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Offline 220

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Another Aussie
« on: November 30, 2016, 12:10:39 am »
Another aussie looking at getting into bees.
Have always had hives on the farm just never my own, hoping to have a hive or two set up before Christmas, if I don't I guess I will leave it to next year.
From the hives we have had on the place previously I know we should have a good flow until autumn but have never had anyone winter bees on the place so not sure how they will go over winter or how much to leave them to get through.
Probably one of the few areas in Aus that can be classed as having a winter, still mild by European or American standards but we do have one month per year where the average minimum temp is below freezing and around 60 days for the year that drop below freezing.  Days aren't to bad the average max for the coldest month is 12c and we only have 3 months that the average max is below 15c. Snows most years but not enough to be a issue usually gone in 24hrs maybe once a decade we would get enough to be a concern.

Offline SB-Russ

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Re: Another Aussie
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2016, 04:07:58 am »
Howdy,

Not sure where you are. I'm in southern Queensland and apart from the snow and a couple of degrees warmer here, your temps don't seem much different to mine.

I got my first bees about 4 weeks ago, but it took me 3 years to find someone who would actually sell me some.

Russell.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: Another Aussie
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2016, 12:27:57 pm »
It also sounds like our weather here in North Florida. I try to leave the brood area and one medium super. With the numerous warm days, the bees expend a lot of energy flying, trying to find food.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Offline 220

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Re: Another Aussie
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2016, 07:07:27 pm »
Southern NSW, foothills of the snowys Russell.
Quite a bit cooler than southern QLD, even compared to somewhere like Stanthorpe the average day time max in the winter months is around 4c cooler and about 30% more nights below freezing.
The average max can be deceptive as often we may only see it for less than 1 hr with the rest of the day significantly cooler, we also have a very wet winter with the days its raining often a bit warmer. This year from May-Sept we had 1200mm (48") with rainfall on over 100days. Being as close as we are to the alpine region we usually have a wind blowing off snow for most of winter
I don't expect them to be leaving the hive to often over winter.

Here's a picture of what it can be like

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Offline SB-Russ

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Re: Another Aussie
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2016, 10:50:49 pm »
Yeah, a bit colder. At least our days warm up pretty quick, and quite dry here. I've always had trouble following the mainly US advice on most forums, as it's so different to my conditions. I looked at the USDA maps and Texas was the closest match I found, but even then only in the coastal areas I think it was, even though I'm inland, not coastal.

Offline 220

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Re: Another Aussie
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2016, 03:08:25 am »
Im not a fan of the climate zone maps, to give you an example of why Cabramurra is not far from me yet on maps is in the same zone as us and places like Stanthorpe simply because of the one day average for the coldest recorded temperature for the year.
Their coldest average minimum month is only 0.6c colder than us yet they have 3 months where the average maximum temp is 5c or less and only 4 months with an average max daily temp above 16c. They average 1.2days per year with a max temp above 30c and 123 days with a min below 2c.

On the bee front Im 90% sure I've secured 2 nucs to pick up in a few weeks, hoping to get confirmation tonight.


Offline GSF

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Re: Another Aussie
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2016, 08:36:32 am »
Welcome!
When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - then you know your nation is doomed.

Offline 220

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Re: Another Aussie
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2016, 07:14:07 pm »
So I now have bees, picked up a nuc Sunday evening and installed them into my hive early yesterday.
Think I may have rubbed a few bees in transport, a few more dead than I expected in the bottom and a slight honey leak. Think I located the queen and she looked OK, installed a feeder, reduced the entrance to 30mm (1 1/4") and will leave them alone until the weekend then have a look.
Have 2 more nucs to pick up Saturday so off to a flying start, should have 3 hives setup within 3 weeks of finally committing to bee keeping.

Offline 220

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Re: Another Aussie
« Reply #8 on: December 17, 2016, 07:53:13 am »
First nuc I installed hadn't touched the 1:1 for the first 3 days, it has been fine and sunny with temps around 30c (85F) yesterday was overcast and drizzle but still warm, they decided to hook in and the feeder was almost empty when I checked.
Will open the hive tomorrow and see how they are going and what they have been up to.

Went to to pick up 2 more nucs today, didn't get exactly what I was expecting.
Seller had decided to reduce his number of hives, had 2 x 10 frame hives with single deep brood boxes and full deep supers on them.
Was running queen excluders so we knew the queens were in the bottom boxes, removed the supers, located and marked the queens and transferred the frames they were on to my 8 frame boxes.
Instead of nucs I got 6 frames of brood a full frame of honey and another with honey and pollen installed in my boxes. We shook the bees off the extra frames into my boxes so plenty of bees as well.
One of them should really explode with nearly 3 full frames of capped brood. I will give them a week to settle in before throwing another box on.

Wasn't really ideal conditions to be handling bees, warm, with scattered cloud but blowing a gale, we walked to the hives to see what sort of mood they were in before opening them and they let us know. I got hit between the eyes without so much as a courtesy head butt before hand so we suited up before commencing work. First time Ive been stung in about 5 years and it was surprisingly mild, actual pain from the sting I would only rate as about 20% of the bull ant bites Ive had in the past few weeks. Virtually no swelling in fact had to point out to my wife where I had been stung when I got home.

 

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