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That’s great.
In the right thread, bees have paws
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An attempt to atone for my Austin Powers disgrace.
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A cool thing I learnt about bees is if you see one walking then it’s probably run out of juice! If you put a bit of honey on something (spoon, stick etc…try to keep the bee from getting sticky)and let them feed on it they will refuel, sucking it up through their ‘tongue’ then take off- they’ll circle til they have their direction sorted then off they’ll go. I’ve done this many times and it’s always very pleasing to see it work. (I was going to say that you get quite a buzz out of seeing it work 
)
It’s great that you have a hive. You’ll love it I’m sure.
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I am planning to learn enough to manage a split both to have insurance if one fails, and to prevent swarming. It’s too cold to do an inspection yet, and I’ve not yet done my day long beginner course, so I’m hoping they don’t swarm in the meantime. Next Tuesday looks good, so I might have to do an inspection, and panic if there are capped swarm cells!
Are you any kind of expert? I think I know what do do and have the gear, but I’ve not so much as opened up the box yet… (I do have people to ask, but all opinions are welcome).
They are all over the garden now. I know there are several hives within the area, so I assume any new queen we hatch will have no trouble mating.
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I’m no expert at all. I do love bees and know people who have hives but have not ventured into beekeeping.
You’ll be fine- I’m sure there’s plenty out there (& probably on here) who can help you if needed.
Good luck with it all & enjoy.
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All I know from my almond orchardist friends and experience with the bees swarming on the ramp around the overhanging flowering gums, is that bees do not venture out when the temp is not above 15 degrees
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Beehive internal temp is apparently kept at 35 ish. When you open you stress the box and risk killing the brood if it’s really cold. It takes time and energy to return to temp. It’s a bit different to what temp is ok out of the hive for foragers. So you open up carefully - don’t want the following night to be frosty or they will struggle - so it’s follow up weather dependent too, they say. All new to me, but I’m reading up!
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Welcome to the club. I started my hive with a nuc at this time last year. Got it through spring and summer without swarming and so far seems to have made it through winter ok.
The guy I got my nuc off was really helpful and checked in all the time with advice etc which helped. One tip he gave me was to not let it get too full, give them room to expand so they don’t get the urge to swarm. Not sure how accurate the theory is, but for sample size 1 it worked for me. Also, the frames I added with no foundation were predominantly drone cells, compared to the wax foundations which had way less. So this year I’ll stick to those.
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Yeah I am possibly about to do my first inspection if I WFH tomorrow. Did 8 hours work over the weekend so I can justify the time. Just want the weather to be warm enough and not too windy. I have a spare box (and base, lid, frames etc with wax foundation etc) and so can do any of
Add another super
Clear out some honey
Remove the excluder to let them use 2 boxes for brood
If I find swarm cells - they say swarming is probably imminent and even if you do some of those things they might swarm anyway - in which case I could even do a split on the spot (that’d be some first opening!) (leave a swarm cell for them to raise as a new queen and take the old queen with resources to the new box, although I’d want enough brood so both boxes get enough. I understand that will set them back quite a few weeks but - (a) it’s good pickings for bees around here and they are flying every day despite the weather , and (b) I’m not fussed about when we get any honey and how much. I’d like 2 going hives, as insurance. We are a biggish block so I can technically keep 10. But I reckon 2 will be plenty!
Ps when you say no foundation - did you place totally empty frames? Or do you mean plastic foundation?
They say if you want to harvest honeycomb with wax to eat, best is to not add foundation as it ends up a thick chunk of wax that you chew. 100% bee-made is apparently much finer and nicer to eat with the wax…
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Long live the queen. Beginners luck. She was unmarked but I saw her on the first glance of the first frame I looked at. That’s about the same odds of a new recruit soccering through a Draper smash directly from the ruck in the first minute. Or something.
Here I’ve put a white dot on her.
No shortage of bees or pupating ones. The pupating males (drones) are the ones in cells that stick out … like they would. The flat cells are the females who do all the work.
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Nice day in the garden - although the clearing-gutters bit wasn’t so much fun.
Included a pic of male oak flowers - turns out bees are quite keen on their pollen. Although I couldn’t get a good bee shot. One sat nicely on an onion weed flower, though.
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I have a photo somewhere, taken by my mum, lying down in the backyard, eating out of the dog bowl with Penny, my Cocker Spaniel.
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