It looks perfectly healthy. 
Generally here in the West it’s an Italian breed base.
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European honey bee. Apis mellifera. More accuracy than that is impossible without further testing 
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Hiya Dawn, our honorary sandgroper 
. I’d hazard a guess that there are no full breeds here now. The queen suppliers are cagey about saying where or how their product is produced. I’ve heard Ligurian and Rottnest island types thrown around. Unless artificial insemination I don’t believe a pure strain could be guaranteed. AI is expensive also which would make the queens cost a LOT more than they currently do. I’m fairly confident we don’t import here either due to our strict bio security laws.
The bees in my apiary vary in colour and pattern markedly even within the colony. The cutouts are generally much darker, some absent of orange, almost black.
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Newbee asking questions
So swarm is 1 week old. Checked it day 4. 4 frames half filled. Now it is warm and they are looking settled, when would you suggest we check for larvae?
I would give them a couple of weeks, at least. They need time to gather enough nectar and pollen to draw the comb and feed the larvae. Also, if the swarm had a virgin queen, she will need a week or so of good weather to get mated. She may not lay very well for the first week or two after that, while she learns what to do, and her ovarioles ramp up egg production.
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Has anyone ever seen an earwig eating a wax moth larvae?
My inspection today went fine, the colony is bursting at the seams and I got another frame to harvest 
Like usual, I checked and cleaned the core flute board at the end. During the inspection I saw one slug inside one of the channels and also saw an earwig that appeared to be dining on a wax moth larvae in another channel. I have no clue how the slug got to where it did but it was interesting to see the earwig seemingly dining on the wax moth larvae.
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Hi Im pretty new to all this too, I havent put my supers on as yet, Ive had my hive since May, but Ive still got an empty frame. I was wondering, I have heard that bees dont always take to the flow frames because of the plastic, could you use lemon grass oil to intice them into it?
Thanks
I think wax or burr comb would work better. I just gently pushed some old burr comb from an inspection into the plastic cells of the Flow frames, dotted around all over the surface. Within 2 days of putting the super on, the bees were investigating the frames. They very quickly tidied up my messy wax blobs. Two months later, we took our first Flow harvest (extraction) from the frames. All very easy, and no major problems with getting them to accept the frames.
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Thanks Dawn, Ill try that. Also Im in the hills does anyone know when the nector flow might start? I hear about so many people taking honey and Im still feeding my poor girls! Also what is the best plants for nector?
Thanks
Hi Sharon,
I’m in the hills of the swan valley and we have quite a nectar flow at the moment from bottle brush, lavender and citrus (which we planted) and lots of weeds (cape weed) which we did not
Unfortunately where we are I think we are unlikely to see any trees flowering until after Christmas. Last year after the bottle brush finished we had to feed our weaker colonies through to Marri flowering. This year we have lots of honey frames ready to give the girls if they need them. We are also trying to work out what to plant to fill the gap of late spring- early summer.
It is much tougher in the bush than in the city keeping bees, but our honey, when we get it, does taste awfully good
I almost gave up on the flow hive last year as the bees just weren’t that interested despite rubbing wax on and spraying sugar water. Moving up a frame of worker brood up to the flow super (and temporarily removing a flow frame) got the bees starting to fill the gaps and we got a couple of frames in the end. This year when we put it on the girls went straight up and have already started capping some honey.
Good luck with your bees,
Cheers,
Julia
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Thanks Julia,
Im in Roleystone, Ive got my mandarine tree flowering wonderfully and so are my blueberries but they dont seem interested in them. I do have some lavendar and protias right near the hive and them seem to like them. Do you know if gravillieas are nector producing? Ive got heaps of them and the girls just love it.
Thanks
We have actually planted grevillias but they haven’t started flowering yet. According to the bee guide I have they have more pollen than nectar:
https://agrifutures.infoservices.com.au/downloads/12-014
This is a great guide we are using to work out what to plant 
Wow thats brilliant! Ive got plenty of pollen in there and plenty of brood but just not that much in the way of honey.
Ain’t that the truth! Although down in the flatlands they harvest more frequently, much more frequently, I find hills honey less of a mish mash of flavour.
On the grevilleas, I have plenty in the yard here and the bees love them although this year they seemed to have a short flowering season.
@Sharon_Olesen I’m surprised you need to feed this time of year, I’m seeing much more flowering trees and shrubs than last year. Last year there was a mid summer dearth up here that caught me out and taught me a lesson but apart from that there’s usually something around flowering. My lemon scented gums are budding up nicely after dropping bud earlier this year. Ive seen some jarrah budding up also. Last year the marri flowered abundantly and I’m not sure we will see the likes of it again for a while.
I’m starting to see nectar being moved around the F frames and am hoping to get some Spring honey this year.
Btw my friends down the hill near the city have already harvested this spring…
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Am I right that it has been a wet or much wetter than usual year in the Perth area? That should help with nectar production.
After being away for a week and driving south past Kojonup noticed a few Jarrah flowering and when I got home also saw a few flowering on my 30 acres.
Masses of flowers only 10 days after taking honey from my hives so am hopeful for some darker honey. There seems a huge variety of flowers right now so will see what they feed on.
It also seems like many farmers have forgone the canola (rapeweed) this year and the fields are littered with capeweed.
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You are correct. There was a news article a few weeks ago that showed the rainfall over the last few years. Definitely more rain this year.
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