kaihoka

Have you caught up on your annual rainfall yet. We have had 389 mls so far this yr. Our normal annual rain fall is anywhere between 1200 and 1700mls . We will need so pretty big nor easterly dumps to catch up .

@Emissary imagine the carnage in the industry if honey wasnt a locally protected industry and imported honey was allowed into the country . Do you think any local honey producers would survive .?

They use urea instead now , I wondered why

Do you have clover on your farm . Why did dairy farmers stop using clover .

I have been involved with orchards in the nelson district for many years and observed the swings in profitability . In the nineties the apple growers were rolling in money, but 12yrs later the trees were being pulled out , and orchards converted to vineyards. But even then some growers gambled on things coming right and held their nerve and expanded . They are doing well now . Its seems a case of " last man standing " in these boom bust situations .

Do you know what the average yield per hive was in 20s through to the 50s. Was it less or more than today . ?

Does anyone know how bees managed 100 yrs or so ago before supplements were available . Were bees less healthy or did beeks feed supplements then too . Do any of the older beeks on the forum know what were the procedures then .

I saw that the chinese pay $40 a kg for the wild cliff honey that the guys climb down ladders to get . They think it is safe and natural . Makes me wonder why they are so suspicious of the other honey available

' I Checked my 3 hives today . Of the two at home , I took the 3/4 box off the top of my double brood box hive. It still had some honey in it but it was wet inside . There are not enough bees to keep 3 boxes dry when the sun is so low in the sky and the bush is full of moisture . I saw the queen and eggs and brood and fresh honey . My other hive I reduced to one box , I saw the queen but no eggs . My hive in the hakea is full of honey and brood . It is also a stroppy hive and I got stung . I had put a 3/4 frame in the hive with a bit of honey in to go on with . It was not a particularly strong hive when I took it there . The bees had done this to the frame . I left it as it was and put it back in the hive . This hive is chewing the strips , the other hives are not . I have done no alcohol washes or sugar shakes so I do not know how well they are working . We shall see by spring .

At that price he is not going to be leaving any craters anywhere . 😀 I think its serpentine up the aniseed and wairoa . It looks very similar .

How much do I have to pay for a good one .?

My son is looking at buying a metal detector now . Do you know much about them . Bee keepers get around a lot in the back blocks . They could run less hives per site so they have an extra hour or two to run around with metal detector along the nearby creek banks .

I am only using strips . but I am a hobbyist and there is no great penalty for me if it fails . Yes you and @jamesc are brave but it is inevitable that synthetics will fail , the evolution of resistance is a natural process. The days of a magic bullet ,simple solution to problems with the non human world seem to be over in so many areas these days .

Will goats eat tutu. We have a lot of wild goats in our area and tutu along the creeks where the goats travel . I have never heard of goats being found dead . I have heard that the lead female oks what the herd can eat so they may have learned not to eat it .

So do they eat spoonfuls of honey .