Macadamia Farm Pollination Project

Located in the Northern Rivers Region in NSW, this 760 ha / 260,000 tree macadamia farm is a massive new project, with Alyssa – botanist, recently joining the project as Technical Officer and is very enthusiastic about increasing pollination for the trees by implementing more pollinator resources and developing the native bee program.

The numbers on this farm are amazing as everything has to be supersized but still practical. Before Alyssa arrived on the farm a native bee hive project was in place but was under performing with multiple challenges including the bad weather we’ve experienced over the last year. Alyssa has done some great work focused around native bees including close monitoring of the colonies and even installing a 3 metre wide pollination strip… 2km long!

Photo: Tim and Alyssa discussing the 3 metre wide pollination strip, a custom mix of various flowers.

Tim Heard – Entomologist – owner at Sugarbag Bees visited the farm to see if any systems could be improved or added. Alyssa has plans to increase the native bee hive numbers so there was a lot of discussion around resources for the pollinators and hive box improvements. I was interested to see the temperature monitors installed on one hive we visited. Temperatures in this area can get to the extreme so close monitoring could be important.

Alyssa has moved away from star picket side mounts as they can be unreliable with the hives leaning or falling over in the field. Photos show the super stable wide legged mounts they are making in their workshop. Some boxes are Cypress and some Paulownia built locally. A QR code label has been added to each hive so all details can be recorded and checked.

The farm has done a great job retaining large areas of natural bushland which can be important for all kinds of native critters and pollinators.

It will be interesting to see how this projects goes over the coming years, hopefully we’ll get some improved weather conditions for our native pollinators.

For project consultations contact: Tim – https://sugarbag.net

Hivecraft - Australian Native Bee Supplies

Native bee boxes available at www.hivecraft.com.au

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