Apiary Diary December 2021

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Grant

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The Apiary Diary. Here is your opportunity to tell us (and remind yourself) about what is going on in your hives during the month of December 2021. The idea is you can look back and see when you placed treatments, what hives were strong, what were weak, when you re-queened, split, added boxes, what flows were on etc.

If its not about your hives, please use an alternative thread or create a new one
 

Bron

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Soooo, we wandered into tiger country again yesterday, back to my hobby hives (no fiscal gain ever) the kamahi, tawari, putaputaweta & manuka are all flowering harder than we’ve ever seen. White everywhere. We’d been there last on 11 November, one had swarmed, himselfs hunting mate saw it go overhead, the rest had just got on with it. A few boxes later and me telling the girls how clever they are, as well as a bet with himself that the girls will fill the boxes I’d slapped on them with glee.

The honey will be very light and tasty this year. The Rewarewa didn’t flower well, the Manuka flowers but isn’t the right stuff & doesn't get a look in when there’s tastier options. Don’t care! The deer have been frolicking around the hives again, keeping the grass down & left evidence of a very recent visit. I only saw 13 wekas. Maybe they’re going for a second lot of babies this year. The pigeons are clustering in 2s, 3s & 4s. Heard the robins again but don’t see them because the bush is pretty thick. The tui were also really noisy.

2 1/2 hours in, the metal side roads are better than State highway 2, 2 1/2 + hours out, the State highways worse going home (it’s the laden side). The most tiring part was 3/4 hour on SH2 both ways.
 

kaihoka

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Soooo, we wandered into tiger country again yesterday, back to my hobby hives (no fiscal gain ever) the kamahi, tawari, putaputaweta & manuka are all flowering harder than we’ve ever seen. White everywhere.
its the same here , heavy flowering and the kanuka is a month early.
but it has been very wet and not as hot as you.
i wonder if the bees have to work much harder to gather nectar when it is so diluted with wet weather.
 

tommy dave

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mostly wellington, sometimes dunedin
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Nine inches of rain in December so far at my Taranaki hives. Kamahi and clover. Grubbed a lot of nodding thistles near those hives, about 12hrs worth over a couple of days - felt guilty dealing to plants with bees on them. Supered up, hopefully will see them right until I'm next up here, manuka just starting
 
175
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West Coast
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Nine inches of rain in December so far at my Taranaki hives. Kamahi and clover. Grubbed a lot of nodding thistles near those hives, about 12hrs worth over a couple of days - felt guilty dealing to plants with bees on them. Supered up, hopefully will see them right until I'm next up here, manuka just starting
more than us as well
 
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southbee

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Southland
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Nine inches of rain in December so far at my Taranaki hives. Kamahi and clover. Grubbed a lot of nodding thistles near those hives, about 12hrs worth over a couple of days - felt guilty dealing to plants with bees on them. Supered up, hopefully will see them right until I'm next up here, manuka just starting
And more than us too!
 
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kaihoka

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whanganui inlet
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My weak varroa affected hive is recovering better than I expected .
I am going to split and her and make two new queens later in summer.
I think I need three hives to manage for losses.
I want to leave my strong hive for honey .
 
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kaihoka

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whanganui inlet
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The guy who puts bees on my place came yesterday.
I talked about my experience with varroa over the winter.
He said that they now have retreat hives after they come out of pollination.
So they treat three times a yr .
 
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We seem to have constant treatements in ......every tme we look in the bees we put more o/a strips in, and on the final round as we super up we chuck a blue cloth impregnated with acid in under the queen excluder.
The bees have been slow to build this year, but after a few warmer days and some sun they finally seem to be pulling finger and many have made a box of honey in the last ten days..... which tells me that the O/A has done it's job.
This year the price of white honey has taken an upward turn with a couple of packers offereing tempting forward contracts on honey crops . I've heard rumours of $7/kg for 0-9 colour.
We've lost a few sites to some corporate raiders because of the spike, and have been intrigued to witness large dump sites being cleared from the scrub in anticipation .... just over the fence from us.

In the meantime the Manuka is coming on strong. It's just a pity about the constant Easterly dfizzle, as somewhre I read that manuka only yields nectar in it's first six days of flowering.69E8FE31-C97F-4BCD-BEA1-51F0CE00DECC.jpeg
 

Wildflower

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EYREWELL
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It's been a long day. Hope this posts in right spot.

Tried to catch a swarm yesterday, but bush was dense and didn't get queen. Put a tarp over tonight. Pushed the box closer. Bees can be sooo clever
Come on scout bees. Find the nice dry box with food!!!!!!!
 

Alastair

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One of those times it's hard to sleep and the cool of winter seems like a pleasant memory

20211216_135401.jpg
 

Dansar

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Putaruru
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Took 20 of my hives for a drive up to Karaka.
CCT Lavender. 30 hectares of purple (or is the colour called lavender?)
Had the middle child, 16 year daughter up at 4.30am help load hives and help unload at the farm. Awesome helper.
Rain while loading, all the way up and while unloading, cold wind too. Not summer-like temps that’s for sure.
Hives are strong, so just need the weather and season to cooperate.
197314BF-CE20-45B3-A9B8-66633626C325.jpeg
 

kaihoka

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whanganui inlet
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Took 20 of my hives for a drive up to Karaka.
CCT Lavender. 30 hectares of purple (or is the colour called lavender?)
Had the middle child, 16 year daughter up at 4.30am help load hives and help unload at the farm. Awesome helper.
Rain while loading, all the way up and while unloading, cold wind too. Not summer-like temps that’s for sure.
Hives are strong, so just need the weather and season to cooperate.
View attachment 1118
Do you extract pure lavendar honey
 
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BRB

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Christchurch
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This year has been a lot different to past years.
I've moved house slightly out of town. So I'm having to re learn what to expect from the girls.

They all wanted to swarm at the same time. Werid. Then sorted that. Some of the splits didn't get a successful mating I got down to one queen between 4 hives...

We're slowly on the build up again. I'm not expecting much now this season. I hope the clover comes out firing out all this rain. At the very least so they put on enough tucker for winter.

Just when you think you have a handle on things it changes. Would be boring if it was easy
 
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