Beekeeping Update

This month has all been about beekeeping. We started off the month with attending an absolutely fantastic workshop for two days in Labasa sponsored by the Northern Beekeepers Association, followed by the annual Fiji Beekeepers symposium and AGM. During the workshop we learnt several ways of splitting hives, lots of info on rearing and breading queens, how to check on the health of your hives including how to check for varroa mites, as well as planting the right plants for successful honey production. Prior to the workshop we were feeling pretty confident about beekeeping. Arthur went as far as questioning if we really needed to attend the workshop. But as the saying goes “you don’t know what you don’t know”. We have really realised that there is still so much to learn.

And just in time to help with our learning, the Fiji Government is entering into an agreement with Australia to bring expert technical advice and knowledge to Fiji. We were very fortunate to have two experts Dr. David Loyd and Cooper Schouten from Southern Cross University participate in our training along with local beekeepers Chuck McKay, Saimone Tunaqase, and John Caldeira. I’m really looking forward to future training opportunities.

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Meanwhile, two years ago our Local Agricultural Officer submitted an application on our behalf to fund a bee colony multiplication centre on our farm. We had pretty much given up on receiving the funding and decided to work towards slowly building up our colonies on our own. Well we received the funding this March. The funding included equipment (a 4 frame honey extractor, 2 uncapping bins, 10 buckets for honey reservoirs, wiring jig and wax embedder, and fencing) and 20 double box colonies – for a total value of ~$20,000 Fiji dollars. Our contribution to the project is to develop an appropriate bee yard and harvesting centre, and cover the costs of transporting the bees to our farm. To date we’ve received the equipment and are awaiting delivery of the hives and fencing. The longterm goal is to be able to supply our local area with healthy colonies.

Aside from beekeeping we’re still busy planting coconut trees – 410 in the ground with only 90 to go. We (and by that I mean Charlie and Arthur) have planted about 80 Noni trees, 30 Yasi trees, and 120 citrus trees. All of these trees will be awesome sources of pollen and nectar for the bees. The month of May has been cold and very wet so I haven’t been able to do much veggie growing but its been good weather to plant trees.