Pretty quiet in our group lately over the holiday season although one of our members Lyall Pohle has been very busy and provided this report. ”I’ve been keeping myself occupied the last few weeks building up my supply of hive boxes in readiness for doing hive splits later this year. All of my hives are Hockingsi and have a honey super and have collected several kilos of honey for sale. Together with branch member Doug Stefan I have successfully split seven hives this summer
Bill Kraft Vertical Observation Hive
Late last year my good friend from Brisbane provided me with a vertical observation hive he had designed and built specifically for AA’s. Just after Christmas I decided to split a log I had from a previous rescue and place to brood into it and although the brood was a bit crumbly and falling apart, I did mange to get most of it and a small amount of stores into the box along with most of the bees. After just 4 weeks it is showing very good development and the results so far look very promising. Once this hive is established it will be donated to a children’s Daycare Centre in Bethania where I am sure the children will get to learn more about bees.
Water Meter Rescues & Fostering Program
Not much activity with the water meter boxes since the last news-letter but Karmen has reported that the rescue hive she is hosting at the moment at her place is going extremely well and has been disconnected from its host hive
Hive donation
One of our members who is under-going treatment for cancer approached me recently about wanting to get a hive for him to en-joy and I immediately decided to donate one of my very active hives to him where he can now observe the bees as they come and go from his veranda and his wife has been busy establishing a bee friendly gar-den for them. Get well soon Colin.
Ian Anderson
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