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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!!


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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.



 
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#54 ·
Well, after 2 bad wet seasons, this year we have a surplus of honey.

We started selling at the local markets last month (learnt a lot the first day), and had our second market day today. Here's a few pics of our stall :)

Its amazing how many local people, and also visitors to our town want to talk about bees!!! I love talking about the subject anytime anyhow, but today my lungs and throat are sore I spoke so much. Brings a tear to the eye how concerned people are with whats going on with general bee health.





 
#56 ·
"Well, after 2 bad wet seasons, this year we have a surplus of honey."

Hi Rob,

yes, an excellent season here too. The Brush Box have been flowering ( maybe the first time in 8 years?) and bees are still bringing it in. We took off 260 kg of honey off just the wife and i with our little set-up. Working well but still room to improve. I have been bottling and labelling and cleaning up....and in the next couple of days we will be starting again. Not complaining!

I will have a bit of a stockpile for when the rain hits. Some I will store on the concrete floor and it should go crystalised. Sells well. I may have to have a look for another outlet. We sell at two markets - smaller then your market but we sell about 60 to 80 kg of honey on a good Saturday morning. We charge a bit more then you do - $ 6.00 per 500g and $ 10.00 for a kg and we give a dolar back when they return the glass jar. We can get more then 20 jars returned on some days - a guarantee to make another sale. We also sell Beeswax Candles. A good product at Christmas but at other times a little slow.
Our main product is vegetable seedlings which we grow ( and some buy in in bulk).
The combination of seedlings and Honey is a good way to get return sales. Most are regulars which come to each market and buy.
I put out a little Gardening Newsletter ( for free) and this allows me to keep in touch with my clients.
 
#57 ·
Just wanted to say thanks for sharing all the wonderful photos Robbo. When I make it back down to Oz to see family maybe I could twist your arm into letting me swing out and check out your operation?
 
#58 · (Edited)
Yea, that would be cool :)
We have a few months left to go on house renovations, but after that, that would be great.
Will have to get you working though - haha - just getting to that stage where I am doing something bee related every weekend of the year :D

We are getting into the Market thing Max. Its definitely better when you are the only bee keeper there. We have met so many great people wanting to have a bee chat. Im 1/2 way thru getting on to facebook with 'ballina honey' as that will be my 'flyer' I think. People are coming around to supporting local products so thats bee awesome.
 
#60 ·
If there was a thread for 'best thing you bought for beekeeping in 2011', this would be mine.

One of these scissor carts. Im amazed how much I use it!!

This one pumps up enough to get a super to the bench, then can go on top of that super which is great. It gets a bit hard to pump up with 5 or 6 supers on it, but will apparantly lift 350kg's (umm about 800 pouinds I think??)







 
#62 ·
Hi Rob,

yes marketing!
I have had an amazing December/Jan with the Brushbox flowering. I averaged more then 30 kg per hive for December alone. One hive filled up the 8 frames I extracted in 4 days. I ran out of time and added another super. I'm teaching this week and will be working OS from the 2. Feb - a busy time in between if the weather holds.
At all the markets I have competition. At my main market - a Farmers Market - I have two other stalls selling honey. One under-cuts me. He is buying from a large producer, not local.
I stick to my pattern - local, rwa, honey in glass, take jars back and give a dollar and have tastings of 3 honeys at the markets. It works. I have a great bunch of customers.
 
#63 ·
"Went out to one of my apiary sites for a peek today - It was so hot!!! - Hot and no wind."
Great photos!
It was 36.9C here yesterday in the shade and a few very hot days still ahead.
I wonder if the corrugated iron addes to the discomfor of the bees? The bearding is rather extreme and one theory is that this is the time when the SHB sneek in as fewer bees are inside.
The tempe droped to 23C over night and the bees seem quite comfortable in the morning.
I also ( at least on some hives) put a second roof on for some insulation and shade.
 
#64 ·
I took a few piccies this week of some bees wax cleaning that I do here. We get lots of rain so the solar wax melter doesnt go with that. Also with the Small Hive Beetles being so bad this year I find it easier to clean all my cappings up and turn it into wax within a day or 2 of extracting.

Heres how I clean my wax - you commercial fella's can start laughing now - haha - Im still working frame by frame individually and rather than removing a whole super at a time, and I normally extract between 40 and 70 frames each batch so there isnt a great deal of wax for me to deal with each time.

I start with a gravity strainer - A bucket with a Stainless Steel perforated piece in the bottom.





It looks like this with the cappings after it strains out the honey for a few hours



I go 2 parts water and 1 part wax and bring that to the boil with a portable gas cooker.

 
#70 ·
Rob...great thread , i worked it backwards . The hive stands are great , the shop is spotless . When i got to the 1st page i watched the vid . Your "that guy " . I couldnt believe it . I watched that vid over and over last yr . I made that frame jig from what i saw and it works great . Do you have spacers inside the box ? Please explain how its made , my cross bars are not tapered . I'd like to thank you ,,you saved me so much time . I did over 1000 frames with it . I'm way too cheap to buy a embedder but another fella from OZ had a vid and i copied his . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRWWl8LeWhU . Its great that your winter is our summer , year around bees . Thanks again and keep posting ...Mike
 
#71 ·
Hi Fishman, yea I think a few less hives next year for us. I reckon 25 might be the sweetspot. Am a bit too busy with it all just at this part of the season for it to be enjoyable like usual. Am learnign a lot about working smarter rather that longer/harder.

Jim, I use the sheets for Small Hive beetle. The way I figure it, rather than the grub be able to drop straight in to the ground and turn into a beetle, at least if it has to go on hot tin it might come up against an ant or a bird on the way. We have a chronic beetle supply here so anything that slows them down helps. Its probably not the ideal thing on those really hot days as I am sure there is some reflective heat that the bees wouldnt like.

Cheers Mike, yea thats the best part of our winter is looking ont he internet and seeing how hard you guys are working the bees while Im maintaining my boxes - haha. I'll throw a few photos int he thread of the inside of the box. If there is enough demand for it I'll dimension it off on a drawing or something.

Hi Max - I reckon its not the most efficient way to clean the wax as far as getting every last gram out, but in our busy situation here just at the moment, the yield is still pretty good. Its like 90% instead of 99% yield but the time is under 1/2, and less cleaning etc

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I mentioned above I normally do an extraction batch of 40 to 70 frames at a go. It works out well that figure as I can clean up and then bottle etc relatively easily on my own. Also I have just purchased a 500 litre chest freezer and as the frames come out of the extractor they go into the freezer for 2 days. Freezer has in the pic 6 full depth boxes and a few extra frames so will hold 80 if it needs to.

I turn the freezer on a day before I know I will be robbing the hives so its only on a few weeks of the year at 3-4 days at a time.

 
#72 · (Edited)
#75 ·
Probably not, but I think its just a small part of the defense while doing it chemical free. Its handy when you drop a hive tool though - easy to find!! :)

I have lit an incinerator before and dumped in some beetles and larvae from the traps, and after being in the fire for 30 minutes the larvae are still crawling around in there - amazingly tough little buggers.
 
#76 ·
Picked up some new trial items today. Will be using these to move honey around in the car when going to markets. These should be a great replacement for the cardboard trays we have been using. These are very stackable which is great!! Have already ordered a few extra sets.

All folded away to not much at all



Unfolded ready to use



250 gram depth at the bottom



500 grams on top of that

 
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