Flametree Beekeeping

I'm needing to downsize the number of hives I have and so I have 6 hives to sell. All are in Paradise poly beehives. The advantages of poly hives is that they have much greater insulation than traditional wooden hives allowing the bees to expend less energy in heating and cooling. Recent tests have shown this can lead to 40% more honey produced. They are also strong, light, and durable and don't suffer the wood rot that wooden hives do. All hives have new spring queens and full honey supers ready to harvest. For the same cost as buying a nuc, a wooden hive and frames you can have a full sized colony ready to go. All hives are $450. I have just done full disease and varroa mite inspections, and inspections are welcome. Pick up in Figtree.

Beautiful honey comb finally available after a long nectar drought caused by all the rain. Dm me for pick up details, or pick up from your favourite distributor.

My stingless bees were supplied to me in a wooden box surrounded by a poly box. Over time they escaped the wooden box and they were making multiple entrances in the poly box. This left them prone to pest attack, and without the insulationthey require. With help from a wonderful native bee enthusiast we removed the colony from their dilapidated hone into 2 well made boxes that will last for the long term.
Their honey is amazing! So tart.

Check it out, I'm in the local paper! Classes coming up in January, 3 hour and full day classes at the amazing Green Connect farm and a full day course on an amazing property in Wombarra. Ticket links for green connect are in the article and for Wombarra is here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/full-day-beekeeping-course-in-beautiful-wombarra-tickets-223225843507

The hobby bee-coming very popular across the Illawarra Ever wondered what do with a swarm of bees at your home? The Illawarra's Flame Tree Beekeeper explains what to do.

Finally the lock downs have lifted and I can hold a beekeeping class! Great Christmas prezzie for aspiring/ new beekeepers.
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/full-day-beekeeping-course-in-beautiful-wombarra-tickets-223225843507?aff=erelexpmlt

Nucs for sale!
I have finally made it through my wait list and I now have nucs available for sale. My nucs are not caught swarms, or splits with older queens. I graft all the queens for my nucs, from my docile breeder queen. So you know you're getting a brand new queen with your starter colony.
$250 for the 5 frames of bees with all their resources, ready to expand into your box. I'm happy to do delivery and installation, with a lesson on looking after bees, for an extra fee depending on area.

I've just been trialling using plastic frames in my breeder colony. The frames are harder to get the bees working, but once they do they make spotting the larvae for grafting so nice! Here you can see larvae the right size (less than 3 days old), and in the second shot what a bee egg looks like.

I get a lot of questions about my queen grafting. This is a freshly grafted larvae in a queen cup. I graft all my queens from a lovely Italian worn I have, who is super gentle and productive. The process is to very carefully gather larvae from a frame and put them in these artificial queen cups, and then add to a strong queenless hive, so they feed them up and make new queens!

Swarm catching is the most entertaining show in lockdown.

Quick quiz. If you see this in your hive, what's going on?

The bees were doing something new today. Along this crack in the raised bed there was an orange coloured fungus growing. It seems the bees found it tasty because they came by in great numbers and ate the lot!

Sharing the love for bees on world bee day.

This is a frame packed full of bee bread. Bee bread is bees protein source, made from the pollen they bring in mixed with a little nectar and fermented.
Scientists have found that the bees add extra secretions and micro-organisms (such as bacteria and mould) to the bee bread. These additions help break down some of the pollen and release amino acids and other nutrients from the pollen.

While my bees have lots of pollen coming in all this rain had meant that nectar is in short supply. Bees can starve without nectar, so please get out there and check your hives!

This is the beautiful spot we will be teaching at this Saturday. While the weather isn't good for Beekeeping this week, Saturday is supposed to be just about perfect. They're are still a few tickets available, follow the link :
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/beekeeping-essentials-tickets-137245106809

There's more to Saint Valentine than Valentine's Day, romance, and love. He's also the patron saint of beekeepers — charged with ensuring the sweetness of honey and the protection of beekeepers