The story of the cycle of the trees and bees from a beekeeper. It all begins in the spring the bees have just come out of winter slumber and are ready to start to build up there own strength, so we take the bees to good pollen sources and some nectar. So they can feed themselves and there young for the busy time of summer ahead when everything is asking to be pollinated and where we gather the honey for our use and do not mine sharing this with our human friends.
So in our area of the world we usually take them to paterson curse or salvation jane, which is a purple flower that to some is wonderful as to us and others a weed to other, which is the best spring build up for the bees in our area.
From there we come into summer where we take the bees to the eucalypts depending on what is flowering in the gums for that year. Here is where they gather the various honeys that you are eating. This comes from the ranges of the mountains to the coastal sea in the Sth East area of NSW and sometimes we work the central west and lower western districts, which is much drier and produces the stronger tasting honeys.
As Autumn approaches we take them to stringy bark which can be flowering. Or if this is not occuring we take the bees to trees which are good for the bees but not so good for us humans to store up enough food for the winter, as we do like to hand feed.
In winter we sometimes work the spotted gum for honey which is better for the bees than us. In winter the bees hibernate for 3 to 4 months before the cycle begins all again.
How we Process the Honey
Once the bees have gathered all there honey from the trees that we are working on we come along and take one full box of honey leaving them with one full box and giving one empty in return. So as not overstress or leave them without, we then let the bees continue to gather more honey, and return taking one and leaving one till the trees nectar is finished. If the tree does not have pollen as some do not we need to then take them to pollen sources as it is the pollen which allows the baby bees to grow and be healthy for the young. As the adult bees eat honey to nourish themselves. With this it takes six kilos of honey to produce 1 kg of wax. Therefore once we uncap the honey we are very careful to take as little wax as possible as this is quite a lot work for the bees to create there little wax bottles which each cell containing only a few mls of honey each.
From here we put it through an extraction process which takes the frames which have been uncapped and are then spun forcing the honey from the cells. From there the frames are then given back to the bees in tact so they can refill each cell and cap it again. The honey then is lightly strained and then placed in containers and then bottled.
So this is a little bit of the honey story and the cycle that we and the bees go through every year and every season to finally end up on your table for you to enjoy and savour.The second gift that these beautiful little creatures give graciously to man, after of course pollinating all your food crops and fruits and flowers so you can enjoy them new every year.
As you may or not be aware of there has been some serious problems of late with our relatives of other bees in other countries due to mans bad practices which have nearly wiped us all out. They are calling this CCD or colony collapse disorder. Where we are so stressed and poisoned by pesticides gm crops microwave pulsations that we just leave our hives and do not return, due to wishing to escape or frequencies interfering with our communication and homing devices.
So with our beekeepers they do none of these things keeping us well away from any possible harm and understanding our natural cycles, and even getting us certified with NASAA being an organic biodynamic certification. We have very high quality honey and are now looking to establish good people in a few overseas countrys who will appreciate our honey and all that goes into it. Of course as a sideline we give from our caps of honey taken every year at least 6000 kgs or 6 tonnes of beeswax which is cosmetic grade available. So far we have not had the time to do more with this but are happy for others to do so.
