April 2023 (Happy Easter)

Hi there reader,

First and foremost I want to thankyou for following this blog post from the start. It has really been a delight to see people read these posts and hopefully learn a thing or two about bees. I know everyone is really eager to get some honey which will hopefully be coming in this month. I won't put to much content into this post just the questions that a subscriber has asked and a bit of an update,

Here's a bit of an update of what's been happening recently. Last time we went down to see the bees we brought some sugar syrup to feed them so that they could use it to eat. None of the syrup actually goes in the honey because the bees eat it and put the food that they bring in into storage as honey, pollen or nectar. We thought that this would help them get an early start into the marri season when lots of the trees on our block flower. We will be going down soon to check for any honey. Hopefully the sugar syrup helps but it has been a hard year for the bees.

Q: What type ( flavour ) does the honey have ? Does the intensity of the flavour vary from season to season given seasonal impact

Yes it does! The flavour from the honey can vary quite a lot depending on what floral sources are available in the previous few months and even things like the queen of the hive and overall hive health. Last year for example we did a harvest in December and we got a very intense 'bushy' flavour that was a little bitter. This was probably due to the variety of flowers that were available September, October, and November when the wildflowers were flowering. When we harvested in March last year however we got a sweeter smoky flavour. This is probably due to the Marri trees that were flowering in February-March.

Q: Do you have a particular bee that is native to the area or are they specifically chosen by you for their qualities?

There are multiple varieties of native bees that live in Perth, however most of them are solitary which means that they don't have a hive or live with other bees. This means that you cannot keep them. There are some varieties of bee that are native to Australia and live in hives, but they don't build in vertical walls and build more in a sphere. The bees we keep are European honey bees (Apis mellifera). These bees originated from Europe and have been introduced into Australia. You may think that this upsets the ecosystem, and it can in some cases but, the bees actually seem to not cause the wildlife much harm. We got our hive by catching it as a swarm out of a persons cement mixer. I go into depth about swarming and catching a swarm in a different blog post linked here. Because we got our bees from a swarm we don't really know what type they are all we know is that they are a European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Q: How often can you harvest honey? Does this vary in different conditions?

The frequency of harvesting honey depends on conditions quite a lot. Some years are good years and some are bad. Last year was a pretty good year for beekeeping. We got two harvests one in December and one in March. If the floral sources that provide your bees with food have a good year then the bees will have a good year. One thing is for certain when harvesting, it will almost always be in the summer or spring.

Q: How do you collect honey ? I have heard honey taps being used? Do you use them and if not why not?

When we harvested last year we brought a big black tub down with some spare frames. We then took the frames that were full with honey in them and put them in the tub, replacing them with the new frames. When we were done we sealed the tub and brought it back to our house. The following day we decided to extract. We got a big bucket and placed the frames vertical on it and scraped the caps off with a sharp knife. The caps all fell in the bucket. Then we quickly transferred the frames into the extractor. Our extractor fits three frames. Once we had three frames in the extractor then we spun them and which, using centrifugal force forces the honey onto the walls of the extractor. Then you have to wait an hour or two for the honey to drip down into the bottom of the extractor. After that, you open the honey gate at the bottom of the extractor and let the honey out into a container.

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All the best and I hope that you keep well

-Parkers pure