Central Victoria has seen sporadic flowering of grey box mid to late March, with some red bottlebrush (Callistemon) observed flowering in late March, unusual for this time of year. I suspect the weather has the local flora second guessing itself. Thankfully the earlier rains have so far promoted continued growth on quite a few tree species thus far.
The 2026 Bendigo Sustainability Festival invited the branch to staff a marquee promoting the club. There was no doubt the two biggest draw-cards were the honey tasting, drawing in all ages like robber bees, while others showed amazing focus and patience searching for the queen in Stafford‟s observation hive (right).
It was entertaining seeing family members hone in on which honey variety was their favourite and selling it‟s virtues to other family members in order to influence the decision maker to purchase their favourite.
Well done Angelique, Graeme, Jess, Kris, Peta and Stafford on answering a plethora of questions, thanks to Gareth Maunder and Richard Collins for your continued support of the branch, greatly appreciated. Shout out to Jo Griffiths for representing the branch and providing a number of talks to community groups on supporting bees and suburban pollination interests. Sandy from the Bendigo Native plant group presented at the April meeting showing a variety of attractive native plants that grow well in the area, attract bees and provided examples that flower across all seasons.
The next Bendigo branch event is our annual Autumn Packdown at 1pm on Sunday the 26th April at 2 Griggi Road, Huntly. Ange will post details on Facebook, please RSVP Peta bbvaasecretary@gmail.com for numbers and catering. Activities include: brood inspection; mite wash; honey removal; packdown; uncapping; honey extraction; bee talk; cuppas; and some mite discussion thrown in. Bring the family for a great social day and channel sunny warm weather for the day, especially the hive work. At our meeting on Wednesday 6th of May the AgVic chemical team will be presenting, and there’s some exciting club news.
Keep testing, monitoring, learning, sharing and communicating,
Jamie Trimby