Bowral Bees

29/03/2024

Honey for sale over the Easter weekend… drop by 😊

09/03/2024

It’s nearing the end of the bee season so it’s time to harvest honey 🍯

Love seeing these full frames like works of art filled with a couple of kilos of gold.

25/12/2023

Best present for a bee keeper 😆

Merry Xmas everyone 🎄

30/11/2023

Our bees are very lucky to have so many amazing flowers in our garden like these stunning poppies 😍

There is always something in bloom throughout the whole bee season.

09/11/2023

Learn bee keeping this Sunday!

Our last beginner course is this Sunday the 12th from 9-3.

Book with this link: www.trybooking.com/CBMGP

03/10/2023

When the flow is strong 💪

This hive is overflowing - the warm weather has started some eucalypt species flowering which always means a strong honey flow 🍯

Time to get supers on!

20/09/2023

A sad day for bees in Australia ☹️

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/20/varoa-bee-killing-mite-australia-eradication-abandoned-why

12/09/2023

One of our plums is in full bloom and the bees love it 😍

It’s exciting to think ahead many months from now when we will enjoy juicy plums picked straight from this tree… all thanks to the bees for playing their crucial role pollinating 👏

08/09/2023

Lots of hive inspections this week and great to see so many healthy bees!

Lots of brood and fresh nectar coming in so it’s shaping up to be a strong Spring.

27/08/2023

Looking forward to reading this book 😍

A recent birthday pressie from family it sounds (!) like a great story and also very interesting that the author uses the sound / music of a bee hive as an important plot development.

The sounds bees make are so varied: from the gentle hum of a foraging bee in the garden, a hive buzzing away busily, or the angry higher pitch of an aggressive bee as it darts around your head… as a bee keeper you learn to appreciate them all.

In the book one character recognizes a queenless hive by a distinctive sound. This is a ‘queenless roar’ and it’s very noticeable when a hive has lost its queen.

21/08/2023

Learn bee keeping this Spring!

Bees are fascinating and having your own hive and harvesting honey is simply amazing!

I have three dates for courses in September, October and November.

Message me for details or you can book online www.trybooking.com/CBMGP

11/08/2023

An update on DPI swarming rules and varroa mite. In the Southern Highlands we are in the 'blue emergency zone' for varroa so the rules about swarms are:

Registered beekeepers can capture and move a swarm to manage them as bees in a hive.

The captured hive can only be moved once AND ONLY AFTER an alcohol wash has been completed and a movement declaration for this single move has been completed prior.

More on a fact sheet here:https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1477970/Fact-Sheet-Swarming.pdf

08/08/2023

My Spring newsletter was sent out last week but if you missed it or aren't on the list you can view it here: https://mailchi.mp/b6d1d550b8da/spring-2023

And sign up to get updates from me here: http://bowralbees.com.au/subscribe-bowral-bee-keeping/

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24/07/2023

Very excited to have my honey used by Dawning Day for a very special spirit - Nectar of the Highlands!

It’s a ‘barrel aged riesling spirit in ex sherry casks and kissed with nectar from Bowral Bees’ - the ultimate winter tonic.

It’s amazing to see local people doing awesome things and I can’t wait to try it. Thanks again Dawning Day

You can get some from Dawning Day here: www.dawningday.com.au/store

02/05/2023

We have delicious local honey for sale... you can message us or order online here: http://lifeatgreenlaw.com/store/honey/

06/04/2023

A lovely article on judging honey at the Royal Easter Show:

From density to clarity, there are many factors that determine a winner at the national honey competition. But a good specimen is evident the moment you open the jar

21/03/2023

Super excited to have received awards in the local Moss Vale Show 🙌

First place in Light Honey, First place in Dark Honey, First place in Honey Comb, and Fourth place in Amber Honey. I also received the Most Successful Exhibitor in Farm Produce Open.

So thanks to my amazing bees for all THEIR hard work, I couldn’t do it without them 😉

Congrats to Life At Greenlaw for winning the Tromboncino section (a huge 7kg!!) and Most Outstanding Exhibit in the Open Vegetable section. Pretty sure our honey tastes so wonderful because of all the flowers we have at our place.

So... if you’d like to buy some delicious local unprocessed naturally harvested AWARD winning honey send me a message or jump to the Life At Greenlaw store here: http://lifeatgreenlaw.com/store/

12/03/2023

Check out the pollen on these frames!

Do you know bees make a ‘bread’ with the pollen they collect? It gets mixed with a little nectar and ferments in a cell becoming food mainly for young bees.

There’s been a sudden influx of light coloured pollen… brood frames are very full so watch your hive doesn’t get short on laying space because they’re ‘pollen bound’. You can see on the 2nd photo how there is so much pollen packed into cells that it leaves no room for the queen to lay.

21/02/2023

Honey honey honey 🍯

There’s a flow on at this site - fresh white comb between boxes and very heavy frames. The smell is heavenly 😃

I made my first 5 box hive - it’s seriously hard getting the full supers up to shoulder height! Can’t wait to harvest once it’s all capped.

20/12/2022

Nice to see frames full of honey like this!

24/11/2022

Supercedure = when your hive no longer wants you 😬

This is a classic supercedure queen cell placed mid way up the frame. This queen might have been injured or (more likely) is simply not laying as well as the hive would like… so a new queen is raised.

It’s an interesting process as the hive leaves the old queen alive until the new one is mated and laying, so for a short time there are two queens in the hive.

16/11/2022

It felt like nice Spring weather (finally) arrived for the last couple of weeks. So the bees were busy foraging on a variety of flowers: wisteria, tulip tree, and berries were popular.

16/11/2022

It felt like Spring weather arrived for the last couple of weeks… finally!

The bees were busy on a variety of flowers: wisteria, tulip tree, and berries were popular.

13/10/2022

So beautiful to see our heritage apple trees in bloom 😊

We planted eight trees a few years ago and are training them in an espalier along two rows.

Bees love apple blossom collecting nectar and pollen. So it feels like a win-win-win for us, the bees, and the apple trees.

27/09/2022

Super time for most of my hives this week 🙌

I wait to add a 3rd box with my double hives until they are fully using at least 6 brood frames and have good weight / stores in their super.

For hives I know I’ll be able to regularly check I’ll under-super a 3rd box (=above the queen excluder) and bring a few full brood frames up and drop empty drawn frames (stored over winter) into the existing brood box to hive the queen laying space.

For hives I think need a lot of extra room to expand, or I know I’ll miss a regular check, I under-super a second brood box, again with fully drawn frames.

The drawn frames came off hives in Autumn and get stored in sealed tubs to prevent wax moth. They’re awesome to use when hives need space as after a quick clean up they can use them immediately.

Of course a day or two after adding these boxes it’s pouring rain and forecast to be cold…but I’m happy knowing strong hives have plenty of space and a much lower risk of swarming.

25/09/2022

An awesome BEE day today 😊

Beginner course with an great group learning all about keeping bees. It doesn’t get any better than a stunning sunny Spring day and lots of curious minds learning 🙌

Then off to catch a swarm… and our amazing crab apples are in perfect full bloom and covered in bees foraging Life At Greenlaw

14/09/2022

Queen bee 👑

11/09/2022

It’s a sunny day so the bees are out and busy foraging. Great to see them on one of our plums and they’re also loving the forget-me-nots 😊

05/09/2022

Learn to keep bees with one of our awesome beginner courses!

We have a number of dates available over Spring - Sept 14th and 25th, October 14th and 23rd, and November 4th and 13th.

Book here: http://bowralbees.com.au/bee-keeping-courses/