M4tt

@Philbee’s? 😲

Yep unfortunately your bees pooping over your neighbours stuff is your problem , so you’ll need to move them . It wouldn’t hurt to offer them honey plus a house wash . It’s awful stuff to remove....

Oh that’s bad timing . Next time 👍. You should spot my hives from the road. Vilagrads is very close to my place

On our travels around Victoria , I have only seen one bee, very dark like a carni, no beehives and there is nothing working the tea tree here. Not even native bees . It is rather odd to travel many kms and see no bee utes or hives . Bottle brushes are in full flower . No bees

The bottom pic is Manuka off the Rukuhia peat . Our Kanuka is quite different to that

It’s raining straight off the southern ocean and cool, so bees aren’t working anyway . Plenty of bird life though . It looks like Manuka to me . I can’t see any difference from the plants at home . Top pic is from Oz. Bottom pic from home

Manuka flowering profusely near Princetown , Victoria , Australia . I’ve seen no beehives around at all

Yep , as sure as I can be that it’s a virus

That’s the beauty of a new queen in a strong hive . They go nuts !

What I’m seeing at the moment is shiny bees. Not many , but more than I’d like to and in more hives than I’d like to. I had shiny bees by the bucket full, heading into winter , which was not good, but they seem to have made a reappearance . I have not seen any for months

No, there isn’t enough

It doesn’t get mature enough to flower , although it does on a block over from me . The birds move the seeds around

Is she laying though ? She might be a sister to those bees

And to add confusion to that , a back filled brood nest doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to swarm either . Most if my hives are heavily backfilled with pollen and a bit of nectar right at the moment . Something to do with the dearth , followed by a sudden influx of available food . It caught them a bit unaware

I was pondering how lazy I was being this morning , tuning up a little bit of black berry on the road side that persists every year . It used to be a jungle many years ago , climbing fences and trapping wildlife amongst its thorns . I wondered if I wasn’t being lazy , and left it to grow , how many townies would notice it and organise a working bee to clean it up , along with all the KFC rubbish that gets hiffed out the window , then I realised they wouldn’t. My mind wandered , then , onto organic beef . I could produce it , but it would cost . I’d need to pay a full time team to weed the roadside , and the drains . Anyone free on the weekend ?