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Dunbar Apiary

We are a small but productive queen breeding business in mid NSW. Our mission is to provide quality queens for domestic and commercial markets.

31/08/2026

Happily grafting away, and you see this! Bloody varroa. This hive returned zero’s in a mite wash exactly one week ago. We have 4 hives that don’t get treated and this is one of them. Oh well just have to keep an eye on the counts.

25/08/2026

The delivery man came today. Glad I bought wired frames. I normally make my own frames from scratch. I just wouldn’t be able to handle the amount I need right now.

14/08/2026

Of course. There’s queens to go in their hives today and it’s raining. I’m hoping there’s a gap in the patches of rain. There is four hives that were very cranky and the queens received an extra strong cuddle a few days ago, that need queens badly. Not looking forward to going through them to find any cells. I don’t want any off spring out of them so it has to be done.

08/08/2026

You go from a clean shed one day to queen nuc preparation next. 60 minis in the paddock, getting 30 x 3 frames ready and 24 x 2 frame nucs ready to take cells Monday. I’ve robbed the main hives of so much brood they honestly couldn’t swarm???? Making frames like a demon at the moment. I make all my own frames. I think I’m going to have to give in and start to buy frames. I made 100 today and haven’t even touched the sides.

02/08/2026

Damn it! It’s winter bee’s, I’m not ready😆😆

21/06/2026

It’s a good day. Then it’s a bad day. Bees are still making honey in the cooler weather and then you get back to the car after finishing with them for the day and you find a flat.

13/06/2026

It’s been a big week of making uni mating nucs, getting on top of things before spring. Boxes are all made, openings are printed on the 3 d printer and installed, wax strips are cut and some have been welded, using heated wax to the 100’s of bambo supports. Just have the lids and some of the strips left to go. We made a 130 two frame nucs last year and this year we are going to run 3 frame castle hives. We still have to make and paint another 30 of them. They are customised 10 frame boxes with partitions in them to take three lots of three frames which means we have to make special bases for them also. The plan for next spring is to mate the queens in the minis and then introduce them to the 3 frame castles to prove the laying pattern before we put the queens into our hives. We hope to reduce the amount of equipment we need to use. Last year we ran a two frame nuc and the success wasn’t that great. I put it down to the virgin queen getting confused on her return and flying into the wrong hive plus they were well out in the open. The idea of running the castles is so that we can install the partition at the beginning of the mating season then at the end of the season remove it and return it to a full 10 frame box. This will hopefully reduce the amount of stand alone nucleus hive we hold through winter. Hopefully we can get new queens into our production hives in a reduced amount of time.

17/05/2026

Strategic planning for the upcoming season is underway, involving financial projections for apiary modifications, specifically on the underside of a new lid. Although experience dictates that unforeseen challenges will arise, thorough preparation is essential to mitigate potential setbacks.

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That’s what meta wrote. I wrote: planning the yard changes to work out the capital spend for next season, beekeeper style on the back of a new hive lid. But with bees that can all go to crap. They have a mind of their own, but you need to prepare anyway.

Think I know what I prefer.

05/05/2026

Had to move some of the girls on the weekend. They outgrew the yard and started to become a problem. Did some varroa checks and brood counts. Varroa was a bit higher than I like with 7 mites per 300 bees. I’ll start a treatment program this week. Brood count is good coming into winter. Nice solid laying pattern and very healthy looking brood. Still showing a solid drones but I think the weather will change this week and I’ll see some expediting happening. I managed to get a late batch of queens in and they hatched yesterday. I’ll check them next week for eggs and then move them to the new yard also. Sheryl took some notes for me because we wanted to see general health compared to earlier in the season. She also timed me and I was in each hive for less than 4 minutes which isn’t bad when you’re inspecting each frame.

20/04/2026

Out on a mine site offset property today and came across these guys fertilising a rehabilitated area. This drone can hold 50kg of fertiliser and distribute it without contact on the ground. They said they can use 6 of these drones for aerial spraying at the same time and it keeps up with an air tractor. But what makes it better for bee keepers is that it can be programmed to fly closer to the ground to prevent chemical drift. And it can be done at night when the bees are tucked up in their hives.

Address

North Rothbury, NSW
2335

Website

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