The weather was good and the temperature was 22 degrees today, so I decided to inspect a couple of our hives. Days in which inspections can be done are becoming fewer and fewer, as New Zealand heads into winter. Here the summary of the inspections:- Swanson 1 Swanson is a bustling hive with around three [...]
Posts Tagged ‘honey’
Save the Bees – Stop the Fee – UPDATE
3 May 2012Here are our thoughts after attending the Auckland Council hearings, held at the beautiful Auckland Town Hall, on the Auckland Council Draft - Long Term Plan. Introduction It was good to see a lot of other bee-keepers today at the meeting, and as we found out it was one of many hearings held by the Auckland Council across the [...]
NBA Meeting – Waitemata Honey
26 April 2012agp,albany,arabinogalactan,auckland,audrey,bee,graham cammell,comvita,cosmetic,dha,dihydroxyacetone,extractor,hmf,honey,honeys,jonathan stephens,kanuka,kumeu,ltd,manuka,medicinal,motorway,nba,neil,packers,pre,premises,protein,stephens,stimulates,tanks,umf,waitemata
Wrapping up your bees in a Quilt?
25 April 2012Winter is just around the corner, so it’s time to get the bees ready for winter. Your bees should have been treated now and have low mite counts. Now it is time to think about how to reduce moisture in your hives over the winter months. We saw this idea on the Honey Bee Suite [...]
Never hold a frame full of bees away from the hive
21 April 2012What Happened A couple of weeks back we had an incident with the Remuera 1 hive. We were inspecting frames and the queen must have fallen from the it. When we were cleaning up after the inspection, we noticed a large cluster of bees gathered on the ground and then to our horror we noticed [...]
We will be selling Mite Away Quick Strips
5 April 2012We are happy to announce that we will be selling the NOD Mite Away Quick Strips. MiteAway Quick strips are a formic Acid based miticide which is reported to leave no residues in the hive. The strips were invented by Bee Keepers in Canada to help the fight against the mites. Kiwimana realises that some [...]
Save the bee, stop the fee!!!
7 March 2012Photo’s courtesy of Kevin Krejci We went to along to a meeting set up by the Auckland Bee Club on Monday to discuss the $190 (annual) consent fee to keep Bees, proposed within the Auckland Council long-term draft plan. The draft considerations include public consultation and a submission process. The meeting was chaired by ‘Christopher [...]
Tutin and Treasure Hunting on Auckland Anniversary Weekend
30 January 2012We 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 [...]
Foundation 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 [...]
