Hang in there Buddy! You’ll be putting 'em together soon! In the meantime can I interest you in a cider…
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Yeah more a vodka drinker than cider … so when we meet up we will bring an cold box for the day lol.
I’m on Sutton Rd 10km north of Queanbeyan - Flow hive has arrived and has been constructed 
First coat of oil is on, swarm attractant has been acquired. Now we just need some warm weather (34degC next week I believe!) 
Red
Aye nice work there Red!
You’ve beaten me with the oiling.
I am just east of Tarago.
Now - IMPORTANT - in order for the swarm attractant to be effective, it is ESSENTIAL that the beekeeper wear high heels (prefferably red ones) and a liberal covering of cheap lipstick when in the garden…so I’ve heard.
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Damn it! I had the blue high heels on when I deployed the hive… Its about 1.5m above ground level - didn’t dare put it any higher…
It was just thinking about heating up but I only saw one bee out the entire time (I was really looking!)… Lots of Tea tree plants in flower though… no idea if tea-tree flavored honey is any good… we will see.
It is supposed to be warm all week - and there haven’t been any major swarms so far this spring… I’m tipping this week is it! (with all of my non-experience!)
I have both but forgot to deploy them - Knew I did something wrong!
Best laugh of the day thanks!! LOL
Best of luck there Red!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something that could be seen as condescending (not my M.O.):
Given this regions propensity for sudden gusts of sustained wind - you’ve got that shiny new Flow Hive battened down and secure?
I’d hate to read that after all the effort (and lipstick) it’d all come crashing down.
Cider anyone?..
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The Beekeeprs Association of the ACT will be meeting tomorrow night, you would all be welcome to attend! It is an active and friendly group, and I will be presenting tomorrow on nectar and pollen resources from the urban forest.
Come along and find out when your peak nectar flows will be!
Meeting time: 7:30
Venue: Yarralumla Primary School Hall, 24 Loftus Street, YARRALUMLA, ACT 2600
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Hey Gullieshighlander, got some good news/deliveries to share with us? If no arrivals yet - I hope you’re not consoling your pain with too much Vodka. grin
Hope you are all enjoying the MUCH cooler weekend weather? If Friday is a warning of what’s in store…well then!
Dont you just love how life gets in the way of doing what you really want to do? Well - I have finally completed three coats of Tung Oil/Citric Turpene on my Flow set-up*. I’ll give it a chance to fully harden, do a couple of modifications , then will make a call as to if it’s too late in the season to begin with bees this year (what do you lovely folks reckon?) or wait for ‘Ron’.
*yes - it was a lot of effort. Yes - it will go grey eventually. Yes - it will get dirty and manky and chewed and weathered and have painted supers added at some stage…but it sure looks pretty at the moment.
Would offer a cider, but drank them all coping with Friday…
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That looks SPECTACULAR!
I am quaffing a Red Branch hard cherry cider right now and I lift it up to you!
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Hi dragonfly
God damm looks like u have yours. weeepss No still waiting for my 3 
Been busting for them to show up . my hives are bursting with beens waiting to move in . o well just keep waiting and drinking the time away.
cheers Pete
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@gullieshighlander
They will arrive and you will thinks it’s Christmas Pete
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Don’t know why it’s killin me so bad, I am not gonna have a swarm for months, but just looking at the ‘Estimated Shipping Date: November 15th’ is making me crazy!!
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Dragonfly we have moved from not shipped to Queued . Must be getting close now
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So we were just sitting out yesterday watching our hive and just while we were saying how lovely they were they started to swarm. 
we hosed down the hive and stopped the swarm and later cracked it open to discover the brood box absolutely packed with brood and babies. although we have observed some in the super, they certainly aren’t filling it and had just run out of room. They are lovely calm bees so after praising our queen for her marvellous efforts we decided to remove 2 flow frames and move 3 frames of brood into the super and give the brood box three empty frames (one already drawn out). We are hoping this will encourage more to go upstairs to start filling the flow and discourage any further thoughts of swarming. Assuming they will cap off the regular frames first we will in time harvest these the old fashioned way (and yay wax for my sewing buddies!). This was the technique we were originally taught to get bees moving up through a hive and we wonder whether a new super just wasn’t smelling right. We shall see… We have no desire to lose such a fantastic queen to a swarm just yet!
You need to artificially swarm the hive.
That involves separating the queen from the brood, into another hive.
Did you check for queen cells? They will be there and if you don’t do something the bees will swarm.
It pays to check your brood box regularly so that you can prevent swarming.
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Nope, no queen cells, we checked the hive thoroughly, and from what I understand, a prime swarm can occur prior to queen cells being formed if they just expand too quickly. We don’t have to capacity to separate her at the moment so I can only hope for the best!
I’m interested in what you did.
Hosed the hive down? I’ve never heard of that.
Where were the bees that were swarming at that time?
@Dee I’ve hear that hosing down convinces them it’s raining so they stop home - neat trick if you are nearby.