Course
Description
Social, semi-social and stingless bees all play a hugely important role in the Australian ecosystem, pollinating our unique wildflowers + more. This brilliant Native Bee Keeping course is completed on one Saturday.
IN CLASS
In the classroom at one of our ACE campus locations, you will learn about bee morphology, nesting biology, foraging behaviour, importance of bees in natural systems, and the effectiveness of stingless bees as a pollinator of farms and gardens.
You will also learn about structured Natural Hive Duplication NHD, which is being adopted by stingless bee keepers for the propagation of hives. This approach to hive propagation is less destructive and aggressive on the bees than the hive splitting method. Also, it increases the number of hives you can propagate a year and reduces hive loss due to pests.
Stingless bee species Tetragonula carbonaria is an excellent pollinator of the vegetable garden; however, they are preferential foragers/pollinators. At the course, you will learn some of the crops where they excel.
Recent research is showing the health benefits of native bee honey and cerumen (propolis). We will discuss the three methods currently used in harvesting the honey and our approach to honey and cerumen collection.
LIVE NATIVE BEE HIVE
A live native bee hive will be available for examination and discussion during the session. The outcome of purchasing a hive should be an enjoyable experience. In selecting a hive to meet your needs we will discuss hive designs, benefits, risks and pitfalls when purchasing a hive.
TRAINER
This workshop is delivered by Frank Adcock. He acquired his first Tetragonula carbonaria native bee hive in 2001 as a trial to pollinate macadamias. This small start evolved into a business, Nashua Native Bees, which supplies hives to pre-schools, primary and secondary schools, home gardens and growers of avocados, blueberries and exotic fruits. In addition, he delivers workshops to schools, Landcare groups as well as ACE Lismore. Nashua Native Bees have developed a suite of hives to suit our area for pollination and the harvesting of native bee honey.
Available in Lismore, Murwillumbah. see below for details