The flow has started, long may it reign - well once or twice a week at night would be best (rain, that is). Pohutakawa is starting, manuka is getting under way, kamahi is flowering the best for some years, rewarewa and some whitey-wood is also flowering. While clover, dandelion and catsear are covering the ground. Just as all these are flowering, the farmers are cutting it for silage - whatever happened to putting in hay paddocks?

The only problem with this season is that everything is flowering all at once and it will be difficult to separate the honeys off into their different varieties. Still we are luck compared to those on the east coast of the South Island. El Nino is having a major effect on their climate causing very dry conditions. The Canterbury crop has been burnt off and Blenheim’s situation is far worse.

Here in Wellington, we have been sheltered from the westerly storms but it is getting very dry. Underneath that green grass covering, there are cracks in the ground and there is a net moisture loss. I spent five days going round my bees, checking food supplies, for queen cells and putting on spare boxes.

Well, with all this work, its nice to take a little time off, so I went to south Wairarapa in search of the odd deer. No luck there but the bush was lovely. Tui’s were singing high in the trees, the odd black-bird digging around in the leaf litter. As the wind blew through the bush, last years leaves were falling from the trees after doing their job. In and around the tree trunks, queen wasps were looking for insects to support their newly established nests. Back at the bach, feral bees were collecting pollen from the wild roses. The bush is drying out there also. Where trees around the streams were green and flowering well, away from these areas, individual trees are showng signs of stress. Leaves are curling and dropping off. This means the flow there could be patchy if they don’t get a rain soon.

Back to Beekeeping. If you are putting on new foundation or half drawn boxes (supers) the bees are often reluctant to go up into them. There are two ways to handle this:

1. Take the outside frames of honey from the box below and put these in the middle of the new box (with a foundation frame between them). The bees soon move up and start drawing out the rest.
2. You can place the new box directly above the brood nest by lifting the top box up on.

Actually it pays to put on two boxes as the bees on a major flow can fill a box in a week. If they run out of room and have to cap it, collection slows down and they take a while to get going again. In this area the flow might be over before they get underway again. As each super is fully capped it can be removed and extracted. In an urban area, it is best ot use bee escapes in clearer boards. Put these on in the evening, and remove the supers in the early morning. Shake or brush out the few remaining bees and put the box in a secure place awaiting extraction. Clearer boards won’t work if there is any brood in the frames - bees just won’t leave brood. They can also be the cause of robbing if there are cracks in the boxes, seal these up with paper or tape.

When the honey has been extracted, put the boxes back on in the evening again. Don’t put on during the day as the bees get excited and will fly round and round looking for the sources and disrupt your neighbours. Don’t forget to check the brood frames for BL before removing any honey.

Weak hives or swarms should be united to make strong colonies as these are the ones that collect a surplus. If you want to preserve the queens in thes eweak hives, put them in a four frame nuc box. Most of these will survive the winter with a little attention.

Swarms are still issuing from crowded hives. Putting out boxes with a mix of old frames and foundation on shed roofs has payed dividends for me. It is much easier to collect these in your own time rather than respond to a help call when you are busy doing something else. Keep these separate for a brood cycle so you know they are free from disease. If you want to keep as an increase, best to requeen with a new purchased queen as swarm queens often fail or a prone to chalk or sac brood..