Tee Tree

[AUSSIE POM]

G'day,
I am new at this forum.  I thought I had posted a message but apparently it did not go.
Please could somebody tell me if bees get stirred up after Tee Tree is in blossom. I robbed bees yesterday at noon.  A old retied beekeeper told me today that you should never open a hive after 10am when tee-tree is in blossom.  Any comments appreciated please.
Cheers

[Lone]

Hello Pom,
Only you can tell us if your bees were stirry.  There are lots of kinds of tea tree. Blame our colonial cousins for that.  I think they used to make tea from certain varieties.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_tree  Round here, they call the large paperbark melaleuca the white tea tree, and the one with the small leaves which is good for fence posts the black tea tree.

You'll have to ask your old mate why he says that.

Lone

[Kathyp]

i thought tea tree was the stuff we washed with!  it's expensive and you make fence posts??   :-D

[Gary and Margaret - kiwimana]

Well in New Zealand most of our honey, well where we live in Tea Trees - Manuka and Kanuka.

I have never heard that you can't open your hives during the flowering?

I would ask the beekeeper why he said that, and welcome to the forum.

Gary

[Lone]

i thought tea tree was the stuff we washed with!  it's expensive and you make fence posts??   grin

You wash with a tree?  :shock:  Here, we put a gibber in a bucket and drive over a bumpy road.

Lone 

[Kathyp]

LOL

we do, and sometimes we pay stupid money for it.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#newwindow=1&q=tea+tree+soap&tbm=shop

[Geoff]

  Come on Lone , you've even got an Aussie looking for the definition of a gibber.

[prestonpaul]

  Come on Lone , you've even got an Aussie looking for the definition of a gibber.

You haven't lived until you've seen the sun on the Gibber plains  :-D

[jayj200]

do ya heat the water first. Just asken.
jay
over yonder not down under

[Lone]

Kathy, I reckon you are talking about tea tree oil..  I looked it up and it comes from one species, Melaleuca alternifolia.  On the map it looks like it grows a bit further south than the pom.  Actually, our "white tea tree", a tall weeping paperbark that grows on rivers, is our main winter honey flow.  Some years it fills the hives, some not much, but flowers every year.  Our "black tea tree" flowers every year too; some beeks say not such a good honey source.  But it's in late spring which is hot and dry usually and a good filler till other things come out.  There are other tea trees here also, one with a greenish flower, and one near the hives that gets masses of white flowers.  Bees are always covering all varieties.  Our bees can get cranky at any time so I've never known I should be blaming tea trees.

Call yerself an aussie, Geoff?!!  Gibbers are rocks...

Lone 

[Nico]

Paul you've never had your backside so close to your shoulder-blades until you've driven across the gibber plain.

[Wombat2]

We have a nice round gibber propping open the bathroom door to let it air. Souvenir from a trip up the Birdsville track.