This is the beehive. I have set up a camera on a tripod so that I can monitor how many bees are leaving through the entrance and how many are leaving through the exit. The camera is powered by a sealed cell battery with an invertor attached.
This is the feeding station. It is 30 metres away from the hive. This is my favourite site. I get to sit under this Tortured Willow. It is right next to Bledisoe Park which has a beautiful stream and amazing bush walks. I have explored lots of this park as I have large amounts of free time while I am training the bees.
I train the bees using sugar syrup. I have to put in a small amount of fragrance initially. I have used peppermint. The watch glass needs to be placed directly in front of the hive and left there until heaps of bees are drinking from it. I have measured that it takes the bees 5 minutes to drink, take the syrup back to the hive and then return. The syrup has to be 40 to 50% for the bees to even bother with. This is a higher sugar content then nectar. Once the bees are interested, they will take the syrup back to the hive and recruit more bees.
Once the bees are interested, I then have to slowly move the watch glass away from the hive. My first move has to be 5mm. I leave it for 10 minutes then move it 10mm, I repeat this over the next hour until I can start moving it in larger jumps until I am at the feeding station 30 metres away. It took me a few days to get it right.
Here I am in my hood with my smoker and hive tool. To begin with, I was wearing a hoodie and jeans with gumboots. It has been so hot that now I wear just shorts and t-shirt, sometimes without the hood and gloves.
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