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Author Topic: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc  (Read 9084 times)

Offline OzBuzz

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Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« on: November 02, 2011, 10:11:58 am »
Just wondering if anyone has any experience running hives in the Victorian mallee region? What species are typically there? How productive is the region in general and how reliable is flowering?

Offline Mardak

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2011, 03:36:24 am »
Just be very very careful, there are a few 2nd, 3rd and 4th generational Beeks up there who do not take kindly to new folk. I have sat and watched the treatment meeted out to some the folk who turn up expecting to plonk their boxes here and there. The established order up there stays very very established. The Mallee areas yield some great honey flows but some of them generational Beeks are very possessive of their sites. The local farming fraternity is in agreement with the generational management practices up that way.

Offline Pete

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2011, 10:53:55 pm »
Check out the lost bee sites for victoria and claim one for yourself! There is a ballot to get yourself a site.

Let me know if you want me to enter the ballot and give you my site if i win... :)

http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/forests/forest-products-firewood/beekeeping-on-public-land


Offline Mardak

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2011, 05:12:41 am »
You should and check out the sites you are interested in. Some have the potential to yield some good flows if the boxes are there. I don't know what the lease costs are nowadays, we use to share sites and split the costs because there would be years between flowering depending on the type of flora located there. There are hundreds more that have been evaluated by the government that need to also examined. My relatives used to have a pretty large operation out Beechworth and I know for sure that many of their sites were lost over the past two decades. We would go out for a week at a time simply extracting on sites and coming back a fortnight or so later to do the same thing.

Offline bernsad

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2011, 12:44:24 am »
Just be very very careful, there are a few 2nd, 3rd and 4th generational Beeks up there who do not take kindly to new folk. I have sat and watched the treatment meeted out to some the folk who turn up expecting to plonk their boxes here and there. The established order up there stays very very established. The Mallee areas yield some great honey flows but some of them generational Beeks are very possessive of their sites. The local farming fraternity is in agreement with the generational management practices up that way.

When you say they won't take kindly to new folk, how ugly does that get?

Offline Mardak

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2011, 02:40:28 am »
Well the generational Beeks have doing doing it for a living not just a hobby, AFB and lots of other nasties get introduced. that's not saying that hobby Beeks do the disease spreading but I suppose some of the Beeks doing it for a living are not as tolerant as some folk. I might add some of these Beeks were probably belted with the "ugly" stick when they were born. As a point of interest it was beeks a long time ago who first approached governments for environmental considerations and wanted tree felling stopped or reduced. We often laugh at the Greenies waffling on about saving our forests. The beeks started it when the Forest Commission was first established. Beeks also hate burn offs due to the lost of habitats.

Offline bernsad

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2011, 04:21:24 am »
Yes but what are they going to do? Have a grumble at you? Destroy your hives mysteriously? What is your experience or what have you heard?

Offline OzBuzz

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #7 on: November 08, 2011, 09:28:16 am »
So what if a new beek came in to the area? Would it very much be a case of don't tread on my turf and you'll be ok? Would they help you out in any way or would it very much be a stand offish attitude? I'd love to hear from some beeks who do have hives in the mallee - either on a migratory or a permanent basis. Is mallee pretty consistent with its flows?

Offline the-ecohouse.com

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #8 on: December 08, 2011, 07:05:23 am »
Hey there

I have hives in the mallee.  ;) I'm currently in work up stage to going commercial and my biggest problem here is bee sites

The poster is right its bloody tough to secure "legal" permanent bee sites up here.

They almost never become available unless someone dies and then most of the guys up here divvy them up.

Most of the bee folk are pretty approachable and plenty of the local beeks have offered me a site or two on a temp basis for storing hives on. But like all beeks i want some more permanent places for my bees to call home.. Lost bee ballot fingers crossed.

Production is extreme is some of the patches.
One place out in the middle was gangbusters with the only dramas about mallee being carting water all the time.



Offline Lone

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #9 on: December 08, 2011, 06:37:16 pm »
The mallee is beautiful country.  Do any of you have photos of the mallee to show us?  I haven't been there for a long time.
Lone

Offline the-ecohouse.com

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2011, 10:57:10 am »
hey Lone

not enough brownie points to add photos yet?

Offline Lone

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2011, 02:35:03 am »
That's quite OK, Eco.  I can wait a little while for you to make a few more posts.  :)

Lone

Offline Mardak

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #12 on: December 10, 2011, 04:27:12 pm »
Keep the photos coming, great resource for all of us to share, especially where equipment has been made so the rest of us can draw some ideas from rather than have to fork out money to buy something we could otherwise make.

Offline the-ecohouse.com

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2011, 06:59:50 am »
oh the mallee is FANTASTIC with flows when they occur, its been a lean few years before the rains of last year, but this year, in particularity right now, i have never seen more yellow box, black box, white mallee, xmas mallee and red gum all in flower at the same time. If i only had the funds for another 400 deep boxes ready to go i would be smiling  :)





Offline Lone

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2011, 06:27:39 am »
Now I'm starting to get anxious for you to get your quota up Eco so we can see those flowers!  You can send Mardak the pictures of rusty old tools and termite eaten wood, but I'll take the Mallee blooms  :)

Lone

Offline the-ecohouse.com

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #15 on: December 14, 2011, 06:12:33 am »
might be just quicker to show you a friends site Lone

gilbertbeekeeping.com.au/resources.php

scroll down to the bottom and there will be some photos, much of the mallee is in blossom i'm going out to one of my sites on the weekend. i'll take some snaps for you then upload

last weekend the road was yellow...literally

so many flowers

Offline Birdswood

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #16 on: December 14, 2011, 10:28:45 pm »
That sure is pretty country. Just had another look at the Gilbert's photos. What a way to start the day in country like that!!!

Offline OzBuzz

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #17 on: December 15, 2011, 10:27:53 pm »
No joy with the lost bee sites sadly! might have to see about trying to locate some private land somewhere up that way...

I extracted the other day - mostly yellow gum and red ironbark - just over 200kgs. Looking forward to building up hive numbers - if anybody hears of any commercial guys getting out of the game and getting rid of their boxes etc please let me know..

Offline the-ecohouse.com

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #18 on: December 15, 2011, 11:23:30 pm »
have the lost bee sites be allocated already?

maybe i had no luck as well....disappointing i have a heap of hives to move out bush but no ware to put them.

Offline Mardak

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Re: Victorian Mallee - production, regularity etc
« Reply #19 on: December 16, 2011, 02:57:23 am »
DPI will advise you on the outcome of the ballot. A number of the sites were inacessible unless you have a 4x4 and then there is an issues if you use a truck to get your boxes.