Novice Beekeeper

 Well my bees beat me up these last two weeks. To be fair though  it was mostly my fault. So,  I started with radix hives; two at coastal Merewether and two on my property near Paterson.   Obviously the Merewether hives produced through winter and with a bit of an up-change in the weather they needed space for brood and honey.  This caught me out (Lesson 1: don't procrastinate or aim to do the least amount of work. In other words don't be lazy.)  I then had to rush around buying and assembling frames. Penders Bees reported that from their orders it's a bumper season. But I  really need to not be so unprepared again.   Adding Supers and extracting helped create space,  but I'll be extracting again very soon with my spanking new machine. Unfortunately in hive #4 the Queen spent the winter above the Excluder and it really knocked them about. Removing the Excluder (which was a third full of dead Drones) got them working ok again.  An emergent issue was the prevalenceI of cr

 It looks like Blogger has combined all my blogs,  so reading about bees and bikes ... Anyway! My Merewether bees have ramped up their collective presence these past weeks. There has been a feaux swarm and a bit of aggro. So after a few "emergency" calls from my sister I needed to get to the bottom of it.   Adding Supers is a stock response to the Spring Expansion.  The bees,  like the flowers are growing and being more productive and need space to store nectar.  So steps one and two,  were to add supers and extract honey.  This was for all for hives. But this didn't solve the crowding issue and there was still some major bearding of #2.  So,  I read up on Queen Exluders. Truthfully,  i cannot recall exactly why i twigged to this,  I guess it was just intuition? Once I'd read how some Bee'k's refer to then as Honey Excluders and how Workers are reluctant to pass through them and tend to ashore too much honey in the Brood Chamber,  my mind was made up to REMOVE

  Its official, I have a new to me bike and its a fatty! I tried my best to get a hold of a cheap used trike. But after clocking up more than 1400k only to see and the worst two trikes ever, I decided to postpone things trike until I get more money. So disillusioned by the whole affair.  Truthfull, I was also a lityle put off by how low triles can be. Sitting at axle height on a trike with 20" wheels, is way low. I hope that when  I do buy , that I get a fat 26" wheeler.  So anyway, this fatty. Its a 2016 Kona "Wo". 26"x4.80 Jumbo Jim tubeless tyres, 10 slot cassette with a twin cog forward, rack, disk brakes. The Kona brand is a joint Canadian-US design effort, made in Korea to spec.  This particular bike was bought for the Running Man festival in Nevada U.S.A. in 2017, though its a 2016 model. She is asmall framed model and was imported with three larger versions, by its previous owner. They were ridden only lightly "around the Narrabeen Lakes" befo

 That's the title of an ebook Im reading at present. A late middle aged couple way down on their luck are offered salvation by long distance hiking.   This weekend two Greenspeed trikes come up for sale.  One,  a GT20 needing an overhaul for $450, in South Australia.  It sold in hours.  Another in Western Australia had been powder coated and completely overhauled,  for $1250. It's actually great value,  but a non-folder and 10 000 plus kilometres away.   It strikes me,  after reading about the hikers,  with very little money,  failing health,  unemployed and homeless,  they take to the trail poorly prepared and unfit.  They're having a whale of an adventure.  Point being,  it's not about the bike.  It's the person riding or walking, "the man in the arena", that determines the nature and quality of the adventure.   The problem for me directly is the fact that I can't take more that 3 or 4 days in a row,  to have an adventure. I have to look after my mum

 From Circular Quay took the ferry to Manly. Rode north via Narabeen to Palm Beach. Tiny ferry across Pittwater to Patonga, then rode up the hill across to Umina Beach, Woy Woy then some busier roads to Terrigal. From here I had a very pleasant ride north via The Entrance, Budgewoi, crossed the Pacific Highway then through Freemans Waterholes to the Hunter Valley.

   Well,  this is a photo of a trike the same model and of similar vintage to the one I am off  to see this week. The restoration project was undertaken by "Smoothie" pn the bentrider forum.  Coincidentally,  I  was browsing an ebook this morning by Bryan J. Ball the founder of Bent Rider Online.  One of the chapters discussed the issue of naming trikes.  Apparently,  at least in the US, many trike riders name trikes while naming diamond framed bicycles is fairly uncommon.  Since I've been hunting for a used trike in good condition,  within my budget,  I've never not considered naming it "Greta". Of course it's after Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, whose effort and tenacity on the issue I greatly respect. My thinking behind the name has altered slightly after watching a recent three party doco about her in 2019 and into Covid times. One of the messages Greta insists that people take on board is to not follow her,  but to "get behind the sci