A wonderful day was had by all and below is Maryanne's take on the day, a view shared by many.
On a fine Saturday morning Mary, Rod, Daniel, Ethan, Lily and I ventured down the hill to Russell and Janine Zabel's lovely home for a look into the secretive world of the Native Stingless Bee.
We had an introductory session with power point presentation and photographs with Russell on arrival in their lovely home. We learnt about the 3 main species of bees, the different forms of their nests and their behaviours. We also saw all work that this dynamic duo has been doing to help save all the native bees threatened by development all around the country and how some folks in governmental circles are starting to see the benefit of saving and utilising these fascinating creatures.
After a wonderful morning tea we set out to see examples of the different hives and species that we had been introduced to in the morning talk. Russell demonstrated how to split a hive when it outgrows its box (including the chance to sample some of their wonderful honey) and also how to rehouse a hive from a log into a box hive. We all quickly learned that Russell meant it when he suggested that you keep you mouth shut lest you get uninvited visitors. The bees get understandably irritated when renovations start. No stings of course but it was still alarming to the uninitiated (especially those 4 years old and younger).
Native Bees only produce in the order of 1 kg of honey in a year so the honey is of course like liquid gold at upwards of $150 - $200 per kg.
For those of you that haven't yet been introduced, the TOGA gardens are now home to a hive of Austroplebeia australis in a log which Rod carted up the hill for us in his car. This shy species is best suited to the cooler clime at the top of the hill while the Trigona carbonaria with its beautiful spiral-form nest is common in the valley.
I feel that native-bee spotting is a worthy new hobby and I am now often found stalking flower beds from the late morning on and speculating where their hive might be. We have plans of purchasing a hive for our own backyard... Christmas is coming...
You can see more information at www.zabel.com.au
