Living life in the bee-loud glade

The Torquay Library will host Surfcoast Honey’s Tony McNamara for a series of four talks about bees, with the first session to be held at the National Surfing Museum.

The talk taking place tonight (Thursday September 20), focuses on the bees’ role in maintaining a sustainable environment, the different roles bees play within the hive to form a super organism and why we rely on them to survive.

Mr McNamara said he had always been interested in bees and after purchasing hives nearly five and a half years ago, had been working with them ever since.

“It’s something I wanted to get into, over the years I started off with three hives which I picked up from someone who was selling them,” he said.

“I did some splits (a heathy hive can be split in two) bought some more hives and like most bee keepers learnt through a mentor and asking as many questions as I could.

“I also read as much as possible and bee keeping is a profession that you learn by doing, the more you do it the better you get at it.”

Mr McNamara said bees were vital to humans pollinating 65 per cent of our food, he also highlighted how their population had declined globally by around 30 per cent.

“We rely on them for seven out of 10 foods and during my talks that’s the direction I come from. Bees are gentle and intelligent, they’re extremely defensive but not aggressive.

“If a bee flies near you it’s because they’re interested or checking you out. If you start swatting at them or trying to kill them they switch into attacking mode.

“I try and encourage people to realise they look after us and we should look after them too.”

Spring is the swarming time according to Mr McNamara and he is more than happy to come and safely collect any bee colonies.

“First we remove them in a manner that’s both safe for the bees and residents and rehouse them in a proper hive, then 12 months later if they survive the next season they start producing honey.”

He said you can call him directly at Surfcoast Honey and he’s happy to come and collect the hive via surfcoasthoney.com.au or phone: 0401 793 436.

To attend the event register at grlc.vic.gov.au/whats-on/tony-mcnamara-world-bees-part-one with the talk running from 6.30pm until 7.30pm at the Australian National Surfing Museum, 77 Beach Road, Torquay.