with a few frames chock-a-block. I had to work fast, the bees were hungry for the honey in the frames. While driving out, I couldn’t help but notice a lot of the gum trees in flower. Plus all the paper barks in the district.
@Zzz posted while I was typing, so I quickly changed threads 
cheers
Still non stop raining here Jeff. I have finally caught up with my bee keeping at home and so bored I think I might polish my smoker 
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Hi Pete, how did your smoker turn out?
The rain just started here now. I don’t know how much we’re going to get.
I got so bored with the rain and wind too strong to work the hives I ended up using stainless steel polish on the smoker to a mirror finish. With this Corona Virus about I might go over the top and polish the inside too 
Maybe I already have.
I got an email from Helene in Northern Italy, really depressing reading about conditions there but she is self isolated and coping as best she can, She is in one of Italy’s worst areas for the virus. It must be really stressful for her.
Passing short heavy showers since 11am and still happening.
Cheers to you both
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Good job on the smoker, Peter 
& glad to know you’re helping keep Helene’s morale up in such an awful time.
As for weather, it’s cold and rainy here today so no beekeeping for me either. I have various work-work tasks and meetings to do though, and as much as I love my work I found myself less excited to get back to it after a weekend of outdoor projects with my family! We finally got to a long-delayed one - my husband and son built shelves and a workbench in our ‘new blue’ shed and reorganized all the stuff in it, making space to fit the tractor that was living in the ‘old red’ shed. Old Red was pretty well-rotted and had a slight list when we moved in here over ten years ago. Last week the door would barely open and then not close at all. Yesterday the tractor was moved to the New Blue and we had fun demolishing Old Red 
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Good morning Pete, ditto to what Eva said. From how I understand the virus, as long as she stays isolated, she should be fine.
I just came in from outside. A nice heavy shower came down, then I checked the forecast to read only a 50% chance of rain today. It looks like more rain on it’s way. The 50/50 chance fell my way. I’m robbing again tomorrow with only about a 10% chance of rain. After that it’s 20, then 60’s & 80’s for the rest of the forecast period.
cheers
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I looked at the BOM weather forecast just a few minutes ago, it is pouring rain and has been since day break. I wonder when they predict a 50/50 chance of rain if they really mean it will rain 50% of the time 
I went down to Coles yesterday for a few things, it was a real shock to see so many isles with empty shelves, hording is the problem with people buying anything that they can, not because they need it for their weekly needs. Amazing.
Cheers
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A 10% chance of rain today. I like those odds, however I woke up to rain. Maybe it’ll clear later & I’ll still get to rob my bees after breakfast.
cheers
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A constant shower of rain here, no breeze and a total heavy cloud cover so another day away from the hives. The days constant dry weather is just a memory now.
Cheers
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I’ve put robbing the bees off until tomorrow morning now. I psyched myself out of it for today.
cheers
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We’ve got you’re describing here at the moment. A nice drop of rain, it’ll be good for some Leptospermums I planted the other day. They’re supposed to flower in the late spring, so that’s something to look forward to.
One of them is called “Purple Haze”. I wonder where they got that name from 
Showers on and off yesterday, over night and this morning. Got a few boxes of frames yesterday till I had to stop because of the rain. But at least I got out doors.
Stay safe
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G’day Pete, the sun came out earlier. I’ve been busy repairing holes in my smoker, fixing the handle on my steam knife as well as repairing gaps in a metal QE. I found the queen in a honey super the other day. I swapped QEs over after putting the queen back into the brood box. Sure enough, I found gaps big enough for the queen to fit through. It’s a galvanized wire one. Metal QEs aren’t the holy grail of QEs, however way better than the plastic ones. Physically inspecting the frames before harvest is the only way to be sure there is no brood in them, even with a metal QE. I’m sure you agree.
cheers
I agree about the metal QX’s and they can become an issue but they are the best option.
Cheers
I agree Pete, a couple picked up bees for their flow hive yesterday. They included their plastic QE, which they didn’t need for picking up a nuc. I told them to scrap it & purchase a ss one.
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Are you finding your honey sales have increased recently, like with the corona virus being in our lives? Mine has gone thru the roof.
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I’m selling out as soon as I extract it. Mainly regular customers plus a couple of new ones this week. I’m going to put a stop to people coming while I’m extracting. It just got too much the other day & made for a real big day.
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