Newbee bee keeper in SEQ ( Beaudesert )

[Drmaz]

Hi I'm new to bee keeping. I run a small organic veggie farm south west of Brisbane ( near Beaudesert )

A little while ago I brought a couple of empty hives which I have cleaned and repainted. I have brought and made up 20 new frames. And I'm now ready to add new bees. I did find a swam on my property about a week ago but it was 4 m of the ground so I wasn't able to reach it properly. But I still tried to collect it I was able to get quite a few bees but didn't get the queen so most of the bees have moved on ( about 25 still hanging around ). :-( :-(

So I thought I might get a package of bees but not sure where to buy them from. Anyone know where I could get a quality bee package from?  Any hints for a newbee bee keeper would also be greatly appreciated.

[Drmaz]

Sorry about the multiple posts of the same topic but it kept coming up with an error saying something about unable to post so after a few attempts I shut everything down and restarted and found that it did in fact post my topic. Mod could you please remove the duplicate post. Sorry again about the duplicate posts

Cheers
Stan

[Kathyp]

don't worry about it.  the site is twitchy tonight. 

[Drmaz]

don't worry about it.  the site is twitchy tonight.

Thanks kathyp :-)

[kanga]

Stan, welcome to the forum.  I have sent you a PM with details of a commercial queen bee breeder near you.

Kev

[Drmaz]

Hi Kev thanks for the details I really appreciate that.

Stan

[moggillhoney]

Hi Stan,
You have a few guys out your way,

John Covey -
Stu Thompson-
&
Greame Beach

cheers
Mark

[Drmaz]

Hi Stan,
You have a few guys out your way,

John Covey -
Stu Thompson-
&
Greame Beach

cheers
Mark

Hi Mark

Thanks for that. I have tracked down Johns details and Kanga give me Greames details. I'm picking up a nuc from John on Tuesday and another nuc from Greame on Saturday I thought it would interesting to see if there are any differences between the two colonies hopefully they are both nice and quite and fingers crossed that they will go easy on a newbee beekeeper

[Oak]

Welcome Stan

[moggillhoney]

I have a few queens from Greame Beach, but I have found they don't work as hard as Queens from Howard Kirby,

Typically now I run 60% Kirby queens, 20% my queens bread from Kirby Stock & 20 % mix from other breeders, just hoping to find that elusive strain one day

cheers
Mark 

[Drmaz]

Thanks moggilhoney I decided to get a hive from Russell Zabel instead of Graham. I picked up my first hive yesterday from Russell Zabel I think he's better know for native bees but he still had heaps of honeybee hives around his property. I'm picking up my second hive from a local queen bee breeder in Jimboomba (John). I'm planning on joining the brisbane bee club in hopes of meeting a few like minded folks and to learn the ropes of beekeeping.

Well I have also learnt first painful lesson. I went to open my hive for the first time to add the beetle blaster traps I was all kitted up with my veil jacket and glove. I cracked open the top of the hive when a few seconds later I got three stings on my legs. My wife who was standing a little way of watching, thought this was hilarious until a couple of bees landed on her hair and she ran off yelling get them off me LOL   So lesson learnt I'll wear some long trousers next time. :)

[Culley]

Curious, what where the prices for those nucs? I've never bought them.

Guilfoyle's at Inala also sell nucs and equipment and are good for a chat.