We have been experimenting with foundation less frames and getting the bees to create their own foundation. The problem with doing this on brood frames is that the bees tend to create more drone comb and we would rather their build this in our drone management frames. So we can keep varroa numbers lower. Drone [...]
Archive for the ‘Equipment’ Category
Foundation less frames no good for brood frames
28 January 2012Keeping nine frames in a ten frame box
24 January 2012I found this clever tip on the beebehavior.com site to keep nine frames easily spaced in a ten frame box. Using only nine frames causes the bees to build out the wax further, and surprisingly you will get more honey than if you used ten frames. Also as the wax extends out further, it’s easier [...]
Working in the shop at the Auckland Bee Club
14 January 2012I went along to Auckland bee club today, and spent most of the time helping Sue in the shop. It was a very busy day and I enjoyed meeting and talking to everyone that came in. I managed to sneak out during the talks. The topics today were:- Harvesting honey Tips on entering the honey [...]
Our Varroa mite plan this season
10 January 2012This was a question posted in by one of our readers, Sophie asks:- How can a New Zealand bee-keeper keep their bees alive every year? Well this is a good question, over recent times bee-keepers are having trouble keeping bees alive. Due to Varroa mites and pesticides in the environment. Last year our plan failed [...]
Visiting Peter and Ceracell
17 December 2011Today got up early and drove to Ceracell to pick up some much needed supplies, we needed some frames to put into our boxes we have made. We also needed to visit Peter in Rangiriri to pick up the NUC box he had made up for us. Arrived at Ceracell at 09:00 but the gate [...]
Kiwimana Drone Management Frames For Sale!!!!
15 September 2011We have listed the Drone Management Frames we built on Trademe, if you are interested check out the auction by clicking on the link below:- TradeMe Auction fro Kiwimana Drone Management Frames Here is some information about the frame. In the battle against the Varroa destructor mite beekeepers needs a few tricks to help combat [...]
Get your resource’s here…Please
2 September 2011Hi all, We have added a resource page to our website. Here you will find resources that we find useful in our beekeeping education. The page is on the top right of the page or you can find it by clicking HERE. These resources are available from Amazon and we get a small percent of [...]
Minding your own Beeswax
2 September 2011A couple of months ago we heard about a process at the Franklin Bee Club to clean up dirty beeswax from your solar wax melter or direct from your cappings bucket. We had some left over wax from last years honey harvest that needed cleaning up. (1) You need some type of gas cooker (we [...]
Threading hives to paint them?
28 August 2011We have been busy over the weekend building and painting bee hive boxes. We saw this idea on another website and it is a good way to paint hive boxes. You thread the boxes on a long pole between two stands; it makes it easier to paint the whole box at once. We paint our [...]
What Treatment this Spring?
28 July 2011It’s almost spring here in New Zealand so I am looking at treating the bees soon for varroa mites. So far I have found these available in New Zealand:- (1) Thymovar – Thymol based waters (2) Apilife Var – Essential oil and Thymol based (3) And Apiguard also Essential oil and Thymol based. I am [...]
