Bellingen Bee Sanctuary » Blog

Feral bee testing for AFB and EFB

Jesster Wearne — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 09:14:19 +0000

So starting in early November Felix and myself have embarked on a collection of material from wild hives and are sending it off to be tested for EFB and or AFB.

We put an add in the paper and asked for a location on wild hives that people know about either on public land or private. We then went and collected bee samples from the hives. To acquire a good sample you have to get a piece of wax and brood to be sampled. You can use a section of larvae brood or large smear on a new glass slide. Once you collect the sample label it and close it away as you do not want any chance of cross contamination between the slides.

We then sent the bee samples to the DPI to be tested by the lab.

The Idea study is to try and have a long term mapping of the valley and locate wild hives that may be vectors in the distribution of AFB and EFB in the local area. We have a long term outlook for the study and would like to develop a method by which other people in other areas in Australia might also like to do the study and help to define a map of likely places for these diseases. Althought the study at the moment is looking specifically at AFB and EFB there is always room to look at anything that may be affecting bees with the chance to transfer from hive to hive.

We have talked to some other bee keepers about this and have had many different responses in conversation.

One line of thinking is that if a wild hive has the infection then it’s inevitable demise due to the disease is making it a non vector.

My response to that is that if the hive is infected then whilst it is diminishing and dying it is able to be robbed by other bees from other hives thus making the chance of infection distribution highly likely.

I believe that if there is a risk of a hive being infected it should be dealt with as soon as possible to prevent any further spread of disease.

The best way in my opinion is to smoke out the hive as much as possible and then seal it with an expandable foam spray to stop them returning into the hive. This will immediately seal the hive and the bees contained in the hive will eventually die. The foam will stay a round for ages and becomes somewhat neutral. if there is any other way into the tree the bees are going to find it, so it is good to have a inspection for any more entry points.

new bee discovery in south Australia

Jesster Wearne — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 09:04:30 +0000

There is a wide range of bees in Australia and because of the solitary nature of some species there may be new discoveries for a while to come…..http://www.theleadsouthaustralia.com.au/industries/education/new-bee-species-discovered-in-australia/

what i found at work in Western Australia

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 06:10:13 +0000

leiproctus, the bee that digs.

This is a type of bee that I found in the south of Western Australia, at a work site. there was a section of the work site which had a lot of lack insects flying around. When i first saw them I thought they were fly’s. On closer inspection I looked at the ground around where the insects were flying and saw that there were, holes in little mounds of upturned soil. I sat and looked at the holes and observed for about 10 minutes. It was then I saw the insect going in the holes and they had white pollen attached to their legs. I did some quick research about the type of native bees that live south western Australia.

The ground around where the bee’s were is close to a boiler overflow drain, which heats up the ground which I think that this is what was attracting the bee’s to lay in the warm ground. They dig holes, sometimes up to a meter , and lay larvae in the ground and then let them gestate. The bee s dig the boles and line the bottom with a propolis type resin and then lay eggs, and feed them a honey pollen mix. When the larvae are old enough they will dig their way out and become a bee.

After a few weeks I noticed that the parent bees had taken off. A few weeks later the holes started to deteriorate and fall in. I observed that the holes had stopped being maintained and it had been long enough to know that the larvae had gestated and left.

www.facebook.com/jesster.k.wearne/grid?lst=570638658%3A570638658%3A1538270432&subkey=manage

The Rave

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 08:30:57 +0000

Permanent Sustainable Development

Well I going to do a talk on permaculture and sustainability. After looking at those words in relation to what I’ve been doing I tried to develop this talk to embody my experience in those words, and how it got me to where I am, and what we are doing to perpetuate these words in our world and our lives.

So I was born in Vic, in a pretty agricultural area, pretty flat, mainly sheep farming area, if not sheep wheat, semi arid in the summer, freezing in the winter, growing veges was hard and short experience. We had fish in the damn and yabbies, and had various animals.

I remember one day I was hitching back from school, and I got picked up by a local farmers wife. As we were driving through the flat monoculture of wheat as far as the eye could see, she said, :” doesn’t that look beautiful” I replied, “ what? all that out there”, I looked about and all I could see was ploughed paddocks, with tiny new shoots of wheat. I then said,” No not at all it looks as though we have destroyed the place”. The farmers wife pulled over and told me to get the hell out of her car. This was the moment that changed my outlook on what we as a race are doing to this beautiful land.

My first job was helping a family friend develop a permaculture style organic farm, which was pretty much shovelling shit for a few weeks in
the sun. I remember talking as we were planting, about why we were doing this, and the future was in the forefront of our minds. We were
planting long term trees, ie gingko, euks, citrus, building with recycled materials, all in the name of sustainability, I didn’t know it then but I
realise now what that was doing to me, and how it was shaping my future.
I then went into the welding industry, this took me all over the place and put me in a situation where I got to see, only a small bit in comparison to the whole world, I got to see wastage on a scale that was mind boggling. Materials, enough to build a small town, fuels, food, life etc……This put me into a frame of mind that was a fairly against what I was
doing. I then got a job in the country building a huge chicken factory that was controlled by people in Sweden, and employed 5 locals, and put out 3 million chooks a week. Which is where I met Hannah and her three little children. We fell in love and decided to move to Bellingen for the kids to have access to a good music dept at the schools, and to be in a good growing area was a bonus. I soon met Steve smith, who was just starting up a garden for veges for him and his kids. This was a old community garden which had since stopped. Steve invited us as a family along with another family to start digging. We all pitched in financially, and with great physical effort and community support made it what it is today.

THE YOUNG GARDEN

Well the garden is 5 acres of cultivated land that is open to the community 24/7, for harvesting growing buying veges produce and seedlings. We have many types of fruit trees, and are collecting many more. It is on private property, owned by a very generous local who has donated the land to us for this purpose. We started the garden so that we could have affordable access to nice local food grown organically. We hadstarted it up with a no meeting policy, which was a bit unorthodox for such a project but it allowed us the freedom to create, at our own pace what we were imagining it to be.

We started off focusing on the clean up from the last garden attempt that was on that site, old log hearts, old drip tape, carpet etc…
Then we got some money together to get the initial ploughing done. A few years down the track we had a lot of community support and it was growing at a rate which we could no longer afford to keep paying for. We then bought the nursery business off a local lady which started to become the main source of income for the garden. We also started up a food box system, and edible street scapes was also happening under our wings.

We then started to formulate a committee, to help with the running of the whole shabang. This was a pretty backwards way to start, but it has it’s benefits. The garden was started out of necessity for access to beautiful food grown locally and is fresh and chem free. We grow and sell open pollinated non hybrid seedlings as much as possible, we collect a fast amount of seed from the garden. We have honey bees and are trying to start a local bee co-op for the area. We have a grid connect solar system, kitchen, stage green house, all made from recycled or sustainable materials. We facilitate and hold workshops at the garden in all areas of horticulture and permaculture.

Food box

The food box is a csa style food system that was started about a year ago by a few of the garden crew. We looked around at the local area and saw that we had access to a lot of local produce that wasn’t redly available to most of the local consumers. We decided to formulate a network of growers to provide on a weekly bassis what they could. This is then divided up into pre ordered box’s which are picked up by the customer. This is a big project now having up to 85 box’s being ordered every week. It is now providing employment for local people, and giving family’s the best of the local stuff, all with low food miles, and minimal impact, grown organic or chem free, and is local gold.

Edible street-scapes

Edible street-scapes, is a transition town initiative which is going on world wide, and is about moving towards having food in the streets of towns and
cities around the world to make it easy to access for every one. As part of that we planted about 40 citrus trees next to the local soccer
fields and have three vege gardens in the cbd of Bellingen for every one to pick and share.

The Bee Co-op

well the bee co-op is an idea that a friend and I had. We are trying to formulate a co-operative environment for local small scale bee keepers. Because the hobby can be quite expensive, we are trying to set up a group that can share knowledge, experience, cost, materials, etc… so that we can produce good local cheap honey. We are looking at ways in which we can start producing a mix of medicinal honeys, and hiring out hives to local farmers and growers, to do our best for the bees and their current global predicament.

The Rave

Now the real reason why we are doing this and what gets me out of bed every morning. THINK GLOBAL ACT LOCAL. Its time to change people, we at the garden started trying to make a model of how things might be able to be done when necessity comes
knocking. We are all aware of peak oil, global warming, deforestation, petro chem industry, big brother, new world order, struggling world economy
and the list goes on, all the stuff that we know is helping things go the wrong way. Yet it happens every second every year, with not much sight of change. Well here we are, in a time where it is possible to look back on the past we have created and where it is leading us, and I’m pretty sure that we, even they, can see it is leading us in the wrong direction but no one can find the brakes. What are the brakes is the question I ask myself.

World war, depression, fall out, interstellar forces, no water, 2012………Who knows, But it will inevitably happen because this is unsustainable, as a macro and micro world. So what then? Where would we be in this world, of necessity? Well we would have to rely on community, family, effort not money. Maybe love not greed. A resourced based economy, utilising local knowledge, talent, ability. Managing locally grown materials like bamboo, hemp, timber. Trading in produce and time instead of money. Surviving on our ability to grow and produce local food without relying on chemical fertilisers
and tractors for digging and ripping. Having to save all the seed you can grow, so you can grow the following year.( We all might have heard what they are going through in New
Zealand). Raising you own proteins like meat and eggs and dairy. Creating co-ops of local growers to distribute produce through local closed loop systems and micro-macro networks, like csa’s and other models. Employment of manual instead of mechanical labour.

Now, this is already happening in Asia and places where the farmers are putting there tractors out to rust and buying ox’s and buffalo to plough their lands because they cant afford fuel. We will have to create energy efficient low cost housing, using renewable resources, like hemp, bamboo, and selective timbers. Its only been 100 years since the industrial revolution, and look what it has done to the planet. A massive a mount of good stuff has come from the industrial age, but it has been at a huge cost to our environment, so I believe this is the perfect time to look back on our creation and use what is good, for creating a healthy world with a bright future.

Take all the knowledge and experience and steer it towards healthy minds and community’s.

This is an amazing time to be alive, we as a race are discovering things in medicine, astronomy, particle physics, science, agriculture, things that are questioning where we are heading, and what the hell have we been thinking?…One of the greats, describes a fool as “someone who makes the same mistake three times.” Well I see us as a race perpetually making these mistakes, day in day out. I believe we can stop it, it’s not easy and it will take a while but it can and will happen. 2012, was that it? The change……………………….. what is it? I feel that there is a mass awareness of change throughout humans at this point, I don’t believe the world will end, no way, I just hope something changes for the better, toward a more caring concious world. I’ve been trying to live on a thirteen moon calendar for a while now and I believe there is a lot to how we perceive time and what time is to us as a
society. We can make a change every day a bit at a time, by “acting local and thinking global”, Planting your own veges, giving yourself the time to be in the mode of creation, to allow ourselves to create a healthy environment for you and everyone around you if possible. If we look at just a few examples of how things are in the world in regards to our food, and the cost to the environment through our farming methods. Massive over grazing that allows the loss of fertile topsoils, monoculture’s that need pesticides that kill the soil and bees and other insect life. Chemicals used to ripen, then stop over ripening, then stop decay, then stop the fruit from producing viable seed. Which also shouldn’t be eaten. Massive amounts of fuel is used to kull life in the most abundant places on earth, the ocean. Which is already struggling to keep up with the demand in most of the worlds oceans. We, as a smart, very intelligent race of beings, can make choices to change the situation, starting in our local area. Supporting community gardens, growing seed, sowing seed, sharing produce, teaching others how to do the same, this is the answer, teach the kids where it all comes from, and how to respect it, grow it and eat it. One thing I’ve noticed since being earth minded, is that amount the kids have learnt from being around the garden, and living a life where food is grown and not so much bought at the shop. I’ve had mothers thank me graciously for giving their children the place to experience food from the ground to the plate. There is a big movement of food education in schools at the moment
and for the past few years, a lot of schools have gardens so the children
can experience the growing of food, and this is great, there needs to be more of it, if your childs school doesn’t have a garden that should be easy to change. They are easy safe and fun. This is the way to planting the seed of change in the minds of tomorrow, so that we might have a better, healthier future, with an abundance of food growing in the streets for every
one.

THE FUTURE…POSSIBLE

Well, all this equates to an image I have of the future, that I try and work towards a bit everyday. The NCG committee had a visioning workshop the other week and it was amazing to hear what we were all imagining. The common scene was food everywhere throughout the town, food forests, fruit trees in the parks, all the good stuff. In regards to our projects in Bellingen I hope to one day have an open university in field of organic farming and micro food industry management.

Teaching students how to maybe get some of these models happening in their home country’s and towns. Give students a well rounded practical experience in food growing, horticulture, permaculture, aboraculture, food forest creation and management, bio fuels, reforestation, bio dynamic farming, bee keeping, usable bio-mass farming, and all the other excellent fields that our local area has to offer. Bring in some more employment opportunities for our local area through development of a eco tourism industry focused on sustainable projects for the community. In the bigger picture I can see us having to look back on the past and taking a lot out of the pre industrial age, and get back to our roots. Creating these projects throughout our towns and cities now, will be planting the seeds of change so that the future is a greener more environmentally aware more co operative society. Where food and water is precious, and abundant, with the knowledge of how to grow food is common, and communities are smaller more, self reliant and sustainable.

ted x talk

admin — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 09:13:35 +0000

Why do we need a Bee Sanctuary?

Imagine, you get to work as the sun is coming up. 50 acres of fruit trees. Your armed with a tiny paint brush, time to get to work, doing what the bees do. All day pollinating every single flower in the whole orchard.

This is a reality in some parts of the world. For the past 100 + years humans have been developing at a exponential rate, taking up more spa ce than any other species in the earth’s history. To do this there has been a great cost involved to mother earth and its other inhabitants. Massive population growth has meant rapid change to all of earth’s systems, forests, grassland, wetlands and oceans, in-fact there is nowhere that hasn’t felt the touch of man. This is coming to head in the present, due to the overwhelming realization that finite really means just that. That there is a problem facing the world as real as the food on your plates. That’s it, the food , is the issue. We have stripped the seas for fish. Chopped down the forest for mono cultures of GMO crops for animal feed and fuel. Developed a petroleum based agriculture that uses toxic oil based chemicals to grow our food, which in turn poisons us and the environment in which it is grown. For the past 20 years there has been concern of having to now experience the long term effects such as; GMO cross pollination, field run off causing fish kills, massive erosion, poisonous water and extinctions.

Insects outweigh humans about 15 to 1. They are the little guys working tirelessly, keeping the world balanced and growing so we can survive. One insect in particular plays a huge role in the existence and proliferation of us , Humans; Bees.

They are the ones who dance and sing through the fields attracting pollen to their statically charged bodies. Spreading the love (pollen) from plant to plant helping them produce the wonderful array of foods we enjoy today. Honey is like liquefied sun light, Plant juices, Nectar, is hived away by the bee. Water is evaporated out of it, Then like magic it becomes Sweet perfect honey. Bees are still a mystery to humans, we still don’t know everything about them, yet we have been farming bees since the Egyptian days when they were moved up and down the Nile to pollinate dates palms and other crops. Up to 75% of any meal relies directly or indirectly, on bee’s to pollinate the flowers to produce the parts of the plants we love to eat. But the Bee’s are in trouble. They are finding it hard to cope with our modern world.

Since the late 70’s numbers of hive losses has risen steadily, in some cases up to 90% of some peoples hives have been lost, which is 3 times more than is expected over a year.

Around 2006 /2007 a new name had been coined for this problem, Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. CCD is a concern to the food industry and to humans if we want to be able buy and to grow and eat fruit and vegetables in the future. CCD is suspected of being caused by many different factors. One, is Israeli acute paralysis virus is a bacteria which has been associated with many CCD cases. Another is Veroa Destructor. A little parasitic mite which sucks the life out of bees. This parasite has been affecting bees around the world, but so far is not in Australia. This puts us in a position which is unique in so far as we are able to develop a strong bee culture to build resistance from the demise of the bee. American Foul Brood and European Foul Brood are among some of the bacteria’s that are affecting bees . Destruction of hives is the result of these infections.

Some pesticides which are used on crops effect the central nervous system of insects making them loose direction and not returning home that evening. Monoculture crops are the equivalent to deserts to bees, they might flower for a short time with most of the year being baron of pollen. Lack of strong genetic diversity may also be a player in the bees plight. Due to the commercialization of bees for pollination, there is a big increase in breeding the queens with their off spring, this may be leading to a reduction of genetic diversity, making genetically weaker colonies. When a new Queen is ready to mate, naturally, she does a maiden flight. She will fly upwards high into the air with the strongest males from her hive and other hives following her. This allows the strongest 12 to 20 males to mate with her ensuring strong genetics in the hive. Bees are worth billions of dollars to the worlds economy, and are an unsung, unpaid labor force that we have taken for granted. Australia is the only country that exports bees, we are in a lucky situation that we are an Island Nation which is helping against diseases that threaten bees in other parts of the world. There are, more and more stories from across Australia where the disappearance of bees is being felt and observed, in all states and territories.

The impact of pesticides being used in food growing areas is being felt by private bee keepers everywhere. I have recently had people from around the world and Australia, tell me their stories about their losses over the past few years. A couple in south Australia went from 18 hives down to 6 in a week due to a spray that was used on grapes near their property in wine producing area. The same sort of story was from a young bee keeper friend in France who lost 13 hives out of 24 because of aerial spray that was used in her valley. This doesn’t have to happen here, in this shire, it doesn’t have to happen anywhere because there are alternatives.

Bee sanctuaries around the country and around the world will and can grow to encourage dialogue, research, implementation of bee friendly food production for everyone.

What is the aim of the Bee Sanctuary?

The Aim of the Bee sanctuary is to openly invite discussion about chemicals used in our local food network which are harmful to bees, and to work together with council and farmers and growers of all types of food, to try and come up with solutions and plans to turn to a chemical free environment that is beneficial to us and the bees.

If we have a shire that is caring of the bees, then we are caring for the whole environment.

* Cleaner rivers, good pollination for our chemical free food network, Genetic diversity of plants and Eco-systems.

* Reduction of spray chemicals used by the council on public land where possible.

* A change over to non chemical sprays for backyard gardeners and farmers and council.

* To create a reference of alternatives that are bee friendly and effective for the local food network to thrive.

A Bee Sanctuary in the Bellingen shire is one way of saying that we as a community are co operating and working together to create a strong local food network that provides us with a environmental connection that is rarely seen in the world today. If we can create a model that works then we can show other towns how they to can look after the bees in their region. Honey and fruits and vegetables are the by product of having bees. All types of Bees rely on nature and are affected by changes in the environment very quickly. Honey bees and Native Bees are as healthy as the environment in which they live. We have hundreds of types of bees in Australia, many types of solitary bees that are here for sometimes only one type of flower. Specific pollinators for specific pollen’s. We need this diversity of insects and plants to have a strong, healthy environment.

HOW DO WE DO IT?

Chemicals are a easy way of controlling the the pests and weeds in our environment, and they work, but maybe a little bit too well. Some of these chemicals will breakdown the natural balance of the positive bugs that help us live. Like bee’s. The ways in which we can all play a part in the health of the bees is by planting strong flowing plants in our gardens, and choosing ones that flower at different times of the year giving bees food all year around. Talk about alternatives to chemicals, find out what other people do. Not using chemicals in the garden or fields. Natural oils as pesticides, species selection, companion planting and poly culture, to bring in the birds to keep down the pests. Grow fields instead of lawns to increase diversity. Experiment with your own garden, and discuss your observations. Researching organic methods of pest control. Letting the garden go to flower: this also helps for seed collection. Keep an eye out for bees in your garden, check the flowers count some bees. And this is where I need your help, We can bee a sanctuary for the little guys, we can work together to create a clean bee friendly environment, we can move towards a chemical free future for everyone.

Lets have 1000 people with 1 hive, instead of 1 person with 1000 hives.

Bees are like the Canary in the cage, They can warn us of an impending disaster before it affects us. We just need to look and listen to their message. If you think you can help this happen please come and get in the buzz on bees.

Thank you.

Whats happening Now

admin — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 08:49:06 +0000

Well 2014 saw a year where Australia’s honey productions was around 50% less. This was said to be from environmental reasons such as flood drought fire and other unforeseen factors. This highlights the need for us to be consciously aware of the factors that play a part in the health of the bees.

There has been a lot of energy put into trying to find out what is affecting the bees around the world. There is new in depth research which is looking at a broader range of likely suspects withing the range of fungicides that until now have been thought to have had no effect on bees.

Systemic pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture all have an effect on insects, some are immediate and some are accumulative, meaning it takes a while for the residues to build up and then cause an effect with in the colony or individual insect.