I’m just north of Mt barker on 30 acres and the Jarrah flower is rampant this year.
That and all the other flowers the bees are having a field day.
Its just a bit too cold and windy.
I just harvested 11kg of honey after taking 15kg off only 5 weeks before.
Yoo hoo!
I have noticed that the Jarrah has started flowering down here (north east of Albany) about 2 weeks ago. Hoping this will help set my nucs up. One brood had filled out and I put a super on last weekend. How long do the Jaraahs usually flower for?
I went to town today and took some pics. However this is the only one I can post.
It’s a good pic as it shows last years nuts, blossom and buds. That pink cap is where the name Eucalyptus comes from.
I can only say that I did take some huge old tress and young trees in flower but some how I deleted them of my camera instead of copying them to my computer. Tried to be clever and transfer pics in bulk rather than one at a time as I did with the first.Hope I’m not losing the plot. LOL.
I will post some trees in a day or so.
Would an awesome picture Busso, just what I so wished to see! You are a treasure.
Just this morning I read somewhere that the health properties of jarrah honey were tested and the results jumped prices from $3.50 to $100/kg within a year.
I think it was on ABC landline, but not sure, had to rush to work.
I recall that someone on this forum mentioned last year that the Chinese and Japanese were buying up all WA honey. They must have known more about Australian honeys than Australian beekeepers at the time.
Can you buy jarrah trees in WA?
You can grow them yourself. Eucalyps are so easy to grow from seed. There is lots on it in a Google search.
We started over 30 years ago without google and managed to raise somewhere around 10,000 seedling of various sorts over the years. So its not that hard.
Seeds can be bought on eBay.
Be aware they are relatively slow growers. A 30 year old tree will be typically about 250mm diameter chest high and about 30m high. They do flower young at about 4 years so you have this sappling about 10m high with a ice cream top of flower.
A couple more. These were taken on my mobile phone on my way to town this morning and not great photos.
This tree is 250 years Plus old and has heavy blossom. Just a pity I haven’t learnt how to zoom on my phone camera.
@busso pinch the screen with your thumb and forefinger. If pinching inwards doesn’t do it, pinch outwards. That works on almost every touch screen phone… One direction zooms in and the other out…
Good pics though 
Awesome pics. I can picture them growing right here. We have a patch of black butt I would like to replace here.
Bit sad I won’t see the jarrah grow to 250 year olds, but will pass it on to my grandkids.
Does anyone know if black butt is any good for bees?
Hey that does it. Thanks. Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Checking a year old brood.
Is this strange cell (the one in the middle with a cream celll on the bottom half) a problem or have I squashed a larvae when I drew the frame? This is the only cell like this in the whole brood.
Many thanks
Looks like a dead larva, pre-pupal. There is another one a couple of cells below it too. They are not uncommon, and can happen for a variety of reasons. I wouldn’t worry unless there were a lot, or other signs of disease.
Thanks heaps @Dawn_SD. Still learning
Dear Beeks in Perth
I have been harvesting by hand using a fork and realised that quite a few combs have plenty of pollen stuck into the cells. Do you normally scrap it out or leave it on the stickies and let the bees sort it out themselves?
Appreciate any feedback from your experiences
Cheers
Hi Aaron, I’m not in Perth, however I extract honey by hand & also discover pollen in the cells. I leave it in the stickies for the bees to use, which they do.
@BecW, that looks to me like chalk brood mummies that the bees are chucking out.
I totally agree with @JeffH, that is chalkbrood.
The main cause of chalkbrood is chilled brood. That can be caused by a number of things:
If 1 and 2 above are not possible, then I would consider replacing the queen. If you take the frames out and see large areas (10% or more) of the frame with dehydrated hard mummies in it, I would either cut out the affected area (it is infectious) or replace the frame if there is a very large area.
Chalkbrood is pretty common in spring and autumn, and usually the bees control it. However, you need to keep an eye on it, and get active if it is rapidly increasing.
Thank you so much . Will act swiftly. We may have opened on a cold day. Inexperience tells I guess.
I was told last week by a queen bee breeder here in Tasmania, that chalkbrood is in every hive and that hygenic queens are for controlling AFB, not chalkbrood.
That sounds a bit simplistic. Perhaps he wasn’t in the mood to give you the full spiel of why he breeds queens.
Or he really just breeds for AFB specific hygienic traits.
I understand, bred for hygiene means they clear out anything foreign and diseased brood cells. Chalk, AFB and varroa. It’s possible each could be specifically targeted, but I don’t know how one trains the bees. Interesting subject though this queen breeding for traits.
This is what your Aussie Bee Aware organization thinks:
http://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/chalkbrood/#ad-image-0
The do specifically mention queen replacement under the management tab.
