Saturday workshop
This well attended, much anticipated workshop had been postponed in February this year due to the torrential rains on the Mid North Coast and Brisbane areas. This workshop was held on Saturday 15th October at the South Coffs Community Garden and Boambee East Community Centre. Thank you to John Higgins for hosting this event in the luscious productive gardens.
Our presenter was Dr Tim Heard, an entomologist, sting-less beekeeper and promoter of native bees for pollina-tion, education and conservation.
A practical session was undertaken and the hive belonging to the gardens was split into two which was very in-formative. Another of our members also brought along his native bee hive to split -a wonderful opportunity to see inside a hive that hadn’t been opened for about 5 years. Both hives revealed a healthy bee population and structure.
Tim’s slide presentation followed in the community centre covering bee nesting biology, bee foraging biology and the diversity of wild bees. The importance of bees in our natural systems including traditional stingless bee-keeping around the world, modern stingless beekeeping in Australia and using stingless bees for pollination of gardens and farms. Tim also covered sugarbag honey and its properties, rescuing bees threatened in the wild and more.
Start of our “Host a Hive” program
Monday 17th October saw the Australian Native Bee Association Coffs Harbour Branch install their first hive in the Regional Botanical Gardens as part of their pilot pro-gram “Host a Hive”. The aim of this program is to in-crease awareness of these fascinating native pollinators in the community and educational settings on the Mid North Coast. With assistance from Jason at Acko Kus-toms, the hive was secured in a security cage in the Bo-tanical Gardens.
The local TV news, 7NEWS Coast, broadcast a solid segment on the event, https://fb.watch/gij2nriQgd/.
Over the coming months interested members of the Branch are invited to share their knowledge of the native stingless bee-Tetragonula carbonaria at each site with members of the public.
If you are interested in hosting a hive, please email the Chair of the Coffs Harbour Branch Monica Rich, monicarich00@gmail.com.
For more info on branch activities, visit our Facebook page ANBA Coffs Harbour Native Bees, https://www.facebook.com/groups/756068211719759
