Wild boars and Giant hornets
Beekeeping is sometimes super depressing! We work years and years to build healthy colonies, only to have them taken from us with typhoons, hornets, wax moths or microscopic tracheal mites. Honestly, it seems like it’s just an uphill battle with very little payoffs when you are a native honey beekeeper. and now Wild Boars? Are you kidding me? We’re talking about boars are not bears right! Wild boars being a threat to honeybee hives, didn’t even cross my mind. Enjoy the Video!
This Years Runt!
The smallest swarm I have ever caught! It’s going to be interesting to see if I can build this colony up and the overwinter them. #teenytinyswarm2019
Traps set!
Thirty plus trap hives all waxed up and set. With an unusual ten-day golden week coming up, it’s looking like I’ll be camping at the apiary catching swarms.
Bees Wax 4 Sale
Summer 2019 Our hives do not use ready made foundations making 100% of the wax produced by the our honeybees, there is zero chance of the wax being contaminated with paraffin or soy wax . We do use chemicals in our hives, thus making our wax chemical free. Our wax processed via two methods, Solar in the months of July and August, and steam in in the other months. Two grades are available for purchase, Apiarist and Cosmetic. Apiarist This wax is suitable for use in beehives and products such as leather or wood polish. The wax is deep yellow in colour with some impurities. This wax could used in […]
Drone Down!
Yep! I kill it! Oh! well… Sold the parts on mercari, Good Bye Anafi
360
Originally purchased my drone for video. Now my Anafi done falls more and more into my toolbox as flying camera for stills! and then I found 360 panorama mode… OMG! I am sold.
And it starts…
With the warm winter, I expected spring to arrive early. Sakura trees are budded and ready to explode, but will boom later than last year and this years predicted forecast. Queen cells are already built in the stronger hives and drone brood looks good… Trap boxes are waxed up and counting down the days. Counting down the days.
Sumoto Castle
Pre-Sakura Almost the end of March and it’s still a little cold at dusk. Thirty minutes before sundown on a windless day with my hands starting to freeze I powered up the drone and engaged (don’t you love that word 🙂 ) the camera mode. When I first purchase the drone I envisioned myself videoing the Japanese countryside with its acclaimed, for the price the 4K camera, now all I want to shoot is still photos with it… Oh! how I get things wrong.
Sumoto Castle
The Drone Introducing the Anafi drone from the French company parrot. She’s compact and has a great camera, but lacks obstacle avoidance sensors… do I need those? Only time will tell. As a proficient drone pilot with two hours of flight time under my belt 🙂 I felt it was time for a challenge because we all love a challenge, don’t we… The Castle Sumoto castle has been a favourite of mine since moving here all those many years ago. My Showa era apartment, with its Japanese style toilet Washiki Benjo 和式便所, cold water only bathroom and head-banging brain cell losing door frames was and still is located at the […]
Floored
And it two years is all it took to get the floor started; winter is the only time I can work on the apiaries maintenance. I still need to add a door and make some of the spaces smaller so the ferrets and monkeys can’t get in. Bugs I can live with, ferret poo I can not.