I moved the 2 hives from Northcote to Alphington late last year, now back from holidays, I had a feeling that these 2 hives would have some honey, they were already heavy when we moved them, but were now in the luxurious surrounds of Alphington Wetlands, down the road from my dad's place, near a billabong.
And what a place.
Jazmina gave me a hand, though I think she regretted it after we got stung a few times.
She took the photos, thanks!
Metropolis on the left, and Other.
I'm going to re-name Other soon, I think.
Osaka, Atlantis or Xanadu.
Hmmmmm.....
That's someone else's bees just behind on the left, single box, recent swarm , I think.
We disturbed a fox under the willow when we first arrived....just caught sight of its tail.
Hives on the right. Not bad, eh?
Stokin' it up.
Front door of Metropolis.
Busy as usual.
I always try to do a bit of maintenance, scrape off some propolis and tidy up.
At least that's how I start...
Plenty of Honey in there.
Other had 6 frames ready to go in the top box, Metropolis 6 in the middle box.
Not sure why this is the case.
Brushing off as many bees as possible at the hive...
...a dash over to a spare box I set up a little distance away...
...another brush, and into the box, whip the lid on.
The brood boxes were OK in both of them, though I confess I looked at only 3 frames in Metropolis, the bees in there were very aggressive, no time to dawdle when you're being hammered.
We each got stung 5 times. Ouch.
Need to re-queen Metropolis, get rid of that aggro attitude.
This is actually the next day, after I'd spun the honey, and came back and put the stickies back.
Jazmina made me a stencil to identify the boxes, with my registration number, as per DPI regulations.
Now that they're not in the back yard any more, time to get serious.
I had to replace one of the boxes, it had rotted out at a corner over winter.
That's the spot where you lever them apart, it takes the paint of, then can rot out.
They had an extra door for a while, before I put tape over it, as a stop-gap (literally).
The coupe, loaded up.
I have to get used to being organised and not forget to bring the smoker, now that they're not in the back yard anymore......
The girls were still having a go at us as we were leaving, so we did the getaway fully suited up, let the wind suck them out of the windows.
Plus, it looked cool.
++++++++++++++
So, spinning the next day.
Going from Right to left:
- The urn (for heating the capping knife, also filtering out the wax later)
The boxes, on ant-proof legs
The uncapping setup
The spinner
12 Frames = just under 20 litres of pure honey. Awesome.
I left the melted wax out by mistake, next morning there were bees everywhere, going after the honey-laden water that the wax was floating in. Someone elses bees, these.
Jazmina helped me filter the wax (through an old t-shirt), after I'd heated it up one more time. Not sure what to do with it, I gave Rima some to make some sort of cosmetics, and I also gave some to a guy for the mouthpiece for a digeridoo. That's about 2 years worth of collected wax below
Sting Tally:This season: 28 so far (Jonas 13, Edis 6, Rima 3, Jazmina 6)
2011/2012 season: 48 (Jonas 30 Adrian 1 Edis 6 Jazmina 10 Rima 1)
2010 / 2011 season: Heaps
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Honey Tally:This season: 50 litres so far.
2011/2012 season: 49 Litres
2010 / 2011 season: 34 Litres
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That's about 1 sting per Litre.
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