With the cooler mornings upon us, our hives are a lot less active particularly in the mornings as the residents are taking the opportunity for a sleep in.
Water Meter Hives
As mentioned in the May edition, our Branch is now entering into a fostering program with our water meter rescue hives and the first two have already been set up in observation boxes They are now being temporarily connected up to stronger host hives as eductions until they get established. The rescue process is also being used as training for our membership. Foster hive #001 was rescued 14th May and #002 18th May. Both when inspected on 17th June were looking like all their defens-es were well established and now planning to separate them both from their hosts. A third hive which was res-cued back in 2022 but has been struggling with a phorid fly attack which has now been controlled is also almost ready for fostering out to one of the local schools for future splitting.
Branch Gettogether Sat 27th May – From all accounts this meeting went extremely well with visitors from Rockhampton attending and Doug Stephan displaying his hives with their winter jackets. It was also an opportunity to inspect the progress of our last two rescue hives
EcoFest Tondoon Botanic Gardens – A group of our members once again took the opportunity to set up a display at this years annual event to promote native stingless bees within the community. There was a lot of interest shown and our supply of “Tim’s Bible” was almost sold out.
Log Hive AC? – Had a rescue log hive given to me by good friend Wayne Piper as payment for some surplus jackfruit. The log was 4.5m long and had to be cut in half to move, the brood was in the bottom section of the log but the entrance was in the upper section. Both sections were strapped together vertically with entrance placed adjacent to where the log had been cut in the hope that they would create a new entrance. Some 5 weeks later and it appears the log is now two separate hives as the bees have created a second entrance whilst still using the original entrance
Gladstone Ports Corporation – Nanette Collingwood has been instrumental in securing funding for our Branch from the GPC Fund and a special Management Committee meeting was held to discuss how these funds will be best utilized going forward
From Ian Anderson
For more info on branch activities, visit our Facebook page ANBA Gladstone Branch, https://www.facebook.com/groups/480678232538075
