What's flowering: Queensland

Ben Framed · April 20, 2020, 01:25:27 AM

Max I am glad to see that you have things worked out with your old name. I do not post here regularly as I leave it to you cousins from down under, but I do enjoy reading y'alls post here. I don't know if I could have gotten used to your new name. lol.

Phillip Hall

felmo1 · April 20, 2020, 06:09:59 PM

It's great to see you back max2 and to shed off your alter ego lind.
How was your trip to Cambodia?
And was your return complicated with the virus restrictions?

Our bees on the eastern side of the range are holding their own. Strong hives are slowly increasing their honey stores while others are consuming their stored honey.
Nice autumn weather but not much flowering at the moment.

max2 · April 20, 2020, 07:07:12 PM

Quote from: Ben Framed on April 20, 2020, 01:25:27 AM
Max I am glad to see that you have things worked out with your old name. I do not post here regularly as I leave it to you cousins from down under, but I do enjoy reading y'alls post here. I don't know if I could have gotten used to your new name. lol.

Phillip Hall

Yes, I'm glad I got my name back too!

max2 · April 20, 2020, 07:11:40 PM

Quote from: felmo1 on April 20, 2020, 06:09:59 PM
It's great to see you back max2 and to shed off your alter ego lind.
How was your trip to Cambodia?
And was your return complicated with the virus restrictions?

Our bees on the eastern side of the range are holding their own. Strong hives are slowly increasing their honey stores while others are consuming their stored honey.
Nice autumn weather but not much flowering at the moment.

felmo - the trip to Cambodia was great. I take a small group to have a look at some of the projects I'm involved with.
This time all 7 were beekeepers and we visited a beekeeper in Cambodia. The situation he was in was very challenging - very dry and nothing to eat for the poor bees. I doubt that many of his hives would make it to the next flow.
The bees were very calm - you could open any hive without the risk of a sting. I think they were very weak.
Last year I visited beekeepers in Vietnam - there is always something interesting to learn.

max2 · April 28, 2020, 06:45:23 PM

29.4.20 - Silverleaf Desmodium is flowering along roads here. The bees seem to like it. It will keep flowering for months as long as we don't get any frost.
People hate it as the seed pods are sticky. https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/pastures/Html/Silverleaf_desmodium.htm

max2 · April 30, 2020, 06:38:05 PM

May 1 - the bees and Butterflies are working the Monkey Pod all day - very busy.
Looks like we missed the cold front. Rather mild here

max2 · May 07, 2020, 07:10:09 PM

8. May - We had some windy weather here and a few drops of rain..the parrots have broken off some small branches off the Blue Gum and to may surprise some of the buds have opened.
The Blue Gum generally starts flowering here around July.
No idea what is going on but this is far too early . The weather has been far too mild this Autumn and this may influenced the flowering.
Blue Gum's can flower for an extended period here and I keep hoping that they will give the bees a great start for Spring - not now.

max2 · May 12, 2020, 10:48:38 PM

We shifted 13 hives to a new site - easy distance to the Maleny NP.
I went to check on them this morning and they are busy as. Looks like something masybe flowering.
Good to see busy bees

max2 · May 19, 2020, 12:18:10 AM

I went to visit a beekeeping friend west of Gympie and the bees are bringing in ligh yellow pollen - YES - Blue Gum.
It will be interesting to see how they perform this year.

max2 · May 20, 2020, 12:39:44 AM

It is BEE day today and this was posted on ABC News on Line: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2020-05-20/world-bee-day-bees-starving-drought-feeding-sugar-honey/12263374

It has been a tough year to date but we live in hope

max2 · May 27, 2020, 06:23:33 PM

I went to have a look at some hives in a yard 15 min away from home.

A very mixed result: some hives are very strong with plenty of honey. Some are OK - they will make it through winter. Some are poor looking and will need feding. One a dead-out with dead bees on the base. I think they run out of stores. No sign of any disease.
I'm very careful never to take too much honey. Never had to feed in over 40 years of keeping bees.
This has been a lousy season and I'm probably forced to feed.

How are people going in other parts of Qld?
I would guess that our urban friends with plenty of irrigated gardens are doing quite well

Bee North · May 29, 2020, 08:31:28 AM

Hi Max
It has been a different story up here.

Last year we had so much rain both through the wet as well as into winter (Bill was often posting on our wet conditions) . I did manage to get some honey through the spring flow but that was it.

This year was the opposite. The wet was minor and I have been taking honey off all year. I did some splits in Feb/March and all were successful.

All of my hives are strong with plenty of honey stores and nectar coming in.

max2 · June 05, 2020, 05:03:54 AM

Hi Bee North,
good to hear somebody has been getting some honey.
I could smell a bit if Blue Gum.
Keeps me hoping.
Some rain predicted for next week too.

Bee North · June 07, 2020, 05:14:57 PM

Hi Max
Can you still get flows this time of the year "down" there?

max2 · June 11, 2020, 09:09:21 PM

Hi Bee North,
We can but it is not common.
Along the coast Ti Tees can flower multiple times and bees will build up. Many years ago I used to move bees into the swampy areas were these trees do well. We had issues with access and most of these trees are gone now and the area turned into canal estates.
We can get a long flowering of Blue Gum too - two years ago we did very well on them. They will flower for months and bees will get nectar and pollen.
Every few years we get a massive Clover flow - too early. It happens here in late winter.
It is looking quite good this year as we had some rain and more is appaerently on the way. We need follow-up rain in Luly too - Clover likes the moisture.

Right now I'm keeping an eye on the Blue Gum and hope while I'm feeding my bees for the first time in more than 40 years. I'm not the only one.

Anything flowering up your way?
Do you know what happened to Bill? He used to be a regular here and a very interesting beekeeper.

Bee North · June 12, 2020, 08:28:37 PM

Thanks Max very interesting.
I have only been doing this 4 years now and every year has been totally different....I cant see much of a pattern yet!
Drizzling here. The girls are bringing in a bit of nectar from various sources - holding their own.
No...I dont know what happened to Bill sadly. He was my go to for the tropics and put me on track....especially regarding swarm prevention.
I just hope hes OK.

max2 · June 16, 2020, 07:19:43 PM

Hi Bee North,
is there a way you can find out if Bill is OK?
We only know him as " Bill" and this makes finding him very challenging.

About what is flowering - talk to locals. Try to find names when you see trees flowering. Over the years you will build more and more knowledge. It makes keeing bees even more interesting and a little more predictable.

max2 · June 21, 2020, 07:17:21 PM

Looks like a perfect week coming up: cool nights with mild days - low 20's C - it is mid-winter.
This should be perfect for the Blue Gum to give some nectar and pollen.

We had some light rain - enough to get the Clover growing. A few showers in July and we could be set for a great flow. We beekeepers are a hopeful lot.

Bee North · June 22, 2020, 06:33:24 AM

Fingers Crossed for you Max!

max2 · June 24, 2020, 04:10:44 AM

I hear that Ironbark is out near Kenilworth - onlu 25 km from here.