Bees in Winter

The other day I was across the river poking around with something and could hear a lot of bee activity in one of the nearby Eucalypts but didn't pay too much attention.

This afternoon I was waving farewell to Jean as she was heading off to a dental appointment in Newcastle. In the background to the car was all this movement. A closer look showed that there was a mass of activity in the beehive. Bees coming and going at a rapid pace. Extremely unusual for the first week of Winter at 3 pm in the afternoon. I went and stood near the hive to watch for a while.

There appears to be a nectar flow somewhere nearby, maybe those Eucalypts that were observed a few days ago. I'd better check the hive again to make sure they are not running out of space.

March Bee Club Meeting

Not a huge number of attendees. Was that because the AGM was scheduled to follow the normal procedures? Or just a coincidence.

There still seems to be a huge interest in bees both Australian Native and European. The clubs education program is fully subscribed and proceeding well driving up membership.

Half the club's hives are offsite and the remaining hives at the Botanical Gardens are OK but not that flush with honey reserves for Winter (but enough). Strangely one hive is doing particularly well. Curious?

Overwintering in this area means each hive needs a full size box of honey at least half full While at Walcha where it is much cooler they need a full box.

A few bits of information came forth during the Q&A session. Drones get killed off leading into Winter i.e. they don't get fed by the bees and starve. Typical blokes can't feed themselves. And bees do sleep. Sperm collection for artificial insemination is conducted by wringing the drones neck. The insect world is a tough place.

The AGM went quickly and all positions in the club filled.

Notes from february Bee Club Meeting

• Some areas in the Hunter Valley are not getting much honey while others have been doing exceptionally well

• The club's hives have not done well and will not have any spare honey before Winter

• One of the members spoke about an article in Australasian Bee Keeper about dusting bees with icing sugar to knock off Varroa mites. The bees then clean off the sugar removing more mites

• Bees do not like flying through dense vegetation. If you can't walk through it bees won't fly through it. An issue for the clubs apiary as it is located close to dense vegetation

• Discussion covered the use of furry backed linoleum in the hives to trap Small Hive Beetle.

• One member described how after collection 70 swarms in one season he had run out of equipment to house them and resorted to using cardboard boxes with only the top bar of the frame and no foundation. The bees built a perfectly good frame of wax with no help.

• Tip of the Month:

• One member described how he has a hive in his chicken run and it has no Small Hive Beetle problem. The area in front of the hive is the most scratched in the entire pen. SHB drop to the ground to pupate in the soil and the chickens devour them.

Bee Club Meeting

Just some bits and pieces from the last bee club meeting:

• Bees can fly one mile in 4 minutes i.e. 24 MPH

• Reports from various members on the increased activity from Small Hive Beetle.

• A member reported on replacing his queens. In one hive the new queen disappeared. A second new queen went in and she was found dead. Observed in the hive were eggs laid all over the place and not in the cells. They dumped the hive contents on the ground outside the hive. The bees commenced  migrating  back into the hive. They spotted a tennis ball sized mass of bees which they squashed. And then inserted a new queen who is ok. The problem was a rogue queen i.e. a normal bee taking over as queen. These only lay drone eggs.

• Bees only take 24 hours to clean a sticky, repair the wax and relocate the excess honey

• Stickies can be reused many times if they are not seriously damaged - up to six years

• There is a big demand for wax although the price stays at $2 per kilogram. Much is being used for both candle making and for various medicinal  creams. Hyssop for warts, Calendula or Chickweed for eczema

Too much honey

We robbed the hive again. Things were getting a bit crowded in the hive and they were part way through capping the last two frames. The process of robbing is quite quick.

The slowest part is getting the smoker working just right. In the end it received  good clean out and some different burning material. In the past the easiest material has been hessian. Old hessian bags that were frayed and useless for anything else. They burnt slowly and no problems were experienced. Then of late it would stop smoking just at the critical moment. As it turns out it was just one of the bags which for some reason had different properties. Going onto another bag solved the problem.

The fast method for me (with one hive) is a wheel barrow with some newspaper on the bottom and an empty hive box in the barrow. Calm everyone down with a little smoke and let them get preoccupied with taking aboard some honey in case the hive needs to be abandoned. They are very quiet girls anyway so there isn't much fuss.

Out with each frame and a quick couple of shakes in front of the hive to fling the bulk off the residents onto the ground. Then with the soft long bristled bee brush the last few come off and the frame goes into the box in the barrow. Repeat seven more times and then back to the cave. Surprisingly very few bees stay with me. At the cave each frame is inspected and any last bees brushed off before the frame is transferred into a plastic container which is then relocated into the cave.

A reasonable haul

A close up

The capping knives in hot water

The honey extracted and being filtered a second time via a fine mesh

The mess to be cleaned

Removing the caps is getting easier - practice makes perfect. It all goes well  although at one point the plug in the extractor popped out and some honey flowed onto the floor. But not too serious an amount and easily cleaned away. The yield is less than last time but more than we want. The clean up starts. First putting the stickies back into the hive (gently). The four that went in an hour ago are already looking transformed. In go the last four and the girls have some housekeeping to do and more space.

This is a brood frame that was moved into the honey super hence the brown stain. The wax ix stained but not the now extracted honey

An extracted frame which has not served in the brood chamber

Our clean up starts. The extractor fits (just) into the largest sink we could find. This is in our cave. It is a recycled laundry tub. The clean up is really just hot water to melt the honey and any wax bits. The drain pipe goes into the Orchard to feed some happy trees. Then the comb knives and the knife holder. Then all the work surfaces and any empty used containers. This is the golden rule. Cleaning takes more time than anything else.

The capping's after draining

The capping's are melted down with some water. A process repeated a couple of times as the molten material is filtered to get out the gross material and honey until finally a nice plug of clean wax results.

Tomorrow the next step starts. Making creamed honey.



Nothing to do with honey extraction but we managed to knock out a sourdough brick while all else was in progress

Getting back to normal, Bees, Halloumi

It was well after midday before we started getting back to normal at HHF. The previous day our northern friends returned and the four of us attended the funeral of a mutual friend. As previously mentioned housework is not the greatest priority for us. The short notice resulted in a 4am start  to prepare the house for visitors and ensure their overnight stay would be comfortable. A meal was partially pre-prepared as we assumed it would be a long day and we may not feel like cooking on such a sad occasion. It was amazing how much housework we completed in 4 hours.

The large church was packed as you would expect for a person who came from a big family and then there were the many friends and of course all teachers touch the lives of such a large number of students. Always sad to see the end of a life early and suddenly.

The four of us retreated to HHF and ate, drank and talked until late into the evening. Then spent the morning breakfasting and talking. We hadn't seen each other for more than 5 years and there was a lot of ground to cover. A warm farewell at 1pm and we went back to normality.

Normality involved robbing the hive. The girls had excelled themselves and not only filled every frame but were scratching around for space and started building comb in any free corner. Originally the plan was to take only 6 frames but the accelerated activity resulted in removing 8 frames. Two full frames left behind just in case. I processed 4 frames immediately and returned them to the hive so that the girls could start the clean up process.

 

Overloaded frames

The rarely used spinner needed a good clean



A full frame

We don't over filter. Just a simple sieve to keep out the worst of the chunks

Both of us were working in the cave. Jean churning cultured cream into butter. We thought we understood what causes the cream to turn. But not so. This batch took forever. Possibly because we didn't have time to churn earlier the cultured cream had been placed in the fridge after 24 hours for an extra couple of days before we finally had time to attend to it. 

In the kitchen there was a batch of haloumi being formed on the stove. After renneting, cutting and stirring the curds were draining on the sink and the whey was slowly coming to temperature for the final step. I ducked across the river to setup the irrigation for an overnight run leaving Jean to finish off.

 

Draining haloumi curds

And the finished product cooling before brining

 

After returning from setting up irrigation the last 4 frames were processed and being late the stickies were left for a morning insertion. The harvest was good with two stainless steel buckets well filled.

 

The capping's draining

The comb after spinning



 The frames after spinning

Two buckets well filled



Say 7 litres per bucket?

 

And then finally sit down, glass of HHF 2013 sparkling Semillon accompanied by smoked salmon trimmings and enjoy a really good DVD “The Help”. A wonderful tearful film.

Ducklings, Bees and Roadworks

Jean is having a ball with the ducklings. They follow her everywhere but then they become exhausted and just collapse in a pile. Wacky has fully recovered although being the last born is noticeably smaller that the others. But Wacky is the leader of the pack. Wherever they go Wacky is out in front showing the way. They are now known as the “Wack Pack”. Last night Jean lead them from the day pen to the house, into the laundry, through the kitchen down the hall and into the bathroom before scooping them up and putting them into the night bassinet. As usual baby sitting has taking priority over every thing else although a bit of hand watering can take place as the “Wack Pack” will sit around and watch.

The bees are “bearding” by lunch time. This is a common sight on hot, humid days with a big hive and a good nectar flow. They have collected so much nectar that they cannot dry it unless some of the bees move outside and allow more ventilation space. The configuration is different from a swarming hive and it is past the swarming season. You can see from the photograph that bees are still arriving with nectar. Another test is to hold a lighted match near the opening. One side will show air going in and the other air going out. A solution might be to make larger ventilation grills in the lid or put in a spare box with grills added. I'm loath to do this because it could create a haven for SHB. I may just let them sort this out themselves rather than continually interfere.

 

 

Despite the hot humid day after baking some savoury sour-dough biscuits and weeding another garden bed I finally bit the bullet and got stuck into repairing the potholes in our 300 metre bitumen driveway. It took just over three bags of bitumen to finish the job which is just as well as that is all we had. One hole was that deep it required some filling rocks and a bit of concrete to bind it all. But the job is finished. The worst part was walking back up the steep drive to collect more bags of bitumen and when finally finished pushing the wheelbarrow with the tools home.

 

My list is getting shorter.

Cusine Club and Bees

Last night we attended the second evening of the Cuisine Club. The country chosen was Tanzania and the food style was Indian. As usual the table was groaning with variety and far more than six people could consume. Apart from a myriad of wines there was also an Indian beer to start proceedings and wash down the vegetable Samosa's.

We brought Andi ki Kari which is whole eggs in tomato sauce, Ugali a corn meal staple, boiled rice fresh cucumber salad and fresh tomato salad and a couple of chutneys. Some of the other dishes served included Spiced potatoes, peas and paneer, prawn curry, naan bread, cucumber and mint lassi. And as usual we finished the evening with a DVD on Tanzania.

I've become a bit of a lover of these fresh salads. Pretty much made identically. Thinly sliced onion has just a smidgen of vinegar and some fish sauce drizzled over it then scrunched well with your hands to loosen the rings and let the liquids penetrate. Then the tomato or cucumber is sliced but not too thin and mixed with the onion. A little salt is then sprinkled over it and stirred through. The salt just lifts the flavours.

During the day although we didn't seem to be flat out busy a lot got done. Jean focused on getting the Andi ki Karj and Ugali done and spending time with the the Ferdis aka Indian Runner ducklings. While I ticked off the remainder of items on my current short list i.e. cleaning up two paddocks of cow pats. Not that there many pats. It seems that rain accelerated the breakdown of the pats and so I was struggling to get many bags. Still any that is collected goes to good use.

Inspected the bee hive which is very active. They are approaching the time for a robbing. The four middle frames are capped and the next two outer frames capped on one side. I'll monitor their progress but expect to rob before Christmas. Having perfected the art of creaming honey the entire batch will go towards that.

A recent article in ABK (Australasian Bee Keeper) was on feeding bees. An excellent research article and informative. It covered using different blends of sugar i.e. 2 parts sugar 1 part water, 1 part each and just dry sugar and also something I hadn't considered that is not leaving the mixture too long as it can ferment to the detriment of the bees.

When we collected our nuc in August we started feeding them to make sure they liked their new home. The details of feeding we gathered from A.I. Root The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture (a free digital copy is also available) first published in 1877. I'm very impressed with this book. Although it is not written as a research document it covered all areas of feeding and why. Things like: dry sugar is easy but the bees need to make a lot of flights to collect water to dissolve it. Not feeding excessively and over stimulating the hive. Not over feeding during inclement weather as the bees get excited and go outside only to die. It spoke about quantities to feed and ensuring the feeder fed out gradually so as not to have spikes in the feed routine. There was so much information of great value.

 

The book is a reminder of our first hive collected from a farmer on the upper Manning River. He not only sold us a hive but also gave us the book "You'll fine this handy - keep it".

Bees, Small Hive Beetle

We had the final amateur bee club meeting for the year on Sunday. Very good  turn out with a lot of new members as a result of the training course held recently.

There was a reminder of how important it is to have the beehive in a sunny place. Especially morning sun so that the girls get up and out to work at first light. The clubs hives at the Botanical Gardens are surrounded by trees and don't get as much sun as they should. Their nectar gathering time is shorter and coupled with a slow nectar flow means there probably won't be any excess for robbing this year. Some hives are being moved to another site just to ensure survival.

The NSW agriculture department has changed the way it charges for hive registration which looks as if it will cost more for the amateur with only a few hives although they do offer a good discount for concession holders. That Seniors card or pensioner status makes a big difference.

A few good questions popped up at the meeting. One was about what caused a small mass of bees to form just below the hive entrance during the day. The good news is that this a sign of a healthy and busy hive and part of the ventilation process on a warm day.

There was some discussion about Small Hive Beetle (SHB). I've listed my own observations and some points made at the meeting.

• SHB numbers are fewer in a hive set in the sun than a hive that is predominately shaded.
• I use what is called a migratory lid i.e. it is the same length and width as the box. In the past my lids had large gap inside and I used a hive mat to stop the bees building comb in the vacant space. This was a haven for SHB. I've now filled the gap and only left the standard space between the inner lid and frame and negated the need for a hive mat. When the lid is lifted I usually find no or only a couple of SHB.
• My lids also have small mesh covered port hole on each of the four sides. This provides ventilation and prevents a build up of moisture. SHB love humid environments. If the bees feel it is becoming too cool they can block the vents easily with propolis.
• I also use a SHB trap built into the baseboard called a Beetltra. It is filled with diatomaceous Earth. DE is affected my moisture and a crust can form in high humidity. This is checked weekly and when ever the hive is to be inspected it is fluffed up before opening. The act of opening the hive drives the SHB into the trap as they don't like light. Having the vents in the lid also allows light into the hive.
• Whenever assembling a new hive I use gap filler to make sure that there are no gaps in the joins to allow SHB to hide. The gap filler is also wiped along all joins to form a rounded corner making easier for the bees to grab the SHB. The other hiding place is the frames. I've started filling the slot in the top and bottom of each frame with molten wax to prevent SHB using those slots for hiding.
• SHB pupate in the ground. Another good practice is to lime the ground below and around the hive during dry times to try and make as an unpleasant environment as possible.
• There is a good article by the NSW DPI on SHB control options.
• There was also discussion about using Apithor a trap which houses insecticide and does not contaminate the hive or effect the bees.

Collecting Manure, Bees and wax, Garlic, Mulberry Pruning

According to the Bureau of Meteorology the rain is on the way. We shall see.

The vineyard was in need of a splash of water and we used the opportunity to feed the vines with some seaweed and carp mix from Seasol. Although we drip watered for 2 hours it would be good to get some real rain to soak into the ground and give the vines a good drink.

As it is the pressure pump is playing up. It won't come to pressure it can't get more than 50% of the way. The suspicion is that the impeller may be loose or damaged. It will be dismantled in the morning now that everything has had a water. If it rains it will be even better if parts are needed to ordered. What do they say at The Survival Podcast - "two is one. one is none"

The morning was overcast but warm and we took the time to go to the pool and get some real exercise as opposed to just working hard. The water was beautifully refreshing.

Yesterday afternoon two hours were spent bent over putting cow poo into bags. Almost every spare bag was used as the cattle had been in that paddock for two weeks. This afternoon it took two trips in the tractor to bring it all to the top of the hill - over 27 bags.

 

Over coffee we read that it was a good time to prune Mulberry and force it to lay on a second crop. And so it was done. Conveniently the cattle were now on top of the hill and became the beneficiaries of the green leaves. Apparently it is very good for them. They must think so as they demolished the lot.

The sun finally came out making the weather even more oppressive but you can't keep a bee keeper down. The safety gear was donned and the smoker primed. Some more sugar and water was put into the feeder and just as well they aren't getting all that much nectar judging by the small amount of honey in the top super. However the brood chamber looks good and the hive is very active. The hive opening forced another batch of Small Hive Beetle into the death trap. A satisfying sight.

Before smoking

After smoking

 

Back in the kitchen it was time to perform another melting of the harvested wax from earlier in the year to get it even cleaner. It's a simple procees. Put some water in a container you don't plan to use for anything else. Put in the wax and heat gently until it melts. Pour it into an appropriately shaped container via a sieve to cool. The slower it cools the more time impurities have to settle out. Gavin Webber from Greening of Gavin was talking about Soy candles because of the cost of bee wax. Maybe his solution is to get a hive or two. Bee keepers don't get all that much for their wax when they swap it for new foundation. I'm sure it wouldn’t be that difficult do a deal for cash.

An old saucepan for wax melting, note the impurity in the top right quadrant

Plastic container for moulding and the filtered and slowly cooled cleaner wax

The finished product

 

An inspection of the garlic stands showed that two more varieties were ready for harvest. Allsun and Purple Glamour. These two had excellent sized bulbs. We usually grow six or seven varieties although sometimes up to a dozen. Each year is different for the varieties and some do better than others depending on the conditions. Our main variety is J&M named after the people from whom we sourced the original stock. Well now its not a main variety as it had a disastrous year. We will be lucky to get enough for seed stock. Hopefully J&M didn’t have the same experience and we can get some more.


Allsun and Purple Glamour

We have this little brick paved area in front of the cave which has a clear Perspex roof. It is used  to process grapes, Apples and Pears during all the messy operations as it is easily hosed out. It is also perfect for drying Garlic and Onions. They'll stay here for a week or so before having the roots and stems trimmed and the dirty outer rubbed off.

Purple Glamour



 

Bio Dynamic Practice with Birds and Bees and some other stuff

Each year after veraison the vineyard starts to receive attention from the bird population. Mainly from one particular species. We invested a large amount of money in netting to protect the crop and at first this seemed to work. But these pests are particularly aggressive and would stand on the netting and peck at the bunches underneath creating extensive damage.

Last year in a BD newsletter received at the time there was a very good article on making insect and animal peppers. As the timing was right we followed the instruction carefully and made some peppers from a few of the birds and applied the peppers in the prescribed manner as well as netting.

Right through December and into January no birds invaded. Then there was a period of solid rain and afterward the pests arrived. When things dried out again we re-applied the peppers with good results. Last year overall there was very little bird damage. This is not a conclusive trial but it looks very positive and we will try again.

So to the bees.
An examination of the hive today showed a healthy hive. Food stores look good, lots of activity, a few bees bringing in pollen and a few drones walking about. Can't say I was happy with the amount of brood but the smoker died part of the way through the inspection and not all the frames were examined. Will re-examine the hive in a couple of days time.

The SHB (Small Hive Beetle) population was quite small. Is this an indication of a strong hive or just dry weather not being conducive to their breeding? The opening of the hive drives the SHB to the bottom board where there are some small slots leading to a trap filled with Diatomaceous Earth. After each hive opening the trap always has a dozen or two SHB floundering about in the earth. I make sure they get a good coating.

The slide out bottom board SHB trap

We made some SHB peppers last year again at the correct time and today I applied the peppers around the hive in a series of concentric circles. This will be an interesting test. Having used up all the peppers I harvested the dead and struggling beetles from the hive trap and added them to my collection which is kept frozen. As soon as the time is right we will make some additional peppers.

Frozen SHB

When making chocolate the other day I made a large chocolate block with no nuts or shredded coconut for Jean to use in making  a dextrose sweetened chocolate fudge for morning tea which she did today. It was perfect. Moist, a hint of sweetness and very chocolaty.

It broke in two when picked up

Across the river at the workplace things proceeded quickly now that no irrigation is required. The cows had demolished the freshly made Ryegrass silage put out yesterday. They had almost licked the ground clean of any that fell out of the feeder. The last of the old Lucerne was fed to the weaners with the exception of three bales which I was forced to leave in place. In a bowl like cavity chewed into one bale was a nest with 4 or 5 little rabbits huddled together sleeping and making sighing noises. I gently partially covered the nest with a bale for protection and left them alone.

Back home the NZ compost made 5 or 6 weeks ago was due for turning which didn't take long as there was a spare compost box right bedside the it.

And then (finally) got back to repairing the box trailer. We are still two bushes short to complete the task but the newly painted axle and rust proofed springs went in and all but two of the bolts. New bearings and seals and lots of grease completed the wheel assembly. Only five minutes work remains once we get the two new bushes.

Bees and watering

Bees

Bee club meeting today. Very well attended with all seats taken and lots of newcomers. These meetings are always interesting. Fortunately they are well run and reasonably brief 1-2 hours before we descend on the apiary for hands on.

There is always lots of new and interesting information transacted during the meeting.

• It appears we may be in for another bad season as nectar seems to be in short supply and everyone is experiencing a slow build up of honey.
• There is a shortage of queens for sale making it difficult for the club to perform its annual queen replacement and also to prepare nucs to supply orders.
• One of the members is preparing to do a PhD on Honeybees as bio indicators of environmental health and to track plant species through pollen.
• The clubs training program has commenced with 18 participants.
• There is a big demand for fully established hives by people wanting to get into bee keeping easily. I'm not sure this is the best idea. Sounds too much like instant bee keeping without the commitment to learn.
• We had a guest speaker who as well as being a queen breeder sells apiary supplies. He is incredibly knowledgeable and never fails to entertain and inform on the subject of bees. All sorts of little titbits.
• The proper ways to prepare bee boxes
• Thermo Wood boxes are easier to prepare
• Plastic queen excluders don't have crevices for the SHB to hide
• When harvesting wax keep it in a molten state for 24 hours for impurities to settle out as well as the extended molten period killing any AFB (American Foul Brood) spores.
• Old frames should be destroyed and are not suitable for wax harvest
• AFB can survive in foundation wax for 30-40 years. Best not buy old hives without provenance.
• A solid dissertation on identifying AFB including that it has a distinctive odour
• AFB will effect almost everyone sooner or later as it is spread easily by robber bees from wild hives.
• Some plant species will produce nectar which when converted to honey will crystalize extremely rapidly (almost before your eyes) e.g. Canola and if left on the frame too long will be near impossible to extract.
• Organic honey is extremely difficult to produce with any certainty because of the distance bees travel to collect pollen and nectar. The hives would have to be located in sites surrounded by native bush in all directions for 5 kilometres.

After getting home it was time to attend to our own bees. They received a new super with 10 frames. Two frames of brood were lifted into the new super and fresh foundation frames replaced them in the bottom box. The hive looks very healthy and there is lots of activity.

Hose and spray mounted on a block of wood

Watering

Our inspection of the orchard today showed that the trees are starting to feel the hot dry weather. Flowering and fruit set is excellent but some drooping of foliage is starting. Out came the spray nozzles and hoses and we have commenced a watering program whereby each tree will receive two hours of fine spray at its base. We have a tick sheet to keep track of the trees completed. Rather than water sequentially we pick and choose depending on the state of the tree and its crop value.

We find this method very effective in slowly wetting the soil and penetrating into the ground without run off. In all about 12 -14 trees can be watered simultaneously.

Heat, Wind, Bees

The wind is back drying out everything and it is hot.

The bees love it. The hive is extremely active. The inspection showed that they have almost finished drawing out the last foundation wax. Tomorrow we'll put another super on with 10 new foundations.

Having read on another blog that the blogger was not bothering with a queen excluder it seemed worth the experiment to go without one. The queen is marked and easy to find and it is easy enough to put in an excluder later and any brood in the upper super will hatch within 5 weeks. Giving her access means that she has more space to lay should she be prolific and run out of brood space. The alternative would be to move some brood up to the top super and put in a queen excluder. We will move the two frames of brood up any way but I'm curious as to what will happen if the queen gets free range of the hive.

Opening the hive drives Small Hive Beetles down into the trap in the base which is a good thing. After checking the hive I pulled out the trap and there were about a dozen SHB running around. After stirring the diatomaceous earth in the trap it was reinstalled. We've found that if there is a good depth of diatomaceous earth then all it needs is a stir to freshen it up and make sure it is soft and fluffy and the SHB get a good coating and can't get out. In high humidity or wet weather the diatomaceous earth tends to form a crust may need to be replaced with soapy water. Soapy water is fine but it starts to stink in just a few days requiring more regular cleaning.

Despite all the hot wind we ran the mulcher for a couple of hours and managed to process the bulk of the foliage from the eucalypts that we remove a couple of weeks ago. Five barrow loads of mulch was put around various fruit trees in the house garden where it is less likely to be spread by active chooks.

Some Sundays

There is a rumour that some people use Sunday as a rest day and even sleep in. We of course are a bit different (or just strange) and got up early for no good reason other than to get on with some chores. John was off to the monthly amateur bee club meeting this morning at 9.30 am but between us and before leaving the chooks were let out, gardens watered, a bit of cleaning up in the kitchen and some computer work was completed.

The milk collected two days ago finally got skimmed. Some of the cream (just a little bit) was kept for a future meal, 6 litres of milk was bottled for teas, coffees and 4 legged kids and the rest went into Provolone (including the rest of the cream). The success of the last one spurred some more experimentation (fully documented of course).

The calibration of the Hygrometers is working thanks to now using a plastic bag which doesn't have a hole to leak out the humidity. As it takes 12 to 24 hours each adjustment has to be retested over that period. Slow but successful. With one the digital Hygrometer there wasn't an obvious adjusting screw and the variation was just written on the case.

The Mandarin wine has still not commenced fermenting. Put the juice into smaller fermenters with almost no space between the liquid and airlock to prevent oxidisation. The only thing that comes to mind as the problem is maybe too much SO2 has been added or that there is not enough yeast nutrient. Will examine the options shortly.

The bee club meeting was packed. Lots of new comers in attendance. The planned commencement of the training course in September is booked out, The scheduled bee field day at Tocal in late September is organised and is regularly well attended. One of the members is planning for her PhD and is looking at bees to test for heavy metals in the environment.

After the club meeting and back home a little time was spent with our own bees installing the Small Hive Beetle trap. They are settling in and busy (the bees not the SHB). Later this week a full inspection will be conducted.

All that brought us to 2 pm. Just to show life is not all drudgery we adjourned to the Provencal Garden and conducted a taste comparison between our mock Roquefort and a shop bought Roquefort collected yesterday at Gloucester. This was aided by a shop bought beer. A German beer on sale at Aldi which is made to the German standard of using only Grain, water, hops and yeast. Also in attendance was a good book and a hat to shelter from the warm late Winter sun. At some point before commencing the afternoon chores a little nap was held with the sun warming the back.

It may seem pretty silly buying cheese and beer when there is a pantry full of the stuff but it's important to always be evaluating your own products against the industry standard so as not to narrow the palate. To that end we purchased about 8 cheese samples in Gloucester. Not that extravagant as they were only small slices. And to come completely clean we also purchased six different bottles of Pinot Noir to compare against our own which was made for the first time this year.

The Bees Arrive

We left home at 1 pm to drive to Peats Ridge to collect the bees. There was a little confusion about the location of the paddock where we would meet the apiarist but by allowing plenty of time we arrived at 2.30 still 30 minutes early.

There were certainly plenty of bees. At a guess some 40-50 boxes each holding 2 nucs. We were only there 15 minutes. Enough time to transfer 4 frames into our box, marking the queen with a red dot on her head and securing the load on the ute.

The trip home was a little faster and the bees were installed in their new home. A puff of smoke at the entrance as the cover was removed to make sure they didn't all rush out at once and the job was done.

Newly arrived bees

To help them acclimatise better and ensure they have plenty of food a syrupy mixture of sugar and water was installed at the entrance.

Feeder installed

Home Hill Farm seems more complete now that we have resident bees looking after us.

Bees

Well our bees are coming. Tomorrow afternoon we will collect the nucleus at Peats Ridge just over an hour's drive away. A couple of weeks ago when we were advised the nuc would be ready the preparations were started. It was a surprise as it wasn't expected until October.

The previous hive was located in a convenient spot (convenient for us) but it turned out too shady. The stand has been relocated to a sunnier position but still convenient to observe and access without being in the flight path.

The base board, brood box and lid have been cleaned and a fresh coat of paint added. Six frames have been scrapped and then flamed with a gas burner to sterilise and a hive entrance closure fabricated. The last step before embarking on the journey will be to add foundation wax to the frames.

The timing is perfect for Spring flowering. We are not in need of honey but not having at least one hive on the property for the first time since we arrived over 20 years ago has left us with a feeling that something is missing. It didn't help to have to pass the vacant hive stand each day. There seems to be something special about having your own bees. I don't know how to describe the feeling. maybe its just that everything seems right when they are here.

Bee Notes from Club Meetings

Just some random notes from the monthly local amateur Bee club meetings which are interesting:

• Worker bees have a lifespan of 6 weeks or less.
• Re-queening should be done every 1-2 years to maintain strong and healthy hive.
• Ask the queen supplier to mark the queen before they ship.
• Don't use too much smoke when searching for the queen.
• Queens run to a darker area when the hive is open.
• When replacing the queen kill the old queen and leave the body in the hive and insert the new queen.
• Check on the new queen after 2 weeks to make sure she is laying eggs
• Queens are sometimes easier to find on the sunny side of the hive in the mornings and the cooler side in the afternoons.
• Harvesting uncapped honey is not recommended as it candies quickly.
• Paint hive lids brown in Winter to help the bees keep warm.
• Clipping of half the queens wing will stop her from flying with the swarm and they will return home.
• After collecting a swarm on foundation lock them up in a cool place for 24 hours to encourage them to draw out the comb and let them out in the afternoon.
• Brood comb should be replaced progressively. Take out second frame from one side and 3^rd frame from the other. Slide the outside frames in and insert two frames with foundation. Place the removed brood comb into the honey super.
• Some bee keepers find that having half the base board covered in mesh gives best results.

Bee Keeping

We having been keeping bees for more than 20 years. Anything from 1-5 hives at any one time. However two years ago we lost all three of our hives to Small Hive Beetle infestation. To be fair our lack of attention was the contributing factor with SHB being the instrument of their demise.

After losing the hives it was decided to raise our skill level by joining the local amateur bee keepers association. This has been a wonderful experience. The club has 20 plus hives in the apiary and each month there is an opportunity to work with knowledgeable people and gain hands on experience. There is even a mentoring program and plenty of experienced people to contact for advice.

 

Last year we acquired a nucleus through the club and commenced bee-keeping again. However during the fortnightly inspections in Summer we noticed the brood numbers diminishing steadily until the hive ran out of bees. At first the thought was that the queen had died but eventually with some research it was discovered that the lack of pollen had suspended egg laying. As it turned out a few hives in the club apiary suffered a similar fate. Had we known earlier (lack of experience) it may have been possible to relocate the hive to a pollen rich area. Or last resort feed pollen.

The reasons for only getting one hive was multi fold. 1) We didn't need that much honey. 2) One hive was plenty for pollination in our orchard and garden. 3) One hive would make the bee keeping task more manageable and we could spend more time observing and inspecting.

Well all that was wrong. At a recent club meeting an experienced retired apiarist said that you need at least 3 hives and 5 would be better. By having comparison hives it is easier to see if the problem is queen related, hive related or general conditions related. With multiple hives it is possible to create a replacement if one is lost or in bad times combine a weak hive into a stronger hive to save it. And finally the managing of multiple hives increases the skill level.

 

So we wait until Spring and start again.



One hive stand, no Bees

First Spring Vegetables, Bees, Budgets and The Pond

First Spring Planted Vegetables

Japanese Climbing Cucumber

This week the first zucchinis were picked. All baby size but just perfect in freshness and flavour. One of our favourite ways to serve is sliced longways in half and fried in Extra Virgin Olive Oil drizzled with some soy sauce and served warm either as a nibble with wine or as a side dish with the main course.

Yesterday the first two Lebanese Cucumbers were picked. Only small, no more than 150 mm in length so that the seeds are immature. Cut off the bitter top and tail then slice lengthwise and served with a little sprinkling of coarse salt. The slight coolness of the interior contrasting with the sun warmth of the skin.

Tomatoes over 2 metres Tall

A pleasant surprise to find two ripe Beefsteak Tomatoes. Also found two Hungarian Wax Capsicums ready to go. Must be a good season as this is the earliest harvest of these two we have ever had.





Rattlesnake Beans

The rattlesnake beans are flowering more heavily and multiple tendrils have climbed the baling twine with some already tangling at the top. One day it would be interesting to see just how high they might grow. On the other hand that might awaken giant up there. The early flowers are already beans 75 mm in length. Another few days and we should be eating our first crop. Again we favour a simple recipe. Top and tail steam lightly until they change colour slightly then drizzle with Walnut oil and again a light sprinkle of salt. Serve as an entrée or with the main course.

Bees

Bee Hive

Bees are so important for successful pollination. With so many fruit trees and vegetables growing we find it critical to have our own hives. The free honey that comes with the hive is a bonus that more than justifies the small amount of work to maintain them. Our hive numbers fluctuate. We try to catch any swarms that form, sometimes these are not viable. As with so many other projects we can’t claim any great expertise but we try our best. Sometimes we lose a hive because of our poor management and this encourages us to take more care. Reading the bee books and experience improve our performance ,however we yearn to spend time with an experienced apiarist to get a better grounding.

Budgets

When we first began this low income lifestyle it was imperative to understand how much we were spending and on what, as well as to be able to mould our monthly outgoings to our varying monthly incomings. There was also a goal to put some money aside each month to service the remaining mortgage and when it evaporated that surplus was needed to build a reasonable buffer against lean times. Initially we set the buffer at a minimum of six months then as opportunities arose grew it to 2 years. That means if we were unemployed for two years, we would not be destitute.

The critical tool for achieving this was the budget. The initial setting up requires a little effort. There are free software tools available on the web but we chose to use Microsoft Excel. The time consuming work revolves around gathering the historical data of the past 12 month’s expenditure. In our case, we had a shoe box with the past years shopping dockets and invoices from the various utilities etc. Once sorted, the task wasn’t too bad. Starting with expenses sets the scene because it dictates how much you must earn. The breakup of categories depends on what needs to be tracked. Telephone, fuel and electricity are three classifications it pays to keep separate at first as they can be reduced. After twelve months of targeting fuel, telephone and electricity reductions personal behaviours change permanently.

At first it is a good idea to have a lot of categories to track in order to build a bit of history. Personal items mostly involve discretionary spending and we tracked these by individual. Shopping was broken into a number of categories such as food, wine, pet food, seeds and seedlings, fish, meat, cheese making supplies etc. The motor vehicle costs are split between fuel, services (including tyres & batteries) and registration and insurances.

The budget then consisted of four columns for every month ie Planned Expenditure for the month, Last Year’s expenditure for this month, Actual expenditure for this month and the variance between the Plan and Actual. There was a subtotal of expenditure for the month at the bottom, followed by the income items for the month by individual and a subtotal for income. Income and expenditure were subtracted to see if there was a profit or loss for that period, this could then be either put aside as savings or put towards the mortgage.

Every month, once the numbers were complete, we would look at the variances over a cup of tea and discuss progress. Sometimes the savings were false as the expenditure had been deferred to the following month. In these cases we adjusted the plan accordingly. If there were true savings or overspends, we assessed why and discussed future actions.

One benefit of laying out the whole year’s expenditure by month is that one off big bills such as Home Insurance are visible ahead of time and can be accommodated accordingly.

Although we use a Credit Card to pay for shopping and other outgoings we never ever not pay off the full amount each month. Better to have a few lean months and go without some things than needlessly incur interest payments.

A surprising thing happens when the mortgage is paid off. Suddenly there is this quite a large amount of money which doesn’t need to be spent. Depending on the size of your mortgage and repayments, this can be a significant sum. At this point the sensible thing to do is forget you have the surplus. Don’t be silly and try to justify its spending as some form of reward. Put it straight into a special savings account with the best interest you can get and build up your security buffer.

When we want something special such as a new large screen TV then we set up a savings program to get it. This serves three purposes. Firstly, there is a separation of time between your desire and the actual event. This is an ideal situation to ensure that your interest in the acquisition is not a passing fad. Secondly, by saving separately you confirm that you have the long term funds to contribute to the new object. Thirdly, waiting for something increases the pleasure. Not only satisfaction of reaching the savings level needed, but then the purchase and use afterward.

One important shopping tool that we always use is discussion. Anything that is not a standard shopping item on a list is not purchased without prior discussion. And that means anything irrespective of the value. An item of clothing, a new tool, a book all are bounced off the other partner. This discussion starts with do we really need it and progresses through is there are better way of getting it to is it the best model ie should we pay extra and get a higher quality more expensive item with a greater duty cycle. We don’t set a minimum dollar limit to discussion items. Every dollar adds up.

Speaking of dollars all loose change is confiscated in this household. The eye opener is how often this results in another $100 going into savings or off a mortgage.

Two other planning tools are useful. The first is the Capital Replacement Program. This is a list of all our major appliances such as washing machine, dishwasher, freezers etc. Against each are its age and an estimate of when it may need to be replaced either because of age or inefficiency and a generous estimate of cost. When planning each year’s budget a quick reference to the Capital Replacement Program allows the insertion of any potentially large expenditure. The second tool is the Repairs and Maintenance Plan. This lists all the big jobs. Painting the house outside, painting certain rooms, fencing replacement, additional paving etc. Again against each item the associated costs and when it should be scheduled. And again this is referenced when planning the new year’s budget.

There is surprisingly little effort required in maintaining these plans and budgets once established. Gradually from year to year the categories change as the process is streamlined and we feel the situation is under control.

Pond

The Pond

Being so high up in the valley we don’t have ready views of bubbling creeks, dams or rivers. Our solution was installing a pond as our water feature with resident gold fish and water lilies. There is a flow form waterfall which we activate from time to time. We don’t have the pump operating all the time as we found there was a correlation between the flowing water and the reproduction processes of the resident gold fish. The original 7 gold and one black have grown considerably over the years. We now practise sensible birth control by switching on the pump less frequently.

The design of the pond has meant a draining and resurfacing every few years was necessary. Some of this may be a result of the odd dog cooling off on a hot day which may have breached the membrane. A small design fault also causes cracks. The pond is cemented too closely to the pergola uprights which flex from time causing the concrete to fracture. Either way the occasional refurbishment is minor to the pleasant vista and gurgling sound of running water nearby. In the evenings there is beautifully serene scene across the pond and its foliage with a backdrop of the valley beyond.