Hi 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 [...]
Archive for the ‘Equipment’ Category
Get your resource’s here…Please
2 September 2011Minding 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 [...]
Fun with the Microscope Camera
17 July 2011We purchased a USB Microscope from Ecroyd Beekeeping at the Bee Conference (Blog post coming soon), not really a Microscope more like a good macro lens. The beauty of this device is that you can plug it into your computer and take photos. So here are some photos:- One of a Queen Bee that was [...]
Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand
21 June 2011If anyone is looking for a great book about Beekeeping in New Zealand, you can’t do much better than “Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand” written by Andrew Matheson. If you are looking for a copy, we have just listed a auction on Trademe we are selling our spare copy to the highest bidder. Click HERE [...]
Having some Planking fun while Clearing up the stored Bee Hives
22 May 2011Well today was a clean-up the shed day and pack away the boxes and frames for another season. Also did some planking for a break , see Wikipedia’s Planking Entry if you are not sure what planking is. We have placed the boxes associated with the hives all together and placed either plastic sheeting or [...]
Inspection of Honey 1 – The Queens Great Escape
1 March 2011Checked the weather forecast and it looked good until tomorrow, it has been predicated to rain tomorrow. Started the inspection at 2:30 PM. Started the inspection by taking off the roof, no sign of comb or Bees in the new “Kiwimana bee hive roof”. Looks like the bees don’t see the roof as an extension [...]
Honey 1 – Second Sugar Shaking the hive II
19 February 2011Well it was a nice day in the hills of West Auckland, so it was time to do the second sugar shake treatment on Honey 1. I made it a bit easier this time, I sieved all the icing sugar or (powdered sugar for our American readers) in the Kitchen beforehand. So I only took [...]
Field testing the Kiwimana Hive Roof
29 January 2011One good thing about this recent weather in Auckland is that we have the perfect conditions for field testing our new roof design. With the help of my assistant “Snow” we have set up a test hive out in the open to check for any leaks, and how the roof stands up to the recent [...]
