Lastnight we had the move an apiary the way it used to be done, before the days of compact forklifts. One of Tims newly aquired apiaries had all of the hives sitting on the ground rather than the forklift friendly pallettes the hives usually live on so we had to lift all one hundred hives by hand onto the back of the truck. Sounds simple enough, but the loading moving and unloading all needs to be done between sun set and sun rise. This is due to the fact that the bees are all inside relaxing for the night after their day’s work by the time the sun goes down, and once it rises again, they all get back to it and we don’t want to lose any bees in transport.
Fortunately we had a beautiful night illuminated by the nearly full moon. We had plenty of time out there to discuss the possibility of ‘were-bees’, very similar to werewolves, only much smaller and buzzier.
After driving till midnight we found the new home for our bees and after six hours of sleep we got to unloading the truck before the sun rose.
The bees got a pretty good deal with plenty of fresh fields of lucerne for them to grow strong on.

Attack of the werebee

Sunrise Smoker

Tim at Sunrise

The Buzz Honey Bees are now busy working the Lucerne crops between Keith and Bordertown. They provide important assistance in the pollination of these crops and also bring in a tasty honey from the flower’s nectar.
It’s always nice to have a change of scenery at work and get to discover a bit more of what South Australia has to offer when you get off the main roads. One of the sites we’re now working is beautifully nestled in amongst some shady gum trees on a nice bit of sheep farming land. I was amazed to see how the family who own and work the land there even have a pet sheep who acts like a dog.
The bees seem to be pretty happy on the Lucerne (also known as alfalfa) and we’ve had some pretty full and heavy boxes of honey to lift.
At the end of a hot day of lifting honey I was able to hop under an irrigation pump to cool off. Excellent.

A nice shady summer spot for bee keeping

Fields of Alfalfa

Putting the irrigation pump to good use at the end of a hot day