Forgotten Ridge Farm Australian Bush Honey in Sydney, Australia | Urban Farm

Forgotten Ridge Farm Australian Bush Honey

Locality: Sydney, Australia

Phone: +61 412 889 935

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• Urban Farm
• Agricultural service

22.01.2022 Early winter and time to reflect on the season past. Certainly a good one. This side of the mountains has avoided worst of drought conditions. Plenty of bee forage has produced plenty of good honey. We believe our East Kurrajong environment produces an excellent table honey. Season after season our honey is smooth, buttery, spicey and beautifully balanced. ... This year judges at the Sydney Royal Easter Show agreed with us! Our honey was awarded second place in Medium colour Eucalyptus Honey. Very proud indeed of this award won in strong company. This year's honey entries were a record high. Plenty of honey available. Bulk quantities for large families available at $9/kilo. Minimum 5kg.

19.01.2022 Extreme heat and bees. Summer is a challenging season for beekeepers. Especially when the heat turns up to 46 degrees or more. Bee hives can suffer badly. In extreme cases, wax frames melt, and the hive drowns in honey. We've had this happen. It's a terrible mess...and loss.... Two days ago we experienced a 47 degrees day. This time all our hives survived No problems. All are thriving. This is what hives need to get through the hotest days: Ventilated base boards. Insulated lids. A familiar and reliable source of easily accessable water. Afternoon shade if possible. Ventilated bases aid the circulation of air in the hive. That said, plain old wooden bases can manage well too - provided there is water close by. Insulated lids are a must. Lots of heat is transfered through an uninsulated roof. This forces the bees to work hard cooling the hive. Water and lots of it, must be freely available. Bees need to easily land at the water point, and drink without drowning. We use extruded bricks. And sticks. A water point should be familiar. The water point you set up the day before might not be found in a stress situation. Water must be reliable - no point running out of supply! Water is best close by. Don't make your bees work too hard for water. That dam 150 metres away might be too far in a heat wave. Afternoon shade is ideal but not always possible. Water however is not negotiable. Provide hives lots of easily accessable water and they should survive any heat wave.

17.01.2022 Last season's new queen. Back in February I bred our first queens. Took me three goes. Here is one of them. She was grafted from a golden Italian mother. Open mated in our yard, her brood will have a mix of Italian and Carniolan genetics. Locally adapted no doubt. This nuc hive has come through the cool months very well. Won't be long before this little hive needs a new home. ... Will be interesting to observe how this queen performes...

07.01.2022 Beekeeping Daily Life #7 Condensation a re-think. Necessity is the mother of invention; invention is the mother of necessary re-invention. Winter is hive condensation time. That time when a warm mass of bee generated air rises up, and makes contact with the underside of a cold hive lid. Result is water condensation. This is not good for bees. They can manage cold given enough food and shelter. But health suffers if they become wet.... During summer I noticed how much heat can penetrate through a hive lid. This becomes evident when you place your hand on the underside of a hive lid on a hot day. Heat and cold has a way of penetrating metal, wood or plastic. Usual hive lid materials. So question is: how to prevent outside temperature penetrating hive lid? Answer: insulation. This year we have insulated the underside of all hive lids. Material we use is shed roofing insulation. Purchased on a roll it is stiff combination of bubble wrap and aluminum foil. Cut slightly larger than the ceiling it is then pushed into the underside of the roof ceiling. It could be glued or gummed in place. We prefer a tight fit that can be easily replaced if needed. So far results are excellent. Absolutely no condensation. Hive conditions are bone dry. Outside temperature (cold) has no relation to inside hive temperature. Therefore - no condensation. Happy bees, happy beekeeper - happy life!

05.01.2022 What do bees do in extreme heat? They use LOTS of water! Hives operate at around 36 degrees. If it’s ten degrees hotter, lots of bees have to work overtime to maintain optimal hive temperature. ... To do this they need a reliable water source. We offer several water points for our bees. However, yesterday’s favourite was one small birdbath. I filled it at least half a dozen times. Here’s a beekeeping tip I learnt yesterday: extruded bricks are ideal water landing platforms for bees. They wick water and offer good traction. Very few drowned bees yesterday despite 46 degree temperature.