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Well done Peter, tell us a bit more about it. Is it a light that bees aren’t attracted to? That would be handy for closing bees up after dark. I used to think that bees aren’t attracted to led lights, however I think I’m mistaken because bees still come out & seem to be drawn to it.
Edit:- No need to reply Peter, I saw your second thread about the torch.
cheers
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A white LED light will still attract bees Jeff, but they don’t seem to notice the red spectrum of light, I recon it would be ideal for closing up a hive at night. Even shining the beam straight into the hive entrance didn’t provoke a reaction in any way.
I enjoyed the chat on the phone today, sorry about finding it hard for me to hear you, I was at the Men’s Shed with a lot of background noise. They are making more boxes for me, that gives some guys something to do. I’m needing to use the Men’s Shed to keep up with the gear I didn’t make enough of over the cooler months.The guys at the shed are much like bees, they can be a bit nasty when they have nothing to do 
Cheers
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So now you have a red light torch how about a user update Jeff. Where I find it great is doing night checks of bearding and it doesn’t disturb the bees at all. That gives me a good idea of hives that might need weakening out.
I had a chap come for three hives last night and there was a slight bearding on each so using the light to see what was happening and a whiff of smoke they quickly went inside to be locked up for the trip to Tin Can Bay.
Cheers
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Well done Pete, I haven’t put mine to good use yet. The colonies at home are only nucs making queens. If people pick colonies up, it’s usually just before dark. We close the entrance just before dark. Like you, a bit of smoke drives the ones outside in.
I check the populations of my other colonies while I’m taking honey. I see how many bees are occupying the lid cavity. There are 3 colonies now that need weakening out. I reluctantly sold a colony to a bloke yesterday. I’m glad I did because I had to go to Wise’s farm to get it for him. I found one hive knocked over by the cows within the previous 2 days. Luckily beetles didn’t get a foothold on it. That was a bonus.
I’m robbing half of my hives tomorrow, a couple of days earlier than normal. Although it’s going to get to 32, it’s going to get to 33 for the following days.
cheers
I did a night walk around late last night and a couple with heavy bearding compared to the others. Going later today to check for honey, hoping to get some use from my extractor. I have been busy making up new frames lately so it will be nice to put them to use. Maybe some heath nectar about now and maybe even some Autumn nectar from the trees, the paper barks are flowering so here is hoping, they didn’t flower in the Spring, or the Banksia come to think of it.
Cheers mate
I went to my hives today and for the first time in so long I even took complete boxes of fully capped boxes of a few hives.I certainly jumped the gun in cleaning up the de-caper and extractor and writing this season off.
When I had finished off taking enough frames to keep me busy I went for a stroll into the heath and the bees were really busy there. Paper Barks are flowering after the rain but no other of the big trees yet. The yellow flowering acacias are going great but it seems they can flower on a humid day 
Cheers
Hi Pete, that’s good news. I took 3 skinny boxes of frames today. However it’s looking good for when I look again in a couple of weeks. This humidity is a killer. I wont be doing much by way of work over the next few days.
We’ve been invited to pick some mangoes & help ourselves. Maybe we’ll do that tomorrow with a large bottle of honey which I know they’ll enjoy.
cheers
You are so right about the humidity, 11am pulled me up with a case of wonky legs but got enough frames to keep me extracting for most of tomorrow then late afternoon I’ll go and put the stickies onto the hives.
Today was all about taking honey but the hives that were bearding at night are needing thinning out, the weaker hives will get frames of brood and hopefully they will be strong enough in a week they won’t need feeding. the early Spring split from July are so far advanced than the later splits it has given me food for thought but the drought and bush fires might be distorting what I’m seeing.
This is my second year doing July Spring splits and with no hives having swarmed except one I didn’t get to split it seems to work well and produce a stronger(faster) build of the colony. Later splits are slower to develop but I’m putting that down to the bush fires since September and the drought.
My lawn has turned green — WOW
Cheers
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