Well, Terry has expressed interest in bee stuff and I thought I’d update you all on what is going on. This weekend I caught three swarms. I’ll put some picture up in the gallery for you to look at (Ian, insert link here) but the gist is that I have a bunch of important things to do ASAP.
- Each hive needs a complete AFB inspection (every hive every cell)
- Re-queen – each hive gets a new queen every spring. The poor WX means I’m about a month late. They are costing $20 per this year and next year I might even try to raise my own.
- Move hives to their summer areas. Now, this is complicated by having three hives belonging to a new beekeeper and he lives at the north of the city (about 40 minutes away). I’ve been on his back to find a home for his hives near to his place but he has not come through so I’ve found a place and will take the hives out this week. Monday night I dropped a nuc box of bees off on his doorstep to remind him to get on with it … My hives will go to Ruby Bay and I’ll keep one or two at home. In a few week I’ll put on the honey boxes and let them have at putting up honey.
What else do you want to know Terry?
Lots of stuff’:
1/ How do you inspect for AFB…what are you looking at that tells you there is a problem?
2/ Are there people charging to bring their bees to agriculturalists? Like the migrating beekeepers in the US.
3/ What happened to the All Blacks? (oops sorry about that question).
4/ Does the old queen croak on her own or do the bee peons just kick her out in the cold? (you might have told me this once, but I forgot).
5/ So how close are you to where the home grown ecoterrorists and Maori separatists were having their war games?
6/ What happened to the All Blacks (oops sorry again).