Not a lot has happened in the past month within our Gladstone Branch so not a great deal to report. Our next meeting / work-shop is planned for Saturday 26th March at my own residence providing me with an opportunity to show members some of my successes (and failures). We are planning a morning tea and potentially a couple of hive split demonstrations.
I just spent last weekend down at Agnes Water for some marine debris monitoring with Tangaroa Blue Foundation and used the visit as an opportunity to check on the hive I relocated back in January to the Travelers Rest Camping Ground. This was a hive that was a successful eduction hive from last year and the bees seemed to like their new environment with lots of native vegetation around. Spent a couple of nights with hosts Michael and Micki and we decided to do a hive split the hive. Once we opened up the hive we were very happy to see the development and the split proceed-ed perfectly much to the delight of Michaels family.
Michael has now ordered two more boxes in preparation for next year and is planning to make the hives a feature as part of his bush tucker presentations to his guests where he conducts bush walks during the day and slide shows in the evenings. What a great way of getting the word out about the importance of native bees to our environ-ment and why we need to preserve them.
Photo #1 – Michael looking very happy with his hive
Photos #2 & # 3- both halves of the split hive
Ian Anderson
For more info on branch activities, visit our Facebook page ANBA Gladstone Branch, https://www.facebook.com/groups/480678232538075
Ian Anderson
