Why buy the bees. Make up a nuc, put 5 empty frames in it, add some slum gum, or old wax from a local beek, add 4 drops of lemon grass oil on top of the frames and place it 6' or more above the ground and catch your own.Jim
Apart from the fact I have been smelling the honey walking past the hives for the last month I can now see the Tallowwood in flower - can see 5 in the National Park behind and 3 in the neighbors over the road and there are 2 up the street. The bees are making a bee-line straight toward a group of 3 in the Park - It's starting - better start working on more boxes and frames.
Quote from: sawdstmakr on August 12, 2015, 12:54:32 pmWhy buy the bees. Make up a nuc, put 5 empty frames in it, add some slum gum, or old wax from a local beek, add 4 drops of lemon grass oil on top of the frames and place it 6' or more above the ground and catch your own.JimI had considered whether there may be some feral swarms to catch, but given I don't know any local beeks, lemon grass oil is expensive and hard to get, and I have no 6' pole to mount on (my property is a barren wasteland of weedy grass), I guess I'm trying to take the easy way out. However, the pole I can fix, and I can build a nuc, so I'll look into it a bit more.
Quote from: sawdstmakr on August 12, 2015, 12:54:32 pmWhy buy the bees. Make up a nuc, put 5 empty frames in it, add some slum gum, or old wax from a local beek, add 4 drops of lemon grass oil on top of the frames and place it 6' or more above the ground and catch your own.JimI have traps in trees, I screw a hook into a branch and use a rope over the hook to pull them up, and I have traps on top of an old pay phone. It seems to be the favorite place for swarms. You do not want to place them where you have to climb a ladder to get it down. JimI had considered whether there may be some feral swarms to catch, but given I don't know any local beeks, lemon grass oil is expensive and hard to get, and I have no 6' pole to mount on (my property is a barren wasteland of weedy grass), I guess I'm trying to take the easy way out. However, the pole I can fix, and I can build a nuc, so I'll look into it a bit more.
Lol Jim :)As to the original question, our line Wattle tree is towing madly again. how many times in one season can those things flower????I have yet to learn that knack of identifying all the various gums in the surrounding properties, or see when they are flowering. Wish I had a mentor to help in that respect. I have a "trees of Australia" books, but they all look the same to me :)
Have read that Wattle is poor for nectar and poor for pollen bit of a bummer as I like the look of them and species flower for about 8 months
Have read that Wattle is poor for nectar and poor for pollen