Simo's Block

Snags · **Joined:** Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:52 pm **Posts:** 234

Charlie wrote:

Ive recently discovered native blue banded bees living in the brick work of our garage. When I get a chance Ill get up in the roof and shine a torch down between the bricks and see whats there. I doubt there is much I can do with the hive but pretty cool all the same.

Love the work your doing with your bees there Simo, very interesting stuff.

They like soft, shady, sandy, clay to build nests into.

http://bluebandedbees.com/nestblocks.htm

Peasants · **Posted:** Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:42 pm

Looks great Simo- we love having bees! It is helping the world too!

Simo · **Posted:** Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:30 pm

I opened the hive for an inspection the other day and saw three full new combs with most cells full of larva in various stages of development meaning that the colony has raised a new queen :joy:

. I inspected all the combs and saw lots of workers and drones but I could not identify the queen, it maybe that she stayed in the hive when I removed the combs as there were a lot of bees in the bottom of the hive post smoking.

Perpetuitas · **Posted:** Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:51 pm

That's great news!

Simo · **Posted:** Mon Mar 02, 2015 1:19 pm

I found another bee hive in an old tree stump about 200m from my first trap out so now I am doing another one, this time in a standard 8 frame Langstroth box.

The hive entrance was a little tricky to block as a three dimentional shape was needed but I found a that thick cardboard with a heap of silicone did the job.

Also I moved the top bar about 5 meters so it could get more midday shade, I just moved it 500mm each night for a few days so the bees didn't get confused, worked a treat.

I am seriously considering getting two of these ( http://www.honeyflow.com/ ) for supers, one for the new hive and one for the topbar hive which is up to 8 combs now.

Snags · **Joined:** Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:52 pm **Posts:** 234

so cool
Well done

Charlie · **Posted:** Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:14 am

Love it

Peasants · **Posted:** Wed Mar 04, 2015 8:45 am

Fabulous!

Gwydion · **Posted:** Sun Mar 08, 2015 9:05 pm

My missus and i were talking about the honey flow hives this morning and i have asked her whether she wants a new project. But we have absolutely no idea about bee keeping and sourcing a starter colony etc. (I even don't really like bitter taste begging the sweet taste of honey, or at least the commercial ones i tried) but it looks so easy and convenient, but even on their donation side they say you still need all the gear like smoker, veil etc to do maintenance.

What would you say how hard is it for a new hobby? How much time does all preparation take and so on?

Simo · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2015 11:41 am

Well I have only had bees for 6 months so I am probably not the best to one to ask but I would probably say one hive would be about the same yearly work as a few chickens.

Here is a good site for bee keeping info.

http://bushfarms.com/bees.htm

Perpetuitas · **Posted:** Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:04 pm

Hey! I had 14 beehives in 2007.

I started with 16 lost 50% and rebuilded my colonies. I gve up because I could take them with me to university, but I will start small again, as soon as I settle down.

My tipp start small and ask a local beekeeper to take you under his wing, as he will show you a lot! If you can take a course. Yes it will cost a few quit, but it is a good start (take your wife with you, as you will need help when you have good bees.)

When you start try to find (and buy) a gentle colony from a local beekeeper. Most are very helpful to get you started.
(If you have a local bekeeper to help you, you might ask him to use ist extractor as, at least in Germany, those things are bloody expensive.)

Get at least two hives as you colony will at least dopple in size and you want the new colony in a new hive.

Wear face protection! Newer work on your colony without it. An eye operation can never be paid for in honey. (Wear something tight, so they can't get in there, around your crotch a sting hurts like hell down there.)

Have you and your wife been stung by bees in the last time? Check for allergies. you might not hve one, but I did, and my ambulance is only 5min away and I needed it fast.

Dont let my post scare you! Bees are the most fun to watch insects. I something sit, while I am out for game, on a hive and just watch them. I missed a lot of game :-).

Burnsy · **Posted:** Sat Mar 21, 2015 11:32 pm

Great work with the bees simo. I am interested in those flow hives as well but will wait a year or so to let others be the guinea pigs I think.

Simo · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:26 am

So I checked the new trap out nearly 3 weeks later and all 8 frames were full :shock:

and they were starting to fill in the lid space so I supered with a WSP box and foundationless frames, cleaned out the lid comb and put some fine guage wire mesh across the lid so the bees can't get in there again but the hive can still ventilate well. I think I will use only WSP boxes from now on as they are just so mush easier to handle.

Peasants · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:52 am

Wow, that is great :thumb:

We also are gradually switching to WSP- they are quite a bit lighter!!

Perpetuitas · **Posted:** Wed Apr 01, 2015 8:56 am

What is WSP?

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