McCarthy Park 2.0

Posted on December 29, 2020 by Peasants

Well, we have now moved.. to a more genteel and easier to manage version of McCarthy Park. It is a massive move, starting with the orchard in October, moving into the house just in time for Christmas, and soon to come will be moving the animals once we have their areas set up.

We are still exploring our new surroundings and learning about how this house and its surrounding 5 acres works, and while it is definitely an easier place to manage there is also a lot we want to do to make it ‘ours’. There is a considerable amount of lawn, which come the cooler weather we will reduce and add more native vegetation. We also need to cover and pave an area ready for the aquaponics, develop a vegetable garden, prepare the bee area and of course complete the poultry yards.

As we are settling in and still watering the orchard trees by hand, we have observed an abundance of wildlife, including our first snake at this place in the first week we moved in! Thankfully, we were able to capture and relocate it to a more suitable area. We have also seen lots of birds and insects…… and are looking forward to exploring more with the camera in hand.

We get a fabulous view of the birdbaths we located in the orchard.

There are loads of Yellow-rumped thornbills

The Scarlett Robins are regular visitors near the house, as are the Splendid Fairy Wrens who we haven’t got a great photo of yet!

This is one of three baby Butcherbirds regularly calling for some food!

There are so many Red-capped Parrots, including lots of juveniles

We, of course, moved the Bee n Bee, the bee hotel, and within a day was being occupied in its new location.

While we are yet to complete the move with all the animals, we are loving McCarthy Park 2.0!

Oranges……again!

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Peasants

One tree we are not able to take with us to McCarthy Park ll, and will really miss, is this orange tree!

It has given us an almost endless supply of oranges, usually twice each year. Over the years we have given away kilos and kilos, made chutney, dried them, juiced them, preserved them…. and the all time favourite- orange brandy liqueur! Today we made 20 bottles, enough to give as Christmas presents! There are still plenty of oranges on the tree for another batch!

McCarthy Park II

Posted on September 19, 2020 by Peasants

Time for a change….. and not something we expected to be doing after living at McCarthy Park for 30 years……… but…… we are moving to McCarthy Park II near the end of the year. Things have and are continuing to change a lot in our area, so we have decided to move.

When looking at what we wanted, we decided to ‘downsize’ from 10 acres to 5 acres, which still gives us plenty of room to keep the animals and grow the fruit and vegetables we want. It is exciting but somewhat daunting- after such a long time we have accumulated a lot, only some of which we will need!

The property we have found is perfect, with all the space we need, but not many fruit trees…… so we are relocating the orchard! We found Paul, a specialist tree locator and he has begun a month long process. The first stage is pruning the branches and digging around the roots.

Now we wait for up to a month for the trees to settle, before Paul and his crew return to move the trees down to our new property. It is a massive job, but we get so much delicious fruit from our 45 fruit trees we didn’t want to start all over again!

Watch this space!!!

August 2020

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Peasants

Well, what a year 2020 is! We are so lucky in Western Australia and so far are doing ok, but evidence around the world reminds us not to be complacent. Living on acreage is certainly useful for isolation, and for a level of sustainability. The orchard has been pruned and there is lots of new growth and flowers, the sheep have had lambs, the bees have managed the winter well and are cranking up, the paddocks have been sown and are growing well in the unusually mild winter we have had, and the citrus have continued to produce an abundance of fruit!

One set of twins and a single to our two ewes!

We were very lucky not to have a damaged hive- thank goodness for the strong marine ply cover we put on the top of all our hives!

McCarthy Park Bee ‘n’ Bee- Bee Hotel

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Peasants

It is generally suggested that providing homes for native solitary bees like this helps nature as so much of their natural environment is being removed. Bee hotels also provide the opportunity to observe our native bees more closely- some are so small we don’t even give them a glance and often think they are flies. Native bees and wasps are also valuable pollinators, and there are thoughts that the introduced honey bee may take over most of their food source so there are moves to increase community awareness about them.

There is also an argument against using ‘made’ bee hotels- mainly because they bring together various species that may not usually reside in such close vicinity, and with that there is the potential for disease to spread. It also provides easy access for parasitic wasps such as the gasteruptiid wasp which lays it eggs in the nests of solitary bees, with their larvae feasting on the host eggs and food supply provided by the native bee.

We have had various ‘bee hotels’ around the place for a few years, but they have tended to be hastily put together so not very neat (although they were certainly functional with many native bees and some small wasps taking up residence!). On our property there are also an abundance of natural homes such as holes in tree stumps, reeds, bamboo etc. We decided however to provide a more attractive (to us) bee hotel in a better location so we could observe more closely, so the McCarthy Park Bee ‘n’ Bee was created on the front veranda using an old cupboard.

McCarthy Park Bee ‘n’ Bee

So far it has proved a success, with resin bees (Megachile) and masked bees (Hylaeus), and some small solitary wasps taking up residence (even while the hotel was still being finished!).

Hylaeus nubilosis in its nest in a clay hole

Small wasp perhaps closing its nest in a block of wood

A Hylaeus and another bee close by

Hylaeus using bits of wood detritus to seal its nest

Topbar hive harvest

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Peasants

We had the best harvest from our Topbar hive yet! After some trial and error that always seemed to result in too many bees dying, yesterday we perfected (we think and hope) our technique.

In our previous harvest, when we tried to remove the bars of comb, the comb broke leaving a sticky mass at the bottom of the hive along with lots of bees, which then had to be removed by hand. It was quite upsetting to cause so much destruction and we knew there had to be a better way. We had tried using a knife to separate the comb from the side of the hive as it is always stuck, but there just wasn’t room to manoeuvre. We realised we hadn’t left enough working room by having all the bars within the follower boards.

As it was April and getting cooler and our aim in that previous harvest was to reduce the hive size ready for winter, we removed all comb from four bars and placed them outside the follower board at one end of the Topbar hive. Between the follower boards we made sure there was still some comb being drawn, and a couple of empty bars so the bees had space to add more comb and honey. We also hoped this would give us the working room we needed next time to slide the knife in to separate the comb from the sides of the hive.

And so it did. Yesterday’s harvest was the most successful yet in terms of the least damage to the bees (which was our main aim) and the least mess. Instead of a knife we used angled stainless steel cake icing blades, and they were just perfect for loosening the comb from the sides of the hive.

Using the cake icing blade to loosen the comb from the side of the hive

These angled blades and having the extra space made all the difference. We had bought three different sizes, and they each were useful at different times.

Angled cake icing blades

Opening the hive and removing the empty bars and follower board, we could easily use the icing blades to separate the comb from the sides with minimal disruption to the bees. The hive tool was used to separate each bar from the one next to it, and then it was easy to lift out the beautifully built comb.

Beautiful, whole comb removed cleanly from the Topbar

The bees were gently brushed off and the comb cut from the bar with a knife into a tub. The bars to be replaced inside the follower boards were left with 3-4 cm of comb, those to go outside the follower boards were left completely clean. All with no apparent distress to the bees- thank goodness!

Cutting the comb into the tub

When completed, we made sure that there were two to four empty bars at each end, then the follower boards, then a partially filled or empty bar (each end). Then we closed up the hive and walked away feeling much better than after the previous harvest!

Home made

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Peasants

It is great when we have an abundance, whether it is honey, vegetables, fruit, beeswax………….. there is always something wonderful to make to preserve the excess! The shelves are looking full again currently, after giving away considerable amounts to family and friends as Christmas presents. It is great to just be able to head to the produce room and select a chutney, herbed oil, home remedy, jar of honey, or what ever is needed, and it is so rewarding to make it in the first place!

full shelves in the produce room

Bees ……

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Peasants

We had such a great harvest in March, from both hives, but then left it too long before checking them again. One month later the ‘billabong hive’ had turned quite aggressive, with both of us getting stung through our suits. On checking the brood box, we found queen cells, no sign of a queen, and no sign of brood either. We did only check the 6 centre frames but by then really needed to close up the hive as we were getting seriously attacked! The frames looked pretty empty, apart from some that had plenty of pollen and money in them.

Pollen and honey but no brood

So, stings treated and up to the kitchen hive to check. This hive was looking better, so we removed a frame of brood (getting stung for our trouble again!) and went back to the billabong hive to replace an empty frame.

The following weekend we checked it out, and found at least one other frames (as well as the one we added) with brood, o there must have been a queen already from one of the queen cells, and she had just started laying! Hopefully disaster averted. Time to check again this week…………

Honey harvest!

Posted on September 26, 2014 by Peasants

Well in the space of a month there is honey to harvest! The weather has been unpredictable so we only took two frames from each hive, but the bees look busy and healthy. It was fascinating to see the different honey from each hive- the ‘kitchen hive’ produced a slightly paler honey than the ‘billabong hive’, though each hive gave us a good 3 litres just from the two frames.

Because the bees were so healthy and obviously all was well, a week later we also added a super to each hive. This time we are going for WSP supers and frames as they are a bit lighter (because they aren’t as deep). A full super of honey gets quite heavy to lift off, so this should make it a little more manageable!

Latest McCarthy Park update….

Posted on August 10, 2014 by Peasants

Everything is really growing at the moment- we have had a fair bit of rain but lately the days have been quite mild- perfect growing conditions! The orchard has really taken off in the last couple of years, we have had ample mandarins and it looks like a good crop of nectarines and plums again this year.

Bees pollinating the nectarine

After the bushfire a couple of years ago, the bush is growing back. Though many species have completely gone as they were burnt too severely, other plants really regenerate after a bushfire. Most of the balga (grass trees) have grown back and quite a few are now flowering, lots of gum trees have self sown, and the prickly moses (a type of acacia), has come back with a vengeance (they really are prickly).