beekeeping

Winterising the Bees and the Farmstay Cottages

Submitted on Monday, June 27, 2011 - 08:49

Winter is definitely here! It's the time of year when we stack lots of firewood for use by our guests staying in the farmstay cottages during the NSW school holidays. There's nothing quite like a cosy fireplace on a cold winter's night, but we're also mindful that it means we need to plant lots more trees during the course of a year to make up for the logs we use and the carbon emitted. We plan for the farmstay to be self-sufficient in years to come, so a woodlot is an important (and beautiful!) part of farm planning.

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Escaping queens, Kiwis, sugar vs smoke and barefoot beekeeping!

Submitted on Sunday, May 8, 2011 - 04:01

Had a lovely time with our Wwoofers (willing workers on organic farms) from New Zealand, Craig & Courtney, over the last week. We visited the hives to start getting the bees ready for winter, removing honey supers so they won’t have such big houses to keep warm during the winter months. (Bees need to keep the temperature in their hives quite high for the health of the colony/baby rearing, so a three or four storey drafty house doesn’t suit them as much as a snug one or two storey does!).

Blog post photo gallery

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Peter & Christine

Subject: 
Beekeeping Experience
Thank you for an informative and enjoyable introduction to beekeeping. We found that carrying out the full operation from opening the hives right through to bottling the honey helped us gain a better understanding about what beekeeping is all about.

Honey and Native Bees Love Obelia Bushes…and Fiddlewood too!

Submitted on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 - 03:29

There are all sorts of plants you can set your garden or farm up with if you’d like to provide nectar and pollen for bees. Two to investigate are Obelia bushes and Fiddlewood.

Obelia bushes are just delightful and the buzz of bees around them gives you a great hint to their popularity in the bee kingdom.

Fiddlewood, is much larger and the scent of its tiny blossoms are just divine. You can see some pics of them below (Fiddlewood is the first two images).

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Global Bee Emergency – Act Now

Submitted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - 02:31

As a beekeeper I worry for the world’s bees. These tiny, delicate, hard-working creatures are amazing in that they act for the good of the community/hive, rather than the individual. Together, they are able to achieve so much with a minimum negative impact on other species. Bees are responsible for pollinating a huge amount of the world’s food supply and without bees, our harvests would be minimal.

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J Kennedy

Subject: 
Raw, Hand-spun Honey
HOLY MACKEREL! - your honey is soooooo good we can't stop eating it!

Miss Em, bought on MadeIt

Subject: 
Farm Balm
Smells and feels gorgeous, recommend product, thankyou.

Lamorna Osborne, Sydney

Subject: 
Beekeeping Course
I think you run a great show . Everyone really enjoyed it. I have to tell you that after 26 hrs in Nabiac doing the bees and staying at your farm ... I felt like l'd been away from Sydney and work for 3 weeks!

Jonathan & Juliet Kipps, Channel Islands

Subject: 
Beekeeping Course
Thank you for the wonderful experience you gave us on our beekeeping course. We had a marvellous time and Rod was great. Very knowledgeable, very experienced and a pleasure to be with.

Have you ever seen a baby bee hive nursery?

Submitted on Thursday, October 14, 2010 - 10:14

Seeing a baby bee nursery is a little different to seeing all the babies lined up in a hospital maternity ward, but  you do get that same sense of wonder and excitement and peace. 

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