Community & Business
2 June, 2023
How well do you know your bees?
You might have seen stingless native bees in your garden but do you know exactly where they live? It’s one of the things bee expert Matthew Middleton wants to help you discover.
Because, he says, if you know where they are living you can work around them, avoid daily watering there for example, leave it an undisturbed wild zone where they can thrive.
It’s one of the areas Matthew will be discussing in a free native bee workshop at the Pittsworth Function Centre on Saturday, June 10.
Presented by Millmerran and Pittsworth Landcare, the workshop will end with a field walk into a natural bushland setting where Matthew will point out where and how to find and identify native stingless and also solitary bees.
Workshop topics will include caring for the bees in your area, how to attract solitary bees – such as blue banded for example - to your garden, identifying bees and insects, pollination and predators, how and when and why to split a boxed hive and box designs.
Matthew will also explain how to find bees in the bush and there will be honey tasting too. His own fascination with native bees began in the early 1980s when he was on holiday on a remote NT cattle station and was introduced to a large “sugar bag” – native bee hive by indigenous stockmen.
He now runs Beezotted, a stingless bee company based on the Sunshine Coast, and sends bees, equipment and products all over Australia as well as running educational workshops.
Sign up for the free Pittsworth workshop online at events.humanitix.com/native-bee-workshop/tickets
