On the learning curve.

They asked me bout me Gramma

I told em she was dead.

They didn’t mention Grampa

But I told em what he’d said.

(snippet from “On the education road” author unknown.)

The last eighteen months on Leven River Farm have been a continual learning curve - the education road for smallholders.  

Before we came to Tasmania I had never kept beehives, now I have three beehives in full production with a fourth on its way. It seems a little counterintuitive but the best time to rob the hive is when the hive is a hive of activity – bees buzzing around madly. When I first tried robbing a hive I waited for a cool cloudy day when the hive had little activity. Big mistake – when I took the top off, bees spilled out everywhere and I couldn’t get them clear of the supers. When the hive is humming with activity most of the bees are out collecting pollen and nectar and those that are left are too busy to take much notice.

Clover honey and beeswax from one hive.

I robbed two of the hives a couple weeks ago, second harvest for the summer, and was rewarded with 28kg of honey. When conditions are favourable and the hive strong, the bees can fill a super in two weeks.

One hive yielded a very light delicate clover honey. In November this same hive yielded a moderately dark robustly flavoured honey.  This time last year it yielded a very distinctive strong flavoured honey the colour and consistency of treacle.  I have no idea what is different this year. The hive still occupies the same position, conditions have been similar, meadow flowers like dandelion, buttercup and clover are plentiful but the bees have obviously favoured a change of diet.

Two honeys, harvested from the same hive a month apart.

The other hives are up on the top boundary making the most of the blackberry blossoms and producing a clear light fragrant blackberry honey. If the summer weather holds I should rob the hives at least twice more before winter. That will be around 55 - 60kg of honey per hive for the season. By commercial standards a fairly low yield but I am a very much a hobby apiarist.  I don’t move my hives off the farm and I don’t feed the bees over winter, rather I choose to leave the hives well stocked with honey in autumn.

The Saddlebacks are due sometime after the 20^th of this month. They all display long swollen nipples hanging beneath huge bulging bellies, looking like they are ready to pop any time. We have prepared a couple of stables as farrowing pens where a sow and her piglets may spend the first week or so.  A protected corner in two the farrowing pens has been set up with a small heat lamp to provide heated sanctuary for the piglets so the sow can’t roll on them. The more I research and talk to people keeping free range pigs the more I am inclined to leave the sows farrow in the paddock during summer. It is vitally important that we get it right as we need to wean as many piglets as possible.  We hope to produce 70 – 90 slips this year, most will be sold and a few we will keep for our own consumption. We should have Tamworths available as registered breeding stock, I think the only producer of registered Tamworths in Tasmania.

Tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins and sweet corn.

 We are starting to learn what grows well in the garden and still escape the attentions of marauding rabbits. We tried a few garlic cloves last year and they rewarded us with large plump purple garlic bulbs. Zucchini do exceptionally well in the short summer, as do strawberries, tomatoes, pumpkins, potatoes and sweet corn. I built a small portable greenhouse to provide for an earlier start for the frost tender plants. 

Pumpkins and sweet corn in the greenhouse.

I now have a much better idea what the geese require for a productive breeding season. Our results this year was a little patchy with the first three geese sitting on eggs failing to produce any goslings. When we provided them with protective nesting boxes the other four all hatched successfully with one sitting on fourteen eggs and successfully raised eleven goslings. In total we raised twenty-five goslings to maturity.  This year we will have eleven or twelve breeding pairs and with good nesting sites, a little planning and a little luck we should be much more successful.