You trained your bees well Master @skeggley! 
My bees cannot tell light from dark, right from wrongā¦ 
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Thanks guys, itās taken me a while and a lot of patience to train the bees to deposit lighter honey in the left hand side and am now trying to teach them to alternate light dark for aesthetic purposes.
I have found this easier than training them to sit and stay or fetch a ball not through lack of trying though I can tell youā¦
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Someone told me that girl bees gather light honey, and boy bees gather dark honey, but I think he was pulling my leg.
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Like your style Olly. LOL
Robin
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Wow that looks awesome, well done. Iām approaching my very first harvest now, canāt wait. Can I ask where you purchased the containers please and how much to expect to pay for them ? Cheers Dave.
Jeez youāre on the ball Snowy, I was just looking back to find where Iād offered to sell some of the ones Iād bought and came across a msg from you enquiring after some. 
Hows your area going, up here the supers are filling fast. Was planning to harvest this weekend however although all frames are filled minimal capping is happening, probably still dehydrating. Plenty of bearding going on and am thinking about adding another superā¦
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Thanks!
Some of the trees have finally started to flower around me, thankfully. Iāve seen an increase of 4.8kg this week, nearly making up for the recent dearth I went through. I had been hoping to inspect this weekend but it was drizzling all day yesterday so Iāll wait until next weekend to try and have a look and see how the colony is doing. I reckon Iāll still be three good weeks off a harvest so Iām currently not too concerned about being honey locked.
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Weird day Saturday, got home from work around 3 and notice birds singing noisily. Grabbed a beer and sat down. Within 15 minutes I saw at least 10 different species of bird and at least 50 different birds, so cool and a little freaky too. I kept thinking I should be recording thisā¦ But I didnāt.
Anyway, just thought Iād share.
Heavy flow at the mo, harvesting weekly again and had a record for me 3.3 kg out of 1 frame, the honey is very viscous and was gathered and capped within a month. Honey has been leaking out the back of the supers at the cutout for some reason, bees donāt seem to be interested in it though, ants on the other handā¦
Spoke to the butcher who is moving some of my honey, heās selling it as postcode honey which didnāt please me (I supply unlabelled only batch numbered.), to me season honey is more accurate, he is also selling his local honey supplied in small jars. Mine is supplied in kg pails and he is making 100% mark up on mine but only 25% on the others and itās still making mine look cheap! (Compared to the others)
As Iām not a council registered Beek I canāt use an honour box or advertiseā¦I really need labelsā¦ Anyone know the local requirements here in the metro area?
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@skeggley It really depends on your local council as to the requirements. Some councils regulate beekeeping under animal laws while others regulate beekeeping under health laws. If your block is zoned rural, special rural, or something similar (i.e. not urban) thereās a good chance you can do what you want.
Local laws arenāt State laws though. The State registration is mandatory.
Hiya Snowy, Iād imagine labelling laws are state regulations. I know batch number is mandatory and have heard nutrition guides are also but am not sure.
Hows it going down your way?
Apparently there are local laws as well. Once you start selling in shops, things can get a bit more involved.
Have a look at this
I think with some councils you also need to register with the health department as a packer, and take a course on food handling or something similar, plus have a pubic liability insurance just in case you are sued for something (someone claims your honey made them sick or whatever).
Why not? I donāt need to register with the shire here if I keep two hives, but if you advertise I doāt think they will track you down, or is your shire that nasty? And I see no issue with an honour box either. I live in non trafficable street, so that wonāt work here.
Iām still not within shire rules. Hive position is not practical if I follow their rules.
In Qld. every beekeeper has to be registered with the DPI, even if the beekeeper has only one hive. Iām amazed that similar rules donāt apply in W.A.
Same rules apply here in WA Jeff. The Ag department take care of registered bee keepers. So if there is ever an outbreak of disease, the idea is that all other beekeepers in the vicinity will be notified.
The above is discussion I believe is in regards to local council regulationss. Each council has different requirements. Some harsher than others.
Either youāre selling too cheap, or your butcher is a good businessmanā¦
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I see Fred, my mistake. False alarm.
Things have improved and going well now the trees are in flower. Just a pity about the rain/drizzle this weekend as I have been hoping to do an inspection and possible harvest. Based on the scales Iām guessing Iāve got between 3 and 5 frames ready to harvest, subject to cell capping/moisture content.
My main disappointment recently was the death of an Albany woolly bush in my yard 
I reckon the leaves on it would make great pillow stuffing. Turns out they remain soft even after drying out for a few weeks. Iāll be curious how they are after a few monthsā¦
Back to labelling, I think itās a Federal issue isnāt it? I think itās governed by the AU/NZ Food Standards authorityā¦? I havenāt looked into it though, so there might be some kind of State twist.
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Looks to be a local council thing as mentioned by @Dunc:
Hereās some info on labels according to the WA Department of Health:
https://www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/FI/Food-labelling
This is referenced from the Ag Department:
I thought it was a matter of sticking some labels onā¦ 
LABELS
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Seriously, you are underselling.
I donāt know whether it is frowned upon if pricing is discussed here. I personally struggle to price my own honey which I usually sell to neighbours, friends in a reused jar with no label. I charge $5 for 325ml jar. But sometimes I still charge $5 for a 400ml jar. I hope Iām not undercutting anyone and am curious to know what other sell theirs for.
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To me itās about supply and demand. Currently I have honey coming out my ears. I still have honey from 2 years ago, personal stock of course.
I was selling at $15 per kg last year, small batch boutique 
, as it wasnāt an overly productive year however due to the flow this year the quantity has more than tripled.
<10 $15ea, >10 $10ea per Kg.
Smaller glass jars were $5 per 300gm but Iāve run out of jars. Apparently people donāt care about the deposit. (I wonder how the bottle collectionās going to go?)
Markets are selling at 12-15 bucks per Kg so my prices are inline and I have little to no overheads.
If our Marri honey was marketed like Manuka was itād be a different story.
If we get a good flow like this for the next 10 years who knows, I may even break even on my investment. 
For the record I only have 12 Fframes in operation. And I used to want 6 hives. 
EdiT. Curse you not autocorrect.
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People collect discarded ones from verges etc, and get a refund. It works well in other states and reduced the amount of plastic bottles that end up in waterways etc. 
Back to beekeeping. My wife sells our honey at her work with an honesty box, @ $5/small jar. There are now others offering honey (too may Flow Hives in this area), so it is taking longer to sell. I think two hives is over the top for me already as I do not want to end up spending any energy to offload it.
I spent a quarter of a century in business and marketing, went into beekeeping to get away from it!!
There is no way I will ever recoup my investment and time I spend on keeping bees.
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