BeesOnline

Last Friday I drove to a wedding just north of Auckland, I stopped at one of my favourite cafes for lunch - BeesOnline just past Kumeu, out west. I love this place, it has the best food ( has won many awards), is situated above a wetlands area which has been planted back with all NZnatives, some great flax ( Phormium tenax ), to top it all off, there is a working hive in a glassed off area inside the cafe, a great place to park the kids while you eat your lunch ! The staff are super friendly, the whole place has a wonderful atmosphere .. but then I could be biased, it is all about bees and honey after all.

In the buildings behind the actual cafe, honey is brought in from their hives and other parts of NZ, this is put into very funky jars and sold in the shop along with many other honey - related items. I always spend too much money - who could resist manuka honey lollies, orange blossom honey and many other tempting articles ?? take a look at their website www.beesonline.co.nz .

Miropiko Pa

Not bees but still an interest of mine - this is a Maori pa site just down the road from where I live. Before European settlement in the 1860`s there were a number of pa or village sites along the Waikato River where the city of Hamilton now stands.The first photo shows what is left of the earthern embankments, the bottom one is the view across the river. I often go there and just sit and contemplate what it must have been like to live there in that time. I have a real interest in our local history so this bee blog will probably have afew extra bits and pieces on it from time to time.

Wild bees

This is what is left of a ferral bees nest in a willow tree in a park in Hamilton. An arborist friend said it had been much bigger and full of bees acouple of weeks ago, when I saw it yesterday there were no bees and some of the comb had fallen or been knocked off. It is in an area where few people could get to it, I couldn`t get any closer. There are so few ferral bees around now due to the varroa mite, I was hopeing this one was still viable, but there was no sign of life ..

Looking very `bee-person` like ..

Not sure what the shiny spot of my face is, anyhoo, it was a very hot sunny afternoon and the swimming pool looked very inviting. Both hives are situated right down the back of my friend`s garden, facing north and sheltered from the wind - extremely bee friendly

It is Monday afternoon here in the Antipodes, not sure why is says Sunday on the post - after all, we are the first country in the world to see the new day ..

Into their new home

Bees do really`pour` out of the box, they settled in very quickly and within days began drawing out the wax foundation - this is Matai

Boxing the bees

I have just discovered how to put photos on my blog - took awhile ..

Collecting the swarm from Miro in the cardboard box, high up the neighbours grapefruit tree, balancing on a wobbly ladder.