Further to the news about the Council water meters, we ended up with 17 reports of hives and 15 of these were rescued and are now being nursed to good health so that they can hopefully be distributed amongst our members not fortunate enough to have one yet.
The last one was only rescued a week ago in Miriam Vale and appeared to be a very strong hive. Interestingly the brood and propolis inside were almost jet black in colour which I personally have not seen before. Would be good to know what their diet is, maybe black rum from the pub nearby.
Last week I received two more calls to hives in pits, one of which was in a fire hydrant pit and the Council wanted it removed ASAP before it was destroyed in the process of accessing the hydrant. Of course how could I refuse and early indications are that it has been successful. The other is in an old concrete Telstra (PMG) service pit in the mid-dle of a footpath in Gladstone CBD and might prove a little more difficult and my first thoughts are to leave it there until it needs to be accessed as they seem quite happy there. Who remembers Telstra being PMG?
Planting for bee
One of our members Noel Tysoe is doing his bit providing a source of pollen for his native bees and no doubt all the others in his area. Besides native bees, Noel has another passion, Hippeastrums of which I think he has something like 40 different colours in his garden. Last time I caught up with him he was coming out of Bunnings and I think he had exhausted their entire stock. They are now flowering and what a stunning display, over the past couple of weeks he has been posting photos of them up on his Face-book site. If you are interested in seeing some more of his collection go to his page
Visit to Quoin Island
We have been planning a bee day over on Quoin Island at the Turtle Rehab Centre where Kim has a very active hive she wants to split to start increasing her family. Finally we have set a date and an email has gone out to members inviting them to join us on the barge across to Quoin Is-land 8am on Thursday 11th November. We will be joining a group of CQ University Citizen Science students for the day and the bee activity will become part of their curriculum for the day as well. To fill the day in, we will have a personal tour of the Turtle Rehab Centre conducted by Kim and then we will complete a marine debris cleanup of the beach around the island and data sorting as a Tangaroa Blue activity. Guess this means I will be wearing three of my hats / shirts on the day.
For more info on branch activities, visit our Facebook page ANBA Gladstone Branch, https://www.facebook.com/groups/480678232538075
From Ian Anderson
