Ecotopia 2019 - Past, Present, Future On Sunday 24th March 2019, Yarra Junction will come alive with festive colour, sustainability initiatives, and multicultural performances.  Ecotopia will bring the community together for another wonderful celebration of who we are and what we contribute to benefit our environment. There will be lots of environmentally friendly stalls, healthy and delicious food, kids activities and performances on stage all day, the area includes Bens Shed and Upper Yarra Museum.  This FREE festival is generously sponsored by Yarra Ranges Council and Victorian Multicultural Commission.  Yarra Valley Bee Group will be having a stall and selling honey. Volunteers and honey needed! Contact us if you are a member and would like to sell your honey to the Co-op or volunteer for a few hours on the day. Find out more www.ecoss.org.au  

Our Honey Co-op will hold an Extraction Day on 17th March in the kitchen at Redwoods Centre, Warburton. This should give us enough honey to sell at ECOTOPIA the following weekend. You will need to be a YVBG member to take part in this extraction day. The Co-op will buy your honey for $10 a kilogram. You will be required to assist on the day with extracting, jarring & labelling your own honey, and in cleaning up afterwards. Starting from 8:00 AM. There will be club equipment avaialble for use on the day.  However, you can bring your own clean extracting gear if you have it. We will need to be finished extracting by about 4:00 PM and everyone will be asked to stay and help clean so we can be finished by 5:30. If you plan to be involved, please register your interest below; or email secretary.yarravalleybeegroup@mail.tidyhq.com. Please indicate an estimate of how much honey you have to extract (don't forget to leave some for the bees!!! We hope they will put on a little more in Autumn...) We will also be taking registrations at our February meeting. If you are unsure if your yvbg membership is up to date, please email membership.yarravalleybeegroup@mail.tidyhq.com

  1:30 - What's Happening in my Hive? Followed by main meeting At this months meeting we will have a Q&A Panel. The panel will consist of newbies and oldies. We will be looking for a variety of questions (and answers!) so come prepared with any questions you may have. We thought we would also have show and tell, so bring along any new equipment / tools or ideas that you think people may be interested in. Come along and keep up to date with local conditions that effect your hive, connect with other beekeepers, share resources, improve your apiary skills and learn more about honeybee ecology. Monthly meetings are usually the last Sunday of the month. Meetings are held at ECOSS, 711 Old Warburton Road, Wesburn, in the newly renovated ‘Coop’ (past the old house, over the green, down the bottom).

  1:30 - What's Happening in my Hive? Followed by main meeting At our January meeting one of our own members, recently published in The Australian Bee Journal,  John Kennedy is coming to talk to us about his visits to London and New York. Including the London Honey Show, NY city beekeeping and London's most successful and awarded city beekeeper, Bermondsey Street Bees. Come along and keep up to date with local conditions that effect your hive, connect with other beekeepers, share resources, improve your apiary skills and learn more about honeybee ecology. Monthly meetings are usually the last Sunday of the month. Gold coin donation. Meetings are held at ECOSS, 711 Old Warburton Road, Wesburn, in the newly renovated ‘Coop’ (past the old house, over the green, down the bottom).

  1:30 - What's Happening in my Hive? Followed by main meeting Janis Feldgen from Beewise will be speaking and we'll be having our Christmas Break Up. Bring a plate to share. Meetings are held at ECOSS, 711 Old Warburton Road, Wesburn, in the newly renovated ‘Coop’ (past the old house, over the green, down the bottom).

This years theme is Bees!! and what better way to celebrate than to have a honey competition. Click here to find out all about the honey competition. (run in conjunction with our YVbee group) We will also have a stall at the show so we'll bee looking for volunteers. email yvbeegroup@gmail.com if you're interested.   Visit their Website to find out whats on this year   ANIMALS     Horse Events all weekend on No. 2 Oval     Sheep Competitions and Sheering, Saturday int he David Wilkinson Pavilion     Poultry Competition , Saturday in the Chandler Pavilion     Alpacas - Young Handlers, Sunday in Melba Park     Boer Goat Competition, Sunday in the David Wilkinson Pavilion     Cattle - Educational Display and Handlers Classes, Sunday on No. 2 Oval     Animla Nursey all weekend in Melba Park     Reptile Display all weekend in Melba Park     Dog Obedience and Dog Agility Display, Saturday on the Main Arena     Dog Flyball Competition, Sunday on the Main Arena     Pony Rides all weekend in Melba Park     Sheep Dog Trials and Demonstrations all weekend in Melba Park ​​ ​ DISPLAYS FOR EVERYONE TO ENJOY ALL WEEKEND     Educational Display, Youth Club     Lego Display, Youth Club     Meccano Display, Youth Club     Art Display, Jean Eales Pavilion     Photography Display, Jean Eales Pavilion     cookery Display, Jean Eales Pavilion     Wool Display, Jean Eales Pavilion     Craft Display, Jean Eales Pavilion     Needlework Display, Jean Eales Pavilion     Horticulture Display, Briggs McDonnell Pavilion     Honey Display, Briggs McDonnell Pavilion ​​ ENTERTAINMENT     Carnival Rides for young and old     Side Show Alley - step up and win a prize!     Free entertainment on the stage all weekend in Melba Park     Woodchop Events - outside the Youth Club     Showbag Vans - outside the Youth Club     Rockabilly Babes!! - Fashion Parades, hair and makeup tents     Balmoral Highland Dancing, Saturday     Victorian Scottish Dancing, Sunday     Alpaca Display - producers, animals, fleeces, Sunday in the Chandler Pavilion     Soccer Stars - Main Arena     RUCKUS - 6pm Saturday, Main Arena     FIREWORKS - dusk Saturday, Main Arena            

Box Hill Institute’s Biosecurity Centre of Excellence is running a 1hr Bee Biosecurity Masterclass at its Lilydale campus (streamed live). Jessica Millar and Joe Riordan will be speaking and answering your questions about the recent Varroa mite detection in the Port of Melbourne and other biosecurity challenges facing Victorian bee keepers.   Time/date: 11:00am, Tuesday 30 October 2018 Location: BHI Lilydale Lakeside Campus, Jarlo Drive, Lilydale. 3140  Cost: Free Registration: Eventbrite ticketing   Speakers: Jessica Millar, Victorian Bee Biosecurity Officer. Dept. Economic Development, Jobs, Transport & Resources Joe Riordan, Senior Apiary Inspector. Dept. Economic Development, Jobs, Transport & Resources Online streaming The Event will be streamed online for people unable to attend. Please email m.blake@boxhill.edu.au for a URL link to the streaming service.  

  1:30 - What's Hapening in my Hive? Followed by main meeting Neil Barraclough from Gippsland will be speaking to us about pollination, from the plant and the bee's perspective. (He will also be running a Queen Raising workshop the day before at ECOSS. Click here to find out more) Meetings are held at ECOSS, 711 Old Warburton Road, Wesburn, in the newly renovated ‘Coop’ (past the old house, over the green, down the bottom).

Neil Barraclough is an experienced beekeeper and horticulturalist, with decades of experience keeping bees, both as a sideline and commercially. For many years, he selectively bred his own queens for production and temperament. Amongst other roles, he was Seed Production Manager for Diggers Seeds, and he coordinates the Heritage and Rare Fruits Network and annual fruit tree grafting workshops across Victoria & NSW. Introduced to beekeeping on his family farm before beekeeping suits were available to him, this hands-on workshop with Neil will inform and guide you in: Bee Handling Queen Management Introducing a caged queen Selection & Genetics Raising your own queens Environmental needs & impacts This is a hands-on workshop; participants must bring their own veil or suit to be part of the beehive opening (subject to weather).  Participants will practice during the day and leave with a tool to undertake their own queen raising at home.

Introduction to bees and beekeeping Spring management workshop & field day   Program will include; Spring Management – optimising the opportunities of the season including hands on manipulation of hives Assessing colony health, queen performance – reading the brood Honey bee nutrition – anticipating colony needs for nectar and pollen Pests and disease – identification and management options Honey harvesting for small operations Hardware assembly, small scale extracting, flow hive discussion and more! Floral resources of NE Victoria Redpaths Beekeeping Supplies will be in attendance on the day and will take orders prior to the workshop. Visit http://www.redpaths.com.au/ Participants are asked to bring with them any personal protective equipment they own and a chair for seating outdoors. Veils will be available for purchase on the day. Please bring own wide brimmed hat. Covered shoes, long pants and long sleeves are required dress code. All smokers/ hivetools etc for working with hives will be supplied by Committee members Register via Eventbrite listing here https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/neaa-spring-field-day-registration-49594362072

1.30 - What's happening in my hive? session 2.00 - At this month's meeting Phil will take us through Bee Swarms and Hive Splits. We will look at things like - what makes bees swarm anyway? What can I do to prevent my bees from swarming? How do I catch a swarm if I see one? We will also look at the difference between Splitting Hives, Nucleus Hives, and Artificial Swarming - and how to artificially swarm whether you can find the queen or not. We may also do a practical demonstration, weather permitting. Buzz Groups - Come along prepared with any questions you may want answered as we'll split in to groups at the end of the meeting so that you can connect with other beekeepers in your area.

ECOSS SPRING FEST! Saturday September 22nd, 10am- 4pm at ECOSS. Wake up and Bloom for Spring. This year's abundant festivities include 'The Great Ecological Race'- wheelbarrow race between Middle years kids and their parents, MC'd by the Fabulous and Fantastic Will Tait. Multicultural Stage performances from Aztec Dance, Zaar Belly Dance, Japanese Kids Choir, Tuvaluan Dancers, Chin Community Dancers, the incredible Sarita McHarg- Sitar Player, Latino Drumming with Gustavo, Looping Cello, Tomi Matsumoto, 8 Foot Felix members Will Tait and Brendan Jones wildly entertaining us all! MC'd by the charismatic and talented Mr Simon Oats. Tiny House tours and talks, Bio-dynamic Farm tour, ECOSS projects tour, Yarra Valley Bee Group talks, Migrant Information Centre talks and GRAND OPENING OF RELAB- (rehab for old items- up cycling and boutique craft centre!). Roving Performers : MOOP Patrol- hopefully there will be no Matter Out of Place! Eco - Market with delicious local, healthy food and drinks! For the kids: Clay play in the Community Pottery Studio, LGBTQI+ rainbow flag painting, apple peeling and loads more activities underway.