Dunbar Apiary

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.

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...
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.

It’s been a big week of making uni mating nucs, getting on top of things before spring. Boxes are all made, openings are...
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.

Strategic planning for the upcoming season is underway, involving financial projections for apiary modifications, specif...
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.

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️
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.

Had to move some of the girls on the weekend. They outgrew the yard and started to become a problem. Did some varroa che...
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.

Starting preparations for next years mating nucs. We have nearly 80 of these to get ready before August. The colour blue...
17/04/2026

Starting preparations for next years mating nucs. We have nearly 80 of these to get ready before August. The colour blue is because we’re trying to make it easier to recognise equipment. These hives are a full depth 10 frame box that we place a board into the slot that turns them into a 3 frame mating nuc. Our cell builder hives are pale green and our drone hives are white. We’re also planning on running mini mating nucs but the decision on that is still on the fence because it means extra gear that can only be used in those hives. Using full depth 10 frame equipment means that only one base, one lid etc need to be stored

Address

North Rothbury, NSW
2335

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Dunbar Apiary posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share