Beekeeping Highlights & Surprises
Beekeeping Highlights & Surprises
Beekeeping does not always go as planned and can be full of surprises.
Note: This page is new and will hopefully grow with more highlights and surprise scenarios.
Bushfire in the Bunyip state forest in 2019
The Bunyip state forest fire in Feb/Mar 2019 presented a threat to one of my hives located in the Tonimbuk area at the fringe of the state forest, surrounded by grass land.
When the fire was burning in the area all road access had been blocked; inspecting the damage had to wait. After the fire had gone through and access to the area was permitted again I inspected the hive.
I was surprised that the hive bodies were not torched, although all the grass and small trees around had been burnt. Just small pieces of charcoaled grass had bonded with the layer of wax of the wax dipped boxes. Luckily the grass had always been kept short, so the fire did not have much fuel around the hive.
A full hive inspection revealed that the bee colony had not suffered any damage, no melting of the combs and the queen was laying eggs as nothing had happened.
In this case the bees have been lucky what is not always the scenario when a fire brushes through a bee site.
hive survived grass fire
above: Lucky survivors of the Bunyip state forest bushfire Feb/Mar 2019
below: The surrounding area as seen from the hive
Tonimbuk area
The trees with brown leaves had been torched by the fire.
below: Several piles of cut firewood were once stored under those trees
Firewood piles burnt
The fire made use of the firewood and left just piles of charcoal behind.