Busy Bees!

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Peasants

Our first harvest was a great success!! All the frames in the super were laden with honey and were well capped, so we removed two of the centre frames for harvesting.

Brushing the bees off a frame of capped honey

We used a very simple drainage system- the top bucket has a large hole through which the honey drains through a filter and into the bottom bucket which has a tap in the bottom.

Bucket honey draining system

After scraping the capping off, we let the honey drain for at least 24 hours, then poured it into jars. These first two frames gave us 2.3 litres of honey!

Once each frame had drained, we returned it to the super for the bees to tidy and rebuild! As our super was so full of honey, we also added an empty super for them to move in to.

Busy as bees….

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Peasants

Just 4 weeks after adding the super, the bees are making lots of honey! Seven of the ten frames in the box have honey and are feeling quite heavy, though there is no capping yet, which the bees do when the honey is ‘just right’. When the majority of a frame is capped, this is an indication that the honey is mature enough to harvest.

Honey production well underway!

We also took the opportunity to check the brood box, and found a lot of activity there too.

A healthy looking frame from the brood box

Bee developments…….

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Peasants

The bees seem to be thriving- we have lots of jarrah and some redgum in flower at the moment, and these are a good source of nectar for the bees. We added the super, with the queen excluder between it and the brood box below, on Christmas eve, and the bees moved up into it straight away. During some very hot (40C plus) weather over between Christmas and New Year, we noticed a lot of ‘bearding’ (when the bees cover the front of the box). This is often something they do to keep cool and to keep the hive cool.

Checking the frames in the super- the bees are very active only 2 weeks after adding the super

To bee or not to bee…..

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Peasants

Yes…..we now have a bee hive! We decided to go for a new hive and bees, rather than second hand as we really wanted to avoid introducing any disease onto the property. We bought the hive components from Guilfoyle’s and put it all together ourselves. This was a great way of learning the parts and how it all worked. Introducing the ‘nuc’ (nucleus) of new bees was a very simple process- we put the small box they came in on the base we had made for our hive, and let the bees out for the day.