Backyard Bees - they're back!

In April we experienced a horribly violent East Coast Low on the mid east coast of NSW. The death toll wasn't as high as it was during the Pasha Bulker storm of '07, but still several lives were lost.

The storm hit us pretty hard, winds equivalent to a category 2 cyclone the first night, torrential rain the second, and we had no power for several days. Being on tank water, no power also means no pump and therefore no water either, so it was a bit of a nuisance. We also had some damage on the farm but nothing serious.

The brand new trampoline made it's way onto the top of the rainwater tank and eventually ended up leaning against a tree in the front yard

What was sad though, was that the area where the bee hives were situated was flooded and the hives were washed down the creek. The hives were able to be salvaged but unfortunately the queens didn't make it so eventually all the bees were lost.

One of the bee hives in the creek

This month the hives are back. It will take time to build the numbers of bees up again but at this time of the year there isn't the profusion of flowers that there will be in a few weeks so the low numbers aren't a bad thing. We have situated them in an area much higher than before, and although we didn't think they would be harmed where they were before, if the water gets high enough to get them in the new spot we will certainly have bigger things to worry about!

xx