It 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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘kiwimana’
Inspecting Hives and Sending Bees in the post?
11 January 2012Our 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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Picking up the Hawthorn swarm – Part 2
12 November 2011Second visit to this Remuera hive, we texted the house owner “Nick” this morning and he advised us that the bees had returned to the hedge despite our efforts last night. The bees are clustered in a middle of hedge and a wire fence to boot, so it’s not a simple group of ladies to [...]
Swarms Swarms EveryWhere!!! Swanson 1!!!
12 November 2011Got another call from a kind member of the public “Terry” yesterday morning while we were getting reading to tackle the Hawthorn Swarm again. A swarm had arrived yesterday and was in a tree. It turned out that Terry knows Tom Dixon from the Bee Club, so small world indeed. Luckily for us the swarm [...]
New Beginnings
20 October 2011Yahoo we have a new hive of beautiful bees from our good friend Rocky. He had a swarm from one of his hives, a few weeks back and he managed to put them into a new box. He offered us the resulting colony, which was very generous of him. Rocky has learnt a lot in [...]
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 [...]
New Start with Bethells 1
14 November 2010We purchased a new NUC from Rosemary today. The new colony has been named Bethells after our favourite beach. Bethells Beach isn’t too far from the Kiwimana HQ. We are very lucky to be so close to such a great place. We have placed this hive in a sunnier part of the bee garden. We [...]
