Come and see the Yarra Valley Bee Group at the Kilsyth Festival - we will have a honey stall. The 2019 Kilsyth Festival (formerly the Kilsyth Chelodina Festival) will be held on Sunday 27th October and is run by the Kilsyth Community Action Group in conjunction with the Friends of Elizabeth Bridge Reserve. The Festival is held at the beautiful Elizabeth Bridge Reserve in Durham Road. Its main aim is to engage our local communities by offering a wonderful environment for people of all ages to enjoy the natural setting. It is a fun way to promote environmentally sustainable businesses and activities from across the Yarra Ranges, and to encourage people to shop, play and eat locally.

BENDIGO BRANCH 40th BEE FIELD DAY IS ON SUNDAY 13th OCT AT HARCOURT mark it on your calendar. Demos on Honey extracting, open hive including flow hive, wiring frames, boxing a swarm, questions & answers. Auction of bee equipment Queen Bee pick up (order NOW) Bus trips out to ToJo Packing Plant Biosecurity info BBQ &cold drinks Stall holders a plenty This is a day not to be missed. See flyer

1:30 - What's Happening in my Hive? Followed by main meeting The value of local flora Local Beekeeper Bernie Heinze, from the VAA (Victorian Apiarist's Associations), will talk about local flora and their value to bees. What are the flowering plants of this area that yield nectar? Why some plants are dying out in the bush and what can be done to prevent it? What plants to plant near your apiary and their cultivation eg. To fertilise or not? To prune or not? Native bees and their preservation. Bernie has offered to help identify any plants that you may have, so bring them to the meeting. 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).

1:30pm - Annual General Meeting In preparation for the meeting, please view the following: AGM Minutes 2018 Agenda Committee Nomination Form Proxy form All are welcome to attend the AGM. However, only financial members are entitled to vote.  If you are unsure of your financial status, please email us to check at yvbeegroup@gmail.com.   2pm - Main Meeting With the transition from Winter to Spring well on its way, Janis from Beewise will be speaking to us about Spring Management. He will focus on the current issues and challenges that our bees face when coming out of winter and building up for the new season. 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. Calling for nominations for our Committee Take your interest in bees to the next level. Join or friendly and focused committee to work together to help this group thrive. Put your skills and abilities to work with only four meetings a year. Nominations are invited for the following executive positions: President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. (Click here for position descriptions and see below links to nomination forms).

1:30 - What's Happening in my Hive? Followed by the main meeting. John Edmonds - New Beekeeping Innovations John has been a keen Beekeeper ever since his Father introduced him to bees at a young age. He has always lived with bees in the backyard and learnt how to keep them alongside his Dad. They formed a partnership and operated as weekend beekeepers for many years. They sold their honey at markets. John left full time employment in 1995 and has since been growing his business. Geelong Honey - beekeeping equipment and honey supplies. John says that he is fortunate to have combined his much loved lifestyle into a business and has had many adventures. Raising queen bees is one of Johns passions. He has experimented with various methods as well as different types of beekeeping equipment. Join us on Sunday hear John talk about what he has learnt and hear about some New Beekeeping Innovations.   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 Rob Arnts has been a commercial beekeeper for 14 years after starting with one hive in Melbourne four years prior to that. Being a first generation beekeeper he built his understanding of bees initially without the help of generational experience and managed to find a place in the industry. Rob will be sharing the importance of maintaining hive temperature and the effect this has on the productivity and health of the hive. He's also hoping to share a much larger conversation about our shared experience of bees and the function of the hive and how we can positively interact with it. 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).

Victorian Beekeeping Clubs Conference 2019 Registrations Open! The 2nd Victorian Beekeeping Conference has been convened by a Steering Committee that consists of beekeepers from rural, regional and metropolitan Victoria. The aim of the Conference is to connect with hobbyist, recreational, sideline and commercial beekeepers from across Victoria. Conference delegates will hear from informative and inspiring presenters including researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, biosecurity specialists, innovators and authors. Location Hyatt Place Melbourne, Essendon Fields: 1 English St, Essendon Fields VIC 3041 Date Saturday 15th June 2019 8:30am – 5:00pm Cost $125.00 per person (Early Bird and Youth tickets) $155.00 per person (after March 15th 2019) Includes: Morning and Afternoon Tea Lunch Trade Exhibitors A bumper Conference offering keynote speakers in plenary sessions, as well as three parallel beekeeping streams. Conference Showbag Registration and refreshments from 8.00am. Conference commences at 8:30am and concludes at 5pm. Post Conference drinks from 5pm to 7pm. More information

  1:30 - What's Happening in my Hive? Followed by main meeting Speaker - Adrian Dyer - Bee Colour Vision & Flower Evolution Adrian is a Research Fellow at RMIT University investigating how both the introduced honeybee and native bees perceive colour, and how this has affected the evolution of flowers. He completed a PhD in 2000 (RMIT University) and was a Humboldt Fellow (Germany), a La Trobe Fellow (La Trobe University) and an Australian Research Council Fellow (Monash University). He also held a postdoctoral research positions at Cambridge University, and collaborates extensively with universities in France and the USA. His research has been published in leading journals including Nature, Science and Proceedings of the Royal Society; and has been featured on ABC TV as well as numerous international media outlets like The New York Times and the BBC.   Topic - Bee Colour Vision & Flower Evolution: Bee pollinators are responsible for providing about one third of our food, and vision is the principle sensory cue used by bees used to find flowers. Bee colour vision has shaped flower colour evolution in Australia, and globally; whilst different insects like hoverflies influence colour in a dramatically different way. In  complex natural environments there are many difficulties for bees like non-rewarding deceptive flowers, complex search and navigational tasks, and at a hive level management of nutritional resources to enable survival. Recent work shows that far from being simple reflexive animals, bee exhibit cognitive-type processing of rules to solve problems including using size relationships, spatial arrangements and numerical abilities. Bees can learn to understand the concept of zero and place this number at the lower end of a continuum, and can use symbolic representations of colour as mathematical operators to enable solving simple addition and subtraction tasks. This suggests that a key reason for the success of bees over evolutionary time has been the capacity of their mini brain to develop cognitive like processing, and some of the clever solutions they employ appear to hold important lessons for AI, and how we can improve design in an increasingly technological world. NB - ECOSS is hosting a Ngulu Festival from 1:00pm that day so parking will be busier than usual 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 our monthly Speaker: Ben Moore - Bee Keeping Abroad Ben Moore is an apiarist, environmentalist, father, food-lover and the owner of Ben’s Bees. Exposed to nature and farming from an early age, Ben has kept bees for over 26 years started Ben’s Bees over ten years ago. Since then, his company has expanded to include beekeeping, honey production, the safe rehoming of bee colonies, wasp removal, international mentoring, media and education. Through these activities, Ben has built a passionate and loyal community of beekeepers from Australia and across the globe. With a focus on ethical and natural beekeeping practices, Ben is committed to educating the community about bees and their vital connection to the environment and our everyday lives. Ben will be talking about his travels to over 7 countries and how those abroad keep their 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. 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 our monthly speaker: Barry Roberts - Minimising the spread of bee disease Barry is an experienced local Bee Keeper from the Dandenong Ranges who will be discussing what can be done to minimise the spread of bee disease. In particular AFB. eg. barrier systems etc. 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).

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).