So I see all our overseas friends in colder climates discussing their season length, and when to start leaving honey for the bees to overwinter. Its hard to tell how it might relate to us in Australia, as we don't have issues with hives being buried under snow (unless you're in the Victorian Alps may be, or Tassie somewhere)?
Obviously Darwin will be different to Launceston, but in my southern queensland environment, how long do the bees shut down and stop working? We've had an ealry cold snap here this year, and had some 3C temps this week, but that's about 2-4 weeks early for sub 5C temperatures. A long winter and we might see temps like that until September, after the August westerlies finish, but we also have day temps in the high 20's during August as well.
So is that the range I'm looking at? Early May to late August, or is there likely to be activity all winter, given we have 15C days at least most of winter? Or does it more depend on floral resources available?
The teaching I follow (only done one full year - North Coast) says - Put winter mats on top of brood box ASAP after 1st April (under excluder) - Check food stores and leave at least 3/4 a supper of full frames or equivalent, Run three high (brood box plus two supers) Don't disturb brood until Mid August but check supers monthly particularly if weather is like now with clear sunny days and Malaleuca is having a second flowering. If more than 9 full frames take off surplus - last winter I robbed 16 frames of surplus through winter from one hive. This year I have two hives and a Nuc Probably wont touch the nuc other than check food stores. - After the heavy rain we have had be prepared for a bumper spring from October on.
OK. Thanks for the info.
In my climate it's likely that nothing is blooming from October to mid April (6 1/2 months). Most winters we will get a couple of weeks of -23 C (-10 F) and we might get a couple of weeks of -33 C (-27F). When I was in Western Nebraska I saw it -40 C (-40 F) on two different winters. Luckily it doesn't get that cold here in Eastern Nebraska.
Yeah Michael, thats what makes it a little hard to compare the experiences of most of the forum posts against what to actually expect here. Closest US state I can compare my climate to is the warmer parts of Texas.
Where are you located SB ? A number of councils produce a guide of trees in the area with information on flowering times. Get to know what is flowering and when and that will help a lot with knowing what to and how to plan. example Melaleuca flowers every month from February to June if conditions are right - being a swamp plant it grows naturally where the water table is less that 2 meters under the surface and when its feet are wet flowers almost continuously. We had a dry start to the year then all that rain now it is going crazy. Only trouble is the honey candies readily even in the frames but who cares if you don't have to feed. I am less than 2 km from a large tract of Melaleuca but my neighbor a few doors up has a mature tree planted in their front yard and judging from the bees flight path that is where they are heading.
I'm 10 minutes drive west of Cunninghams Gap on the Cunningham highway, heading to Warwick from Brisbane. No swamps around here I'm afraid. Keeping water up to our trees has been my biggest struggle getting anything growing for the 7 years we've been here.
...and you have cold winters :oops:
Compared to the rest of Aus, yes we do, but at least it's not Canberra :)
:grin:
Going through many years of records I note that I may take SOME honey off just about any time of the year.
Beekeeping is very local. I'm near the Mary ( not far from Maleny) and flowering starts about mid August and we can have great winter flows from some of the Euc's.
Check from time to time and never leave the bees short.
The last 6 or so months have been good here. Since October 2014 to end of May we have averaged 120 kg per hive. I hope it keeps going!
I'm in Victoria. We aim to have all the hives packed down by the end of April, I try to have the Anzac weekend with the family. If it's been a busy season it's the first time I've had with them. If we haven't packed all hives by then we finish it of the next week or so.
Then monthly inspection from then til almond pollination. (Approximately 1st august ).The monthly inspection may not involve opening the hive just observing flight hopefully some pollen coming In and check the weight of the hive. You can tell a lot about the hive just by watching the ins and outs. Best way to kill a hive is to open it up in winter.
With that said every location is different, the bee, s will teach you what to do. Good luck.
I have not yet read all the posts but I can't seem to get past the idea that you consider anything above the freezing point of water cold. Good grief... My poor girls have to hold it for months on end. Do you even have winter? Last February the average temperature for Syracuse was 11.8F for those of you that use the metric system that is -11.22C. I will admit that last winter was the coldest on record but it is not uncommon to have months on end below freezing.
Gee, this Global Warming is getting colder ! !
Geoff I think they realized that global warming really doesn't exist. Now they call it climate change. Hummm let's see... Throughout the history of the earth there have been ice ages and warm ups and cool downs back to ice ages. Sure looks like climate change to me. My suggestion for those that believe CO2 will be the end of the world is take a bee to lunch, plant a flower. A nice black locust or some flowering tree... That and stop breathing.
That is just my way of saying the same thing Eric. Thanks mate !
I still like the idea of taking a bee to lunch by planting a flower... I just think that CO2 emissions are a con artists dream to get government funding.
So our wattle tree is flowering again, for the second time, this winter! One day there was a real buzz around the trees. So theres some active bees out there somewhere.
G'day all,
I'm glad this thread is up, as I've been wondering about this myself.
I'm in Sydney and am not sure what to do about my hives. We've had an overall pretty standard winter (some cold stretches some warm). There are gum trees and wattles flowering all over the place. Of my two hives, one is reasonably quiet, but one is really busy.
Being an amateur in my second year, all the reading I've done says to pack the hives down and leave them alone for winter. Ive packed each hive down to two deep brood boxes and haven't opened them up since May.
Because one of the hives is really busy, would it be worth putting a super on? Also want to avoid swarming when spring comes in September.
Cheers
Jim
Hi Jim, I did a visual check on my Bee's yesterday here in Dubbo and they are starting to get going with Pollen coming in and even Drones still about from Summer which surprised me.
You can wait for a warm day and pop the lid and have a quick look and see whats happening.
I wouldn't Super yet in my area but by the look of things I might in the next three to four weeks.
I am waiting on 20 Plastic Super's today! from Nuplas to give a go this season.
Cheers
Steve
Whoa, I'd better get hopping on getting my hives set up. I haven't even bought them yet, so have to assemble and finish them first, then source some bees! Darn hares chewed up all my new callistemons and wattles I planted at the start of the year, so I'm back to square one with flora too :(
Haha you better get moving for sure especially in Qld. I had a lot of trouble with Hares too, I have had to put chicken wire around my young trees to stop the bastards.
Talking about Bee's I wanted three hives now I have thirty ahhhh.
Heh, my big fear. I queried a local association about joining, starting with 3 hives. They recommended starting with just one. That doesn't seem a good idea to me, as if it dies, I'm back to starting again next year. I'm old enough already that I feel I've already let too many opportunities slip by me that it's too late in life to start.
>They recommended starting with just one. That doesn't seem a good idea to me...
It's not a good idea. I would say 2 is minimal. 2 1/2 is better (two hives and a nuc). With a nuc you have a spare queen, some spare open brood etc. If you have a queen problem you have the resources to provide the solution. With one hive if you think your are queenless (and are likely wrong) you have no recourse other than buying a queen who will probably be killed because they are likely not queenless...
http://www.bushfarms.com/beespanacea.htm
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesfallacies.htm#nobroodnoqueen
Thanks Michael. Now if only I could find someone selling bees!