Native rescue and split of a dual queen

Hey hey! Been a while I know...

I was called out to an older gentleman's home month ago to inspect his Tetragonla hockinsi hive on fears that they have perished. Sadly they had. His hive was completely destroyed by small hive beetle (SHB), an invasive pest here in Australia brought over with the European honey bee. 

Australia's native bees do have ways of defending themselves against SHB by smothering invaders with sticky resins once they enter the hive. Older and more experienced hives are also better able to defend their entrances against SHB, however this doesn't help in the short term.  This is how new or inexperienced hives can be quickly devastated and overrun, despite how healthy they may initially be.

The good news is SHB in the Northern Tropics of Queensland tend to be more seasonal due to our extended periods of drought.  Once our periods of rain occur however, these little turds will stop at nothing to pick on our poor native bees.

In any case the gentleman I visited was in need of a new hive. He had made a native hive box himself out of reclaimed and untreated timber and I was lucky enough to have a hive myself on standby that was harboring two queens in a single hive.  This is not a common occurrence however the two queens were getting along just fine sharing workers and resources. You can see in the image below the two distinct brood clumps, both at different stages.

 

Since these little creatures were going into a new home they would need a little extra help defending their entrance. Usually i do this by inserting a small piece of U bend pipe into the entrance however I had run out of the right size during the time of the split, so I made an artificial one on the inside instead using some cerumen (native bee wax) I had cleaned and stored from previous rescues.

By making a temporary tube like this, the tiny bees have a smaller and elongated entrance to help defend their new home whilst cleanup and construction happens in the rest of the hive.

 

I also poured a thin layer of melted cerumen over the inside of the hive and squished a few larger droplets of wax randomly around to help give them something to build on and also some resources to use while they settle in.

Both halves of one brood was transferred into the new hive box along with some pollen pots in one corner and honey pots in the opposite corner. Unlike their southern counterparts, hockinsi in the tropics tend to prefer to have separated honey and pollen pots. The reason for this is still unclear however here we are with a few weeks rations of food and pollen with little spills. I only gave a small amount as both hives will be swapped daily to share workers while repairs occur over the next week or two. This will help boots immediate numbers, reduce clean-up time and give the new hive a little boost while the new hive grows.

After 3 days the little bees have almost entirely cleaned up their entrance hole and have reasonably defended their new home. Once the new hive has enough numbers without the support of the original, i will be sending these little critters to their new gorgeous home, where no doubt they will be cared for. I will be checking on them every few months just to make sure they grow and become a healthy and strong hive.

Just to finish the day, my chickens got a frozen yogurt treat to beat the heat! The good little girls kept away from my natives while I was doing the transfer so they definitely deserved a cool reward.

(left to right) Gremlin, Kiev, Schnitzel and Parmigiana

DIY Cardboard Cat house! Update + Apology!

Hey everyone! Where have I been!? I do apologise for suddenly disappearing, however the reason why is an interesting and very lucky story.

I am a part of my local bee keeping group and went for my first visit a few months ago. Never seen a bee hive before so of course they took a liking to my fresh new face and decided to sting me 6 times. Poor girls...

Anyhoo about an hour or so later, I developed vertigo and some mild chest pain which (at first) felt only little more than some bad stomach pain. So I decided to call an Ambulance anyway, just in case I was allergic to bees. Wasn't the case but boy was I lucky anyway.

After multiple blood tests and being hooked up to an ECG machine for 5 hours the doctors diagnosed me with a Pulmonary Embolis. That's a big ol' blood clot in my lungs. For may people...a death sentence and I'm still so very young.

I stayed overnight and as soon as a new doctor came in for his shift I was discharged. Not something that should have happened, but that's another story. So anyway I was monitored by my private doctor intensively for a few weeks while I had regular blood thinner injections in the stomach and multiple xrays of my chest to monitor what was going on. By this stage my breathing deteriorated a little but the blood clot was dissolving. Semi good news!

Unfortunately because of all this business I developed a mild infection and chronic asthma which may be permanent in some capacity. I'm still undergoing treatment so the extent is something to discover at a later date. I was prescribed some heavy immune killing steroids, usually reserved for cancer patients, some antibiotics and several "puffer" style steroids for my lungs.

After several weeks of this I'm walking, talking, breathing and still living. The blood clot is long gone although the cause is still a giant mystery, and I'm starting to talk very well without much breathing difficulty. Although my chronic cough is still around. So I will be picking up my video's shorty =)

On to my latest project! I'm still a little shakey so miniatures are not on the table for the time being. I ordered a new computer (mine was like 8 years old anyway) and it came in a HUGE cardboard box. Which my new kitten tempest adored. So I decided to make a little home for him.

Excuse the mess! I cleaned up all the packaging and tape stuck to the edges and taped down the top flap to be more roof-shaped. Cut out a few holes for a door and some windows and the basic shape was done.

Despite the fact that this will be obliterated by my cats, I decided to decorate it anyway. What would be more fitting than using pages from my local Better Homes and Garden's magazines that I had been collecting for months. God knows why.

I did however run into a few issues. Tempest wanted to help the best he could and would often swipe or slap my hands as I tried to glue down pieces of page to the box.He also took pride in bringing me pieces from my discard pile.

Don't worry I used non-toxic children's glue. Safe to eat! I probably ate a lot of this as a child anyway. As most kids do.

Finally my project was complete! Tempest has a new house to destroy and attack me from as i walk past to the bedroom. He seems to like it.

Of course he needs a few of his favorite toys taped to the sides. I decided not to make this permanent as he carries them around at night and wouldn't be fair to take that from him.

Yeah i would count the box as a success. I sealed the box with a single coat of the non-toxic glue and the box was ready to be kitten tested.

Tempest was a feral which I found during a storm and pulled from a drain. Check out his page for more information!

Hope to see you guys in my next tutorial =)

Matty

Meet Matty

Born 06/12/2011 I adopted this little puppy from my local shelter. He had a bad case of kennel cough but was otherwise fairly healthy. I picked him up the same day I adopted Storm and they have both been very close since.

Matty is is such a good little dog that has a few fears, most likely due to his previous owners. He is deathly petrified of the garden hose, plastic bags and whole watermelon. Yeah really...watermelon. Who knows why and perhaps i'm better off not knowing. 

Like every dog, Matty loves to play and is very much a cuddle bunny. If he can get access to your lap, he will sit and never move. Often flopping to become a liquid if it means staying with you.  He is still a little shy of strangers and most likely will never grow out of that.

He does have a few bad habits of course. He gets over jealous when Storm receives a long session of brushing and Matty will become desperate to join in. He also is a food hog and will eat anything he can get his little mouth on. This includes cat poop, given the opportunity.

He knows all of the basic commands and is fairly obedient...unless there is an ibis (bin chicken) in the backyard. In which case he feels compelled to chase the bugger until it flaps away.

If only he was a little bit smaller to fit into a handbag. I would take him everywhere haha!

Stormageddon

Meet Stormageddon (Storm). The cat that has an obsession with weighing himself. Letting me know how hungry he is...

Born 31/10/2012 I got Storm from a shelter. Unfortunately his mother passed on Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) after he was born, most likely through milk. This condition can only affect other cats and takes quite a decent amount of effort to pass from one cat to another. Having a cat with FIV does not mean kitty has a death sentence. It is not like human aids. It effects kitty's immune system making them susceptible to disease and sickness, often turning a simple sneeze into a full blown respiratory illness. This just means Storm needs frequent vaccinations, health checks, specific diet and adequate exercise to maintain peak physical fitness.

He is a happy kitty who is extremely vocal and demands attention often. He loves playing and sleeping with his brother Matty (below) and cries when they are separated. Even for a short while.

Storm the snuggle puss loves his freedom but that doesn't mean he hates attention. Often crawling onto my feet or hands for a hug and a quick snooze. 

He also has a really quirky habit of throwing himself on the floor, howling and kicking, if he doesn't get the correct amount of pats before I leave the house. I often come home to all the rugs in the house messed up and toys thrown about the house if he didn't get enough attention before I went out. This goes for sleep time and wake up time curfews. Storm LOVES his routine.

And i love my Storm.

Little Tempest

Meet Tempest

Born 01/04/2017 This little kitty was found behind my house in a 7ft drain after a huge storm. Most likely washed out from the flood waters flushing out the drains. No other kittens or a mumma was found. Tempest was screaming his little heart out which alerted me to his presence. I quickly checked out the situation and grabbed the longest stick I could find. Which happened to be a fruit picker. I climbed over the fence and into the massive drain and grabbed the little kitty off the pile of debris amid the flood water. Poor little kitten was covered in faeces, mud and fleas. He was very emaciated with a huge stomach full of intestinal parasites. I rushed little kitty to the vet who confirmed he was a stray and initially classified Tempest as a girl.

After being bathed and treated for all parasites little Tempest slept for 13hrs straight. Poor thing!

He was also not weaned so I had to feed him a small amount of dry biscuits soaked in formula to become mush every few hours and made sure he knew how to poop by himself (which took 2 days).

After a week I took Tempest back to the vet for further examinations and to give a temporary vaccine for FIV as my other cat is positive. They are being kept separate...for now. That was when I got the most surprising news. Little girlie was actually a male pesudohemaphrodite. What that means is Tempest has ovitestes, being a mixture of both testes and ovaries. As the testes and testosterone is dominant, little Tempest will be registered male. He has no penis and a small non-functioning uterus all of which will be removed via spay. I'm hoping Tempest will not need any corrective surgery for urination.

As for health, Tempest is now clear of all parasites, is slowly building up his tiny kidneys and has put on so much weight. He's become a happy, healthy little kitty.  My husband and I decided to keep the little critter, which means a fair bit of preparation before he can be introduced to Storm, my adult cat. This means keeping them separated for a few months until all vaccines have been done and kitty is protected against FIV. Storm is such a gentle and loving cat that has been neutered and has little risk of passing on the disease as he never bites. Not even when playing rough with my dog Matty. Tempest and Storm are already playing patty cake under the small hole between the door and the floor, so they should get along nicely when they can finally meet.

 Happy foster fail for me :)