Some Marri starting to flower around Bunbury. Just the odd tree and only a percentage of the tree at this stage. Now for more to flower and the nectar to kick in over the next few weeks/month.
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Hi @AdamMaskew the honey flow has all but stopped here in Wanneroo.
The Marri is just starting to flower here. The Red flowering gum has been in bright red flowers for the past 2 weeks but is starting loose their flowers now.
Keeping fingers crossed for the Marri. Cheers
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Nice picture though 
What I find disappointing with jarrah is this:
āAverage jarrah protein concentrations (19.7%) were below recommended minimum levels determined by de Groot (1953).ā
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Very disappointing indeed. No wonder you guys all talk about how amazing the Marri flow is!
Wow when compared to Marri, Eucalyptus Marginata is veryā¦ umm, wellā¦ Marginal
Also this got me thinkingā¦ I have lots of frames full off it. Perhaps I should swap it out before Marri flow?
Really we should rename Jarrah to Eucalyptus Marginada.
P.S. Thankyou @ABB love it when you link research material 
P.P.S. Someone really needs to start a crowd funding for this:
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Well something interesting is happening today. The bees where busy at day break, must be something other than the hot weather.
This graph shows over 1kg (10,000) of bees where flying very early, be interesting to see what happens for the rest of the dayā¦
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Probably not a bad idea, butā¦
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Is it really 100% jarrah pollen? If you have time and will to do it, you may pull out few samples of beebread and see if it is homogenous (at least in colour).
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What to do with removed frames? Collect the beebread for own consumption?..
Haha butā¦ My exact same reasoning for why I probably wonāt end up doing it!
- Admittedly the frames I inspected did have different types but majority was of the same. Whether this is Jarrah pollen I am not 100% sure.
I do remember reading somewhere, I think it was āFat Bees Skinny bees?ā that all pollens arenāt equally nutritious and bees have preference.
My point is, for the bees to have collected, processed and stored it it must be of some value to the bees (albeit maybe not the best) and therefore there is no harm in leaving it, even if it is taking up extra space.
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I too have pondered this and I have no perfect solution at this stage. Having only one hive limits my options and quite honestly I have no need for beebread.
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Being currently in a heatwave is not the best time for the hive to be torn asunder and especially for speculation purposes. Whether the girls benefit from it or not may not be worth the hassle in the long run.
I think the easy answer is just to leave it for now. 
Again, yes and no. In absence of pollen, the collection instinct may go haywire. Bees are known to collect much less palatable things than the pollen of poor quality - ground brick, soot, dust.
For sure. We need to see pollen from marri first
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Hmm interestingā¦ The bees must know there is mortar collecting brick dust.
Agreed. Bring on the Marri flow!
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Speaking about Marri, hereās one less tree circa 2021 Feb.
RIP old timerā¦
*Neighbourās caravan for scale
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Hi @AdamMaskew ,
Is there a development in that story?
Just hit it would seem. Still the overall decreasing trend in weight during this period of dearth. Iāve started to get excited as a few Marri have started to partially flowerā¦
This is the trace since that day. I think a lot of the weight gain prior to midday is water as the weight comes off during the day and settles prior to dark
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Yes, painful to watch. They are losing about 0.5 kg a day on this graph. What is the size of the colony? Do they beard a lot?
Could be. But water evaporates quick, and the graph would probably be more flat as evaporated water was being replaced. Maybe it is a temperature drift of the weight sensor?
The sensor is temperature compensated.
It is the equivalent of 32 frames - 6x flow frames (8f) and 24 brood stores. So it is big.
Beards a little but not to much, this is from the 19th just before dusk.
My 4f nuc proportionately beards more, 2nd photo same day/time
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Then, 0.5 kg a day is a good result. I played with calculator a bit and it looks this colony does not spend that much on thermoregulation in this heat.
Letās hope the temperature drops a bit when (and if) the marri flow begins. Those beards are not that harmless during the flow. Could cost 20% of the harvest.
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Yes bearding is a production issue during a flow.
I took two frames of capped broad and adhering brood from that two deck four frame Nuc about 2 weeks ago. Iām glad I did as Iām sure Iād be looking at a swarm about the start of the Marri flow given how populous it is.
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Hi Adam,
Just a couple of questions:
I recall in early-ish spring you mentioned you had 17 packed frames in the brood area. It may have been from another of your LLās, but if not, does that mean you expanded the brood area from 17 to 24 before giving them access to the flow frames? I went from 8 to 16 this year (as a first-year 8 frame transfer). There was scope for more but I found the bees would stop using, or move anything from the flow frames over to the new foundation frames. So I stopped adding frames.
Is there anything different in packing down the hive for Autumn, as opposed to a normal Langstroth hive?
Ie. Do they move honey across or do you remove frames from between the brood area and the stores?
Last question. Do you notice a discernible difference in weight before and after a full inspection?
Thanks
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Now that I have all the frames drawn I donāt actively manage the brood area/space for spring/autumn. In spring they have eaten through space for the queen to lay out to 16-20 frames. My first flows they thenfill the flow frames and backfill te end frames with nectar honey. On good years Iāll get a harvest or two. I then have a dearth from early December to late Jan and that creates more space for the queen to lay. If the Marri is a good flow theyāll then fill anything that is free and I harvest. At pack down I leave the normal frames as they are. I might move all the capped honey to the opposite end. I harvest the flow frames and leave them in the hive to capture any follow on flow or winter sources. It works for me in my climate and flows.
It sounds like depending on season you may need to manage brood nest size to get honey in the flow frames. On my no flow frame LL I put a fixed QE so I have 14 brood frames and the rest honey. It seems to be the sweet spot for production and reduced swarm management. Iāve now got a LL with medium frames (2/3 deep) and am enjoying getting to know how to manage that.
For your first Autumn Iād approach like you do normally. I think your climate is cooler than my mild Mediterranean one.
Weight post inspections I donāt see a reduction in weight. Some times, depending on what manipulation I do I can see a reduction in foraging activity reflected in the weights.
I hope Iāve answered your questions, I feel Iāve rambled a little.
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Take it from the queen of rambling - you have not!
Thanks for your response. Itās very helpful and gives me lots to think about.
I suspect this isnāt the thread for it but oh well.
My plan, if the bees are on board, is to harvest all the flow frame honey when the messmates stop flowering, let them clean up the flow frames and remove. In the normal lang flow hives, I would then add an ideal and let the bees fill it for winter stores with manna gum honey, which is my next significant flow. This honey crystalises so aim to leave it for the bees.
Perhaps in the LL, I could remove the flow frames, put a dummy board where the QX is (or next to) and give them extra foundation frames for their winter stores. Iām just not sure about leaving the flow frames in here over winter, because of a) temperature (mould in frames) and b) crystalised honey in frames.
Can you post some pics of your new (WSP) LL? And, your thoughts so far on it. Thanks
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