Recently there’s been publicity for a City Councillor’s Plan Bee to introduce more honey bees to the central city through a co-operative scheme. This would help Christchurch gardens, and protect the local ecosystem. Bee numbers have been dropping in recent years, and without them the world’s food supply is threatened.
The articles brought a letter in the “Press” from a local beekeeper pointing out that it is already possible to hire and host a hive. Martyn Wheeler uses organic principles to care for bees naturally, and has a hive on top of Alice in Videoland. I e-mailed Martyn and found that hiring a hive will cost us $400 per year. Martyn will do all necessary maintenance, and we will get 5kg of honey, presumably from “our” bees. Apparently spring is the best time to install the hive, so we have to wait for a few months yet.
It will be our responsibility will be to keep the bees informed of any important events that occur within our whanau. I was fascinated to learn that the word dumbledore is a name for a bee, and look forward to the arrival of our Cottage Dumbledores.
“I eagerly await our bees
who’ll fertilise the flowers and trees.”
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