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Fernglade Farm

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Commenced:	01/01/2005
Submitted:	08/04/2011
Last updated:	16/02/2016
Location:	Cherokee, Victoria, AU
Climate zone:	Cool Temperate

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Fernglade Farm

Cherokee, AU

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We’re back babe-bee!

Project: Fernglade Farm

Posted by Chris McLeod about 10 years ago

This week I've written about all of the disasters with bees, what I've learned and what I'm doing about it. Plus there's more rocks, of course and also I show some of the work that I'm doing with the remnant rainforest here at the farm

I couldn’t help myself, I had to somehow work the word “bee” into the title of this week’s blog! Hehe!

A small section of the bee food flower, vegetable and herb garden

Last week I received a phone call from an unknown phone number and the person never left a message. I thought that it would be one of those awful calls and you all know how they go: “We know that you have nothing better to do, so we thought that you’d like to participate in a survey”. As they didn’t bother leaving a message, I didn’t bother finding out what it was all about.

Then the following day at about the same time they phoned again. I thought to myself, not again, so I steeled myself to deal to them thoroughly and send them packing on their way. What a surprise to find that it was Robert from Bee Sustainable in Melbourne* calling to let me know that my new bee colony was ready to pick up. Glad I took that call, and I quickly arranged a time to pick up the colony.

There is a general rule which seems true to me that states that you have to kill a plant or animal at least three times before you can actually say that you know something about that particular plant or animal.

European honey bees have been a complete disaster here. Actually they’re a bit of disaster everywhere across the planet as humans have made a right mess of that species.

Anyway, my story with bees began about two years ago, when I purchased a hive from a commercial producer. My first mistake was that the commercial producer sold me a hive with an old queen, although this was unbeknownst to me at the time. I did originally read lots of books on bees, but the reality is always – like everything else – a little more complicated than that.

The second mistake I made was that all of the books that I read at that time advised me to place the hive in a sunny spot. In the meantime a local guy that I know gifted me another colony and things were looking up for some serious honey production at the farm here. Honey is really good because not only is it the major source of sugar in cool temperate climates, but it also produces the tasty drop “Mead” which over the past few years has become something of a production line here.

For the rest of the entry: http://ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au/

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