So much happening this past month and unfortunately a couple of my hives have suffered from the dreaded Hive Phorid fly which I am now calling “Horrid Fly”, most likely from lack of attention on my part. Interestingly one of these hives was the one I had connected a water meter rescue up to for a month and the fly attacked it when I disconnected it.
Thursday 27th Oct a group of our members visited both Tannum Sands Kindy and Boyne Island State School at their request to split both the hives donated to them to complement their respective gardens. Both student groups had created their own specific designs for their new hives and were very enthusiastic about getting their own bees and both hives looked extremely healthy. The Kindy have now asked me to come back and do an information session so they can learn more.
Wed 2nd Nov we were invited to once again visit Quoin Island on with CQ Uni as part of their Citizen Science Pro-gram to give a demonstration of native bee keeping to the students. Kim now has two new hives which have been nicely painted by Monique Galloway just waiting to be populated. We had some of our members travel over with the group and proceeded to split one of the hives for Kim with the other being set up as an eduction. Kim has now relocated one of the splits to her home back in Gladstone. A follow up visit to Quoin for turtles on Sat 12th showed both very active.
Tue 8th Nov Gladstone Men’s Shed Last month during a visit to the Gladstone Mens Shed where we held an in-formation day we discovered they had two hives that one of our members Ray Stanley was looking after for them which were positioned appropriately between two macadamia trees. Ray asked us to come along and split one, and have a look at the second one which was not showing a lot of activity. We discov-ered the second one had no brood, just stores so we decided to use that box for the split and now hoping they will have two very strong hives
Sun 20th Nov National Pollinators Week – Tondoon Botanic Gardens Our association with the Tondoon Botanic Gardens in Gladstone has continued with Manager Barry Meiring asking us to come on board with an information stall on Sunday 20th November. This event coincided with the monthly Rotary Markets also held in the gardens which attracted a good level of interest. There was a lot of engagement with the public a a very strong likelihood of attracting new ANBA members. A huge thank you to the Tondoon Botanic Garden staff led by Barry in supporting us with equipment and of course free native plants to the public to help with pollination in our local area.
Water meter hive rescues:
Two of the recent rescues have now been transferred to their new homes and from all accounts both recipients are very happy with them. The one mentioned in the previous newsletter that I had connected to a host hive to strengthen it has survived but unfortunately to the detriment of the host hive which has suffered a fatal phorid fly attack. (Expensive lesson learned)
The remaining two have been rescued just in time for the next round of meter readings and remain in a state of work in progress until they strengthen.
From Secretary Ian Anderson and Chairman Mark Larney
For more info on branch activities, visit our Facebook page ANBA Gladstone Branch, https://www.facebook.com/groups/480678232538075
