Wednesday 8 October 2014

Bees and frogs

Last night we picked up our bee hive and brought it home wrapped securely in a doona cover and taped well so no bees would escape in the boot of the car.  After positioning them in their designated spot we let them settle for about five minutes or so to calm a little after their twenty minute journey in the car.  We could hear them buzzing so knew they were not happy about being moved again and being closed up in the hive for a few days.  After donning our protective gear we removed the doona cover and tape.  There were a few bees who ventured out immediately and did a bit of a fly around us but they were pretty mild.  We brushed them off our protective gear and left them alone.  Hubby got one small sting but nothing too bad.  This morning we gave them some sugar syrup to keep them fed until they find their bearings and where the nectar and pollen supplies are.  Here are a few photos of the hive.



The yellow container holds the sugar syrup.




It has been fascinating this morning watching the scouts come out and fly around (in swirls) then go back into the hive.  Hubby is really excited and happy as he has been planning this for quite some time.

In other nature news, as Charlotte was coming home from work on Monday night and coming up the stairs at the front of the house she saw a little frog.  We do hear frogs when there has been plenty of rain and it's wet but we've never actually seen one.  It was quite small and not too keen to be handled.  Charlotte and Genevieve released it back to the nearby creek where we hope it will be safer than in our front yard.  We identified the frog as a Litoria ewingi, Southern Brown Tree Frog.  You can find more information about them here if you are interested.
 

 
 Isn't he/she cute?  I love frogs.


Anne xx
 

8 comments:

  1. How wonderful you now have your bees. I love watching ours..

    That frog is certainly a cute one.. I too love frogs and hope we get a few more in our pond in Spring :o) xx

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  2. How exciting to get the bees! Just imagine, as I'm sure you have, your very own honey! And beautiful frog! xx

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  3. We have lots of green frogs here as well as plenty of horrible cane toads . Yuk !
    You're brave to be keeping bees but I'm sure the rewards will be sweet!

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  4. That is a cute frog! Very exciting about the bees too, I'd love to have a bee hive.

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  5. Your first 2 pictures show a very happy bee hive. What a great smile.
    xx

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  6. Oh wow Im so envious getting bees has been on my to do list for quite some time and I still have not got around to attending a workshop.
    This is fantastic I cant wait for some more bee photos xx

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  7. Hello! Just popped over from Bunny Mummy's blog. Congratulations on the bee colony, best of luck with them! As a bee keeper myself, I still find them fascinating even after several years of beekeeping. I'm sure you'll enjoy them tremendously! (Tips I learned: always move slowly around them, and if the hive seems ill (loud) don't deal with them that day.)Best of luck!

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  8. What an adorable little froggie. I'm so interested to see how the beekeeping goes. I'm allergic to bees, so I'll never have a chance to do it, but I find it very interesting.

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