Matthew Middleton held a native bee workshop today where he shared his many years of knowledge. Matthew limits the attendee numbers so it’s quite an intimate gathering where you are immersed in spirituality of it all with story telling, didgeridoo playing, damper and tea.
Matthew showed us around his fantastically lush property on the Sunshine Coast Qld. There’s a little white box full of bees around every corner and many connected up as budding/eductions from the natural log hives that he receives from land clearers. Some of the logs are quite large and there’ll be a little white box sitting high on top.
Actually, Matthew has a bit of an obsession with bees in logs. He has them everywhere. He much prefers the bees stay in the logs they arrive in and avoids transferring the colonies to boxes, saying it’s completely unnecessarily unless the log is rotting and falling apart.
As part of Matthews log obsession he carves logs, populates them with native bees and sells them. They’re quite spectacular.
One of the Austroplebeia australis log colonies he received from land clearers had been cut right through the center of brood before they realised there was a colony in the log. The log was a bit of a mess so today Matthew transferred the colony in to an empty box. All attendees helped collect and transfer the fragile brood from the log to the box.
If you ever get a chance to get along to one of Matthews workshops, jump at it. Matthew has a bit of a different approach to the world which i’m sure has been influenced by his many years of working with indigenous people all around Australia and also in PNG of which he recounts some fascinating stories throughout the day.
While Matthew covers a lot of information during the day I haven’t included it all here as i think it’s more something you need to experience in person, I mean, who else mows a big love heart in the rear grassy paddock on their property that can be seen by satellites but a very talented and imaginative man.
Contact Matthew for more info about hives and workshops
website: http://beezotted.com.au
