So WSP is a good allround size? Perhaps its versatility gave it the edge. Pity there aren’t any old western beeks on this forum.
So out of curiosity is full depth and ideal the norm over east? Are other sizes readily available?
Thanks so much for all the info. As our FS is still not ready for harvest, I will presume that I don’t need to remove the FF’s and replace with another super for the cooler months, and, would that be normal practice here in WA anyway?
Generally over the cooler months the population will reduce so removing the super reduces the area they need to condition. Having said that they do need supplies for the rainy days so be sure that the bb has supplies.
The point of running an additional ideal super (that I have advocated) is to run that under the Flow super during the season, but leave it on and remove the Flow over winter. It will take longer to fill the Flow with this method because they will fill the ideal first, but leaving the ideal on over winter provides supplies.
Taking the Flow super off and adding an empty ideal super in its place at the end of the season (or after harvest) won’t achieve any of the outcomes the method was designed for.
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@rbk I’ve elected to run a hybrid for the reason you advocate an ideal. Aside from about mid June to mid Aug I’ll also consider rotating frames between the hybrid and BB. My bees can collect nectar and pollen throughout the cooler months so while abundant supplies aren’t assured I’m confident adequate supplies are assured for the bees to forage; one benefit of suburbia here in Perth.
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I’m using RBK’s method only using WSP’s instead of ideals on two hives. Once winter sets in and I remove FH super and the qx the bees can go where they like without restrictions. If at the end of winter the queen lays in the WSP it’s no problem unlike brood in Ff… Like you Snowie, I have hybrids with fd frames fully capped I’d planned to keep these for winter stores however now they have the room downstairs they’re pencilled in for extraction.
I installed my ideal box on top of the 6 ff box 3 weeks ago, mainly because I realized I had too many bees looking for work. They were washboarding big time. Once I put the ideal on top that Washboarding was reduced by 90% at least.
They still fill the flow frames for my weekly 2 frame harvest and have built out the foundationless ideal with pristine honey comb. Half capped already too.
Wonder if those Italians ever stop. There sure seems to be a decent amount of nectar and pollen around. My distant bush neighbour has many Mexican salvia bushes. My bees love it, and makes for a very tasty honey.
However, not sure how much honey store my bees will need over winter. They may find food out here all winter, but I don’t know yet. In any case, they can have their entire beautiful honeycomb in the ideal if they need it.
Their one 8 frame broodbox is about 90% brood, no drone cells at all recently, all foundationless.
Wonder where all those bees intend to go once they hatch.
Best I take some brood frames out to boost my other hives, then maybe they fill the new frames with winter stores.
I’m just in my 4th month of beekeeping and have not yet experienced winter here. One can assume it depends on the weather what there is to harvest for the bees. We never get frosts.
The ideal is my bee food insurance for winter.
No idea if I should take the flow super off here in the Byron hills. I will know more once I have a year of beekeeping under my belt. Will keep the flow box and qx in place till I get better advice.
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Wow Webclan - your bees are rockin’. Weekly 2 frame harvest just after 4 months seems incredible. We obviously don’t have enough forage down here in the Karri forest, apart from the big Marri run we have just had. I have bee hive envy big time!!
Hi Debra,
I know, it’s fairy tale stuff. But they say Dec/Jan was no nectar here, because it was too dry. That was when my bees were building out their broodbox. Then it took ages till they got the flow frames ready. Harvested my first frame 11 Jan. Since then I keep harvesting. Stuff is still flowering everywhere, and we live next to a National Park. It’s wet and warm now. SHB love it.
It’s not all roses and the next dearth will sure come.
Correction: harvested my first flow frame 11 Feb.
Sounds wonderful - keep us posted as to whether you take off the FF’s over winter. I guess we won’t here as the bees are only just really getting into them now and filling up the centre frames. Oh boy!!! I have so much to learn.
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I was down at Gf this morning to pick up some more frames, yes more, to replace the ones I robbed this arvo, crush n strain, what a mess, anyway whilst there I asked what the waiting list for nucs was, they laughed at me and when they finished laughing they told me 2019 was the earliest I could expect one from them. And to think they were laughing at my question. They don’t take deposits so who knows how much they’ll be in two years! Looks like I shouldn’t have a problem getting rid of my splits next spring…
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Interesting on the Nucs
I now have 3 very healthy Hives and will also be looking at splits and maybe even developing a few extra nucs come spring.
I’m on 30 acres with my neighbours also having 30 acres so have access to enough bush.
I’m just in the process of building a few spare nuc boxes in anticipation.
Some locals have already approached me to have a go at removing swarms in spring.
Will you keep posted
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Not sure if anyone else has seen this, but I think my bee population has dropped noticeably. This seems a lot earlier than last year. Maybe the cooler weather has something to do with it?
In terms of flowers in the metro, the paperbark seems to have gone over but the red capped gum is still going strong, some of the bottlebrush are reflowering (though not a lot) and there’s a red flowered gum (not sure of the type) coming into flower down the street - although the bees aren’t on it a lot.
We last inspected the brood 3 weeks ago
And saw a lot less laying. I thought the cold temp has put them towards winter prep early. That said, we caught a swarm last Friday so I wouldn’t rule out a drop in bee numbers as a sign of swarming. Indeed, our strongest hive has quite a lot less bees coming and going in the last few days, and my guess with them is they may have swarmed. I’m not going in to check as that would mean a Virgin queen running around. We might do one more brood check in a couple of weeks there, but not sure there is any point as we are just leaving them all alone until spring now and are sure they have heaps of winter stores.
As an aside, I am getting very confused with management practices here in WA. We have diligently checked the brood box every 2 weeks, and checkerboarded etc to manage the swarming urge. We have semi-commercial and commercial beekeeping friends who check the brood box once per year to decide if they should requeen and that is it. Is it because they have so many hives and move them to high yield areas it doesn’t matter if a few swarm because they still get massive amounts?
I think next year I may try being a bit less interventional, but I don’t have the guts to just do it once!
Cheers,
Julia
I checked my hive a lot more last year than I have this year. I checked it a lot in the Spring to manage swarming (and am glad I did) but over the summer I’ve just kept an eye that there is enough space for honey. I have had two brood boxes though, so I haven’t been concerned about them running out of laying space. Thinking of trying one next year.
Hi Julia, I’m wondering if it is in part because the bees (of the commercial keepers) in the high yield areas are contented with lots of nectar and thus have a reduced swarming impulse (presumably the keepers are collecting honey more frequently than checking brood).
@Dunc I haven’t seen that. I did an inspection yesterday and my hive is still bursting at the seams. I harvested 9 flow frames for about 20L of honey. I had contemplated taking the full flow super off and just leaving my hybrid super and the brood box but there are still too many bees in the colony. I’ll likely next check the brood box mid to late April, with a view to removing the full flow super. May through early/mid August I’ve got no intention of inspecting or robbing the hive, but the weather will dictate what I do.
(To reach the conclusion I still needed the full flow super in place I put a spare top between the hybrid and full flow super and an escape board on top of the full flow. By the time the full flow super was clear the brood box was full, the hybrid super was full, and I had plenty of bees bearded on around the front and side).
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@skeggley any idea on what the current price is/was for nuc?
Hiya Snowy, no idea as the price, dictated by supply and demand, isn’t fixed. I ordered one in December 2015 at $175 and had to pay $190 when I picked it up in late October 16 . There was a deposit on the nuc box ($30) which I forfeited as it was cheaper than a new one and nucs are always handy.
Bw was $190 paid up front in March 2016 no nuc box return. 2 nuc boxes are twice as handy. 
Picked up early October 16.
I have been able to harvest the Bw colony not the Gf colony. I have a feeling I may have killed the Gf queen when I moved the frames into the 8 frame hive…
The increase in demand was solely due to Flow according to both suppliers and Gf’s supplier had a massive loss down south due to pesticides last year causing back logs.
Bw is very tight lipped on his supplier.
Marri still flowering here and I don’t see a reduction of numbers yet even though it’s cooling down the bees know there’s more flowers on their way including jarrah. Maybe it’s catch up time here on the scarp.
Btw I harvested 2 std fd frames (hybrid) from the Pot colony, another 3 kgs. 
Crush n strain. I much prefer Flow extraction. 
@Jingles, are you seeing drones around?
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There was a large amount of drone brood in my hives about a month and a half ago, but not at the last check. The swarm I caught last week had very few and it wasn’t the biggest swarm so I think quite likely a Virgin queen. Hopefully the bees knew best and swarming was a viable proposition.
I’m paranoid about the swarm absconding if I check, so I’ll leave it another week and have a look for larvae. If I see non I will donate a frame of brood from another hive - if I can find any, but I think we will be getting a bit late for this to have a happy ending.
As we have 3 colonies with full supers for themselves, at least I can throw some honey the swarms way before winter so as long as they have a laying queen I think they should pull through fine.