Honey Harvest

[Ray Speed]

Got into one of our Supers today, and ended up pulling out around 20kg of Honey, beautiful dark rich colour and the flavour is out of this world (we all say that hey) lol
have another 3 supers to go in the next few weeks so we will be full

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

That looks great! What is the setup that you are using?
Do you sell part of it, or do you store it?

 

[Ray Speed]

Got into one of our Supers today, and ended up pulling out around 20kg of Honey, beautiful dark rich colour and the flavour is out of this world (we all say that hey) lol
have another 3 supers to go in the next few weeks so we will be full

That looks great! What is the setup that you are using?
Do you sell part of it, or do you store it?

we have a 4 frame manual spinner, just normally bring it into our bathroom, easy to clean there lol
Grab the frames out, hot knife or scraper depending on the frames, then into the spinner and away we go, double strain into 20kg buckets, and repeat lol
we normally just store it, and give alot away to family and friends, we will end up with around 60kg or so

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh wow. That sounds amazing! I'd love to "grow" my own honey someday. For now I am keeping the current native bee population happy by learning how to grow flowers

 

[Ray Speed]

Oh wow. That sounds amazing! I'd love to "grow" my own honey someday. For now I am keeping the current native bee population happy by learning how to grow flowers

Its awesome and easy
We have a nice little native bee hive as well, but I dont extract honey from them, just let them BEE lol
we have lots of fruit tree's and flowers for them to do work on

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I think my/our biggest issue is the cost of a beehive. Especially since my partner wants one of those with a tap on it that makes them drain automatically somehow. I'm not sure about the science behind it, but he insists.
I'm also trying to learn what native stingless bees look like, as I often seem to forget. Whenever I think of a bee, I think of the stereotypical bumble bee, but they don't look like that at all.

We have a bush that is running rampant, but it flowers quite often and attracts many bees, so I am not entirely mad at it. One day I hope to replace it with something not quite as fast growing and invasive though.

 

[Ray Speed]

I think my/our biggest issue is the cost of a beehive. Especially since my partner wants one of those with a tap on it that makes them drain automatically somehow. I'm not sure about the science behind it, but he insists.
I'm also trying to learn what native stingless bees look like, as I often seem to forget. Whenever I think of a bee, I think of the stereotypical bumble bee, but they don't look like that at all.

We have a bush that is running rampant, but it flowers quite often and attracts many bees, so I am not entirely mad at it. One day I hope to replace it with something not quite as fast growing and invasive though.

ahhh he wants a flow hive, if its any help, get a basic set up to start with, much easier to learn and then once your comfortable get the flow hive, I know heap fo friends that went for a flow hive first without any practical knowledge of bee keeping, and then when they had to get into the flow hive had no idea,,,,, just a thought
Native bee's look like little black flies lol

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Good tip! Cheers @Ray Speed .

Yeah, it's probably why I have such trouble recognising them. But then again, there are few little black flies that actually sting, so maybe I should avoid whacking them regardless, haha.

 

[Ray Speed]

ours are Stingless which is nice , below is a short video of one of our little buggers on a water lilly, they are tiny

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Look at that busy bee! Even the butterflies are out and about, how lovely 😍

 

[DanRicho]

we have a 4 frame manual spinner, just normally bring it into our bathroom, easy to clean there lol
Grab the frames out, hot knife or scraper depending on the frames, then into the spinner and away we go, double strain into 20kg buckets, and repeat lol
we normally just store it, and give alot away to family and friends, we will end up with around 60kg or so

I have another use for your honey; beverages! It's cheaper than you think to brew it, just takes a while.

@Mandy Onderwater I've got a Flow Hive as well as a couple of OATH hives for the Tetragonula Carbonaria natives. I would agree with @Ray Speed that many people get a Flow Hive thinking all they need to do is turn a tap and out comes the honey (i personally like the simplicity of not requiring a spinner). Many don't do their research (it can be a steep learning curve if it's all new) to find that you still need to regularly open a feral beehive to carry out inspections. I went foundation-less so I have to keep an eye on it (damn, that Flow Hive super gets real heavy...). And they're not cheap. Pretty sure we were over two grand. But they look good! And you have inspection windows all over it so you can sneak peaks.

Would i get a FH if I did bees over again? Yes, i believe i would as I only have the one so i wanted it not only for the pollinators and the honey but as a living garden feature. If i ever end up on acreage, i'll bee going with the standard Langstroth hives for sure (and many more of them)

The Honey Frame piccie shows a foundation-less frame where the bees get to decide how the comb is built. They build different size cells for different purposes i.e. brood rearing or honey storage. If you look closely, you can see they have built this comb in multiple segments (maybe 5).

The Native Brood piccie shows the central TC brood surrounded by the pollen and honey pots. The OATH hives I build have 4 x 40mm deep supers so I can extract honey if I so decide.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Cheers @DanRicho , thank you for letting me know all of this

 

[DanRicho]

Cheers @DanRicho , thank you for letting me know all of this

You're most welcome! Seriously though, i you're keen on getting bees, education should be at the top of your list. The Australian Native Bee Book is, IMO, essential reading for native bees. @Ray Speed, got any reading material recommendations for honey bees? While i wouldn't call it the best source, YouTube videos (from multiple creators) does give you insight that books don't. I find the Bush Bee Man interesting viewing but there's mountains of content available

 

[Ray Speed]

You're most welcome! Seriously though, i you're keen on getting bees, education should be at the top of your list. The Australian Native Bee Book is, IMO, essential reading for native bees. @Ray Speed, got any reading material recommendations for honey bees? While i wouldn't call it the best source, YouTube videos (from multiple creators) does give you insight that books don't. I find the Bush Bee Man interesting viewing but there's mountains of content available

Bush bee man is a cracker I like him, I go to the local landcare up this way they hold a Info morning with some really knowledgeable people and keen Apiarists, thats always a good start