Soon it will be Spring in the Southern Hemisphere!   

Help with keeping bees
Lots of people are getting into beekeeping whether it is as a hobby or more serious. Either way, we are here to support the growing interest in beekeeping in South Africa and even around the world.     

What about keeping bees is so awesome? 
We think bees are fantastic creatures! But that's how we like them. Bees are varied in type and colour & when I was in the Ukraine 2013 @ Apimondia there was a teenage girl who stood up on stage as a speaker and was proudly able to proclaim that she identified the 20,000th bee sub-species that was found off an island where she was doing some research for a project.
             
Only about 20 honeybee species actually produce honey around the world. The major bee sub-species found around the world are Apis Mellifera, Apis dorsata, Apis cerana which can loosely fall into common names of the Italian, German, Buckfast & Caucasian honeybees! 

Let's talk bee season!     
Spring and summer in Southern Africa is packed full of nectar flows and different flowering crops, orchards and flora. Right now, the citrus nectar flow is about to start and some blue gum types are also flowering now. 

Soon to follow is avocado, litchi and bush honey. But later on from October the majority of crops such as sunflower, pumpkin, onion, red river gum, sugar gum, ironbark gum and soya flower to list a few. 

Tomato & macadamia are also excellent sources of nectar with many more crops and trees providing good to great nectar flow in the coming season. 

Bees will also be coming off of the Aloes in the Highveld and therefore very very aggressive however very well populated. This is usually the cause of many trekking swarms in the Gauteng and Highveld areas. In any event, come spring our "Africanised" honeybees tend to swarm and this makes bee removals a highlight this time of year. 

The trekking swarm also makes it rather easy to establish a new colony for a beginner beekeeper or more serious beekeeper as you need to use one of our langstroth bee hives protected by heat dipping process into waksol which acts like a swarm attractant to swarms nearby! 

Simply by placing empty bee hives and catch boxes in a field with a nectar flow you can "catch bees" about 70-90% of the time! If that isn't enough then you can purchase one of our Swarm Attractant Lure sachets for R30 each! 

What to look out for when settling a new trekking swarm?  
Check the sub-species of bee that you have found inside your catch box or brood box. If you live above Bloemfontein you should not find any black bees also known as Capensis. If you do, unfortunately, you are required to terminate the colony. 

Second, check if they have any parasites with them such as braula and small & large hive beetles. These usually travel with or can easily take hold of trekking colonies. Ideally, you should feed new colonies sugar water or clean & disease-free honey along with some maizena with a tbs of soya powder for protein substitute.  

Third, [assuming you left the opening of the catch/brood box without an entrance blocker - recommended] you should replace or reduce the entrance of the catch box or chamber to prevent access from pirates, hive beetles and capensis (if alien in your region). 

Lastly, look after the new honeybee colony well and it will produce excess honey in which you can enjoy and share! 

With bee season on, we kick into full education and training mode with regards to keeping bees and beekeeping! With that being said our next Easy Buzzing Beginner's bee course runs in Cape Town on 6th Sept - one week away! It is followed by our next course in Midrand, JHB on the 27th September.  Follow the JHB Bee Courses