At the start of the month we added the super to our Flow Hive and were expecting the bees to take awhile to get used to the flow frames. Surprisingly when I checked a couple of days later they had started filling the gaps with wax. I did another peek through the windows today and they have started filling the flow frames with honey!
I had forgotten about this fabric I bought from Ikea many years ago and decided to turn it into cushions for all the kids birthdays this year. Since I just finished the last one I thought I'd better get a photo before I wrapped it. So far the two kids who have received their cushions have loved them!
And now that it is done, I think I need one for myself as well. We just bought a daybed for our lounge room so I'm in need of lots of comfy, new cushions, for now we just have a whole lot of pillows with pillowcases on them. One by one those pillows will get turned into cushions - if you can't find a cushion insert just grab a pillow by the short end, one hand on each corner and flick it so all the stuffing compacts at the other end. A standard cheap polyester filled pillow will compact enough to fit into a cushion cover.
Archie is a bit of a handful and I experimented with short and long leads but found we needed both at different times on our walks. Sure we could just grab the lead down low, but as he got bigger and stronger it got more difficult to hold him close.
So I bought a longer lead and sewed two extra handles to make it easier to hold him close. Something so simple to do makes it so much easier to control our huge puppy on walks!
I just used my normal sewing machine and a 14 needle and sewed back and forth a few times, he'll be turning one on Thursday and his old one is still holding up - he'll chew through the webbing before my stitches come apart! I sewed up a new one for his first obedience class last night, boy was he naughty!
So back in July I shared a photo of our beautiful Flow Hive with the bee nucleus we got in April.
Our bees have been busy all winter and I noticed they were starting to beard on the front of the hive. Being that we have only just hit spring, it wasn't because of the heat so I opened them up to find they had started building comb between the frames and the lid as they had run out of room for honey!
I saved the honey from the clean up of the lid and it is delicious! We have heard that the bees can take a while to start using the flow frames for the first time. With their hive being so full we pulled out a frame of honey and gave them an empty frame they can start on until they're ready to use the flow frames.
Now they have plenty of room and they are as busy as always! It's not the best photo sorry, I had bees bouncing off me while I was standing in the flight path. It was overcast and windy, it still surprises me how busy European bees are in bad weather. Our natives bees are much smaller and don't leave their hive on days like this!
We chose the flow hive so we didn't need honey extraction equipment.As we mainly want honey, the flow hive made the most sense for us, especially since we can only have one hive. Which means, for the frame we removed we will be doing the mash and strain technique. We will use this technique whenever I need some wax for my homemade hand balm.
I'll let you know how we go with our first mash and strain experience, and hopefully soon we can share our first flow harvest with you!
Before we got chickens I spent ages researching chicken coops and saw so many funny chicken signs that I decided to make a few for my own chicken pen. The first one I ever made was "Eggcellent House" which my mum wanted as the name for her chicken coop. She never got around to hanging it on her coop so when she rehomed her chickens she gave it back to me.
The top two are just pieces of dressed pine which I varnished really well, they're in need of a light sand and recoat as the varnish is starting to crack on the top, but the burn has been protected by the varnish.
The mother cluckers was oiled decking timber and unfortunately being in full sun it has faded the burn and the wood has gone mouldy in the rain. I have a new sign on decking timber that I need to varnish so I can see how that well that lasts in our wonderful Aussie sun!
