I’ve enjoyed my first season with the bees. i started in June 22 with a Nuc from @JeffH . BTW, if your looking for bees in SEQLD, dont go past Jeff’s, they are incredable. Plasid and very hard working.
I’ve gone from 1 nuc to 2 full Flow hive 2+ being able to harvest honey and now have a Nuc that i’m geting ready to sell.
Getting on to the topic. Here in SEQLD we really dont have a bad winter so advice from the colder areas doesn’t help. Brisbane’s Climate
I have the Flow Super still on, thinking about a last harvest (when the rain stops) but will be leaving 4 frames, half caped, in one super and not touching the other super.
Hi Daz, the only winter preps I do is reduce the entrances. You’ll find as I do that you don’t need to leave honey in the honey supers, on account that the bees store a lot of honey in the brood boxes.
If a honey super is full of frames ready to rob, I’ll take the whole lot.
Thanks for recommending my bees Daz. I have a LOT of bees ready to go. I don’t think that I’ve ever had as many bees as I have right now. I’m not worried, because I’ll use the nucleus hives as resource hives to keep my honey producers heavily populated going into winter. The nucleus hives are all 10 frame boxes, bar a few 8 frames. Those hives will store a lot of honey, which I can take in order to give the bees more room, as well make them easier to move, which I have to do in order to inspect the hives beneath them. Basically every second full hive has a nuc on top of it. That way I can move the nuc one way or the other. In doing so I get an idea of how much honey they contain. Plus lifting the roof indicates whether the nuc needs splitting or not.
Hi @JeffH , thanks for the advice. I know it will be a while off, as we are still getting 30*C days. but once the temperature starts to drop i can start preparing.
If i hear of anyone looking for bee, i’ll send them your way.
