Pests and diseases
Here is a short PowerPoint document I presented to the Moonee Valley Beekeepers Club recently. I hope its of some help in recognising issues within your hives.
Author: Tony
Autumn Actions
Autumn is here in Melbourne and its time to ensure that your hive is ready for winter and has enough supplies to last until spring. This year has been particularly poor for bees and many colonies have little honey supplies. There is only about four weeks before the season ends and its too cool for
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Thinking about keeping bees?
To be a good beekeeper requires knowledge of the science behind beekeeping and bees and having a set of beekeeping skills and practices. You need to be prepared to invest time and resources in developing your expertise to become a good and responsible beekeeper. Beekeeping is not for everyone. I meet many people who begin
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European Wasps
This is the time of year that European wasp nests are growing in size and preparing their queens for winter. They are a nasty environmental pest and have their nests in ground, in ferns and trees and in walls and roofs. If you find that you have a nest of wasps on your property, get
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Honey Honey
A lot has been written about the health benefits of honey for humans, so its good to see a study that focus on the its benefits for bees. Worth a read.
Swarm Capture
It’s now the last week of October and, on a fine day, I average 5 calls a day requesting capture of swarms. Of course I’ve run out of room to store any more bees and so refer people on. The sites I suggest that you try are: The Beekeepers Club Aussie Apiarists Swarm Patrol Capturing
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R&M Load 75 and Carla Cargo Trailer Review
I’ve had my Riese and Muller Load 75 for about 3 years and, over this time, have travelled over 10,600 km on it. I bought my Carla Cargo trailer nearly 12 months ago. With this usage, now is a good time for me to review them both. By way of context, I had three objectives
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Biosecurity
I recommend to all beekeepers, no matter how big or small your operation is, to do the online Honey Bee Biosecurity course. Currently its free in Australia for all beekeepers and required by those with more than 50 hives. This is the second time I’ve completed the course as you should renew ever 3 years.
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Trap out
Last season I took out 4 bee nests, two from trees and 2 from house walls. The attached video is a trapout I did from a oak tree. The nest was large and I filled 15 frames with bees and got the queen out. It took 6 to 7 weeks but well worth it. Trapout
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Possum Box Bees
Got a call from someone in Yarraville. A tree with a possum box full of bees was coming down. I went to the house and the arborist had already taken the box down. So I just covered the box with a sheet and took it home. As I placed it in my garden the bottom
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