Fine looking hives Skegs! If nectar shows up, you’re going to be a busy boy!
And I’d give my hind teeth to sample some of that dark honey.
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Thanks Doug, coming from you that means a lot.
Here in the SW of Aus we are in a unique position. There are 2 roads and one international airport into Western Australia so our bio security is able to policed somewhat effectively many pests introduced to the rest of the world are not here which makes bee keeping easy, yes we have had cases of AFB however it is still rare. The down side is that EHB’s run rampant with no natural predators to keep them in check taking over many hollows formerly occupied by native species like birds and possums.
In addition having our endemic Jarrah and Marri trees who’s nectars produce high antibacterial and antimicrobial honeys due to their high hydrogen peroxide levels that also taste great it’s tough to go wrong.
Its a shame these honeys aren’t distributed throughout the world as Manuka honey is so others can try them but that may also be a blessing in disguise. Hopefully the borders will open soon. 
It’s funny, I see the light coloured honeys and think I’d like to sample them. 
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Hi guys. It was a fairly warm day today, up to 40C. I wonder how much your hives were bearding in the evening?
My worst looks like this:
h
Yup, bearding a plenty here and a planned harvest tomorrow.
Do those hives have screened floors?
Vented top?
Wouldn’t those stands get hot, hot, hot?
And how does a top entrance go around here?
Yes. Screened bottoms and a tray that can reduce ventilation significantly. The bottom looks like this:
With tray.
Without.
I kept trays on hives in the previous heatwave out of interest, but it creates a significant bearding. With trays removed the result as per the picture in the previous post.
The lid has grills.
Feeders under the lid are vented too. I think they also provide additional insulation working as an inner cover and create an additional air gap.
They are reasonably well vented.
To be honest, I don’t know how hot do they get. Not hot enough to slice hive into three parts, which is good enough for practical purposes 
Beams are mainly hidden under the hive, so they shouldn’t be much hotter than the air around.
So far I haven’t seen bees using them as an entrance. They are very small. Maybe a bit more than 1 sq. cm cutout inside. With such size, they cannot seriously contribute to the traffic during the main flow. Removing the mouse guard at the bottom entrance is the only option in case of traffic congestion. I am using these entrances as additional vent holes at the moment.
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The nectar has appeared with the scent in the air and I am seeing it leaking onto the ground with the birds back in the trees. Hurrah.
And this is why they’re called red gums.
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Wow! Lucky pollinators.
That sap is incredible. What’s the blue part?
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Down in Bridgetown, Marri just finishing, but, just harvested 15Kgs from 6 frame flowhive from swarm we wrangled in October. happy days!
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A few posts since I was here last… Good to read. Kids and work have been keeping me busy.
I just popped back in to comment on a harvest today. All frames were full. There’s a good flow on in my area. I harvest 3 flow frames.
Two frames were 100pc capped. The third frame was fully capped on 1 side and 90pc capped on the other. I harvested in-situ but with a tray underneath and made use of a clearer board because of the flooding issues last time.
I harvested approximately 8.2kg from 3 full frames (over a 3.5hr period, cracking the frames in thirds each time). There was an additional approx 420g the leaked onto the tray… That’s 420g from 3 capped frames that works 5 have otherwise flooded my hive. That’s approx 4-5% of the harvest that would have been otherwise lost to flooding inside the hive.
… The only thing I didn’t pay close attention to was the split of wet-v-dry caps.
So for those that harvest in-situ just be cautious about flooding and how much of the frame you crack at any one time.
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What blue part?
… Twenty characters…
@Bianca It’s the reflection of the sky.
Nice to hear from you Snowy, I’ve been waiting for some harvest news during the Marri flow.
More?
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I’ve got another 6 frames waiting to harvest. Just didn’t have time today and not sure the weather will be good enough tomorrow. My bees don’t like seriously overcast days…
The flow has been on in a big way relative to the last few years…
The linear section is where the batteries went flat on my hive scales but there’s enough data after that it doesn’t really matter. The start of the other section was 46kg and just before harvest today was 70kg…
Didn’t get a chance to do a brood inspection but the hive was packed to the rafters and then some.
How are things down your way?
On a different topic, later this year we’ll hopefully be building on our bush block 10 mins away. I’ve been paying attention to flowering over the last year and that 10 mins distance from my current location is going to make a big difference to the hive. I’ll still be in the Metro area but it definitely won’t be suburbia. There’s also a lack of marri compared to my current location…
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Marri still in flower, bees still bearding like crazy, I saw scouts checking an empty box near the shed so was thinking swarm, which aren’t uncommon this time of year, so hastily fitted foundation to some old frames and set the box up but nothing has happened yet.
I haven’t inspected since the fire ban so am only entrance inspecting unless I see trouble. Smokeless inspections on a hot day while neighbours are in their pools sorta worries me…
I’m having ant issues in the shed, they’ve found my honey buckets and have possibly spoiled one or two with drowned ants.
I should probably clean up my shed……
@AdamMaskew hows it going down your way?
@Detto wheres your colony at?
@ABB have you spun yet?
@fffffred hello?
@SouthEastScarp Hope all’s well.
Where have all our other Perth friends gone?
Come back please….
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Hi @skeggley,
We are at the tail of the season here. The last batch of buds has opened this week.
Reno is eating all the available time and this leaves very little for bees, let alone posting on the forum All I had time for is to do a quick inspection and to add one more super to each hive.
But yes, what a season! I was trying to bite my own butt in out of frustration seeing it go by without using it. I believe 100kg+ per hive would be easy and 200 achievable if colonies were managed properly. Oh, well. One day… 
I hope to get an extractor the next R&R and harvest what I can.
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Ants… Yes… Ants…+#";(&#*!?/+
This year is terrible. Based on appearance I’ve got at least 3 different types around my house. I can’t walk more than 3m, if that, at home without seeing an ant nest access mound.
Only consolation is I’m likely to not have termites given how many ants there are around…
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It has been a good year to date down this way. Marri is all but over but there is a few things coming on in the street scapes, banksia and paper bark seem to be flowering again too.
I’ve taken off 50-60kg per hive, but have only one big long lang at home now. The rest came from the training apiary ~1km away. One of the semi commercial guys recorded a few days of 10kg nectar flows at the start of the peak Marri flow and it settled down to 4-6kg per day for a few weeks.
Found an issue with my hive scales, the supports had bent a little under my long hive and made the load cells bottom out. I’ve fixed that now and it is reading as good as it did a few years ago. Still more honey ~20-30kg to come off. Which will leave about the same for winter.
I’m not having ant issues at home but the training apiary is driving me crazy, we’ve lost a few weak hives/nucs again this season. I spend some time there with Ant Rid at night squeezing a few drops down each ant nest.
With the good weather, still abundant drones, I’ve decided to do some queen rearing. First lot of grafts for this season are in a cell starter/finisher as we speak. I’ll know how well I’ve done on the weekend when I check to see if I need to set up any mating nucs. I’ll do 3-4 rounds I think to make the investment in the process worth while.
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G’day Skeggs,
I’m overdue for an inspection, but last I checked, some super frames were ready for harvest.
Been having similar issues with ants also. Just need to stay in top of keeping the ant moats filled with liquid. Wife reckons ants are killing the grass…
Will keep you posted.
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Back from my hiatus! Please excuse my tardy reply. I’ve been working away offshore again. The oil price is through the roof! 
Just before I left the Marri in the area were in full bloom. All 7 frames were chockas and the girls were bursting out the seams! Weight of the hive was 93kgs which was a stark contrast considering it started at 57kgs when I installed the scales and all flow frames were empty.
I did my very first harvest on the 06/03/22 which was a rush job as I was running out of daylight. I harvested 4 full frames and got about 12-13kgs worth of liquid gold. (Yet to be accurately weighed and perpetually less because I keep sampling it.)
Before harvesting I was worried my honey looked a bit off. It was very light in color and I thought perhaps it had a high water content. Unfortunately my tester had gone MIA in the postage system so I tried @JeffH’s method with the water test, which indicated honey. How to link - Beekeeping: Ripe Honey vs Unripe Honey - A Simple Test. - YouTube
I was expecting a light runny honey but as soon as the jar started filling up the honey was very nice and vicous and it just got darker and darker which was amazing to watch. The feeling of seeing it ooze out of the tube and spiral into the jar is something amazing to behold. What an absolute privilege!
Temperature and time permitting I might start jarring up today. I bought a whole heap of sealed glass jars for a steal. The plan is sell it and donate 100% of the proceeds to charity then claim it back on tax . I better be quick because the girls have already started to fill up the frames again. Though having said that I’ve noticed their bearding numbers have dwindled due to the cooler weather. Either that or they swarmed on me while I was away. Will do an inspection soon, hopefully this weekend.
On another note, heres a pic of my bee pantry… On the other side is my toilet. I’ve been scheming on a diy removable observation hive for viewing pleasure whilst on the throne and will build a removable main hive in the cupboard. Fingers crossed it doesn’t end up being a shit show with bees everywhere! Watch this space 
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For marri honey, it looks quite “on” 
I like the way you start your smoker 
Haha ABB that propane torch is for my wood heater. I light my smoker with a regular lighter, sorry to dissapoint 
So I jarred up some honey today. Interesting that my honey is somewhat of an extra light amber color compared to the usual Marri honey I see which is darker. Also the inital taste is abit odd, almost bitter and only lasts a second, then you get whalloped with an intense powerful toffee sweetness. In fact the sweetest thing I’ve tried in a long time, though probably a bit bias lol
I’m quite happy with my system so far. I pour honey from my 5L sealed glass jar into a 2L flagon using a funnel. I then pour into the smaller glass jars with precision and speed. Not even one spill.
Here’s some honey porn below
*Edit - Yay to the 1700th post! Well done Perth locals for being the most active thread! What an amazing community we have here! 
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