Report of November meeting
The Nov meeting was huge with the AGM and then a wonderful talk by Ian Driver (A Green Soul) who shared his journey and insights about stingless native bees.
Ian discovered stingless bees 10 years ago while greening up his family’s life. Like many of us, he soon became be-sotted with our beautiful bees and has been on a journey of opportunity and discovery as he learnt more and more about his bees and made connections with the amazing people throughout the stingless bee community. Ian shared some of his insights and learnings from his time working with bees and establishing his small business “A Green Soul Native Bees”. Following a year as our ANBA Secretary, Ian has stepped up into the role of president.
December meeting
We are anticipating a big attendance at our Annual hive competition, Sunday 5 December 1-3pm at the Bulimba Community Centre.
Anyone is allowed to enter the hive competition; you do not even have to be a member of the ANBA. We want to show-case and promote the diversity and ingenuity of our bee-keepers. There are many categories that hives can be entered under. There is also a category for our solitary bees because we simply cannot neglect these important pollinators. And we have a special visitor lined up to judge.
The Rules are:
• Hives can be made of any material and can be any shape or design but must be able to house native bees.
• Hives can be full or empty of actual bees, ideally you have one of each.
• Hives can be standard hives which are painted/ dec-orated. Fire up your creative side!
• There is no limit to the number of individual entries.
• Anyone is allowed to enter the hive competition; you do not even have to be a member of the ANBA. Just turn up with your exhibit and be prepared to describe it verbally to the crowd.
The Categories are:
• People’s choice (secret ballot),
• Judges Choice. Judge yet to be selected,
• Best Paint Job,
• Best Native Bee/ Insect Hotel, (Note there were no entries in this category last year, so could be an eas-ier one to win you prize)
• Best tool, device or accessory.
• Best commercial hive (secret ballot)
Yes, that’s right, we have introduced a new category: “Commercial hives”!
Everyone loves innovation and novelty but let’s also celebrate the commercial box builders. These industrious folk strive to place on the market a high performing hive box at a reasonable price. If you are one of these valuable members of our stingless bee community, please enter the competition. It’s free, just turn up with your box and a promotional sheet with contact details and price to accompany your exhibit. Sales on the day are welcome. If you are in the market for a new box, looking for better ways of doing things, or just curious, come along and enjoy the friendly but gently competitive nature of this popular Brisbane branch event.
Dean Haley
For more info on branch activities, visit our Facebook page Brisbane Branch, Australian Native Bee Association, https://www.facebook.com/bnbeec.
