The Sunshine Coast has a great climate and still has huge areas of virgin bush in state and national parks, I can never see a time that feeding would be done here. But reading from others it seems a common need elsewhere.
Can you not buy mainland queens and have them flown in from a reputable breeder of queens?
thanks Peter. - there are complications with this because of the small hive beetle. It isnāt in Tasmania yet. I believe it is still allowed (bringing in Queens) but there are issues. It is considered to be risky in relation the introduction of the beetle. I have actually tried, but couldnāt find anyone on the mainland interested in sending one or two queen bees across Bass Strait. We have trouble the other way because of the Braula fly which is here but not on the mainland. We have no facilities for radiating hives here, and canāt send them to the mainland. That is why we have different rules to you guys for dealing with AFB.
Do Mann lake not do them?
You have told me something I didnāt know so thanks for that.
It seems your only option is to source a queen in Tasmania or do what you are doing and make your own. Our problem is the SHB and obnoxious neighbors who panic when a bee is among their flowers - not sure which is the worst, yes I do, at least the SHB can be controlled.
They sell them on ebay. I hope that helps.
Those are good feeder but Iāve only seen them used with the flat Telescopic lid and not the A frame flow hive type. That might be the reason the bees didnāt go back down into the hive.
No, unfortunately. The closest I can find is this:
https://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/8-Frame-Vivaldi-Board-Feeder
or this very expensive one (typical Bee Built pricing ):
Dan2 lives in Tasmania, a big island of its own south of Aussie and is itās own state, but also a part of Australia. He has restrictions and complication bringing bees into Tassie even from the mainland and no way can they bring bees from there onto the mainland so Dan has told me.
There are commercial bee keepers in Tassie so someone must be breeding queens for them, so it is just a matter of finding the right guy.
Cheers
Dawn I use them too. They come in a variety of size from 1l to 6l. The smaller ones are round and just get a little taller and larger in diameter. The bigger ones are rectangle in shape. Mine fit under flow roofs and telescoping lids I made. When using them with migratory lids I just made an appropriate size shim.
If you remove the clear inner cover you can also use them to feed fondant and pollen substitute.
I buy them from eBay or uk. Eg https://www.simonthebeekeeper.co.uk/feeders-food/feeders/rapid-feeders
Adam