Forgotten Ridge Farm Australian Bush Honey

28/12/2022

Summer forage short fall

Despite the rain and floods of this year, we are now experiencing a shortage of forage.
I speculate a few reasons: unstressed plants, a relative dry spell of weather and the natural flowering irregularities of native plants.

However a honey flow will eventuate. Meantime, we need to keep hives healthy and strong. Starved bees make no honey.

This means we need to supplement feed. Feeding bees in times of shortage maintains hive strength and moral. In turn this protects hives from pests and disease. Strong hives resist outside challenges. Weak, starved hives soon fall apart.

Hungry strong hives will also plunder small new hives. Robbing their stores and killing the young. We have a number of new hives with beautiful new queens. Feeding also protects these young hives from robbing.

What to feed?

Bees need energy in the form of sugar. This time of year we feed 1:1 ratio sugar syrup. This is made 1 kg white sugar to 1 kg water, mixed over low heat to dissolve the sugar. The solution is fed in an open container with straw or dry grass to prevent drowning.

Bees also need protein. The most efficient and productive method is to use a proprietary brand bee feed. We use Custom Bee Feed. This is offered in open containers placed around the bee yard. Hungry bees relish this product. They carry it back to their hive for processing into ‘bee bread’. This in turn is feed to young growing bees.

In no way are our bees fed for honey production. To my mind, feeding bees sugar to produce honey, would involve huge amounts of effort and expense. The relative small amounts we feed our bees maintains their health and nothing more.

This works well for our bee yard. Open feeding might not be suitable in a suburban setting. In our case it is very safe and efficient.

24/07/2021

Small hive beetles, parasites…

THE BIGGEST CAUSE OF PROBLEMS, IS SOLUTIONS.
Part 1.

Small hive beetles (SHB) arrived in Australia about twenty years ago. Bees and beekeepers in Australia were overwhelmed. They had no previous experience of this unwelcome guest.

Our first experience of SHB was very challenging. One year out of fifty hives, we lost or had to destroy fifteen. Cleaning the mess was exhausting, and losing all those bees so disappointing.

At worst, SHB will cause a hive to ‘slime out’. ‘Slime out’ is something you never forget. The slime is actually a fungus. This fungus grows on the excreta of SHB larvae as they consume products of the hive (honey, nectar, pollen). Once this fungus takes hold, remaining hive products start to ferment. You can smell it. A cascade event follows. The poor bees become overwhelmed and demoralised. Total collapse of the hive follows.

However, all was not lost that season. Those remaining thirty-five hives gave us a start point for the following season – and a clue.

Previously we had tried beetle traps of a few kinds, considered different hive bases and chemical treatments. But the real clue and question, was with the bees themselves – why did some hives collapse, and other hives keep working regardless of SHB?

The answer lies with nature. All organisms (animal, plant, humans, etc) have parasites. Parasites are organisms that live on or because of, other organisms. Parasites cannot live on their own. Parasites need their living host. Quite possibly the host needs them. Parasites keep a host body’s immune system and lifestyle challenged, and therefore working. This in turn challenges the host species as a whole, sorting out the weak ones who cannot cope with natural changes of environment. Examples of parasites are, worms, fleas, mites, bacteria and viruses.

You may well be the cleanest human around but the fact is, you have your own set of parasites!

Our parasites don’t usually cause us harm while our body is healthy, we have good shelter and nourishing food. Tiny mites live happily in your skin. The odd worm pokes around your intestines. Good bacteria in your gut digests your food. Viruses rendered benign by your natural immune system, exist and replicate within your system.

What has this to do with bee hives?

Good question. One bee cannot live one its own. This is because it is part of a single super organism – a bee hive. Therefore, a bee hive is much like one human body, and a single bee is similar to one human cell. Human cells work together as a functioning human body. Bees work together as a functioning bee hive.

Next thing we need to understand is the life of our parasite. SHB like to live in bee hives. In the bee hive is food, a comfortable temperature and a place to lay their eggs. When the SHB eggs hatch as larvae they have plenty of food and a comfortable environment. If not removed by bees these larvae will grow, excrete as they eat, then leave the hive to pupate in the soil. In time, given the right temperature and humidity the beetle pupa will hatch and repeat their cycle of living, reproducing and dying.

If we take time to understand the life cycles of host and parasite, here lie the clues to good management.

That’s in part 2.

12/04/2020

Bee keeper's friend

Late season conditions change. Days become shorter, temperature cools slightly. Forage becomes short and bees become desperate for new food, despite honey stores in their hives.

This is when robbing starts. Determined bees soon work out weak hives. Stressed hives, small hives with young queens, hives not coping with hive beetle invasion. These kind of hives are 'sitting ducks' for robbers.

In a large bee yard hives without a future need to be culled. With no hope of recovery these hives threaten the health of the yard. Dying hives become vectors for pests and disease.

Young hives on the other hand are the future of the yard. These hives need protecting. So do valuable otherwise healthy production hives.

One way to deter robbing is use of entrance guards. A simple entrance guard can be made with 'Gutter Guard'.

Gutter Guard is flexible, epanded mesh used to keep leaves out of roof gutters. It can be purchased from hardware supplies.

To make entrance guards, cut the mesh into small strips and fold over as per photos. These small wedges are then pushed into the hive entrance. This way the entrance is reduced to the required size. A smaller entrance is easier to guard. This allows hive guard bees to keep out robbers by making the job easier.

Just one bee yard use for the bee keeper's friend.

31/03/2020

Drastic Action

Come rain, come the hive beetles. After a dry, hot summer, rain is very welcome. But it has a price: hive beetles. Hive beetles are back with a vengence. There is no escape . They are like an unpleasant relative - we are stuck with them!

Hive beetle love warm humid condition. They hatch out of the ground and enter bee hives. Here they lay their eggs. The eggs hatch, the larve then feed on hive products. In turn the larve excrete and this promotes fungus growth. Left unchecked by bees and beekeeper, the hive will 'slime out' and die.

First line of defence is strong healthy hives. Bees are starting to adapt to this introduced pest. Strong bees chase beetles and evict the larve. Ventilated bases help. This lowers hive humidity. Beetle traps can help but there is no guarantee.

Sometimes a hive is doomed. If for some reason, the queen is lost and not replaced, a spiral of destruction starts. Population declines, then the bees loose control. Beetle larve unchecked, explode in numbers and start excreting. Then the slime out starts.

One of our hives accidently lost a queen. I found the queen dead but did not find the hive. When I did it was too late - slime out!

But there was hope. We shook out the bees and placed a clean five frame nuc box where their three box hive once was. Then I placed three frames of new foundation, and two frames of healthy brood/food in the box.

It worked. The bees piled in seemingly grateful for new housing - and hope. This morning all looked well under the lid. Bees are peaceful and going about business. Always a good sign. For now they will be left alone. This is important. Give your bees the things they need, then let them work it out undisturbed.

With luck there will be a new queen before winter.

07/01/2020

Extreme heat and bees.

Summer is a challenging season for beekeepers. Especially when the heat turns up to 46 degrees or more. Bee hives can suffer badly. In extreme cases, wax frames melt, and the hive drowns in honey.

We've had this happen. It's a terrible mess...and loss.

Two days ago we experienced a 47 degrees day. This time all our hives survived No problems. All are thriving.

This is what hives need to get through the hotest days:
Ventilated base boards.
Insulated lids.
A familiar and reliable source of easily accessable water.
Afternoon shade if possible.

Ventilated bases aid the circulation of air in the hive. That said, plain old wooden bases can manage well too - provided there is water close by.

Insulated lids are a must. Lots of heat is transfered through an uninsulated roof. This forces the bees to work hard cooling the hive.

Water and lots of it, must be freely available. Bees need to easily land at the water point, and drink without drowning. We use extruded bricks. And sticks. A water point should be familiar. The water point you set up the day before might not be found in a stress situation. Water must be reliable - no point running out of supply!

Water is best close by. Don't make your bees work too hard for water. That dam 150 metres away might be too far in a heat wave.

Afternoon shade is ideal but not always possible.

Water however is not negotiable. Provide hives lots of easily accessable water and they should survive any heat wave.

04/01/2020

What do bees do in extreme heat?

They use LOTS of water!

Hives operate at around 36 degrees. If it’s ten degrees hotter, lots of bees have to work overtime to maintain optimal hive temperature.

To do this they need a reliable water source.
We offer several water points for our bees. However, yesterday’s favourite was one small birdbath.

I filled it at least half a dozen times.
Here’s a beekeeping tip I learnt yesterday: extruded bricks are ideal water landing platforms for bees.
They wick water and offer good traction. Very few drowned bees yesterday despite 46 degree temperature.

22/08/2019

Last season's new queen.

Back in February I bred our first queens. Took me three goes. Here is one of them. She was grafted from a golden Italian mother. Open mated in our yard, her brood will have a mix of Italian and Carniolan genetics. Locally adapted no doubt. This nuc hive has come through the cool months very well.
Won't be long before this little hive needs a new home.

Will be interesting to observe how this queen performes...

06/07/2019

Early winter and time to reflect on the season past.

Certainly a good one. This side of the mountains has avoided worst of drought conditions. Plenty of bee forage has produced plenty of good honey.

We believe our East Kurrajong environment produces an excellent table honey. Season after season our honey is smooth, buttery, spicey and beautifully balanced.
This year judges at the Sydney Royal Easter Show agreed with us! Our honey was awarded second place in Medium colour Eucalyptus Honey.

Very proud indeed of this award won in strong company. This year's honey entries were a record high.

Plenty of honey available. Bulk quantities for large families available at $9/kilo. Minimum 5kg.

06/06/2019

Beekeeping Daily Life #7 Condensation a re-think.

Necessity is the mother of invention; invention is the mother of necessary re-invention.

Winter is hive condensation time. That time when a warm mass of bee generated air rises up, and makes contact with the underside of a cold hive lid. Result is water condensation. This is not good for bees. They can manage cold given enough food and shelter. But health suffers if they become wet.

During summer I noticed how much heat can pe*****te through a hive lid. This becomes evident when you place your hand on the underside of a hive lid on a hot day.
Heat and cold has a way of penetrating metal, wood or plastic. Usual hive lid materials.
So question is: how to prevent outside temperature penetrating hive lid?
Answer: insulation.

This year we have insulated the underside of all hive lids. Material we use is shed roofing insulation. Purchased on a roll it is stiff combination of bubble wrap and aluminum foil. Cut slightly larger than the ceiling it is then pushed into the underside of the roof ceiling. It could be glued or gummed in place. We prefer a tight fit that can be easily replaced if needed.

So far results are excellent. Absolutely no condensation. Hive conditions are bone dry. Outside temperature (cold) has no relation to inside hive temperature. Therefore - no condensation.

Happy bees, happy beekeeper - happy life!

30/12/2018

Interesting Beekeeping things: Bluebees boards

Nearly twenty years ago small hive beetles (SHB) arrived in Australia. I remember the time before SHB. The worst pest was wax moth. Life was easier. Then SHB arrived.

Lots of devices have been invented in response to this black nasty. Traps of all kinds. Some with poison. Challenges bring out human invention. One of the better SHB inventions (I believe), is the Bluebees Board.

Jean-Pierre Mercader, a Frenchman living in Victoria is the inventor. His idea is a step outside the usual response to pests. Instead of trapping and killing, Bluebees boards change hive conditions favourable to SHB lifecycle.

This is the genius stroke. Trapping may kill and dispose an adult beetle, but if that beetle has laid it's eggs, trouble will follow. Larve is the problem, and if conditions favour larve the hive is in trouble.

The board works in several ways. Its translucent plastic construction allows low level light into the hive. Ventilation slats run full length of hive under frames. Any beetle falling onto the base slide down the slippery slats and out the hive. Optimum ventilation via the slats lowers hive humidity. Both these factors reduce conditions favourable to SHB. To my mind, the board's corrugated shape allows for an air baffle between the hive and outside conditons. Summer and winter, bees are able to manage hive temperature with less effort. From observation, little condensation is evident in winter when hives have a Bluebees board.

Hand on heart, I can state all our hives on Bluebees have thrived winter and summer without beetle traps.

One complaint: the board is sold as an easy retro-fit to existing wooden boards.

It's not.

Bluebees boards need to be placed into a migratory lid frame. Topped with a riser ( one inch is best). Then have cleats attached. (if desired).

This is okay if you are handy.

Not so okay if your husband has better things to do.

27/07/2018

Beekeeping Daily Life #6 Condensation

When a warm mass of air meets a cold surface, condensation results. Beekeepers know this fact very well. Come cold weather, hive condensation can be a problem. Bees struggle if conditions are wet. A stressed hive, is a hive headed for health problems.

What to do?

Here's an idea: hessian.

Each winter I purchase hessian from Bunnings. With sharp scissors I cut the hessian to fit just inside a hive box.

These pieces of hessian are then placed on top of the frames, just under the roof. Any condensation is then 'wicked' by the hessian and therefore diverted from the bees. During the cold months I check the hessian. Some hives are saturated. If this is the case, I remove the wet hessian and replace it with dry. Also I dry the wet roof with a towel before replacing.

Some hives are very wet. Other are dry as a bone. Why is this so? I'm not sure. But here are some observations:

Hives with vented bases tend to have less condensation - but not always.

Full enclosed wooden bases tend to heavy condensation - but not always.

Full mesh bases (Varroa type) left open have no condensation at all.

Here is something really interesting - hive roofs with a full load of burr comb have very little, to no condensation.
This fits nicely with my theory of leaving roof burr comb. To my mind, burr comb fully capped, is food and insulation for the bees.
And a foil to condensation!

10/01/2018

Bee breeds.

Bees, domestic honey bees, Apis Melifera to be exact, come in different breeds. Like dogs. Or cattle, horses or cats. Different breeds have different characteristic. Within breeds of bees, some families are superior to others. Eventually in an apiary like ours, breeds interbreed. All going well, over time these 'cross breeds' adapt to our particular environment.

We try to breed or maintain bees that cope with our conditions (hot summers, mildly cold winters). It's also nice if they are calm and easy to handle. Most importantly they need to be able to manage hive beetle, a terrible pest from Africa.

Here are some of our bees. The dark ones are Carniolans. Apis Melifera Carnica - sweet tempered bees from central Europe. These are our first pure Carniolans. Purchased from Australian Queen Bee Lines. We are very happy with them.

The gold ones are Italians. Italian bees are the most common domestic bee in Australia. These Italians have a lovely calm nature. Italians work hard and produce lots of honey. As a bonus they look beautiful. These bees were purchased from Warren and Rose Taylor, breeders and exporters of fine honey bees.

Last photo is bees bred in our apiary. These bees are mostly Italian. Who the father is we have no idea. Never mind, they are tough, good tempered and produce lots of honey.

Can't ask more than that!

01/01/2018

Beekeepinjg Daily Life: #5 Swarm catching

Swarming is how bee hives reproduce themselves. Put simply, when a hive population reaches a healthy strong number, the old queen, (or a new one) will leave with a large number of workers. The swarm then send out scouts to find a new location. When a new location is found, the bees set up home and begin a new hive.

We try to avoid this happening. You can loose too many bees if you don't. Splitting our hives early spring tends to head off most of the swarms.

But not all of them.

Here is a swarm that landed in the apiary. We offered them a new home - nuc box complete with frames. At first all went well. They rushed in the door!

Then they changed their minds and rushed out the door!

Swarms can be a good way to start a new hive. But not always. In our experience they are quite unreliable.

As demonstrated here!

24/11/2017

Beekeeping daily life: #4 Mystery solving

Springtime is new hive time. New hive time is new queen time. New queens in new hives is one of the joys of beekeeping. It can also be a time of disappointment if the new queen fails.

We've lost three new queens this season. Each little hive was laid waste! All the workers dead. What happened? Why did this happen? It was a great mystery.

So I asked myself: what would Detective William Murdoch do?

Answer: look at the clues!

The queens were placed in vulnerable nucleus hives with a small population of house bees.
All the worker bees dead.
All the frames empty of honey.
Brood frames pillaged.
Their neighbors were strong hives full of Italian bees.

Answer: these new hives were robbed!

So here's what I did. Instead of placing a frame of honey in the nuc hive, I feed them a clip lock sandwich bag of sugar syrup. If the hive had a wide entrance, I reduced it with a small piece of timber.

If there is no honey, the robbers won't show up. In the mean time sugar syrup will keep the new hive fed. A reduced entrance is easier to guard. Especially if the guards are young house bees.

Result: lovely new nuc hives with beautiful new queens off to a flying start!

Mystery solved!
I love Detective William Murdoch...

26/09/2017

Bees love w**ds. So do we!

Beekeeping Food Food For Thought #1 - Weeds

Everyone talks about the bee ‘problem’. Even folk who know very little about bees. Our learned betters talk about Neonicotinoid poison and imported pests. Of course they are right. But maybe the picture is bigger. Maybe we are part of the problem too.
John Small, agronomist, canola grower and commercial beekeeper, thinks we should consider environmental changes and farming practices that have occurred during the last twenty years. (The Australasian Beekeeper February 2015 Vol. 116, No. 8, pp330-331.).
Commercial canola growing began in 1969. Early canola varieties were open pollinated and flowered for an extended period. Herbicide use was practically zero. Most farms were mixed – crops and livestock in smaller paddocks. Roadside verges and stock shelter belts, unused paddock areas, supported a range of w**ds – capew**d, wild mustard, wild turnip, Patterson’s curse, thistles. This abundant variety of European pollen and nectar sources, resulted in ideal conditions for bees.
During the 1980’s production systems changed with herbicides introduced to control w**ds. Canola breeders focused on plants with tighter flowing periods and higher yields. In the 1990’s technology allowed farmers to grow canola in paddocks previously considered too w**dy. By 2000 paddocks were larger. Canola growers concentrated on crop growing rather than livestock. Weedy areas and verges had virtually disappeared. Financial pressures meant farmers had to get big or get out if they wanted to make a living.
At the same time neonicotinoids were introduced. Poison, on top of a tight forage time and reduced plant options, resulted in an environment less suitable for honey production. Bees and the honey industry were clearly never a consideration.
The same thing is happening in our suburban gardens and parks. Our fixation with neatness and control has resulted in monoculture lawns and gardens of inedible exotic plants A drive round one of the newer suburbs of Western Sydney is very revealing: roadsides and lawns of obsessive mono-culture, public spaces of obedient exotic plants or natives from elsewhere. Most of the wild, woody, w**dy places have gone - places that might be good for bees but bad for property values.
Why do we do this? Many reasons I believe. Tidiness. Reasoned arguments from our betters. Status. Aesthetics. Mostly property value.
It’s time to consider ending our obsession with ‘w**ding’. Time to look at w**ds in a new light. Here are a few w**d observations. Not scientific, but observations never the less:
Most w**ds are soil improvers that move through cycles. They’re opportunist, pioneer plants that take hold in disturbed soil. Often nasty plants with sharp seeds will be replaced with grass – over time as the soil improves.
Woody w**d Lantana is a great soil improver. It acts as a barrier to other w**ds. It can be easily removed but – it’s a marvellous refuge for tiny birds.
Edible w**ds occur in organically cultivated soil. They’re a great free addition to salads.
Most w**ds provide good bee forage. They are essential to your garden or property if you have bee hives. Maybe you have some observations of your own. Maybe w**ds aren’t that bad.
Are you brave enough to support and favour w**ds?

12/07/2017

Bring back the w**d!
Everyone talks about the bee ‘problem’. Even folk who know very little about bees. Our learned betters talk about Neonicotinoid poison and imported pests. Of course they are right. But maybe the picture is bigger. Maybe we are part of the problem too.
John Small, agronomist, canola grower and commercial beekeeper, suggested we consider environmental changes that have occurred during the last twenty years. (The Australasian Beekeeper February 2015).
Commercial canola growing began in 1969. Early canola varieties were open pollinated and flowered for an extended period. Herbicide use was practically zero. Most farms were mixed – crops and livestock in smaller paddocks. Roadside verges and stock shelter belts, unused paddock areas, supported a range of w**ds – capew**d, wild mustard, wild turnip, Patterson’s curse, thistles. This variety of European pollen and nectar source resulted in ideal conditions for bees.
During the 1980’s productions systems changed with herbicides introduced to control w**ds. Canola breeders focused on plants with tighter flowing periods and higher yields. In the 1990’s technology allowed farmers to grow canola in paddocks previously considered too w**dy. By 2000 paddocks were larger. Canola growers concentrated on crop growing rather than livestock. Weedy areas and verges had virtually disappeared. Financial pressures meant farmers had to get big or get out if they wanted to make a living.
At the same time neonicotinoids were introduced. Poison, on top of a tight forage time and reduced plant options has resulted in an environment unsuitable for honey production. Bees and the honey industry were clearly never a consideration.
The same thing is happening in our suburban gardens and parks. This fixation with neatness and control has resulted in monoculture lawns and inedible exotic plants A drive round one of the newer suburbs of Western Sydney is very revealing: roadsides and lawns of obsessive mono-culture, public spaces of obedient exotic plants or natives from elsewhere. Most of the wild, woody, w**dy places have gone. Places that might be good for bees but bad for property values.
Why do we do this? Many reasons I believe. Tidiness. Reasoned arguments from minds greater than ours. Status. Aesthetics. Mostly property value.
It’s time to consider ending our obsession with ‘w**ding’. Time to look at w**ds in a new light. Here are a few w**d observations. Not scientific, but observations never the less:
Most w**ds are soil improvers that move through cycles. They’re opportunist and take hold in disturbed soil. Often nasty plants with sharp seeds will be replaced with grass – over time as the soil improves.
Woody w**d Lantana is a great soil improver. It acts as a barrier to other w**ds. It can be easily removed but – it’s a marvellous refuge for tiny birds.
Edible w**ds occur in organically cultivated soil. They’re a great free addition to salads.
Most w**ds provide good bee forage. They are essential to your garden or property if you have bee hives.
Are you brave enough to support and favour w**ds?

21/03/2017

Beekeeping Daily Life: #3 Disaster Averted

Weather plays a big part in bee keeping success or failure. This summer has been exceptionally hot. Now we are having weeks of rain. Rain has delayed our next harvest. It has also softened the ground in our apiary.

All our hives are placed on metal stands. Some of the stands started to sink into the rain softened ground. A full bee hive is very heavy. One frame of capped honey weighs about 2.5 kg. Multiply that by eight and you get the weight of one box. Multiply one box by three and you get the weight of a hive. That's 60kg!
On a strand there is two hives. So combined weight is 120kg.

No wonder some of the hives started to sink and tilt!

Sunday evening had us in the apiary propping and salvaging hives with a crowbar and bricks. This is tricky and somewhat dangerous business. A fallen hive of three boxes contains a lot of bees. A lot of angry bees!

Lucky for us no hives fell over. And we got off lightly with just a few stings each. No photos of the process because I was rather occupied.

Disaster averted!

16/03/2017

Bee Keeping Daily Life - #2 Moving House

To increase our number of bee hives we breed our own bees by 'splitting' hives. From the origional hive we take some frames containing honey, open brood, capped brood and eggs. These are placed in a five frame nucleus hive.

All going well the nucleus hive will produce it's own Queen. And all still going well, this hive will thrive and produce honey.

A healthy nucleus hive will soon out grow its small hive box. Moving the nucleus hive to it's new home is quite simple.

Give the nucleus a puff of cool smoke.
Carefully move the nucleus out of its original position.
Place a new full size hive in the where the nucleus was placed originally
In the new box put three frames of honey towards the outside position.
Gently place the five frames of the nucleus in order, in the new hive. Take care not to drop the Queen!
Put the lid on.

We then leave the hive to settle, checking it once a week. When the population has filled all the frames, this hive will be ready for another hive box.

Using this method we have been able to increase our hives without purchasing outside bees. Sometimes the process fails. Mostly it works well.

12/03/2017

Beekeeping Daily Life - #1 Meltdowns and ventilation.

Beekeeping, like any primary production enterprise, has it's ups and downs. Here in the greater Sydney area, the climate is mostly favourable to beekeeping. However, the extended bout of hot weather we experienced in January/February gave us our first experience of hive meltdown.

One poor hive reached such high temperatures that the wax combs melted in the frames! Sadly all the bees died. So what caused one hive out of fifty to 'meltdown'?

Several factors, I believe. One of course was the extended bout of extreme hot weather. Location also played a part. This particular hive was subject to late afternoon sunshine with little shade. The main factor however, was the fact this hive was one of our last hives on an old fashion unventilated base board.

Ventilated base boards are a recent bee-keeping adaptation. Previous to the year 2000 all bee hive bases were non-ventilated. After 2000, a new pest arrived to plague Australian bee keepers: small hive beetle.

One management tool for small hive beetle is the ventilated hive base board. Most of our hives now have ventilated base boards. This allows the hives to manage small hive beetles, by reducing hive humidity. Beetles prefer humid conditions. It is also apparent that ventilated base boards allow bees to manage hive temperatures more efficiently. This is clear because all our ventilated hives managed the hot weather with flying colours!

Here's to ventilation!