The Spring Flush in Oz

[SlickMick]

Had a look in my 4 hives over the past couple of days and they are jam packed with capped brood. The queens are laying like there is no tomorrow.

This month is the last month of winter and spring is just around the corner. The 2 hives that were a bit light on are now going great guns and one has filled the deep brood box with brood. The other is not far behind. Going to have to put supers on these pretty quickly. I have shallow supers on the other 2 and they are almost ready to extract.. not bad considering that I took off a shallow of full comb about 10 days ago. We have had amazing weather, cool mornings and warm days. The girls are flying every day and bringing in all the good stuff.

All this and I live in the inner suburbs of the capital city.. simply gob smacking. :shock:

I have a feeling that I am going to be flat out dealing with what comes in over the next month.. going to have to make some more bits and pieces pretty quickly and get them onto the hives.

Haven't pruned the grape vine yet , still to plant the tomatoes, sweet corn and and and... but I got the lettuce in this morning :roll: and picked the coffee beans. As one of our Prime Ministers commented once, "Life wasn't meant to be easy"

Busy little bees :-D

Mick

[David Stokely]

We're winding down and you're winding up.  Sounds like a great start to your honey season.  Spring is grand. . .

 :)

[David LaFerney]

and picked the coffee beans. ...

Excellent!  What's the honey like from those flowers?  Maybe that's what has your girls so revved up.

[SlickMick]

I dont know that I have ever seen the girls on the coffee flowers and I dont know if I would have enough to influence the taste of the honey.

There is plenty of everything around here from the eucalypts to garden flowers. At the moment they are into brocolli that I have let go to seed.

I call my honey "mixed urban flora"  :-D

Mick

[David Stokely]

Mixed urban flora. . . love it.

[Bee Happy]

I'm still a little stuck on the jealousy that you can grow coffee there. I have been wondering if the buildup here next spring will be from tree pollens, since the oaks seem to put pollen tassels out before the first flower is even a bud. - have you been seeing that in Australia?

[SlickMick]

Where I live enjoys a sub tropical climate at sea level and never frosts, so there is always something always in flower. From my experience I dont see periods of great nectar collection as you may in the agricultural areas further away from the city. But the city does have a lot of green space with native forests intersperced with housing. Everyone seems to grow trees and shrubs all of which flower at different times of the year. Hence the bees always fly and always have something to bring home.

We dont have many native trees that would be classified as oaks. What we call Shea Oak is actually Casuarina but it does have the male tree dropping pollen at this time of the year. However, at the same time our other natives are flowering.. the melaleuca and acacias have flowered about a month ago, the grevilleas are in flower now and they are great nectar sources, as are the callistamen which are still to flower. The different eucalypts flower at different times of the year but the majority still have to come.

So it is difficult to say that the spring flush will be led here by pollen drop. There is heaps of pollen in the hives but it is all different colours  so it is hard to say where it has come from. The nectar has been coming in all time so there is obviously a source somewhere close by but I dont know what it is. Hence the tag "mixed urban flora".... it seems to be the most appropriate generic term for what I have in the hives.

As for coffee..... growing your own

It is really, really, really time consuming.. a lot of work for a few cups.

Makes you wonder if it worth all the effort of trying to be green :?

Mick