We try to present a professional urban beekeeper image, and this is a snap I caught of my hubby in the foyer waiting for the lift. I know I’m biased, but he looks good doesn’t he We’ve got our gear neatly stowed away in our bee boxes.

Todd – this is Canberra beekeeping at its best xx

We place our beekeeping gear in the top box. Its discrete, and most importantly, its not smelly. I love the smell of the smoker, but not everyone does, so we light it on the roof. That means we have to take all the beekeeping bits and pieces with us.

Our rooftop beekeeping kit

Our pack had:

- spare honey to feed to our starving bees in the bottom box (more on that later)

- smoker

- smoker fuel

-hive tool

-bee brush

- an airtight container (a recycled milo tin)

- water

Plus, of course our bee veils and hats on top.

Once up on the roof, we light the smoker and get to work.

Getting started – our smoker fuel in my pretty tin – beekeeping can be pretty

Getting to work on a gorgeous Canberra autumn day

When we arrived, it was quite easy to identify immediately that two hives needed some help. The hive on the left has less bees at the entrance and this suggests the hive has slipped backwards since we last saw it. The hive on the right is close to being in the shade when we visited – at 11.30 am – which is far too early for a hive to be in dense shade in the winter.

When we arrived the hives looked like this

In addition to fixing the problems we found when we arrived,  the main chore was to make sure the hives were in the best possible shape to get through winter. In previous weeks, when our master beekeeper looked at these hives he agreed they were suffering from significant starvation stress. We decided as a family to give the bees some honey from our country hives. We had some frames of SUNFLOWER honey that we had intended to cut up for honeycomb, but instead we decided to it give to these bees.

It’s quite a significant thing to do, because the honey had recently won a silver medal at the Australian National Honey show. It’s an act of bee husbandry that sets us apart from many who might have continued to feed the bees sugar syrup over winter and we think it’s an example of how rural links with urban agriculture can be incredibly beneficial. We might still need to feed these bees, but we would use raw granulated sugar if we do. You can find more on how we care for our bees over winter on our family blog - The Honey Delight Blog by clicking here.

We took a pic here of how desperate things can get when a hive is starving.

Starving bees – they have eaten all the honey is this frame already

A generous gift from a healthy hive in the country will help this hive survive the winter.

Full frame of honey going into a starving hive

We removed the empty frames and placed the new full honey frames among the frames that still had honey in them. We spaced them out because the new full honey frames are cold, and it can be a shock to a hive to place them together in the hive.

The new honey is spaced between existing frames

After helping the bees overcome their starvation stress, we needed to do something about the hive that had slipped backwards since our last visit. The hive in the middle of this mico-apiary was doing comparatively well, so we swapped its location with the weakest hive. It means the bees out foraging will come home and go into the weak hive. It increases the number of bees in the hive and the experienced forager bees will help the hive recover. We also pulled the end hive away from the dense shade and pushed the two weaker hives together so they can warm each other. The healthier hive is placed a little to the side.

When we left, the hives looked like this: a new arrangement of the rooftop hives

When we next visit this micro-apiary we will be painting the lids brown, as the darker colour helps the hives retain heat from the sun.

Once we finished our bee work, we packed up and had an extra little chore to do before going downstairs in the lift and out through the lobby.

We emptied our smoker into an air tight container and use a little water to put the embers out. We can be confident that there are no smoker smells with us when we exit the building.

Emptying the smoker into a airtight tin

Putting out the smoker embers with water

An empty smoker and the airtight tin ready for departure from the building

We just have one little thing to master for our next visit to our rooftop hives…..remembering to manage the fire door in the stair well. It was funny – but a tip for any rooftop beekeeper!

Oops – a hazard of rooftop beekeeping – we got stuck in the stairwell

I hope this helps people understand why we are trying to establish micro-apiaries rather than have single hives in multiple locations. Colonies will have a better chance of survival if they are in a micro-apiary because beekeepers can share resources among the hives. We often share honey and brood among our hives to give them the best chances against the extreme weather we experience in Australia.

Kind regards

Carmen and the Honey Delight family

We found just the spot on the roof of the Hotel Realm.

We created quite a buzz  when we placed hives onto the rooftop of the Realm Hotel. It’s wonderful to think that the perfect spot for struggling urban hives could be found, and it was also the first roof top hive for Canberra. The story was covered twice in the Canberra Times, picked up by  the Sydney Morning Herald,  and discussed on ABC Radio. The story was also printed in the paper of the small country town where the hives came from, where they “grew up”.

Canberra Urban Honey in the Canberra Times Wed 10 April

Canberra Urban Honey on the front page of the Canberra Times Website

Canberra Urban Honey in the Canberra Times Friday April 12

Canberra Urban Honey on the Sydney Morning Herald Website

Canberra Urban Honey in the Inverell Times – Inverell is where the hives “grew up”

We are so very grateful to the Hotel Realm for working with us to make sure these hives get through the winter so they can continue to pollinate Canberra vegetable gardens. Come spring, we hope they will be “fit, ready and able” for the important task of pollinating the fruit trees of Canberra!

Arriving at Hotel Realm and lighting the smoker

Hives are ready to go inside, into the lifts, up the stairs and onto the roof

Canberra Urban Honey hives into the marbled lobby of Hotel Realm with Peter Bell (Food & Beverage Manager)

5 star treatment for Canberra Urban Honey as the concierge holds the lift

Mar Sanchez (Facilities Manager) escorts 120,000 new guests into Hotel Realm

Mar and Todd taking just a few stairs to the rooftop

The holding area inside the “plant room” before heading out onto the roofspace

Mar and Todd walking a hive outside to their new home

Here is the Hotel Realm roof space – another superb location for our Canberra Urban Honey hives

A new home for an orphan hive that was having a tough time xx

We left the hives to settle into their new home, and returned 5 days later to check on them. We were fortunate to be accompanied by my parents, who are the major supporters of the Canberra Urban Honey project.

Master beekeeper supporters of the Canberra Urban Honey project – my parents xx

Getting to work: our master beekeeper, my Dad, checks Canberra Urban Honey hives

Dad was quite concerned by the lack of new nectar in the hives, saying they were at risk of starvation over winter. He was most impressed by their new location, and said; “It’s an excellent position, full winter sun, and protection from the winter winds. They should do very well here, it’s the perfect spot for them to recover from their starvation stress”.

It felt like a pat on the back when my Dad said that. So reassuring to know the hives are likely to make it through the winter.

It’s wonderful to have the support of the Hotel Realm owners and their staff. Thank you so very much for helping to save Canberra’s honeybees.

A master rural and urban link xx Peter Bell with my Parents Kathy and Len

I’ve got to say, this project has become an absolute joy in our lives. Its incredibly rewarding to make connections between our rural heritage and the city, and to be sharing our passion for bees, honey and beekeeping with so many people.

Warm regards

Carmen and the Honey Delight family

This is what we like to see – stores of honey in the top left and visible glistening of the new nectar and pollen on the bottom centre

Unfortunately, the flip side of “bee utopia” that if the hive hasn’t stored enough pollen and honey for the winter, those bees will huddle up with their sisters in the hive, but they have no honey or pollen to eat.

It’s the kind of situation that leads to poor nutrition and starvation for bees.  Then bee diseases can grip the hive and make the colony sick. It’s quite a dreadful situation.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been worrying and watching a number of our hives struggle to find new nectar to make their honey stores. They have had honey stores in their hive but during recent weeks I’ve watched the amount of stores dwindle. It’s clear the bees are eating their stores because there are no new sources of nectar for them.  It seems, for some suburbs in Canberra there isn’t enough bee friendly gardens to support bees. Some hives have eaten most of their stores already.

This is a concern because this colony has eaten in their stores, and there is no glistening of new nectar

The problem is, if they are already eating their stores in autumn they might not have enough food to survive the winter. Winter is a time when there is traditionally very few nectar producing flowers. People in Canberra will probably be aware that eucalypts in our green corridors haven’t flowered the way they normally do. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been favourable to our eucalypts this year. I’d say this unusual situation has exposed how good or how bad our surburban bee-friendly gardening is. This year, bees are totally reliant on the bee friendly gardens for survival, and unfortunately some suburbs don’t have enough to support our Canberra Urban Honey hives.

For some hives, it means we will have to move them from their current host gardens and place them in other areas of the city. Some hives are going to need quite a bit of attention to make sure they survive the winter, and this is easier for us if we have the hives together.

A hive to watch closely – this colony has stores of honey but no new nectar is being gathered and stored

We are now planning to bring the lone hives together to make distinct micro-apiaries with at least two hives in one location. This will make it easier to manage the struggling hives because we can share what honey is available among the hives to make sure they always have access to food. It also means the hives will be more efficient at staying warm because we will push them together. When the bees are in a warm environment, they use less energy to maintain the temperature inside the hive, and that also means they will eat less of their stores.

We’ve been fortunate to have had a host on our waiting list who can take up to 5 hives and will now be the new host for the majority of our “orphan hives”. As we look forward to the winter ahead we have to place the hives in a location that will enable us to give them the TLC we think they might need. Last week we confirmed the arrangements and will move the last of the “orphan hives”  to their new location.

Mar and Peter have helped to pull these arrangements together, can you tell where the orphan hives are going?

Mar Sanchez and Peter Bell

The problems we’ve encountered with starving bees and the differences we can see in the Canberra surburban ecosystems  has led us to make a few decisions about how we manage the Canberra Urban Honey project as we go forward. But, we tell you more about that in our next post.

In the meantime, watch for us in the Canberra Times because our observation of differences in bee friendliness of Canberra gardens has made the news in a few places, including the Canberra Times.

Kind regards

Carmen and the Honey Delight family.

The Good Food Story about Canberra Urban Honey

Canberra Urban Honey in The Port Macquaire News

Canberra Urban Honey in the Wimmera Mail

We only take honey from the hive when we are confident the bees are collecting and storing enough nectar and pollen stores to see them through winter. People in Canberra will know its been an incredibly dry summer with little rain – and that means fewer flowers.  It seems obvious to say bees rely on flowers for their food source (pollen and nectar) but I think sometimes we have to say it out loud to reinforce these little creatures are reliant on their environment for survival.

Bees rely on flowers for pollen and nectar

The honey in the frames was a deep yellow and it was hard to contain our excitement as we pulled the frames from the hives.

It’s such a joy to see a hive of bees thriving and collecting enough pollen and nectar for ongoing survival, and have some spare to share with you and me.

Honey in the frame – from a Canberra Urban Honey hive

We place these honey frames into a honey extractor and spin the honey out. The honey extractor used for this harvest was given to me, and Canberra Urban Honey by a dear family friend. I am deeply grateful that Peter, a commercial beekeeper  in his 80′s gave it to me before he died. His parting words to me, in a thick Sicilian accent, were: “Always oil the handle Carmen, with a good Italian oil, not that cheap rubbish”. I cherish my  hand driven honey extractor and the memories it evokes of Peter.

Our family friend and mentor, Peter – A master beekeeper from Sicily.

We place two frames of honey in the extractor at a time, turn the handle and watch to see what happens…

Extracting the honey

The first harvest of Canberra Urban Honey was a rich, dark orange and the smell was incredible. The aroma was the zest of orange!

It takes a couple of minutes to spin the honey frames by hand, we had ten frames to spin. So it was an hour or so later, we were able to start bottling the first of the long awaited first harvest.

Liquid Gold – Canberra Urban Honey

It was incredibly exciting to bottle the honey and think of sharing it with the people who had put their faith in us and supported our crowd funded project through Pozible.

We had just enough honey to send to our  Pozible supporters and fill an order for the one of Canberra’s five star hotels.

Naked Canberra Urban Honey

It has been hard at times to wait and watch while our urban bees struggled through the cool spring and dry summer. We continue to watch over them as we enter into autumn and hope they continue to have access to flowers over the coming months.

Thank you to the bees and flowers who have given us this precious honey. For those who have it, I hope you cherish it as much as we do xx

Our Honey – a gift for participants in The Human Brochure Canberra tourism campaign

The bees that did all the work for Canberra Urban Honey first harvest

Kind regards

Carmen and the Honey Delight family

As promised, we returned to one of our best country apiaries and loaded the Canberra Hives onto our ute. We did it under the supervision of our queen bee – Kathy. She kept a close eye on what we were doing, and made sure we didn’t forget anything. I think this is where I get my eye for detail – it’s genetic Thanks mum xx

Our Queen Bee – Kathy, making sure we don’t forget anything

It was another stunningly beautiful day in the country. The breathtaking scenery was incredibly distracting and I’ll admit it was hard to focus on the task at hand.

A beautiful afternoon in the country

Fortunately, for all of us, my Dad and hubby weren’t so distracted and got to work placing the ventilation screens on the hives, strapping them and lifting them into the ute – all this work was done by hand.  Canberra, I hope you appreciate the sore muscles because strong healthy hives are darn heavy.

Placing the ventilation screens on the hives

Placing the hive straps on the hives

A hive ready to go to Canberra

One last bit of fussing – brushing off the grass

Healthy hives full of bees are quite heavy

Loading the hive into the ute

It took around 90 minutes to finalise the preparations and load the hives ready for the overnight journey to Canberra. We were fortunate to get  a shower to cool the afternoon because it meant we could leave early. It was a stunning afternoon, I didnt want to work, I just wanted to take photos.

The hives are ready to go and they leave behind one of the most stunning bee sites

Strapping the loaded hives into the ute

We travelled overnight, because at night it is cool and dark. We always move bees at night, and you can read more about how the Honey Delight family move bees here. We arrived into Canberra in the early morning and the first hives were unloaded in the dark.

The first hives were delivered into Canberra in the dark

By the time we made it to Harrison, it was dawn, so we could see how the hive suited this garden perfectly. We didn’t plan to colour co-ordinate our hives – maybe is was just meant to “bee”.

By the time we got to the suburb of Harrison it was dawn

A stunning colour co-ordinated hive in the suburb of Harrison

Our arrival in Ainslie created a bit of nervous excitement because we were greeted by a reporter and cameraman from The  7.30 Report. It was such a delight to meet Adrienne Francis and Steve Ritchie. Our project will featured this week on ABC TV – the 7.30 Report and then will be available on the web. I hope you can watch it, and let me know what you think.

Adrienne and Steve from the ABC 7.30 Report

Kind Regards

Carmen and the Honey Delight Family

You can read more about our queen breeding program   here

One hive was given a new queen the day before it was moved and this means it is well prepared to manage our Canberra winter. The queen is placed between the frames in a small tube-like container.

A new queen for one of the Canberra hives

On the day we made our final selection we travelled to a load of bees that had been in the same location for the past 6 months. It is located in an area with a large number of mature eucalypt trees, native grasses and ground flora. Our master beekeeper (my Dad, Len) opened and closed the gate on the way into the bee site.

Len (my Dad and master beekeeper) closing the gate on the way in

The road into the bee site is a dirt track and the bees are well hidden. Can you see them in the distance?

The road into where the load of bees are located

As we get closer , its easier to see the load of bees that will give us the next Canberra hives.

The load of bees in the distance

When selecting the hives, we do a final check of the brood box where the baby bees and queen are. We look for pollen and freshly gathered nectar. We also check that the queen is still in good health.

Checking the queen and brood

When we were happy with the health of the colony we then looked at the external appearance of the boxes. We wanted pretty ones because we appreciate our hive hosts are quite proud of their gardens. When we looked we thought the silver wasn’t pretty enough, so we decided to change some of the silver boxes for yellow ones.

The silver bee box is going to be changed

We looked through the entire load of bees to find the pretty yellow bee boxes.

The yellow box had to be one of the top three boxes on the hive, because the bottom is the brood box where the queens and baby bees are.

Carmen looking for pretty yellow bee boxes to take to Canberra

We double checked that the hives were healthy and that new yellow boxes weren’t going to carry any bee diseases with them. Many people may not understand the amount of “infection control” that we do in our beekeeping world. We are always checking that hives aren’t sick in any way because we can inadvertently transmit bee diseases between hives through poor beekeeper hygiene

Carmen and Len selecting a yellow bee box to swap the silver bee box

When we had our pretty yellow boxes we transferred the frames and bees of the Canberra hives into their pretty boxes.

Carmen and Len transferring honey frames into the yellow box

By the end of the day we had prepared the pretty hives for transport for Canberra. Notice how the hives for Canberra are only two boxes high.

Todd and Len with the pretty hives for Canberra

The rest of this load of bees still has three boxes of honey on them. Two boxes of honey were taken off the Canberra hives as part of their preparation for the big move to Canberra. There is no way Todd and I could have carried a four box hive into a Canberra back yard – they are far too heavy!!

We always leave one box of honey on the hives so they have stores of honey to prevent starvation and this means we do not have to feed the bees sugar, corn or rice syrup.

The abundant native flora in Australia and the absence of bee mites (like varroa)  means Australian beekeepers do not routinely feed their bees syrup.

When the hives settle into their new homes in Canberra we put a new box in the middle – that box of honey will become Canberra Urban Honey

We returned the next day to load the hives into our ute and make the journey to Canberra.

That, story, dear readers, will be our next blog post

Kind regards

Carmen

and the Honey Delight Family

When we check on the hives, we start assessing how well the bees are doing as we approach the hives. We look to see how many bees are flying and wether any bees are sitting outside the hive. We like to see lots of bees flying in and out of the hive. As we get closer we look at the bees returning to the hive, and look to see if they are laden with pollen. We like to see lots of pollen being bought into the hive because pollen is a food for bees.

You can see from these photos the first hives relocated into Canberra are doing well. The bees are flying, and also have some bees sitting outside the entrances.

Bees flying in and departing from a hive

Bees sitting outside the hive

When we opened the hives they were collected and storing honey in the bottom box and in the spare frames.

Bees collecting and storing honey

Our hives hosts are delighted with their hives, as these photos show, the bees are quiet and are not bothering their hosts.

Barry with a frame of honey and bees from a Canberra Urban Honey hive

Adele with a Canberra Urban Honey Hive

If the weather stays favourable we hope to have our first harvest in late January. Then, we will be sharing the harvest with the hive hosts and sending some to our pozible campaign supporters.

Canberra Urban Honey

We look forward to sharing the first harvest from our “round one” hives with you.

The next step in our project is selecting more hives from our country apiaries to relocate to Canberra for round 2 of our project.

We have confirmed another 5 hive hosts, and have more on our waiting list as we also prepare for round 3.

No rest for the “buzzy” !!

Warm regards

Carmen and the Honey Delight family

We did a disease check on the hives when we collected the hives from Murrumbateman earlier this afternoon.

2 hives loaded in the ute – ready for the Roantree / Ainslie urban bee site

It was just a short 25 minute trip into the surburbia of Canberra, where we met with another wonderful Canberra family in Ainslie.

Thank you Myles, Barry and Anne.. we are confident the bees will “bee” very happy with you.

Our 2nd hive host, Myles, acceptng his Hive Host Pack

Before we leave the hives we remove the entrance netting used during transport.

Preparing to remove the netting from the entrances used during transport

Removing the netting in the entrances

Once again, thank you to Myles and your family for being part of our project from the very beginning.

Its a joy to our family to be part of the fusion of urban and rural lifestyles.

Thank you Myles

Its been a fantastic day and we are  very much looking forward to sharing the rewards of our work with Myles and his family –  the honey from the hives

Regards

Carmen

Our day started early with a trip our to Murrumbateman, where we have some hives, waiting for their Canberra Urban Honey home.

Our day started with a relaxing chat with my son Ryan, on the side of the road, while we waited for the arrival of our newest friend – Julia Holman from ABC666.

Waiting for Julia

We didn’t have to wait long, and it was a pleasure to see her driving a car the same colour as our ute. It made us smile

Arrival of Julia Holman from ABC666

We drove in a convoy up the road, to the secluded and sheltered spot where our hives are kept on a property owned by our friends Ross and Helen.

Ryan got to work lighting the smoker, while Julia and I discussed which hive might the best one to take into Canberra today.

Ryan lighting the smoker

Our choice was definately influenced by the fact that Julia’s favourite colour is green.

We soon had the screen placed under the lid, the gauze in the entrance and the hive lifted into the ute ready to go. The tape on the front of the hive is to make absolutely sure the gauze doesn’t come out of the entrance while we are travelling. I know it looks a bit weird, but it works very well !

1st Canberra Urban Hive ready to go

We were fortunate to have a cool day in Canberra today, so the hive travelled well for the 60 kilometres to the suburb of Conder. We were greeted warmly by Adele, our hive host and we had some fun chatting and posing for photos of this milestone event.

Giving our first Hive Host, Adele, her Hive Host Pack

Lets get this hive into position

We moved into the backyard where Julia chatted with Ryan about being a 4th generation beekeeper in the Honey Delight family

Ryan chats with Julia

We stopped for one last bit of posing and congratulating ourselves that we have it made this far.

Canberra Urban Honey first Hive Host

It was a great day.

Looking at these photos now, I know Ryan would want me to tell you – I love the look of the body kit and mags he put on his Commodore (it looks fab in the background doesn’t it?)

Canberra Urban Honey – first hive at its new home.

Thank you to everyone involved in getting Canberra Urban Honey to this point. We’re looking forward to placing the next hives at another location in Canberra over the weekend, with more posing and posting to our blog so you know what is happening.

We will keep you posted about when the interview will be aired on ABC666 – perhaps sometime next week.

Regards

Carmen

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has helped this project get this far!

Canberra Urban Honey reached its fundraising goal using Pozible

There has been a lot of planning, talking and meeting with people to make it to this point – but the best is yet to come – sharing the honey

The Planning

Planning the fund raising campaign was trickier than we thought it would be. At first we thought the kick-starter crowd funding site would be great. (http://www.kickstarter.com) A number of US beekeepers had already been successful using kick starter, so we thought it would ideal. Unfortunately, after going through all the steps to set it up, we discovered that we needed to be an American citizen, have a bank account in the US or have a green card. None of those things applied to anyone in our family – so we abandoned that idea. Apparently, there is a way to get around those requirements, but using an Aussie site seemed to make more sense. So we turned to the Aussie site – Pozible, with a ‘Z’ (http://www.pozible.com).

The Pozible crowd funding site is very easy to use, with lots of tips and ideas for beginners. The biggest hint I would give anyone considering using Pozible? Make sure your ready to go because it only takes three days for your project to be reviewed, and once your project has been approved – its LIVE!! This turned out to be a bit of a nightmare for us, because the timing didn’t quite work the way we had planned. The result was that our Pozible fund raising project was live before we had confirmed our first host for a micro-apiary. It meant we had to manage the fundraising and all the networking to organise the host locations for a hive at the same time. It’s been incredibly hectic!

Running the fund raising campaign meant getting out and telling people about it. We used all means available to us – twitter, facebook and we also talked about it to our customers at the Capital Region Farmers Market. Having a 30 second summary of our project was a big help ! We had to tell the story of Canberra Urban Honey many times, and often with very little time to do it. In hindsight, I think a brochure to give to people would have been very helpful, but I didn’t think of that until the end, and was too busy to get it done!

The talking and meeting

We’ve been busy this past month working with a number of people who have been interested in hosting a hive. We’ve been looking around potential sites and thinking about where the sun comes up and where it goes down.. considering how hot the hives might get over the summer, considering the impact of air conditioners…the list of things to consider is quite long. BUT we reached a milestone just a few days ago when we confirmed the first host for a micro- apiary (just on Friday).

Our current plan is to move the hives into position through the week – and of course post all the information here to share it.

The talking and meeting is getting wider and bigger as more and more people hear about what we are doing. We were fortunate to have some exposure of both the Honey Delight family and Canberra Urban Honey stories in THE LAND newspaper this past week.

Honey Delight and Canberra Urban Honey featured in The Land

On Saturday we also recorded an interview for a community radio, to be aired on Sunday 16th December. I was talking about our family, honey and bees – so put this one in your calendar!

Biodegradio (Sundays at 1pm on 2XX FM)

Warm regards

Carmen