| | | Start Beekeeping with us!
| | | | | With the honey you harvested over the season what do you do with granulated or crystallised honey or extra honey?
P.S. Raw unheated honey will tend to granulate during cold months!
The simple way to make it liquid again is to put the jar or container into a warm pot of water & let it sit for 10 min.
Honey that was not flash heated will granulate or crystallise if it is not eaten before that time comes...
15 days to Spring - Start now!
With under a month to go for southern hemisphere spring season, the bees are coming! - All the flowers are about to flower and the strongest nectar flow of the year is about to kick in across the country!
- Look for avo, sunflower, lemon, litchi, soya, macadamia, blue gum, borage, citrus, granadilla and all the other bee plants mentioned in the blue book for bees!
- Make sure you do a FULL inspection of all bee hives that survived the winter.
- Remove any dark brown comb that ONLY has honey in it in the brood chamber as the bees need to build new comb here and it allows the queen to have fresh laying space.
What's the task list for August? - Find sites.
- Prepare fire breaks and ensure fire hazards are removed from your apairy site
- FIRES are a major risk this time of year with high winds and dry winter foliage.
- Brush cut and clear fire breakers and your immediate apiary where the bees are. Take care at this point to wear your bee suit as the bees dont like the use of lawnmowers, weed eaters or such.
- Prepare for splits if you want to increase your apiary size
- Prepare for extra supers if you want to produce honey on a production ready brood - 8 frames or more
- Prepare for pollination by contacting farmers and discussing costs, risks, insurance, liability and contract terms.
- Bear in mind, Pollination requires over saturation of bees to plant density in order to guarantee high yields. Farmers compensate the pollinator as the bees make no excess honey.
What else can you do? - Come on a bee course to start beekeeping now!
- This is the best time in the southern hemisphere to start keeping bees...
- Set up pollination contracts for crops and fruit growers.
- Generally, crops and fruit orchards require varying ratios of hives to hectare > a rough average is at least 3 hives per hectare
- Pollination rates in SA vary too from R350-R500 per hive per 10 day period or thereabouts. {No honey is produced when pollinating}
Our next Easy Buzzing Beekeeping Course is on 27 August in Midrand.
This course will be facilitated by Cillene & Martin with practical hive session after lunch. |
| | | | | For anyone who is about to start beekeeping here's some things to consider:- It's really awesome working with bees
- It's scary working with bees
- But it's honestly amazing!
- Care for them and they provide honey, wax and other products of the hive
- A starter kit is about R3400 all-in!
- A bee course is R850
- You kuier lekker met die Bye!
So treat your hubby, loved one or friend with a beekeeping gift today! |
| | | | Got a farm and growing crops? Bees can pollinate your crops and usually contribute to more than 50% of the pollination of most crops over and above that of butterflies and flies.
We will be posting to FaceBook the actual pollination effects bees will have on crops in South Africa and elsewhere over the next week. Be sure to visit our FaceBook page for that info.
Here's a challenge: Which crop enjoys 300% increase in yields when 2x hives per hectare are utilised when flowering takes place? |
| | | | Can you spot her? The queen bee [above] is the only fertile female in the Scutellata colony and therefore the only bee that can properly lay eggs of either male or female workers. |
| | Online Bee Store!
The Centurion Shop is open for business Monday- Friday 9:00-16:00 and on Sat 09:00 - 12:00!
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| | | | Amazing beautiful hand poured pure beeswax candles available online & in-store in Centurion!
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| | | | | | Keep reading articles, bee books | | | | | Over the course of the next 6 weeks we will be sending you tips, articles and news about beekeeping that will help you to better understand the benefits of bees for all of us! | | We will be sending you tips, articles and news about beekeeping that will help you to better understand the benefits of bees for all of us!Our recommended first steps are that you get hold of the blue book, Beekeeping in South Africa which is available on our website by mail order or if you collect in Centurion. Southern Hemisphere: Work on getting apiary sites with haste! The flowers are coming...
Focus on finding apiary sites that are rich in nectar flow and pollen. Preferably nectar for honey with medium pollen. Bees need both to survive and they need high quality sources of it to thrive.
Make sure you have cleared your apiary sites where they wintered or new spots you go to to avoid the risk of fire damage and losing your entire beekeeping business up in smoke. High winds and dry conditions make for perfect fire hazards.
Purchase extra supers if you are producing honey ie no pollinating. The bees will very quickly fill a super during the spring and will need harvesting and a second super can be added in the meantime while removing and extracting honey.
A honey extractor is also beneficial to speed speed this process up and can literally pay for itself in one harvest with a small apiary operation of 15 hives.
Northern Hemisphere: Take advantage of late blooming crops and fruit trees especially avocados, tomatoes, borage and onion.
Ensure you squeeze the last days of summer flowering... Soon it will darker earlier and cooler in the evenings and mornings too.
Ask Questions & Visit our site to get info on bees, equipment and like us on Facebook! | | | | | | | | | | Love bees but cannot make the bee course to get started? Get our Bee Book called Beekeeping in South Africa for R360! | | | Watch our bee videos on keeping bees, harvesting honey and bee info | | | |
Online Deal!
Our Manual 4-Frame honey extractor ONLY R4250!
Order [11 units]
July Deal!
Our double-walled honey heating tanks ONLY R9300!
Order [7 units]
3- Frame extractorsAvailable for R3,500
8-frame extractors Extract for R11,500 Electric, Reversible includes honeygate tap
12-Frame Extractor Going for R15,000 Electric & Reversible Programmable includes honeygate tap
20-frame extractor Electric, reversible Programmable! includes honeygate tap R27,000
24-frame EXTRACTOR R32,000
Online Deal!
Our Langstroth bee hives ONLY R900!
Order [93 units]
Please note that prices have increased in January 2016!
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