MrWiggle

Heres my bees....hope this is the queen....otherwise I might be stuffed...

Anybody know what type of shop generally sells the molasses here and whats its thai name ?

I told the missus I want to get a cow and get the dudes that live on the famr to milk it each morning, giving us fresh milk and most of all....my favourite, cream.

Just like i remember on my grandparents farm, it would go straight in the fridge and be consumed, any left given to the cats.

Missus said we would have to buy a pastueriser to treat it before we could drink it cos of all the bacteriea and shit.....I laughed, quietly.

Not really, been to Poi pet, so wondering if should go back there or try the Laos one for something different, but want to know if the Laos one is as large as the PP one and has much of the same crap ?

Here I have question,what about nectar sources,like rubber,eucalyptus,cafe trees,tea trees,neem,......about longan.....What nectar sources exist in Thailand?

Plenty of rubber tree plantations, plenty of neem trees everywhere on roadsides, plenty of euca plantations also. tea trees never seen and fruit plantations in many areas.

Did not know neem was usefull for bees.

I am wondering if living on the edge of a large national park, that if native jungle trees would be enough to supply hives ? The idea of wild honey is nice.

MF....if I recall the left side is quite open, shall take another look but and the plant stall have been there for the 2 years I have been coming here. Hope we have the same research farm....or not actually.

The sweeping bend heading to the park is downhill.

How far from your field with the mounds, if I have identified the same field it is about 5ks.

But for the sad news, we wnet in yesterday and when enquiring about info, they told us to look up the internet, there is plenty of info there, much more than I know he said.

Only one guy there and 3 hives and the wasps are killing all of them.

His words to my missus were 'government run away'.....no longer supported, no longer operating, nobody knew anything.

Never mind. the dude we got our bees from is great, but just a little out of our way, this Pak Chong place would have been ideal for support and info.

Volk....where in Thailand are you doing this ??

Found the PC research farm.

It is at the 15k marker and about 8/9 k's from the park entrance and also has a sign out the front saying 'bee research station' in thai.

Easy to find as it is just past the police box, then on a sweeping left hand bend there are numerous plant stalls on the right for 200m and right at the last stall is the driveway into the place.

Have to go back during the week but as we went on the weekend and nobody about....even the bees looked to have disappeared for the weekend.

Throw grandma in the back and you can usually get a few more k's out of it.......check she is still there after each bend though.

No....going to the cleaners is a seperate deal, that costs another 5k a month.

I shall post a pick of the wild ones and my domestic hive.

I looked for the bee research farm today on way home, could not see it.

I think I saw the field with the 2 hilss in it, no corn, been ploughed and the next plot is in cassava.

The next dirt road is next to a temple and signs point to a development, no bee farm signs.

This is certainly not 2 k's from the park entrance gate, more like 15.

There is nothing like you mention that close to the park entrance that i can see anyway.

Also how long since you were up there.....not many red dirt roads off to the right, might have been paved it it was a while.

Shall start asking around tomorrow.

I got a reply from a solar company listed here for a pump $1800 and $500 per 90watt panel...2 required, so thats close enough to $3k or around 90/100k baht.

Thats a lot of months of electric power to fork pout up front. Rough guess at 10 years, if it was 5 years worth I would consider it.

Yesterday we found our local charcoal maker and bought 2 large bags, we also dug up 5 bags of the 'waste' full of black dirt, charcoal bits and dust etc and plan to put this into the vege patch.....hope it works the same as when you burn stubble and rubbish etc and increases the growth of anything nearby it.

I have been sitting and watching my bees over the last few days and they are very interesting.

The pollen jocks return witht the pollen, some yellow, some orange and dive straight into the hive. It seems that when one lands, another waiting takes off.

The soldiers stand guard at the entrance and I watched them chase off ants and wasps. I killed 3 wasps with the electric tennis racket.

A wild bee colony has set up less than 5m from my hive, my bee expert said this was not a problem and is actually very good.

a lot to learn, but very keen to do so and increase the hives in 6 motnhs if these lot survive my beekeeping abilities.

I shall visit the PC bee farm, did not even know it was there, we live not far from it.

There are not a lot of flowers on our famr currently, so if the bees increase the natural number, that shall be nice.

I notice the bees returning more in the mornings with pollen than in the afternoon.

The reason I ask about growing some flower plants for them is that when the flowers are low out in the fields or forest, that you have to feed them sugar syrup. I would presume that the supplement of specially grown flowers could replace the syrup surely as the syrup you give them is not a hel_l of a lot.....but maybe the syrup itself is so concentrate that it is the equivelant of an acre of flowers perhaps.

anyway, bee keeping is a nice hobby i currently enjoy and wish to be successfull, so lets see.

Busy downloading sites now on beekeeping to read when time permits.

Does anyone know what the best flowers are for bees ? Do papaya flowers attract bees ? I know sunflower is excellent.

Thinking to plant some of the easiest to grow and best for the bees type in areas that we do not use for anything else.

I just bought a hive from the bee farmer near Muak lek.

Lets see how it goes.

I did not use uncomposted compost.....it was composted, but not sure if it had gone past its use by date as it was not hot anymore at all. The chicken manure had been composting for 4 weeks.

So if this brew is no good, can I rescue it, or should I throw it and start again ?

I stirred it every 2nd day.

Don't forget the fish displacement figure

Also I see in here comments on bio toilets.

I am constructing one at the moment based kind of on the 'wasterwater garden' principles and would appreciate some feedback and or advice on it if anyone knows about it.

First question is what do they use for the filter....seems in the literature I downloaded they quote a 'special' filter and then in local areas where not available they use a palm product of some kind. I would presume this filter and what it is and how connected is fairly important as it could either block to much or let to large a solids into the system.

So, after about 4 days, should it have a strong rotten egg gas stench to it ??

Looking for plantation logs for planks, they are for sale here where we are in Pak Chong, but not available now and not quite the type I want. CM and CR to far away and ban taway way to expensive.

All the second hand wood shops move there wood about from place to place, so must be able to be done with relative ease for old wood.

Understand the requirements for new wood and agree with it.

I have a photo of the type of planks I am looking for, will post later.

But they are cut from new plantation timber around 20/30yo and roughly 15cm wide with flat top edge and natural log shape on the bottom side.

I am after the planks mainly, but will buy logs and cut my own if I have to.

Anyone know where to get teak logs or planks from.

These are for the outside of a bungalow, as in weatherboards etc.

Prefer the sawn planks, top edge is straight, bottom edge is the natural outline of the log.

Half logs also interested in if cannot find the planks i want in particular.

Cheers.

I just started my first tea on the farm 2 days ago....coupla questions for the experienced.

I used a 100lt tank and put in our well water, rainwater to valuable and scarce at the moment as our tank blew up.

I put in half a bucket of compost, now this compost was not hot, although it is well maturing and is about 2/3 months old...is this still ok and will do the job ?

I also added 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and about a quarter a bucket of 6 week old rice husk/chicken shit compost.

Should this tank be kept in the shade ? I presumed so and thought the sun might make it explode.

Should it be airtight or leave the top loose fitting to air ?

Also i was wondering if a seed pod from the flame tree, which is apparently a relative of the bean family, should be high in nitrogen and if this pod or the tree leaves could be included ??

Thats about it, shell see and advise how its looking in a week or so.

Nobody been to any of them huh ??

Mine is at university in Sakon.

sure.....