Apiary Diary February 2021

[tristan]

NIce .... to hear that other people get machinery break downs. I thought it was only us !

there is always that !
the kicker this season is finding all the design faults in the new gear. working out how stuff works and how to rebuilt the plant to suit it.

at least the trailer is still going. a local beek had a hired trailer snap the leaf springs.

 

[James]

I still don't understand why people load up trailers with massive loads and connect them to a lil old hilux. On a big long hill the load behind has zero respect for the donkeys trying to slow it.
Even in our big trucks, a load of 48 hives has the brakes glowing at the bottom of the long hills..... and that's with an engine retarder.

 

[Gordie]

I still don't understand why people load up trailers with massive loads and connect them to a lil old hilux. On a big long hill the load behind has zero respect for the donkeys trying to slow it.
Even in our big trucks, a load of 48 hives has the brakes glowing at the bottom of the long hills..... and that's with an engine retarder.

dead right mate, I would shudder at the thought of a loaded trailer with no load on my truck....recipe for disaster. Not a nice feeling when one runs out of braking! Been there done that, in trains and trucks!

 

[tristan]

I still don't understand why people load up trailers with massive loads and connect them to a lil old hilux. On a big long hill the load behind has zero respect for the donkeys trying to slow it.
Even in our big trucks, a load of 48 hives has the brakes glowing at the bottom of the long hills..... and that's with an engine retarder.

i don't know if the beek overloaded it but highly likely a hired trailer has been overloaded to hell and back.

but yeah its "only going just down the road" or "i don't want to do two trips".
go to any landscaping place and you see cars going out with 2 ton of soil in a little unbraked trailer towed by some undersized car.
it doesn't help that trailer manufactures encourage it "buy our 2 ton trailer its built to carry 3 ton".

but at least years ago it was the little old hilux that crawled along, so you where careful.
these days its big powerful utes that can easily go way to fast. that really increases the amount of pounding on the trailer.

 

[John B]

I had a a few cells left over so I went to re-queen a friends two hives this morning. Had to take the honey off first so they were bit stirred up. The first Queen was on the outside wall of the second box but at least I found her, the second Queen I never saw despite going through both boxes four times but it was trying to supersede anyway so I stuck a cell in. It's embarrassing when you can't find the Queen and someone else is watching. I normally miss about one in 50. My friends hives have nothing but plastic frames and they are just so much more difficult to work, with the frames in the second brood box especially being waxed solidly to the end walls. These are two well looked after hives but they take me twice as long and I have to work twice as hard compared to my own hives with wooden frames.

 

[tommy dave]

Taranaki hives. Late flow. Went through them today, flow still going strong, spotted zero varroa in a couple of hundred between frames drone cells across the hives. Empty stack got populated by a swarm from hives across the road not that long ago, they're on track to two boxes of honey, one marked queen in my collection now. Will pull honey and treat at Easter.

 

[kaihoka]

Taranaki hives. Late flow. Went through them today, flow still going strong, spotted zero varroa in a couple of hundred between frames drone cells across the hives. Empty stack got populated by a swarm from hives across the road not that long ago, they're on track to two boxes of honey, one marked queen in my collection now. Will pull honey and treat at Easter.

What is your late flow .
We still have the odd kanuka flowering here .
And white rata just finishing , its so reliable every yr .

 

[tommy dave]

What is your late flow .
We still have the odd kanuka flowering here .
And white rata just finishing , its so reliable every yr .

Didn't go looking too hard, but there was plenty of clover around

 

[James]

Welll, whadya, just as yer cruisin along in your own little world.... the truck cab wrnt ballistic. I thought we’d hit the bridge , blown a tyre, doomed....
Nah .... just another covid lockdown.

 

[Grant]

Just a little look ahead to March and a new format for our apiary diary and beekeeping chat.

Your Beekeeping World March 2021for whats going on in your land of beekeeping
Hive Inspection Logbooks for a detailed look at your hive or apiary
and the Brewtime Yarn March 2021 for everything else non beekeeping.

We'll drop into the new format from tonight, just so I can help with any confusion around the new formats.