Basically a migratory bee keeper, we use a ute and trailer with 50 hives per load.
Bees are Wintered in a dry warm, 12-15 C, area about 200 mile from home. They go there in late Autumn and spend all wither there.
August 1 they go to almonds for 4 weeks, then about half go to cherries for 4-5 weeks, balance come home to canola.
Most strong hives are split for swarm control, this produces nucs for sale in late Spring.
After cherries and canola the bees are on the road to where ever the trees are blossoming, mainly eucalyptus
Our configuration of hives is very basic, full depth 8 frame, single brood box, queen excluders, plastic foundation in wooden frames and the use of bee escapes/ clearer boards to remove harvest honey. We run 230 wooden hives and 120 poly Paradise hives.
Mainly run as doubles, for lifting of full supers and for weight for transport.
Marketing of honey is through Farmer Markets, canola is wholesaled to big packers.
In our general area our configuration of hives is common though some run 10 frames. A few BK's are running WSP honey supers just for lower weight