Our bees have produced some premium honey this season from the sites around the hills surrounding the south east of Melbourne. Creamy light coloured blackberry and clover honey from the Koo wee rup swamp and Swamp Gum ( Eucalyptus ovata) from the hills in Upper Pakenham. Mahogany Gum ( Eucalyptus botryoids) and Messmate stringybark ( Eucalyptus obliqua) are strongly flavoured …
Spring conditions 2022
The wet conditions during this spring has made it very difficult for bees to have enough flight time to access flowers to gather pollen and nectar. This means that most hives have very little honey left from winter stores and are struggling to maintain high populations necessary to collect a surplus of nectar. Let’s hope that we get sunny days …
Hayfever honey
Many people contact us in late winter enquiring about our hayfever honey because they anticipate that the imminent arrival of spring will be accompanied by the onset of the usual symptoms of hayfever. The many pollens released by grasses and flowers which are released as tiny grains and spread by the wind are the main cause of these symptoms and …
Spring 2020
After a seemingly endless COVID winter in lockdown here in Upper Beaconsfield, it is time to check on beehives for the new season. Hives have come through the winter in very good condition due to the very good honey season ending last autumn. The very good honey yield from Messmate Stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua) means that hives have plenty of honey …
Spring 2019
Spring has started well for bees this season due to good rain over the preceding winter. This has resulted in a huge strike of capeweed such that the hills and fields everywhere are covered with yellow flowers. Bees flourish on the pollen from capeweed flowers and can collect nectar as well. This means that hive populations can increase rapidly due …
Eucalypt flowering November 2018
Silvertop (Eucalyptus sieberi) has flowered heavily around Gembrook and the Bunyip State Forest but to this stage has not yielded much nectar. It has a few weeks of flowering left and hopefully the Cup day rain will help because hives have not gained significant weight. Yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora) is flowering north of the divide and has not been yielding …
Summer Outlook 2018-19
BoM seasonal outlook is worth a watch to see what the next few months’ weather are likely to be like. Summary: November, in particular, is likely to be drier than average in many areas. November to January days are very likely to be warmer than average for most of Australia. Nights are also likely to be warmer than average. A …
Unblocked the Facebook integration
I seem to have unblocked the website’s link with Facebook… If you get masses of ‘news’ through Facebook – some may be from the last few years! Normal intermittent blogging will resume shortly!
Honey prospects poor
This season is shaping up to be similar to last in that there do not seem to be many prospects for eucalyptus trees flowering. Grey box ( Eucalyptus microcarpa ) is not showing any new growth at this stage and if this doesn’t change soon there will not be honey from one of our main sources. Red Ironbark ( Eucalyptus …
Yellow Gum is flowering
Yellow Gum ( Eucalyptus leucoxylon) is flowering in the northern country of Victoria. Our hives are in those forests to hopefully gather some honey from this species. The main factor which needs to change is that the weather needs to warm up and allow the bees to fly. Bees are cold blooded and can’t fly unless it is warm enough …