Everyone have a Merry Christmas. I’ll send out a new note in the new year. Meanwhile I’m spending a little time today working on the farm plan for 2023. Stay warm.
Cheers,
Brian
The way we all feel this Christmas morning.
An image that kept me warm on my rounds this morning.
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MERRIEST CHRISTMAS, Brian & Cindy🎄🎅 🤶❣️
Thanks! Hope you enjoy your visit down in NOLA.
Merry Christmas, Brian – stay warm and keep safe.
Thanks Katherine. Looks like the temps are a bit milder in the UK. Enjoy your holidays.
Merry Christmas to my best present ever❣️ Love the choices of pictures!
Becky!
Merry Christmas, Brian! Here’s hoping for a better New Year, says the farmer in me. LOL Don
Hope springs eternal, Don!
Same to you and your family, Brian. And stay safe. From the reports we’re seeing on the other side of the Pacific and equator that cold weather sounds apocalyptic.
Forecast to be 38C in Melbourne tomorrow. 100F in the old money.
We’ve just been discussing how we’re going to shade the bees.
David,
How have the bees been doing for you the past couple of years?
We have one hive at the suburban HQ and one at the farm. A lot of the agroforestry trees we planted are now reaching an age where they flower. Including eucalypts that can have extraordinary nectar flows compared to northern hemisphere plants. Eucs used this to attract local pollinators like birds who wanted a bit more sweetness to spread the love than the introduced Apis mellifera.
Interest in local artisanal honey is high. We can sell any amount for $20/kg. People like the lack of processing and that the honey has come from a mixed range of plants rather than agricultural monocultures.
So we’re thinking we may put more hives at the block. And possibly at another family property that’s opened up.
However, been a poor season locally so far. We’ve been feeding with sugar. We don’t like doing this but otherwise good chance of losing hives. Very wet and cool until the last week or so. Not much flowering even in the leafy eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Which are often a bountiful source of nectar from gardens, parks, reserves, roadside trees etc
How do local beekeepers in your part of the world cope with this very cold weather? The bees will use a lot of stores staying warm.
Having access to a customer base like Melbourne (as well as the various gardens) must be a plus. And I am sure it is nice and more than a bit rewarding to have all that work of planting trees starting to come to fruition (literally).
We had a few personal distractions last week in preparing for this freeze. The bees had not yet been fed any sugar, though it was time to begin any day. And we should have in hindsight wrapped the hives or put bales of straw around them. We will see in a few days. Tomorrow the temps will get above freezing (the first since Thursday). Hopefully we will find that the hives survived.
Most beekeepers in the area will feed their bees over winter. One always tries to provide enough honey to make it through. But….
Cindy is the primary beekeeper on the farm, I just provide the muscle in shifting the boxes. She was down to two hives this season (a goal has always been 2-4). Like you, we have focused on planting a diverse pollen landscape. We try to have something that provides pollen that bees like for all months of the year. Oddly the height of summer matches the depths of winter for a dearth.
We recently (5 years ago) planted a dozen Chaste (Vitex) trees among the orchards. They bloom June-September. They have been slow to mature. But the hope is they will help provide some additional flow during the summer dearth.
Cheers,
Brian