Chairperson Aileen Brown introduce our speak for the evening Stephen Davey from the Beekeepers club of Geelong.
What an interesting presentation.
Stephen has been a member of the club for 8years, and as well as that he is also a SQRT that is a member of the State Quarantine Response Team that keep on top of situations like the Varroa Mite that is in NSW but hasn’t got as far as Victoria at present, but Stephen informed us unfortunately it will at some stage.
The mite kills the young and deforms the others. You can read more information Here.
We also loose so many bees through fire and floods.
Stephen tell us the queen lays 2000 eggs a day, but 1500 die each day as well.
Such an interesting fact, when bees are collecting pollen to take back to the hive, they carry twice their body weight, as he said, can you imagine carrying twice your body weight home from the supermarket.
Why does he keep bees?
Mainly for his garden and then of course the honey.
We have all noticed the cost of honey lately and Stephen encourages us to buy Australian.
He said that Imported honey can be bulked up with corn syrup, not a good thing.
Buy from the source from farmers markets, you know what you are buying there.
A lot of very interesting information plus he also bought Bees along as well in the form of a glassed in “slice” of a hive where at one point of the presentation for whatever reason, the bees got very vocal, maybe not the right word but they were very loud.
Many questions were answered in Q&A time, always a good sign that people have enjoyed the speaker.
If you would like more information re the Beekeepers club, Click here.
And thank you Daryll for send another Bee link for members to peruse.