Paul Beer

Good info coming to the surface here people. I'm on the brink of spring treatment and inspection, maybe today because it's going to be warm. Was going to put 5 narrow strips in through the middle but now will try a bit more thoughtful approach.

Ah yes! Childhood beach memories of Northland

It's probably rude to post tumbleweed gifs here. There aren't any tumbleweeds in NZ anyway so I'll just use my imagination

Things the co-op can be that won't require money - a refuge with some like-minded people - a forum to share, complain, discuss and thrash things out, plan and dream for the future - share openly without fear of ridicule or challenge. Be specific about how dire your finances are, mental health. - a central body to tally and co-ordinate a mountain of temporarily unwanted honey - co-ordinate possibly sharing some equipment if nearby An internet forum such as this can be a brutal place, but maybe brutal honesty is just what is needed. I realize that many of you will cling resolutely to your dream, even up to the point of death. Take care, and please realize that you don't have to stay in the industry, many of you would have a great work ethic and be able to find something a lot less painful and more rewarding to do even if it requires moving.

Here's a thought... in good times it was relatively easy to sell the honey. You did not feel the need of a coop. Now that hard times have come, you begin to re-examine all the issues and possibilities of a coop. Desperate people do desperate things. If it is indeed established, it might run for a few years until good times return. Then it will be gradually abandoned again.

Yay just what my son and I were trying to do today, this should help us

In this message I said more, but purposely deleted some of what I said. I have one technoset hive but I need to repair the feeder, as one side was manufactured incorrectly and the bees are able to get into it and drown. I need to narrow the gap somehow so they can't get in. On my other (wooden) hive I put a beetek feeder which is very good.

Alright thanks, I will. The comb layout. I'm basically wondering how to go about reducing the frames down to the appropriate number and arrangement, making decisions about which to remove and when. At the moment the brood/pollen/honey are spread throughout 2 fd and 1 3/4 in both hives. I looked at Kiwimana's guide. Also i need an afb check/certificate. I expect to pay for this. Is there someone who can come look?

Cool how this thread is developing. Whoever is new at beekeeping needs to somehow keep correct info and let go of wrong info. My son especially watched heaps of YouTube videos over 2 years and we joined a beekeeping club 6 months before buying nucs. I would say, things just tend not to go how you planned, but it is still vital to plan and research. I find much better help here in this forum than the club. But now i feel a need of some mentoring as we go into winter. I'm sure you will get the right idea very soon now that you're connected here MissOlivia. One of the most perplexing aspects i discovered was, who or where to buy a nuc from! I tried a couple of people at the club but they just seemed not that interested. I hope you go well from now on

Purple Tansy (Phacelia). I researched what to plant in our garden for bees. Sunflower, seemed useless, just bumble bees. Marigold > useless. Lavender, ok they attracted a few bees. Clover was good but not at first. Then I planted purple tansy seeds after hearing about them from Philbee .. the bees have gone insane on them, they've been foraging from dawn til after dusk every day.

After reading your message I found where to get some seeds and planted quite a lot around my garden and the bees love it! Purple Tansy

Doh my mistake i did not notice that the article mentioned Australia along with nz at the start. But still ok to send to US

John you have probably been over and over this.. how do we know that comb honey can not be taken to Au or US? I can not find anything that says it can not, only that it should be declared, and may be inspected. For example http://www.beesinca.com/2015/05/getting-honey-through-customs.html?m=1

Thanks for posting this Abbot. That seems bizarre for a NZer to enquire about importing a jar of comb honey when we already have truckloads of honey here. SMH lost for words really. I was considering getting into selling comb honey myself. Maybe we also ought to import a few possums