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Author Topic: What's flowering: Queensland  (Read 144379 times)

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #660 on: March 17, 2022, 01:56:55 am »
The Rain Trees are just about finished here - the bees loved them

We have cassia flowering but bees don't seem to work it. The literature gives mixed messages.

A friend tells me that he has seen Bloodwood flowering. We need something flowering to build up hives before the temperature drops .
Jelly Bush is producing further North and along the Coast. We don't get them here

Sad to see the honey season coming to an end so early

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #661 on: March 23, 2022, 05:03:57 am »
Perfect day here today.
I checked the bees in one of my yards...strong brood, lovely pattern, few SHB, some honey coming in.

All pretty perfect - no complaints.

Got home to find an e-mail telling me that as the property were my bees are locate had been sold and I will have to move all the hives.

Far from prefect but we will get it done. No rush they tell me.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #662 on: March 25, 2022, 05:06:44 am »
That's a pain Max...do you have another site in mind?

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #663 on: March 25, 2022, 01:27:56 pm »
Yes, a pain indeed.

I'm checking with people close to the site.

The properties around there are still i the 150acre plus range and I'm sure I will find a farmer willing to host my bees in return for honey and candles.
I kept the site nice and tidy and the bees never bothered anybody.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #664 on: March 26, 2022, 04:33:23 am »
I'm sure you will...I wish you luck.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #665 on: March 26, 2022, 10:10:09 pm »
Thanks, Bee North

I finished my Autumn check and counted my hives - 49 at this stage. I usually lose some during winter.
Most will go into winter with enough honey to see them through.
Nothing extreme with SHB - I expected more with all the wet weather we have been having. The traps seem to work.
Lots of nice brood. They definitely had a brood break during the extreme wet - there is older capped brood and plenty of larvay and not much in between.
I saw no Chalk Brood. people have been reporting Chalk Brood from along the range - more rain, more humidity, more fog = more Chalk Brood.

I need to replace some brood and some honey boxes - timber does not last as it used to. Or maybe the paint is not as good as in the past?  Most beekeepers do dip their boxes in Copper or something similar and I don't want to bring in poisons if I can help it.

Planning for Spring: I need to replace some odl foundations . I have been too busy or lazy...

The forecast is for above average rain for Autumn and I won't be taking any more honey off.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #666 on: April 02, 2022, 08:23:43 pm »
Some time back I spotted a strong hive with Termites in the bottom board.
The termites had moved into the frames and the lugs on some of them had been eaten.
I removed the queen excluder in the hope that the queen would move up into the honey super.
A few times I extraced honey as there was no brood.
A few days ago i notice brood in the honey super and today was the day to clean the hive up.

I had the smoker going and gave the entrance plenty of solid puffs in the hope that the queen would move into the upper box.

I opened the hive with very little smoke and started to remove frame after frame with plenty of brood. Frame 5 !! Eureka!! - the queen.

I quickly moved all the frames from the honey super into what is now the brood box.

The original brood box was a mess.
7 of the frames had their lugs eaten out by the Termites.

# frames are still OK and I moved these into what is now the honey supper - lots of brood!

I addewd 7 good frames to make up the 10 spaces.

Sadly the old brood box has many frames ( all eaten out at the edges) full of perfect brood right across.
What a shame to lose these bees.
I moved the olf brood box aside with the 7 frames - I have no idea what will happen?
Will they hatch and find the queen?
Will they try and make a new queen?

Never had Termites in a hive.

This is a new one - it will be intersting to see what works out.

Bees know best



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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #667 on: April 10, 2022, 10:18:06 pm »
I think I have replaced all the porr supers.

Timber is not what it used to be and supers don't seem to last as ell as they used to.

Maybe I'm imagining things?

Mind you, some of the brood boxes I replaced must have been painted by Adam. Or Eve.

They were OLD.

It is a good time to also look at the brood , again and marke some hives for future splits.
I had expected plenty of SHB but I'm glad to report that the numbers are low.

Not much honey but probably enough. We do have a few winter flowering Eucalypts and I have seen them budding.

The clover is growing and with enough rain the Clover could make for an early start in Spring.

I have fixed some of the old supers and fixed old bottom Boards. They all goa couple of coats of good paint.

If we do get an early Spring I will do some supers with Comb Honey. people keep asking for it.

We don't realy get a winter here but brood will slow down.

I note on some Canadian blogs that Spring has still not sprung in parts of North America.

I don't think i could handle long winters anymore. They are talking about 6 month long winters!!

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #668 on: April 17, 2022, 04:59:05 am »
I went for a walk along the river this afternoon.

The damage from the heavy rain is considerable but nature is fighting back.

Not a lot flowering but the Legumes - which grow everywhere here - are just coming into flower.
The bees seem to work them most of the time , mostly in the morning.

I can smell honey coming in. The bees rae busy as soon as the fog lifts in the morning and the sun shines on their entrance.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #669 on: April 25, 2022, 08:59:48 pm »
It is raining here.
Itwas raining yesterday and the day before and it looks like we have to expect more rain for a another couple of days.

The Desmodium are flowering profusly but thus article tells me that Honey Bees are only modestly benefiting from these flowers.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00606-019-01603-4

The bees looked busy during the short spells when the sun was out.

I should be shifting hives....but don't want get stuck in wet, soggy soil

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #670 on: May 07, 2022, 01:46:29 am »
One of the Eucalypts is flowering.

We moved hives last night and they where heavier this time - or I was simply more tired.

I will let the hives settle for a few weeks and then check on them.

Another week of heavy rain ahead of us...

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #671 on: May 07, 2022, 07:24:43 pm »
Blackbutt!!

A bit late but they are still flowering

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #672 on: May 13, 2022, 07:15:16 pm »
We had a week of rain here and more on the way.
I wonder what the poor bees are doing?

All hives are well above flood level but I can'r access the hives as the road is closed.

nteresting - talking to beekeepers, all talk about the positive outlook for Spring!

It is Autumn here! Winter next.....and the Spring.

Beekeepers must be a pretty positive, optimistic lot.

Can't wait for the sun and a chance to see some bees flying

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #673 on: June 08, 2022, 04:53:46 am »
It has been very, very wet here and further South.
We took a trip and had the chance to speak to a few beekeepers. One is doing OK - the rest lost hives ( one 50%) to the flood, most are hanging in there.

I can access my hives but the ground is soggy.

I'm told that the White Clover is starting to grow with some sun and cooler weather. Sounds promising.

I noticed today that one of the Ironbarks is flowering - the bees need every drop of nectar.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #674 on: June 16, 2022, 02:00:42 am »
I went to one of my yards - needde to do some brush cutting around the hives.

I opened a few and to my surprise they are very strong, some have capped honey and all have plenty of brood.
No drones - as expected.
Some SHB - wish they go away.

The clover is growing nicely and I expect a good crop form it in a matter of a few months.

It is still quite wet - I could not get a vehicle close to the hives but the Clover will love this.

Perfect sunny winters day here - 25C and quite warm in the sun.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #675 on: June 22, 2022, 07:32:54 pm »
We are enjoying some great winter weather here with temp's in the mid 20's ( celsius) and the bees are busy. I could smell some honey coming in.

My bees are not ideally located for the Ironbark but some Ironbark are flowering and I have seen the first of the Blue Gum too - a little early - they usually start in July.

The days are short but the bees seem to get a fair few hours of flying time in every day. Promising!

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #676 on: June 23, 2022, 09:50:38 pm »
Perfect winters day here - about 25C and I opened up a few more hives.

Plenty of "old Honey" ( Great!) and even some "new honey" ( Excellent!)

Some hives had enough honey to take...if it was August.

There is brood at all stages  and in a couple of hives too many SHB. As we don't seem to get cold winters anymore ( eg frost) the SHB seem to go through winter here with no problem.

It is predicted to get cooler and cloudier and we may get some rain too.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #677 on: June 25, 2022, 05:05:00 pm »
Hi Max
Similar up here....still have honey coming in and too many shb!

Mate bet your happy to see some sunshine.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #678 on: June 25, 2022, 07:42:10 pm »
Bee North

Yes, lovely to see th sun.
I'm about to leave to have a look at my other yard.

I had one hive with LOTS of SHB - little mongrels are keeping nice and  warm.

We had no frosts here so far and the next week looks mild with some showers. Daytime temps up to 25C - perfect for SHB.

The Blue Gum is trying to flower - far too early and I will check on the Clover too.

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Re: What's flowering: Queensland
« Reply #679 on: June 26, 2022, 03:46:45 am »
Lovely day to spend in the beeyard...

We have not even hit the middle of winter yet and most of the hives have a lot of brood...at all stages.

Not much honey but there seems to be enough to keep the large populations going.

Plenty of pollen too.

I'm a bit worried about the numbers of SHB - we simply don't seem to get the cold spells to knock them.