We decided to go away for Auckland anniversary weekend. So while I was out and out in the Coromandel bush pursuing another one of my hobbies (Locating treasure with a GPS device or Geocaching). I had heard that Tutin in honey is more of a problem in the Coromandel Peninsular. I managed to find quite [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Bees’
Tutin and Treasure Hunting on Auckland Anniversary Weekend
30 January 2012Foundation less frames no good for brood frames
28 January 2012We 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 [...]
Keeping 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 [...]
Inspecting Hives and Sending Bees in the post?
11 January 2012It was time to inspect hives today in between painting bee hive boxes and dodging the ever-present rain in Auckland. Isn’t it meant to be summer here? These are some notes from the inspections today:- Taupaki 1 Hive is very strong and doing very well, loads of bees in the brood area and their have [...]
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 [...]
Rainy Day at the Franklin Bee Club
8 January 2012Well it was a wet day in Auckland, and we were surprised the meeting was still on. But we were told by the Hive Manager “Peter” that weather forecast predicated clear skies until Lunch time. So it was off down to Franklin to attend the club day. We had chat in the shed about the [...]
The tale of the Pool Side Bees
18 December 2011Day One Got a call from Mary in Glen Eden, a swarm of bees had taken up residence on the side of her pool house. It was into the Kiwimana mobile after work, with a spare hive that I had gathered together from parts found in the workshop. Mary said she thinks the bees had [...]
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 [...]
Franklin Bee Club and Tana Umaga?
11 December 2011We got up late today after a late night at an engagement party last night congrats to Ben and Lorelle. Anyway we stopped off at a cafe on the way and who should we run into but Tana Umaga the famous New Zealand All Black. We asked if we could take a photo with him, [...]
