Beekeeping down under

[greengumbo]

I used to live in Australia before I ever took an interest in bees. However, I had a friend visit me from Oz a few weeks ago who saw my hives and has a bit of land back there suitable for his own.

He mentioned they get swarms in the yard 2 or 3 times every year and his son is about 16 and very good / keen at carpentry so I suggested he could knock up a hive or two and he could catch a swarm.

What kind of hives are most popular in Oz ? Is there set of plans and measurements for them kicking around somewhere on this site ?

Always good to encourage new beeks !

He also asked me about varroa control.....I told the lucky sod he needn't worry about it......yet.

 

[yantabulla]

G'day Greengumbo,

My great grandparents were born in Aberdeen & I have been up there a couple of times. Very fond of the granite city particularly the Prince of Wales Hotel & Theakston Old Peculier (I know it's from Yorkshire). I can buy it in bottles down here & it takes me back to dear old Aberdeen.

Our hives are Langsthroth.

My recommendation would be to buy them (it's hard to make supers cheaper at home) however if they are keen on building them they may want to buy a super, lid & bottom board from an Aussie supplier then copy the measurements.

Still no varroa however incursions of Apis cerana (a known vector) are becoming more frequent.

Yantabulla
Coffs Harbour
Australia

 

[Swarm]

Better to buy, I think the Australian Langstroth is different to the rest. My daughter is over there and currently running 8 hives. No varroa yet, just SHB.

 

[domino]

Better to buy, I think the Australian Langstroth is different to the rest. My daughter is over there and currently running 8 hives. No varroa yet, just SHB.

How much of a problem is SHB?

 

[Swarm]

They struggled at first and lost one colony and the queen in the other. It sounds like they are keeping on top of things now using different treatments and traps. She told me there's no point worrying about the beetles, they are everywhere. More SHB to be found around the farm than in the hives apparently. That said, they are up to 8 colonies through increase, so doing ok.

 

[Bates]

Hi Greengumbo, where abouts is your friend in Australia? If they are near the coast with the high humidity levels they will want to be careful with SHB. Lots of bee keepers on the coast run hive beetle traps. Commercial ones available such as apithor have a one way trap containing friptonal (apologies for my spelling) which kills the buggers very effectively and is good for 6 months. Hives are Langstroth as stated and bees thrive out here on the right conditions we have just returned from pulling over 400 supers we put on empty last week. The one big problem out here this year is it is very DRY as you can see with all the bush fires so stuff is not flowering in areas as it has been past 2 years and they really need to have some good shade or he will get abscondering issues.

 

[greengumbo]

He is is a coastal region in South Australia about 100km south of Adelaide. Lovely and breezy and not too baking or humid

I'll send him some info. Cheers for the input !