Hi all,
Thought I would start with a Hello. We are in Walpole in Western Australia and just starting out. Have attended a few training courses and spent time with other people with hives.
Picked up the first hive (two brood and two super) during the week from Perth, Pulled it down to just the two brood for the 500Km trip home. Processed the honey frames from one of the boxes, 10 frames full depth and ended up with about 11 kg pure honey in Jars after wayyyy to many hours of work. The second honey box was not ready for processing as only about 50% full and not capped.
Lots of lessons learnt from this first one, like dont try to move a hive yourself, way too heavy and the support would have been great. Forked out big and got a good suit but cheaped out on the gloves and guess where the stings were....?
Manual honey extractors suck real bad, and so does not having a suitable decapping knife. I think between these two I lost several kg of honey.
Have another four box hive and nuc on order, hopefully in a few weeks that will be ready to move too.
Im a little lost for information as to what most people are doing for the purchase of their hives and gear. Retail price they are expensive and thats what I am paying, My aim is run about 100 hives (built up over the next few years). Im not a fan so far of the cheap imported chineese assemble yourself ones. Where are most people getting them from or are you building yourself? Im happy to go get the tools needed to DIY if thats the best option.
Anyway, hello and thanks
Mark
Topic: Introduction (Read 3816 times)