Of bees, gurus and lost opportunities

In her autobiography, Images and Shadows, Iris Origo the American who married an Italian and lived in Italy but, more importantly, overcame great wealth to live and write and to love with disciplined, accessible passion and learning, describes her brief time with a wonderful teacher when she was 15. In the chapter, Reading and learning,  she describes learning Greek and Latin poetry.  Like all wonderful stories hers are layered, with life in front of her described as she was... Read More

Saima Ali’s photos of hive of activity

Saima Ali (www.saimaali.com…) has provided some beautiful photos of the recent hive of activity and some are here. Close up egg nest with hand and queen bee egg Hive, bees, eggs, resin . . . wow  Read More

Split bee hive goes to Surry Hills

Hive placed on table under tree with holes in hive still blocked up Asylum Centre gardeners with new bee hive - L to R: Chris, Stef, Jessica, Vera The bees venture forth from their hive front door Native Stinglees Bee in flight at Asylum Centre; notice tiny sacs on back legs to carry pollen: photo Jessica Perini On Saturday Jessica Perini came over to pick up the split bee hive and together we went with it to the Asylum Seekers Centre of NSW in  Surry Hills where we set it... Read More

Splitting the Hive – Envirotube video

Here is the “Splitting the Hive” video as it appears on Envirotube. To understand more about native bee keeping go to www.aussiebee.com…  Read More

Splitting the hive video

This is one of the videos showing how Michael and friends split the hive on Monday. Here is an alternate view:  Read More

What we did in the road gardens today

About 10 or more of us gardened today; some chefs from a well-known restaurant, some new gardeners, some folk from Total Environment Centre interested in our gardens, some reliables who have been coming for weeks now.  We: - took compost from several bins, turned them with augers, measured the temperatures and put in some coffee husks from Toby’s Estate - planted a Meyer Lemon tree which we then espaliered to make it unattractive to thieves in its early months and to set... Read More

Splitting my bee hive

On Monday 20 September at 10 am Peter Clarke will show me how to split my native stingless bee hive, set up the new (second) bee hive, and harvest honey. It will only take about ten minutes. A photographer (the wonderful Saima Ali who has done the terrific photos for the second edition of Sustainable House) will join us to get some  shots to show how it’s done. Does anyone know someone who would like to video it for a little Youtube or to go on this blog?  If so, contact... Read More