Northern Branch Tasmanian Beekeepers Association

18/10/2026

Our next general meeting will be held Monday evening 19th October at 7 pm at Legacy House, 59 York Street, Launceston.

Applications to take hives to the branch's leatherwood site are open, photographic competition is now open, and the hot topic for the meeting will be keeping your hives safe and productive if you're going away over the Christmas–New Year break.

Come along, have a cuppa, join with like-minded folk, and have your beekeeping questions answered. We look forward to welcoming new and long-term members, guests, and visitors alike.

And ... our Christmas Party date is set for 5th December. All financial members and their partners welcome. Please don't forget to RSVP.

15/10/2026

Are you new to beekeeping, or thinking about getting yourself some bees? 🐝

Before getting a hive of your own, it's a good idea to:

• learn how to properly care for bees
• review the legal requirements for participating in beekeeping, such as beekeeper registration
• make sure you have enough time to care for a hive
• find a mentor or beekeeping buddy to guide you in your early beekeeping journey
• contact your neighbours to let them know your plans to get bees. This is especially important if you live in suburban areas.

If you already have bees, this is your reminder to:

• make sure your beekeeper registration is up to date, or if you're not already registered, to do so via BeeTAS: https://beetas.tas.gov.au/
• complete your Biosecurity for Beekeepers online learning

Visit our website for beekeeping resources: https://nre.tas.gov.au/biosecurity-tasmania/animal-biosecurity/bees

15/10/2026

SWARM QUERY: Did anyone in the Bell Bay or George Town area hive a swarm on or after Thursday, 8th October? If so, or you know someone else who did, could you please message our branch as a matter of urgency?

Send a message to learn more

12/10/2026

Please share widely ... for all our sakes!

05/10/2026

Someone at our recent Introduction to Beekeeping Course asked how to remove a wild bee colony from a tree. Here’s an example of a process to do that.

04/10/2026

A number of bee larvae were grafted 10 days ago and placed in a hive. The bees drew down a number of queen cells and now it's time to move them to their own colonies. Here, we're shown adding a queen cell to this colony.

The queen will hatch from her cell around the 8th October and hopefully she will successfully mate, return to the hive, and become a laying queen.

It's a time-consuming process and we only produce enough queens to requeen our own hives each summer.

04/10/2026

Catching a queen that was bred at the end of summer. She will be used to requeen a hive with an older queen. The time it takes doesn't allow us much time to produce enough queens for our own hives each summer.

02/10/2026

We are more than thrilled that this important collaboration came out!

It totally upends the way we think about Varroa destructor genetics!

01/10/2026

Uncapping honey frames, extraction, sieving and honey. Different methods explained/shown.