Show a pic of your setup

You must have been nice this year cause Santa’s looking after you :grinning:

Schnucki,

I’m doing my BEST to be in Santa’s “Good-List” ! I’m continuing to work at least part-time so I can invest n build up my apiary a little faster. Since I was away for 55 years I have a lot of catchup to do ! My mentor called me midday to schedule installing the sensor part of my “Hive Sensors”. I’m part of a local bee study for mite research n local winter survival.

Forward n onward with bees,
Gerald

5 Likes

Hi all,

Well we got the sensors in n online. The senors have reported the current total beginning weight of even 100 lbs including the two heavy bricks on top.

By tomorrow if my sign-in works properly I
should be able to see all the data n graphs. Danny, a local college professor is one of my mentors that had helped me emenesely this first season back. He’s Danny helping me today. .

Here I am helping with the sensors n sweeping dying fall bees out the entrance.

It’s awesome to be part of a research that might some day help Beekeeping locally n beyond.

Nitie nite folks n have great weekend.
Gerald

2 Likes

Looking forward to seeing the data and how it matches up to what your hive is doing.

I’ve been sweeping lots of fall bees from my hives too. Caught two of those woodpeckers that jump around on the ground out by the hives yesterday. I think they are helping to clean up the dying bees. The cats keep the birds from staying around for too long.

2 Likes

Like your stand and your set up. Do you ratchet them down because they are tall?

Being on a rooftop with no significant windbreak puts them at risk of tipping over if there are wind gusts, especially once we reach 3 brood boxes plus the flow super. The ratchet strap is just cheap insurance to keep that from happening.

Some progress photos from my Flow hive that is running two queens. Above the brood box there is a standard Ideal super which I will leave on over winter. The Ideal is filling rapidly and the bees are starting to cap some of the honey in the Ideal frames.

This photo is down into the hive looking into the top of the Ideal super between two Flow frames (single Flow frame removed). You can see the wax at the bottom of the Flow frames as the bees are starting to move up.

4 Likes

Gooday This is the Captain Here with one of my yard setups -congratulations to all the contributors to this link , a truly diverse yet closely bonded group i think .enjoy the snake habitat ! A

dd photo if i can -This log jam serves many purposes - stops cattle ,took 15 min with tractor to make , blocks wind .bee plants inside area ,trees planted inside area ,permaculture friendly ,excellent wood rot for fungas and micellium growth etc .

7 Likes

Added a Nuplas super above today, had to remove the cleat to allow for flow roof to fit proper

5 Likes

Here’s my throw together stand out the front with the cut out colony.
I’ll be moving the G colony onto the stand once I cut a rogue olive tree down to let more light in.
There’s a nuc box on the gum behind to the left where I’m going to do a trap out on a tree colony if you look closely. :slight_smile:

Seeing the Styrofoam block underneath your feet are makes me feel really good, I’ve got a whole bunch of shims I thought I was the only one having to do this and I couldn’t figure out how not to

Your Styrofoam is a smart idea a lot better than my shins. I will find some :slight_smile: thank you for posting.

was also wondering wind but it looked so calm in the picture :slight_smile: . We have some pretty big winds here and that looks like something I could do for Hurricane. Thanks.

Love the upsidedown insulators :+1:

1 Like

Turned them up the right way now as the grease was getting dusty and ants were crawling across it.

1 Like

Here’s my setup ready for bees in the spring.

I used 2" steel pipes 54" in the ground with some concrete to try and avoid frost heaving. Some tanglefoot or grease cups on the legs should stop the ants.

16 Likes

An update on my hive set up.
Started with a single hive in May which I was able to split in early September.
The Queen ended up in the polystyrene hive so it has always been a bit in front.
Today I was able to put the honey super on my flow hive, now to wait and see how long it takes them to get working up there.

3 Likes

We’re located in Fremantle, Western Australia (32S, 115E). Our flow hive is located on the roof of a carport in our backyard, which is terraced (sloped) allowing relatively easy access via a ladder. Not expecting any problem with ants (with the hive well off the ground). Made the base from leftover floorboards. Have three small watering points near the hive (but only a minority of bees use them). The flow super was added ten days ago and already there’s honey in the flow hives. I’m hoping for our first harvest mid-March.

7 Likes

Hot today Peter, and 41c tomorrow! Any shade for them?
Cheers Tim

2 Likes

Yes, there’s shade (mottled light) from sunrise until 2pm in summer. The photo’s were taken at 4pm when the hive is in full sun. I can move the hive 2-3m to increase sunlight hours during winter. Cheers.

2 Likes

Maybe an old carpet up there would help cut back the radiant heat from the roof? Would be more pleasant for you too in March when you’re harvesting some delicious honey, it is still pretty warm at that time and a hot tin roof is no fun in anyone’s book!

Great spot for keeping them out of the way of the neighbours.

I suspect your shallow water dishes would be evaporating pretty quickly up there in the heat, maybe why the bees aren’t using them much as they’re possibly an unreliable source until you can get up again and top them up?

I think in WA from Perth north it is more important to focus on keeping your hives cool rather than worrying about keeping them warm in our poor excuse for a winter. ^^^ sbaillie on the other hand a few posts up has good reason to chase winter sun.

I’m a beginner, so that’s just my 2 cents worth. I haven’t seen my bees bearding yet and summer has well and truly begun here in Kalbarri.

1 Like