I awoke nice and early this morning excited at the prospect of collecting my first swarm of bees. A lady from work has had a swarm collect in her palm tree. They were living in the neighbour's roofspace and had been swarming in her front yard for the last day or two. She had called the swarm control person in her area but hadn't had anyone come out yet. So I offered to come out and take a look.
First thing I needed was a hive, so after feeding the family I headed to the beekeeping supplies shop and was estatic to see that they were open on this long weekend. I purchased an assembled beginners hive which contained a floor, two full depth boxes, a hive mat and weatherproof roof. I also purchased full plastic frames with wax coating. I headed over to the beekeepers club meeting next and sampled some delicious honey and chatted to fellow newbies (new-bees?). I purchased a book I've wanted for ages - Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand by Andrew Matheson & Murray Reid. I observed the inspecting of three hives, a langstroth, a long hive and a top bar. It was really interesting and I came away with some really good advice. I also purchased a nuc boxwhich means I'll be all set for collecting a swarm. Unfortunately the swarm at my friend's house never formed a cluster and by the time I got there I only saw a few bees. Their home in the the ceiling of the neighbour's house looked like a 'hive of activity' though, ha-ha. So, no bees for me yet.
On my way home I purchased some test pots of bright paint from Resene and a litre of white, I figure if I paint each brood box a different colour I'll always keep track of who is who. I mixed I researched names of Roman, Greek and Egyptian goddesses too so each hive's queen will be named. Name animals is just a thing I do, can't help it.
The hives turned out really well, a single coat of primer and two coats of colour and they're ready to go. I even had a lone bee come in for a visit.
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