Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a Beek from southern climes
I’ve been around for a year or two
building warres and top bar hives
(apologies Richards and Jagger, Sympathy for the devil)
My name is Jon. I’m a natural beekeeper born a Kiwi and living in Canberra
Australia. I have 5 Warre hives and one cathedral (a top bar hive designed by
Corwin Bell of Backyardhive <https://backyardhive.com/> in the USA)
I’ve been talking to Paul since the Learning from the Bees Conference which we
both attended in Dorn, Holland last year. We have kind of gravitated towards
the idea that a periodic seasonal report from the other side of the world may
be of some interest to you in OxNatBees.
My particular interest in the Oxfordshire group, as opposed to any others, is
that my grandfather hailed from near Abingdon before living and working in
Oxford and subsequently migrating to New Zealand “for his health”. I myself
lived in Oxford for several years in the 1970s, doing what ever self respecting
antipodean does and that is the big trip to Europe.
Not only did the conference spark this communication but since returning a
fellow natural beekeeper friend Warren who also attended the conference has set
up a Natural beekeepers group within the Canberra Beekeepers association. We
meet fortnightly for coffee and periodically for dinner.
Spring and early summer 2018 - 2019
2018 was a very dry year. November and December were better but what rain we
had came late spring so the all important first flush of spring didn’t really
happen. Yes we had blossoms and flowerings of imported and indigenous species
but most bee keepers reported little or even no honey at the December meeting
of the Beekeepers Association. I assume the flowers have less nectar and pollen
in dry years.
The better rainfall has extended into January and we hope it will improve life
for our bees. There have been some encouraging signs as we move into mid
summer. I opened a 3 box Warre last weekend and found the top box with 8 frames
of capped honey with brood, honey and pollen further down. However much will
depend on what happens over the rest of summer. At the moment the country is
experiencing a series of heat waves with some areas hitting the high 40s. In
Canberra we are having daily maximums this week of 35-40C.
There was an outbreak of American foul brood in one of the northern suburbs of
Canberra. I live in the south but have one hive in the north which was
extremely healthy when inspected after the warning went out.
The swarming season was very light. The president of the Association
specialises in extractions of bees who have taken up residence in awkward
places like roof spaces and wall cavities. He told me the other day that he had
less call outs this spring and that the bees had accumulated less honey than in
recent years. It made extractions easier but his comment was ‘good for me but
not good for the bees’. He noted anecdotally that bees were not clustering
after swarming but going straight to their new chosen residences so must’ve
scouted them out prior to the swarming. I only caught 1 swarm in a bait hive
this spring and had 1 call from a member of the public notifying me of a swarm
in a tree in a local park. This in comparison to calls from the public every
couple of days last year. Didn’t even catch the swarm in the park as they took
flight just as I was setting up to catch them and made a home in a hollow
concrete power pole which had a small hole in it about 4-5 metres up. Out of my
league that one.
On a personal note I’m concentrating on keeping my bee friendly garden alive
with a combination of irrigation and hand watering. My hives are situated to
provide shade in the afternoons and some in more exposed sites have been
covered with shade cloth to protect them morning and afternoon as the
temperatures rise very quickly in the mornings of the very hot days. An
adequate water supply is the other priority. There are two bird baths and a
small fish pond in my garden all with safe access for bees. The bees seem to
avoid one of the baths which oddly enough is the one I see the birds using most
often.
The bees are busy. Carrying water is a priority it seems as I haven’t seen such
concentrations of bees around the water sources before. There is not much
pollen being collected now as opposed to earlier in the season. There is quite
extensive bearding as one would expect. Some colonies on the sides of the hives
and others in a bee puddle on the table the hives are sitting on. The Warre
hives are doing well in terms of being healthy with the exception of one which
lost its queen over winter and despite a supercedure cell and 4 queen cells had
not managed to requeen themselves. The cathedral hive has built a comb a week
for several weeks after the spring inspection early November which seems rather
amazing to me. Apart from 1 or 2 combs early on I have not harvested any honey
preferring to wait and see what the season brings. Interestingly there are
very few European and paper wasps around this year whereas they were abundant
last year.
So it has been a tough spring/summer so far. The saving grace has been the
better than expected rainfall in December. Makes me wonder if the bees somehow
read the signs early on and many decide not to swarm but to stay home and build
on what they’ve got. Smart bees.
Kind regards
Jon Darvill
