jottings from the hive in my front garden....I'm a new bee keeper with a thirst for the sweet things in life!

Saturday 3 October 2015

A new swarm!

Its been very quiet here at the (B)Hive. I let the girls do there thing over winter and with it being extra cold, and some of the reliable yellow box gums not flowering the hive looked a light on for honey when I peeked inside a few weeks ago.

....and then, spring!  Instantly here in Adelaide we have had warm weather and the flowers are out everywhere!  Takwe  a step out the door and you can smell them everywhere!

A regular morning inspection - I often check in on the girls every morning before I drive to work - just to see them coming and going from the box....but today it was louder and busier than normal!  Where was the noise coming from?  It wasn't the hive....Look up!  High in the Claret Ash above the hive was a huge cluster of bees.  Oooo, a queen is in the middle!  Can I make this into another hive?

A quick you tube look at how to gather them, a text conversation of twenty with my bee man Colin and his mentor Fred and the decision was made to come and collect them.

This girl wasn't going to wait - so I gathered a cardboard box and went out in full martian suit and smoker ready to gather.....they'd gone!


Smelling the pine needle smoke my neighbour came out to investigate and told me they'd noticed bees in the garden this morning.  a quick forage and there they were...low down to the ground in a Grevillea.  OK Tracy, you can do this....fabric under the shrub hand gently going into the foliage with secateurs to trim off the branch - snip, shake into the the box in one firm move and then set aside to settle and gather the rest into it.




After an hour I gathered the box and brought it back into my yard having set  up a spot near to my hive ready for new brood box and frames.



I took this footage quickly - wish Id taken more shots during the process but its is about the bees not photos and I wasn't going to take my gloves on and off I can tell you!


Love the dance they do!  As soon as I turned the sealed box over, they found a gap or two in the bottom and immediately began to do their bee disco!  Great to watch and thus, me running inside to grab the phone to film this!

All dancing and pointing the way in ....amazing to watch .....and within seconds of the box being turned!

You know the best thing?  It was next morning with Fred.  A lovely gentleman and bee guru.  We both stood without  bee suits, hats or gloves  and rehoused the box of bees - there was a huge stack of them - into the new brood box!  I loved standing quietly amongst them as they flew around and resettled.  NOT ONE STING!  They really did have full tummies of honey as Fred suggested - too full to be angry and sting!

The bees are now rehoused in one of Fred's hives.  I will be ready next year with my second hive set up ready for them!  cant wait!

The bees that didn't quite make it into the new brood box buzzed around the spot for the day and I'll go with Fred's knowledge that they will probably be reabsorbed back into my hive as this is the most likely place they came from the day earlier!

Saturday 28 March 2015

Memo to self....Tuck flared legs into socks!

Ouch!  A double sting from two bees that climber up into my jeans while I tended to hive!
Itchy!
Swollen!
Red!

The Girls are doing a great job. I only removed 2 frames and shuffled them all into the Centre. They love that spot rather than the edges!  Of course now they are partying on the empty frames to clean them up, An I smell like a bonfire!  I got the smoker working really well this time.  Each time I am getting better!




I do love being amongst the Girls as they fly around. They make that fabulous hum/buzz/ Wonderful.

It is cooler now too.  I have found extraction and sieving is trickier when the honey is cooler.. Sooooo thick and golden, it his taking some time to go through.  The time to purchase a manual extractor is close at hand.

Monday 9 February 2015

1 frame gave me a 4 jar harvest!

Wooo-hooo!

4 very full jars of thick super sweet delicious honey! (410g x 4 = 1.6kg of honey!)

First run of labels using the online Avery label 'kit'.



Probably still needs refining....
Happy.  An evening spent on Pinterest and links reading all about honey and extraction and flowers and gardens.....

....sweet......

Saturday 7 February 2015

Playing with labels

I didn't think about using Jam Labelizer!  Doh!  So I played with it and have come up with this design.  I wanted it to 'match' the blog and the overall 'vibe'.....:-)



I love it!
BUT -

  • prints too small for the jar size means you cant read it!
  • Id like to change the font - the capital H looks like  I made a mistake and corrected it badly....do you see a 'k'?
So, it's off to Officeworks tomorrow to get an Avery stickers kit and try it that way!

Is it full yet?

The 'problem' with a hive is of course that you can  not see inside without opening it up!  I have been anxious that the frames may have been overloaded.  It had been about 3 weeks since I last opened it.

With a cooler day today of 30 degrees Celsius  -  we are in the middle of another block of 39 degree and above days - it was time to don the hot bee gear and crack it open!


I was surprised.  I really did expect it to be overflowing with full frames in the top spare.....but again the middle 5 or so were the most full.  As before I removed just one frame - the fullest in the centre and mover the others in to fill the gap.  The end space is replaced with a new spare.

Everything looked and sounded great.  I love the sound of the bees doing their thing!  I forget they are flying around me when the gear is on, but when I realised Mum was behind me in the garden and I saw the number of bees flying around, it takes me aback - There are so many!  What with the mesh and smoke, I don't notice them around me!

Back into the kitchen for the next variation of extraction....I must get the spinning extractor soon.  The only way I can extract the honey currently is one frame at a time - that's OK - but I have to wreck the honey comb to do so - and that's why the poor bees are working extra hard to have the honey!  They have to make the comb again!.


Big plastic tub with lid.  35 litre I think. (in case of ants overnight - they are looking for water at the moment in the heat)
Bit of Glad bake cooking paper in the bottom to catch precious drips!
Food safe plastic tub
Fine frypan non spatter mesh cover
Colander
Sieve

Its working quite quickly, but not quickly enough for Mr 3, Charlie...."Will you bring a jar of my honey to me next time?"  Of course I will!

Thursday 8 January 2015

So, I've registered the name!

Not that I'm in this for a business but I decided to register the name.  That meant a whole bunch of government online paper filling....but pretty simple really!

So it's official!

Now I really DO need to get onto that label!

...pretty exciting really!


Wednesday 7 January 2015

Bees wax production - low tech!

Not everyone's idea of a fantastic photo opportunity I know, but it is pure beeswax, from one frame!




Ready to refine the bees wax from the sneaky one frame extraction yesterday.

  • Wax resting overnight in water to wash off excess honey.  ( I couldn't get any more off...I tried!)  It was a fine shavings consistency once washed!

  • Place on paper towel and into sieve, suspended above a bowl with some water
  • Into a lidded plastic storage container
  • put into car
  • time it for two consecutive days of 42C...
....and nothing happened! 




It got steamy, It softened but no melt!  (not like the YouTube clip at all)  I probably had too much wax in the sieve, and the white container probably didn't help...

So I grabbed an old clean tin from the recycle bin and melted it on the stove top, pouring through the sieve into a small takeaway container with water in it.

Result?  40 grams of wax!  Some residue - I forgot to photograph it, but there was some.  Still a bit of residue settled into the base of the wax as the sieve wasn't fine enough I guess.