jenny, contact the WA Apiarists society as they have started a bee chapter down south somewhere.
Its a bout 40$ to join but the wealth of info and mentors on offers will be worth much more to you, call them or send an email, good luck
@SnowflakeHoney
Hi Alan, for reasons of anxiety we need not feel the urgent need to check the brood as often as others may feel. Although diseases and pests can be a concern I think the best we can offer is to check it ānow and thenā, rather than being so prescriptive. BeeInformed tells us that the amount of pests and diseases over here on the West are somewhat reduced when compared to the East, due to biosecurity working. For a single hive in the SW of WA, I think Jen may be fineā¦
With due respect David from what I understand regular inspections, disease and pests aside, in spring as Snowy mentions is advisable to minimise the risk of swarming also. Although neibours may not be an issue down there with the big blocks honey harvests are compromised.
On top of that the more inspections you do the more comfortable you are doing them and the more knowledgeable you get. Once experience is gained, through carrying out inspections, more knowledge and understanding can lead to less frequent inspections. I think that for beginners regular inspections should be in outraged regardless of necessity.
If there is too much anxiety with inspections perhaps keeping bees isnāt the right hobby to pursueā¦
Iām also curious as to what diseases the eastern states have that we donāt over here in the wonderful West?
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Bee Informed carried on about it. Read that and youāll understand.
@skeggley - hereās a good website that can give you an understanding on what pests are present in Australia, including their distribution throughout:
http://beeaware.org.au/pests/
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David_Hopper, I hope the Bio security is working, I came through Perth Airport from NZ just last week & Ag dept guy just asked me if I had anything esp Manuka Honey on replying no he let us through, same with most of the others around us, so I just HOPE the others were as honest as us as no bag checks were performed & no X-ray machines for baggage or carry on luggage & no dogs visible.
Yet leaving Perth just after recent airport scare everything & I mean everything was searched.
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So, I did my first inspection for this season today and everything seems to be fine (although Iāve got one question for folks; so please read on, or jump to the frame pic).
General inspection findings:
In the brood box
- Frames 1 and 2 were all honey
- Frame 3 was a mix of honey and pollen
- Frames 4 and 5 were predominantly brood
- Frames 6 thru 8 were a mix of brood and honey (plus a little pollen), with less brood as moving away from the centre of the hive
- Frame 9 was all pollen
- The queen was on Frame 5
- All brood was healthy, well formed, and very calm
- 1 drone spotted; about a dozen drone cells on the lower corners of a couple of frames (frames 6 thru 8)
In the hybrid super (I kept the hybrid on throughout winter with 4 frames of honey)
- 4 frames of honey; theyād worked at least two of the frames based on how I left them when closing up for the winter
- 2 partially filled flow frames
- 1 flow frame practically untouched, but starting to be worked
- All frames with some degree of bee activity on them; each face at least half to two-thirds covered in bees
- Two honey frames appear to have a reddish tinge on the wax in the upper corner (see image and question below); I believe this is a result of condensation in the hive during winter. I donāt believe it is a concern but thatās my question to folks hereā¦any thoughts?
- 1 small roach
- 1 grass type beetle??? It was definitely not SHB
Pre-emptive swarm control / Hive management
- Rotated 1 frame of brood and 1 frame of honey into the hybrid super
- Took 2 frames of honey from the hybrid into the house for crush+strain extraction (for another day)
- Placed two fresh frames with wax foundation in the brood box in frame position 4 and 6
Question - red tinged wax?
This image is from the upper corner of a frame of honey taken from the hybrid super. Iām guessing it is mould of some sort due to condensation/humidity in the hive over winter. I donāt believe it is anything to be concerned about but Iād be interested to know if others have seen something similar. If it is something I should be wary of please comment!
(@Dawn_SD @Rodderick your thoughts/opinion would be appreciated)
Thanks!
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I donāt think you need to worry. It is either mould or propolis mixed with the wax. Pretty common to see, and it wonāt spoil the honey. 
Thanks! That was my opinion (not to worry) but thought Iād canvass others too 
I had an oportunity to get into the hives yesterday and was somewhat surprised.
The hive I looked at was the old pot colony and I wanted to replace some of the banded in comb with wf as last I checked it was ugly comb, not straight or filling the frame. Last summer I employed Dawns method and added a wsp beneath the fd box and wanted to move that above the fd to use as a super.
So I know itās still winter but the days are getting longer and expected the numbers to be rising rapidly however I found this not to be the case. The wsp had fully built out frames but totally empty. The fd had 2 full frames of honey on each side and there were only 2 full brood frames in the centre with frames 3&6 having brood on the center facing face and the other side empty comb. Now Iām somewhat confused with thisā¦
I finished up replacing the 4 frames of honey with wf, put the wsp on the fd and put another fd box with the 4 honey frames and we frames above a qx.
I did see the queen, big and fat and unlike the others she didnāt even try to hide! Last I saw her she was a piping virgin last year. The bees were calm and not agressive at all which was unusual.
Iām hoping to inspect the BW colony today to compare.
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Did my inspecrion today and so happy with how the girls have wintered. We left 2 hives with a full box of honey and removed the QX (thus making a double brood box). One hive, as an experiment, we left on the QX, then had a full box of honey and a virtually empty flow super on top of that.
My favourite hive (caught from a swarm last year) still had at least 6 frames of capped honey in their top box and a pretty much full frame of drone too up there. The bottom box was full of beautiful worker brood and a bit of honey too. We reinstated the QX (although didnāt see the queen as there were a lot of bees!) and added the flow super too. Going to check in a couple of weeks to make sure the queen is in the bottom!
The second hive with the double box had essentially moved up to the top and had a lot of drone comb, worker brood and around 4 frames of capped honey left. The bottom box was pretty empty, so we swapped the top and bottom boxes and reinstalled the QX. Again we didnāt see the queen, but we brushed off the frames so are pretty confident she is now at the bottom. Interestingly, this hive went into winter with probably the most bees, but is now quite behind the other. They are our only bought Italian bees, and I think they may have layed more hence eaten more during winter.
Finally, our hive that we left the QX and flow hive on probably looked the best! The honey box was about 75% full of capped honey & the brood box had some drone but mostly solid worker brood. I was really worried we had left these girls with too much space and they would freeze but they are flourishing.
Next year we will be leaving the queen excluder on all hives - I was/ am worried we would end up with the queen in the wrong spot, or lose her as we were moving around boxes & am very happy it seems we wonāt need to do it again. Major kudos to all you guys from colder lands that have to run double and triple deeps!!!
We will check again in a couple of weeks to make sure we havenāt messed things up and do a bit of checkerboarding, but I am very optimistic for the season ahead!!!
Cheers,
Julia
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I did my first inspection of the new season a fortnight ago and things are very different to the end of August last year.
I left 3 boxes on again over winter (2 8 frames and 1 flow). Last year the bottom two boxes were full of brood by the last week of August and I had to do a split straight away to prevent swarming.
This year the middle box was full of honey and brood but the bottom box was pretty empty. The flow still had most of the honey from over winter. There was pollen present in the hive but not a lot. The major difference around me this year is that there is hardly any bottle brush flowers compared to last year. Middle of August last year the Kings Park bottle brush trees were red all over, whereas this year they still only have a few flowers here and there. Iām pretty confident the bottle brush was the main supply of early pollen.
It is going to be interesting to see if it just flowers later or whether it is going to have a light on year and where the bees will go for pollen instead.
The other significant issue this year is that the corners of the flow frames without honey have a little black mould. Iāve taken the box off, harvested about 10kg of honey and now will clean off the mould. Iāll wait till they are producing well before I put it back on and Iām considering going down to one brood box this year.
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Well folks, for those of us in Perth, gonna be 28-deg on Friday, so ill be conducting an inspection on both my FHās in the afternoon after work. Might strip some capped frames from the middle super and rotate up if there are sealed brood in the bottom box, as ive been watching bees over the last couple of weeks bringing in pollen. So hopefully they might have sealed a frame or two and i can put one frame into the newly established hive which needs a helping hand to get going??
Should still be warm enough and ill be interested to see how the swarm i caught a couple of months ago is travelling.
Purchased a fully ventilated suit so i will actually not cook in the suit this time, which ill be gratefull for.
Get cracking folks
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Had a chance this morning to look into the hives.
Gosh, 2 of the hives had 4-5 frames in the brood box full of capped broods and larvae. Time slap on another deck in 2 weeks, me think
Started a nuc 3 weeks back and no sight of eggs or QB, so reinserted another frame of eggs. Keeping fingers crossed!!
Hope others in the flatlands are coming through nicely
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OK itās me again in Pemberton - and I think we are real trouble now. Opened up the hive yesterday to find nothing happening AT ALL. No brood, no honey, no pollen, just nothing. My husband suggests the queen has quit the hive and that the bees will continue to decrease in number until there are none left. What are they doing with all the pollen they are collecting?
Everything was looking great at the end of summer, so I believe I have failed these little bees 
Yeah, definitely not something to worry about, the bees will clean it up. Otherwise use your tool to scrape it off, I have seen a lot worse and the bees just fix it. Even when extracted, the honey will destroy the mould on contact.
Sorry to hear that, Debra!
Maybe give it another go and try to analyse with other beeks in your area why has that happened.
Good luck!
@Rodderick Thanksā¦!
Debra what where your bee numbers like and stores (necter and honey). Any swarm cells? There has been some discussion on the loss of queens vs queens stoping laying too.
Adam
The brood box was full of bees, honey and nectar frames and they had started capping out the flow frames during the summer, so I left everything for them for winter feed. Didnāt notice any swarm cells, they all appeared to be working and happy.