Beesource Beekeeping Forums banner

Robbo's Bees - Photo Blog

49K views 92 replies 30 participants last post by  cerezha 
#1 ·
I'd like to update a thread weekly or fortnightly on whats going on @ my apiary. Bare in mind, Australia is 6 months out of season for you fella's in the states - Im smack in the middle of maintenance time here right now!!


------------------------------------------------------------------------

I run about 10 hives as a hobby on the farm here (Ballina, NSW, Australia) I have a real job that lets me pay for all this - haha.

Anyhow, just got thru making up some bottom boards - I modified them slightly for beetle captruing etc



Knocked together 10 full depth supers, and a few lids I had lying around in the flat. I assemble everything with the crown stapler these days - no nails.



Had to timber bog fill the holes left over from the crown stapler, then give the edges a bit of a rounding off with the sander. A coat of oil based primer (thats the white paint). All the exposed edges get 2 coats of primer. All done with a 3" wide paint brush.



 
See less See more
4
#4 ·
They arent a telescoping lid. I use all migratory lids on the hives that are the sane size as the super box.

What you are seeing there is insulation on top of the lid. I live in a tropical climate. We can get 40 (104 f?) degree days and heavy rain all in the same day. Rainfall per year is 2000mm or roughly 7 feet per year. That insulation keeps the entrance a bit dryer and helps the timber joints on the boxs.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Bog filled and sanded slightly



1st coat of 2, water based paint. I love having the hives green and camoflauged into the bush slightly.



The staplers. 1 is a 6mm (1/4" crown) and the other a 12mm (1/2" crown). 6mm sizes go from 12 to 38mm. The 12mm goes from 1 1/2" to 2". I use the 2 inch ones - forget about taking the boxes apart if you make a mistake!!



Staple sizes - a 14mm would be handy. these are the 6mm, 18 gauge ones.

 
#8 · (Edited)
Stuff I take to the bee yard with me for an inspection. I only found out about the cool suit, and the bee-z smoker thanks to this site. Imported them to Australia, and very happy with both items. I love the internet some times...



A few spare supers. Trying to keep in front of the game/demand for next springs busy times. The left pile is above a water/vinegar bath. These are stickies from last season. I dont use any chemcals in the storage process. I go 2 supers between metal seperators. Works ok for me.
The piles on the right have wired frames but no foundation fitted. I fit the foundation as I need them, normally 20 at a time. I prefer the foundation sitting in a box rather than on a frame in a super in the shed.



heres how I knock those frames together - short video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvUe5ikCwec

Shelving unit in my bee area in the workshop. (see the bee vac - haha - another thing I picked up fom this site)

 
#11 ·
The hives have been shut down for a few weeks now. I choke down the entrance to about 2 inches



Still knocking frames together - a quick 40 ran thru the jig one night over a beer or 2. A little each day adds up nicely.



Im over the branding thing - hit em with water proof ink.



Am pleased to say we are hosting this months bee club meeting at the property - I think we are as ready as we can bee - should be fun, and nice to meet up/catch up with similar minded people.

 
#12 ·
this is a piccy of the hive tour at the apiary on the weekend. Opened 2 hives and had a quick look at what was happening, and a good bit of discussion. Had roughly 31 members from the club show up for the meeting.



the meeting part of the meeting in the afternoon.



this diatomaceous earth isnt working for me in the winter. will be switching back to the oil instead. DE is too clumpy and in effective in the wet so far.

 
#15 ·
Cheers guys - yea not a lot to report here - last weekend I had a few hundred bees working a tree in flower here. Pretty cool as this week is the middle of winter. My wife is onto what type it is - will report back over the weekrnd.

Might have a check in the hives this weekend if I get a sunny day. need to drop the oil in the hive traps.

 
#16 ·
Not a lot to report this week apairy wise.

Put the queen excluders back in the hives 3 weeks ago, and then 7 days later checked if I had the queen in the right box. 6 from 7 were wrong, so had to juggle boxes. While I was at it, I opened up the hive entrance reducers on the bigger hives to about 60% open - we are still having cool nights,but lovely warm days.

1st of august looks like a good time for us next year to be doing that here (last month of winter).

I built a new hive stand as i would like to be @ 20 - 25 hives this year. Just need to paint the welds with gal paint, and water proof grease the upright legs. I should get 10 hives on there with room to remove the beetle traps between the hive bottoms.



Gee we had a bad weekend last week, We were doing some scrub clearing and one of the guys got a bee sting on the forehead. I took him to the house and gave him a anti inflamotroy pill from my bee gear and a large glass of water. Roughly 10 minutes from the sting time he passed out in my lounge room in the house. The ambulance officers said he had a (not sure of spelling) anafilactic?? reaction. That means something like he had a sting a few years back, and the body leashes out on the follow up sting.

he had low/poor bllod pressure and I didnt have any adrenaline or an eppy pen or anything here. NSW ambulance service got to the farm in 7 minutes (these guys a heros - fair dinkum) from in town. He spent the day in hospital being monitored and was released that afternoon, and went to work the next day!!

Very, very frightening for me to say the least. Im not used to people getting knocked out in the garden!!! I have spoken to a few beekeepers this week, and my dad also who has done bees since the 50's and none of them say they have heard of anything like this reaction wise. Just a sign of the times I spose - dunno.

 
#17 ·
Wow, crazy events down under Robbo!! Glad to hear everything worked out OK. Thanks for sharing the photos of your yard and shop. Very nice and also quite helpful...

Passed through Briz a few months ago, great place to visit mate.... hope to have a chance to get back down there someday. :thumbsup:
 
#20 ·
Ah cool - Brisbane CBD is about 2 1/4 hours north drive for me here. I work in between the gold coast and brisbane with my real job, but have a client or 2 in the CBD. Yea, next time your out, let us know - no dramas at all showing you around our parts.

Im down to 9 hives ATM, and on the lookout for 10-12 more for this season. I think 20-25 would be a good number for us for this year. My wife has pledged to help out a bit more, so 20 should be a good number. I have been sold out of honey here for 10 weeks now.

Cheers Maxant - Anytime you want to ship some of that surplus stock of yours over to us here, you let us know hey!! I love the quality gear you fella's make. Very rare these days to find such nice equipment.
 
#23 · (Edited)
No worries - Cheers mate

-------------

I had a bit of a bash at this wax rendering.

Heated up all the blown out frames in the extractor and other bits of wax from under the lid of the hives. My cappings generally stay on the frames as I use one of those sideliner uncappers.

Got it all boiling in some water for about 10 minutes



Had a skim on the surface and picked up all the floaters.



Ran this thru some of that muslin cloth into a bucket



Managed to get some little shapey things happening and a few blocks for later - Im keen on a bit of candlemaking, or some foundation making later this year i think.



I'll see if I can dig it up, but probably one of the best posts you will see on wax rendering is from Linda's blog.
 
#24 ·
Had the little fella up in the workshop on the weekend helping me unpack some new boxes to knock together :)



Knocked up a few boxes then got to filling the joints where the big crown staples are holding them together.





Not a lot else to report just at the moment.

Took a few kilo's off the hives on the weekend. Just a couple of frames out of each really. I think things will get busy here in the next 3-4 weeks.
 
#26 · (Edited)
HI mate,

No, I am running all 10 frame gear. Because we had to move across the country I had a fresh start as I wasnt able to bring my supers with me. I'll be ok lifting the 10 frame stuff for its life (15 years maybe??) I am thinking. My dad runs all 8 frame stuff, and I can see the benefit with that less weight for handling. I'll switch over later on.

Have had a pretty good run at the honey flows the past 2 months. We have a brown Kurrajong in flower here, as well as a few wattles. I notice that all the trees are about 200% more prolific with their flowering this year. I guess happy tree-happy bee??

The honey is very dark, and very strong. I'll keep a jar or 2 of that for winter when the coughs and colds are here. It just about makes the eyes water!!!





I bought 10 nucs of bees about 6 weeks back when they became available. I am very impressed with them. They appear at this stage to be better at keeping the beetle numbers down, and also are a lot more gentle to work with. 5 out of the 10 nucs needed a second box above an excluder after 4 weeks. I am due for an inspection this weekend if it stops raining. The weather data for spring showed that we had 25 days out of the 93 where it didnt rain - It has been wet!!! The first 3 days of summer has seen about 100mm of rain already!

Here is the 4 framers



And after transferring the 4frames into my boxes. I had 60 stickies in my boxes to transfer into as well which was great

 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top