Keeping Bees in Your Backyard

Written by Anne Carr

What a wonderful thing to do on a Saturday afternoon! Sitting around with like-minded people listening to a clear, detailed description on how to take care of bees and bee hives!

Did you know that bees like to keep the hive at 35oC winter and summer? Did you also know it’s a good idea to register your hive with the Department of Agriculture and they can assist you with some issues? Did you also know that it is the old queen that swarms in spring to go and establish a new hive? So the parents fly the nest not the offspring!

Thank you to Shelley Bowden of Kendenup for coming to the Community garden center and giving us a wonderful learning experience. Some of the items included in her talk were;

· Things to consider before purchasing a hive of bees

· Hive positioning

· Hive equipment

· Extracting Equipment

· Protective clothing

· Hive maintenance

· Diseases and Re-queening

And other items.

As you can see there was a wealth of information readily flowing! Shelley believes that you can increase your yield in your vegetable patch by 100% and with a set up cost of approximately $500 to $700 depending on the size and type this may be worthwhile to some larger plots.

Great resulting discussion at the end covering some of the more specific points that people needed clarifying and I believe everyone not only enjoyed the discussion but gained much needed knowledge.