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Author Topic: What's flowering: Queensland  (Read 144480 times)

Offline eltalia

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #300 on: June 30, 2019, 06:36:05 pm »
Yeh Adam, cadaghi (torelliana) will be along shortly as they bud for a few
weeks before exploding.
Gidday ;-)
If you wern't FIFO I'd suggest following our lead in removing the dry frames
but as it looks like we are going to slip into the warmer weather with no rain
forecast it is best to leave things be I reckon. 30 here yesterday, bees flying.
As a punt?
If your numbers are up in bees then be set for some work in midJuly, Cadaghi
can be prolific suppliers of all three resources - pollen/nectar/propolis.
Not so many around here but at our old location - Charlies Trousers - they
were everywhere, the ground littered with busted buds from the Blueys getting
into them and the occasional flock of Black Cocky.

Cheers


Bill



Offline Bee North

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #301 on: June 30, 2019, 06:58:42 pm »
Hi Bill

Great info!

Nice to know they will get some resources soon!
We have plenty of Cadaghi around here so thats great to know.

I have plenty of spare equipment ready for spring  as my next stint in college is a long one (2 months)  and i dont want to leave my fellow beek (watching my girls)... short.

Will have another look in 2 weeks.

Thanks mate.




Offline max2

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #302 on: June 30, 2019, 06:59:01 pm »
I asked a mate  who has bees at Witta ( near maleny) what was flowering there and this is is his response:

 The ten or so euphoria  ?bushes that I bought from Pat at the markets ?the several Chinese money trees that I acquired from Karen Sherwell (Kerry?s wife )several years ago ---The native mint bushes from Barry at Beerwah  Postenthera Lasianthus (Poorinda Ballerina)?Champhor basil ?2 large Sydney blue gums   There are broken off  braces of flowers at the base of these big trees ?also some citrus, like  Navel orange , grapefruit, pomello ?kaffir limes and New guinea lime tree and lemon and lemonade trees  --tuckeroo  , and wattles (several types ) and red   ti tree( 4off)  quite tall, & these are the ones I have noticed but , there could be more ,& In some cases it seems like some have had  a second blush.

About the cadaghi - they flower here around October. You will be woken up when the open well. The bees love them.

Offline eltalia

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #303 on: June 30, 2019, 07:47:16 pm »
Maleny... the foodbowl of flying things, eh Max ;-)))
October is s bit late for us, usually hitting low 40s
by then but yeh, you'd know better than I, they stay
budded up a looong time for sure.

Adam, we can only hope for a magnormous recovery
as 2018/19 has to be our worst year in living memory.
Near on greased up the trailer there a few weeks ago
as it just wouldn't give us a series of good days and
there were mobs of forage around, just not accessible.
Further west - up the Forty Mile Scrub way- it was dry as
a Pommy's towel, with reports Southerners were moving
in on the Wattle and Bloodwood... buuut we decided
to stick it out, migratory is beyond our ability these days,
and hey... as long as they are alive it is all good!

Cheers.

Bill



Offline max2

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #304 on: July 01, 2019, 12:49:46 am »
In June I had the opportunity to meet with a woman - Nguyen Thi Hang - who is the Vice President, general Secretary of a Vietnamese Beekeepers Association and the President/CEO of the Hanoi Honeybee Joint Stock Company ( Hanoibee JSC. - have a look at the website)  and visit a number of beekeepers.
 
In the general Hanoi area only Asian bees are kept. Further South Italian bees are quite popular.
 
I found out that no bees are kept within the city environments simply because there are too many lights and as we all know bees can be attracted to bright light.
I walked around the parks in Hanoi and indeed never saw a single bee. Plenty of flowers but no bees. A very odd  experience.
 
One professional beekeeper I visited is well known in beekeeping circles and highly respected.
He has about 300 hives.
His wife was the one who showed me around and opened a good number of hives.
All hives are singles. They are trying to keep the population modest to minimise swarming. Asian Bees have a reputation as heavy swarmers.
This is the off-season for bees in Vietnam but the hives looked strong. Each one we opened had some honey and plenty of brood.
Hives were kept in the shade of trees and were arranged in a circular pattern around the trunk.
I asked the beekeepers about the main issues they had to deal with, problems of concern.
To my surprise they all put Climate Change on the top of the list. They explained to me that the last few years summers have been extremely hot and bees can't find enough food - pollen and nectar to sustain themselves and produce a surplus.
They are also concerned about the low price their honey is fetching in the world market due to competition from within Vietnam and internationally. Vietnamese honey is the lowest priced honey on the world market.
Their seems to be a lack of cooperation between beekeepers which also results in low prices.
The beekeeper told me that he makes more money selling brood frames than honey. He sells a frame with brood for US$ 7. People would generally buy 3 frames ( as in a nuc) and get a free queen.
From his 300 hives he sells 1000 - 2000 frames of brood a year.
He sells his honey to locals for $US 3.50/kg.
Vietnamese don't eat much honey. Honey is seen more as a medicine ( for all ailments from skin to stomach) rather then a food. Some families are replacing sugar with honey and this may well be a trend.
To keep his bees well feed he has to move them 6 to 7 times in a year. He owns his own truck to help with this task.
I did bring a bee veil with me but never used it. The Asian Bees seem  to be a lot more gentle then our/my bee. I was right up close and never got a sting. My guide did cop a few on her lips but they did not seem to swell as stings from Italian Bees would in a tender spot like the lips.
Beekeepers tend to make some equipment and buy some. The quality of wood used appeared pretty poor. Hives were not painted.
No plastic frames were in use at the apiaries I saw.
Wax is seen as an important by-product and sells for about US$ 5.50/kg.
There are some pests - the beekeeper referred to them as " brood pests" but I could not find out anything specific.
Varroa is not a problem with Asian Bees and he was not aware of the SHB.
 
Some wasps can be an issue but he noted the many birds in his orchard as excellent predators.
The main nectar trees are Acacia mangium ( http://keys.trin.org.au/key-server/data/0e0f0504-0103-430d-8004-060d07080d04/media/Html/taxon/Acacia_mangium.htm)  from Australia . Apparently it produces honey dew rather then nectar?
It is a low priced honey and it tasted rather bitter to me. Some was fermented and of poor quality.
The best honey and the one bringing in the Dollars is Lychee Honey http://www.beeproductsthai.com/EN/Our_Product/151) and Mango honey.
I was not able to taste any of it.
Extraction is with a centrifugal extractor witch is hand operated . A very simple un-capping knife is used.
To open the hives and take out the frames no tool was used. I gave them a hive tool and they quickly worked out how to use it.
Thanks to Mrs Nguyen ( Hang) and the beekeepers for making me so welcome.
The villages we visited are located about 11/2 hr from Hanoi. An interesting trip.
The main crop on the hilly farms seemed to be Pomelo but other fruit were also grown.

There maybe not to many comparisons with keeping bees in Queensland but you never stop learning.

Offline Bee North

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #305 on: July 01, 2019, 04:19:22 am »
Thanks Max.
Very interesting read.

Offline eltalia

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #306 on: July 01, 2019, 06:20:41 am »
A most comprehensive insight Max into how the 'other half' manage an income on just 300 colonys.
A relatively small number when migratory "sideliners" here start at 500, true C'mrcls said to be
at least 1000 to get the return of the equivalent income for a comparitive corporate salary.
I am only pointing @ honeybadgers - no other arm of the industry here (.AU)

Yet something in that brief account got me beaming from ear to ear on connecting the dots, albeit
that b'keeps reason to practice is well foreign to ours (inhouse).
It was this;
All hives are singles. They are trying to keep the population modest to minimise
swarming. Asian Bees have a reputation as heavy swarmers.

How many thousands of words are both written and spoken repetitively reinforcing a message
"add space to prevent swarming", hey?
Yet here in what many would consider 'third world' we now read common practice - indeed
_compulsory_ - is to reduce space and control numbers! Sure such is done for a known swarmy
strain, buuuut it is the very same model we have used for yonks in setting colonys to pollination
jobs... maintain a single 9/10 FD at numbers around critical mass (CM) whereby they will neither
swarm nor pack the FD to the rafters with brood and so become 'lazy' bees.
Made me smile... I tellya!
... thankyou thankyou thankyou.

Bill

Offline CoolBees

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #307 on: July 01, 2019, 02:27:53 pm »
Bill - I'm a new beekeeper - 4 years and learning by failure (mostly).  :grin:

Thank you for your insight on this. It makes total sense, but I wouldn't have figured it out for a long time to come - (if ever  :cheesy:) ... preventing swarming by reducing space .... makes perfect sense.

Thank you for sharing Sir!

Alan
You cannot permanently help men by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves - Abraham Lincoln

Offline Bamboo

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #308 on: July 01, 2019, 07:20:51 pm »
Great stuff Max thanks for the update.
Yes Bill I was intrigued by the single box to manage swarming. Conventional "wisdom" is not always wisdom but pratices that are passed down and the more they are repeated by those with the loudest voices so that they become gospel.
I have had really good pollen flows here lately along with decent amounts of nectar, well enough as measured by the "nose test", if I can smell it coming in then ..... Been a bit cool and raining  here so have not been diving into hives.
In the interests of my unconventional mind, some call it weird :cheesy: I decided to do an experiment.
On the 27th May I split a hive into 3 and did walk away splits on the 2 nucs. Now "conventional wisdom" says you can't split a hive successfully in winter drones all kicked out for winter, too cold etc etc. Well the weather has been ordinary for the last month so I have left them alone to do their thing. On Sunday I had a quick look as it was fine and 23 and not blowing dogs off chains.

Result, 2 gorgeous new laying queens  and a healthy brood nest. All 3 nucs are doing well, I left the queen in the "mother" hive and all is well in all 3 colonies. Absolutely delighted.

Another little coup I had recently , we had Sunshine Coast Ag show with the obligatory honey and wax entries. Never entered anything before but thought why not. Had about 6 goes at trying to get a wax block perfect, whatever that is, and each time there would be something wrong with the pour, a speck of dust here, a dent, not releasing from mold you name it. Anyway ran out of time did one last attempt and had to submit as had no more time before entries closed. Ended up winning the wax comp, who woulda thought?

Offline max2

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #309 on: July 01, 2019, 07:25:51 pm »
Bill, good to see you smile...BUT....these are Asian Bees and I'm careful about translating it all into Italians.
Also, remember the beekeeper is selling 1000 to 2000 brood frames per year - say up to 7 frames per hive.
I also noticed that Asian Bees - and I'm no expert - don't seem to fill frames as much with brood as our Italians do.
I hate to think how much of the information was "lost in translation"


Having said that you do make a very relevant point.

About 50% of my hives are FD singles . I run 10 frames in them. I milk them for brood frames to make up my nuc's. The best produced 24 frames in a season and I took some honey off as well to give the queen space to lay. I don't think that one way fits all situations. Observation is the key. Beekeeping is so local. If we get a good Clover flow in a few weeks we will need to adjust and we will be busy. What do you think?
As you say, we don't want lazy bees:)

Offline eltalia

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #310 on: July 01, 2019, 09:48:16 pm »
...good point

Maaaate, I' m going to suggest we move over to a new topic as this'un shouldn't
really be diverted, in all fairness. And I'm pretty sure our USA based b'keeps look
on in interest so we (Aussies) rightly should be inclusive..?.. it is bees after all, eh.
Maybe Alan would do the honours - being the "new bloke at the bar" like????
Hey Alan?

/tips hat/

I'll get back to these posts -  in response on forage stuff - later today.

Cheerio...

Bill

Offline max2

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #311 on: July 02, 2019, 07:25:51 pm »
I spoke to a beekeeper near Glasshouse and one near Gympie yesterday.
Both commented about the poor flowering of Teatree ( it got washed out - quite common here).
Both mentioned that TALLOWWOOD is flowering. I have not seen any around here - it is a little early but that would be nice. Not much honey there but good pollen to build up on ready for Spring.

Offline max2

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #312 on: July 03, 2019, 07:33:25 pm »
Some extra information about the Teatrees.

This is a coastal spp. We don't have them growing here.

Many, many years ago we used to take hives down to the coast - pretty well were the Maroochy Airport is now. All the sudivisions did not exist then.

In those days  - talking here the late 70's - you had to travel between cane fields - there were 100's of acres of tea tree swamp.

In a good year you would get a lot of very dark honey. Never liked it but a religous group ( can't remember which one) used to buy a lot. In those days we got 50 cents for a lb.

Teatree can flower multiple times. Some say 6 times. I'm not sure about this.

The problem is that this is also the time when we get showers along the coast and wet weather turns the flowers yellow - no yield. Beekeepers call Teatree also " Rain Tree".

Offline Bamboo

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #313 on: July 06, 2019, 02:52:23 am »
More info on "Teatree".
The genus is Leptospermum ,and has 86 different species of which 83 are endemic to Australia and generally grows in what can be very loosely described as coastal areas, it doesn't mean that it can't grow inland but it is definitely not a desert or dry region plant. It is however pretty much "bullet proof" once established. It is quite common to see it on clifftops on the West coast of NZ growing almost horizontally due to the high and constant wind, so doesn't mind the salt air which most other plants will curl their toes up at.

"Teatree oil" on the other hand is not Teatree at all and is produced from the leaves of the Melaleuca, yeah I know go figure.

The NZ species of "Teatree"  L. scoparia is called Manuka and the honey from same also called and marketed as Manuka. Australians refer to it as "Jelly Bush" honey and you are quite correct it is a darker honey. I love it but I grew up on it but like you, many say it is an acquired taste.

Why Teatree? well one story I have been told was that Joseph Banks brewed some up for Cook and it was reasonably palatable.... seems feasible.

Teatree only flowers once per year but because there are so many different species and they all flower at different times it can seem that there are multiple flowerings.

 Simon Williams of USC has just completed his thesis on Leptospermum along with all the info on DHA and GMO values this is the medicinal values of it, very interesting he has a couple of books out on it as well, available from USC.

Cheers Mark

Offline eltalia

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #314 on: July 06, 2019, 05:54:49 am »
@Bamboo
 "Now "conventional wisdom" says you can't split a hive successfully in winter drones all kicked
out for winter, too cold etc etc. Well the weather has been ordinary for the last month so I have
left them alone to do their thing. On Sunday I had a quick look as it was fine and 23 and not
blowing dogs off chains."


2019 I reckon the "conventional wisdom" is up for a rewrite, Mark...
we have our avacados budding up, something that is an early
September event.
There are some mangoes busted into full bloom also, weeks early.
Whilst we've had a few cool nights (15C), when the sun is out
she's hovering around the high 20s, 31C the other day in full sun.
I'm trying to get some ground ready for melon and pumpkin... it is
that good, for vine crops..

On teatree... none here as I know it, a short (2.5m) tree growing in
"wet ground" on raised root mounds, like found in the channel
country. It is very aromatic when crushed and a known home for
paper wasp, they build some big nests innit. Mobs of it down
 around the El Arish, Tully, Murray Upper... or was, a lot of those
'swamps' been drained and sugarcane planted into them.

Bill

Offline Bamboo

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #315 on: July 06, 2019, 07:38:37 am »
Bill
Walking past our Mangoe the other day and all ready to burst out waaaay too early, it doesn't fruit till Feb.  No Mangoes last year and the locals go nah every second year I ask why and they say cos!
To my enquiring mind that is not an answer I need to know why every second year.

Lots of pollen coming in at the mo. Some very pale and some bright yellow. the bright yellow I am picking is acacia of some description that is with in flying range, the pale stuff? No idea.

Similar night time temps here but only low 20's during the day. Thinking of planting some gourds in spring, any experience with them? Not sure how they go in sub tropics, can't find much info.
Cheers
Mark

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #316 on: July 06, 2019, 05:24:03 pm »
Bamboo,
A lot of trees will only produce a bumper crop every other year. Case in point are oak trees. One year there are hardly any acorns the next year you cannot see the ground they are so thick. Producing fruit requires a lot of nutrients and energy. The second year they are in recovery mode.
Jim Altmiller
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline max2

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #317 on: July 06, 2019, 07:30:43 pm »
There are a lot of fruit trees which have a bi-annual bearing habit.

We have 120 pecan Nuts. A great crop last year, not a nut this year.

Some trees can be manipulated into spreading the bounty. Have a look here: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/fegen/biennial-bearing-information.htm

Too early for gourds here - we would still expect some cold nights but in your part of Qld you maybe OK.

Gourds don't like humid conditions or wet feet.

Good luck with them.

PS - loved the info on Tea Tree!!

Offline max2

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #318 on: July 07, 2019, 07:28:16 pm »
Native Frangipani are out. Not sure if there is any nectar or pollen? We have some quite large trees here.

Offline eltalia

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #319 on: July 09, 2019, 06:13:26 am »
Rubbish at photography I can provide a link
to caliandra the bees are going troppo over right now.
We have four of these, and they were something we were
going to remove off the place until they flowered.

Messy plants they are very honest nectar producers.
We'll plant pups as they come up.

Bill
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliandra