However judging the continental sausage at the royal Brisbane show is not something to pass up, so I gave up my Sunday morning to toodle off to Brisbane for a 8am start. That would have been fine except the mob running the judging would be hard pressed to organize a piss up at Oktoberfest in the biggest brewery in the world. Me and the boss were used for a total of about 20min of judging. At 11am. Three hours of sitting round watching a train wreck of organisation.
Anyway, bolted off to get home and build some racking for some more bee hives that are guesting, maybe permantly, at Lantanaland. I quickly ducked in to grab a present from a good mate that she'd picked up in Italy and sent home with her mum. Thanks Jess!
The bloke who owns the new bee hives, Matt, came round and we whipped up this heavy duty frame that will hold about five hives. We built it out of reclaimed deck posts that my builder neighbour had salvaged for me. They are bloody good gear and I have plans already for the rest of them.
Matt took off and came back with three hives. Only one problem. One of the hives the tape had come loose on the entrance. The boys got stung quite a bit moving them, I was wearing a singlet and was soft, I stayed well back. They eventually got them in and came down for a beer and then I crashed out.
I paid for it Monday afternoon though, suffering my first case of Mondayitis in years. I struggled through the training session and good case of mental fog. Thank god it's back to normal this weekend!
Lantanaland from the iPhone
Veils may have been a good idea! Still beer was a good antidote.
ReplyDeleteThe only way you'd get me near a bee hive is with a flame thrower.
ReplyDelete....and "near" being relative...
Not all Kiwis are that soft though. DMDY's research program involves a lot of this sort of stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot easier and less stressful than it looks beekeeping. Even met a bloke who was highly allergic, but he just wore a full suit and carried an epi pen.
ReplyDeleteYour wife got any info she can share doc? Do they have small hive beetle over there?
Bee disease stuff seems very country specific to me. Varroa is moving its way down NZ but hasn't hit this part of the south island yet. In general it's too cold down here for a lot of the insect parasites.
ReplyDeleteThe boss is about one decent barrage of stings away from a full anaphylactic episode, so the epi pen et al is always close at hand. He rues the day he ever thought bees would be a good comparative model for insect development.