Bee Adventure by Andrew Carswell

Another example of how valuable the association is at solving difficult situations :Bruce White

Recently, Andrew Carswell conducted some work to reclaim some beehives. What follows is Andrews’ account and correspondence from our Club Secretary Geoff Henning and the ABA president Bruce White.

From: Andrew Carswell
Subject: Today’s bee adventure 5 March 2018

Hi Geoff.

The inspection was problematic as the hives were pretty much solid with burr comb and we couldn’t see much of the brood without destroying the hive. The boxes weren’t in the best condition as shown in the photos. I’m going to take 4 hives tomorrow, leaving one for Lube. Liz says that’s all he can keep. Lube has given an undertaking that he’ll register his hive and probably join the local beekeeping club. It was good to meet and chat with Liz. We work in the same building.

Andrew Carswell

From Geoff Henning, Secretary

Another little project that I dealt with last week in Figtree, Wonder how many hives are around the state in this or worse condition.

This resulted from a complaint to Liz Yeatman, South Coast DPI field officer, her initial reaction was simply have the hives destroyed however the pressure was too much for the brother and sister who only lost her mother a week ago, they simply didn’t want the bees destroyed as in better times their mum looked after the bees very well.

The upshot of all this is that our member Andrew Carswell agreed at my request to inspect the hives with Liz who is very nice and is well known to Bruce White and many others as she has been with the DPI for 32 years.

Regards Geoff

Hi All,

Thanks Geoff

Pleased in the circumstances some compassion was shown by Liz when the ABA was able to become involved thanks to Geoff and especially Andrew.

This is yet another example of how valuable the association is at solving difficult situations. We all know unregistered hive abound and the reason the ABA is keen for NSW to have free registration for small numbers of hives as in Victoria and Qld in the hope to increase compliance.

This would be a good story for the next ABA newsletter

Cheers
Bruce White
President NSWABA