Hello Reader,

To begin with condolences are extended to the Castle Inman partners who have had their hives destroyed due to the mite.  Colonies have been lost in Bulahdelah and Clarence Town.  We had the DPI here eight days ago and the text arrived yesterday afternoon telling us that we were mite free.  The mites have now enveloped Tocal Agricultural College and their Queens were evacuated just a few days prior.  I am not sure if the mite is being contained.  The kill zone is still creeping albeit at a very slow pace.   The Coffs and West and Southern outbreaks seem contained.  The Hunter beekeeping industry is just devastated, the impact will really be felt in Medowie.

Why?

There is a Macadamania Nut farm there and the nuts are exotic, despite being Australian, to the area.   The question is, are there enough other pollinators to make up for the loss of the hives that serviced those trees?  There are hundreds if not thousands of trees.  This is just the very tip of the iceberg, as in the Williamtown area there are many vegetable small farms.

Fingers still crossed.

It’s Sunday August 7 here and I am still coming to terms with having driven 1,600 km or a THOUSAND miles in the old money to deliver hives.  Gillian and partner had HUGE smiles, as did I as I took a critical wrong turn when almost there, almost getting stuck in the mud.  This means the arc of self delivery is now 500 miles (a song title) if I get messed around again by Truckit.net.au.  I don’t blame the site, just their unreliable partner.  The delivery was 26 boxes, bases, lids and Queen excluders.  Plus gates, screws and latch sets.  Tetris in the real showed that more boxes could have been gotten in, but it was insane mad on Thursday texts being flashed about.

20 minutes after I left the Castle a contact in FNQ contacted about possibly getting some hives on a Greyhound bus to Cairns.  Sadly, the window had just closed.   This brings an important point.  Just because you are NOT ordering a trailer load of hives does NOT mean that your order CANNOT be part of a trailer load.  Contact and something suitable crazy can be worked out.  On this I am inspired by ‘Yes Minister’ and the line ‘Minister it’s more expensive to do it cheaper, more complicated to so it simpler and it takes longer to do it quicker.’  That’s why we go for the mad straight away as it’s the only plan that has a ghost of a chance! 

I should have gotten a picture of the trailer, stuff there’s always something you miss.  Next time I will.

More changes to the website that really shows the impact on pricing of buying in bulk.  Have your bee club (that means join one) contact us about a bulk purchase.  We are going to be at the Gloucester Farmers market August 13.  This is a chance to buy a hive or at the very least look and poke at one while asking questions.  This Saturdays hive will be an all white one, except the inclusive gates (I think) and the Queen excluder.  We will NOT  be bringing any frames due to the risk of attracting unwanted passenger bees.

The mite has shown us that the days of the wood hive are done.

 

Cheers,

 

 

 

Roland

PS A free jar of honey to anyone with an idea on how to check the oil on a Ford Ranger without a step ladder.  Bravo to Kloster Ford on overfilling it with oil to ‘help’ the bill, wasting fuel and oil.  They overfilled the Fairlane as well.  Not happy Jan!