Mudgee Bee Group Creating Buzz

Are you interested in keeping bees but don’t know where to start? The Mudgee Bee Group is a Watershed Landcare special interest group, providing training, peer support and mentoring to aspiring apiarists.

The Mudgee Bee Group is a community and a diverse mix of people, some are experienced commercial apiarists, others have bees on a smaller scale, as a hobby or are just starting out on their beekeeping adventure.

So, what’s all the buzz about bees? Having bees in your back yard isn’t just for a source of delicious honey which has so many medicinal and culinary uses. The benefits extend throughout your community. Honeybees will travel far and wide, busily searching for sweet nectar and pollinating along the way. This means that your neighbours’ plum trees or your very own veggie patch will get a boost in production with more bees around!

With Honeybee numbers around the world declining at an alarming rate due to climate change, disease and pesticide use, there’s never been a better time to begin caring for your own hive and learning the art of apiculture. Bees provide pollination services for most of the crops we eat and use for animal feed. In fact, nearly two-thirds of Australia’s agriculture production benefits from honeybee pollination. Bees have a huge impact on the security of our food system and along with around 2,000 other Australian native bee species, play a vital role in preserving biodiversity and ecosystem function.

Are you headed to the Small Farm Field Days? Pop into the Watershed Landcare hub where the Bee Group will have their very own stall, sharing their honey and knowledge with fellow bee enthusiasts. AREC where the Field Days is held is also home to the groups very own hives. Currently caring for 3 beautiful hives, the group work as a team to look after the bees and harvest the honey, learning and teaching along the way.

The Mudgee Bee Group is open to new members who are keen to learn more about keeping bees and producing honey. There is a hands-on Backyard Beekeeping course on the 11^th & 12^th of September (2021) with Bruce White who has over 40 years of experience in the beekeeping game. If you’d like to participate, send an expression of interest to Claudia Wythes, Watershed Landcare Coordinator, on 0412 011 064 or claudia.wythes@watershedlandcare.com.au.