North Arm State School buzzing with excitement

The kitchen garden at Queensland’s North Arm State School has been well pollinated in recent months thanks to a new native beehive.

The school, located in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, won the beehive in our Kitchen Garden Community News competition.

The hive was donated by Sydney Stingless Bees and is now home to around 5000 native Tetragonula carbonaria bees.

North Arm’s competition entry pulled at the heartstrings of the Foundation team. Their native beehive had been stolen, and students sent in fantastic drawings and letters explaining why their school would make the perfect home for a new beehive (scroll through the photo gallery above to see some of the entries).

North Arm’s Garden Specialist Jane Little said the students were very excited to win the hive, and it looked right at home in the school garden.

“It sits proudly aloft in a sheltered spot, a short bee’s flight to our kitchen garden. With its matching roof, it looks so right there,” Jane said.

Jane said the school was blown away by the generosity of the prize and thanked the Foundation and Sydney Stingless Bees.

As well as kindly donating the beehive, Melissa Ballantyne from Sydney Stingless Bees travelled to North Arm to deliver the prize and host two information sessions about native bees with the Grade 4 students.

“I love working with children and watching their joy and excitement when I divide a native beehive,” Melissa said.

“Holding a competition through the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation was a great opportunity to create a buzz about these bees. 

“When I heard that North Arm had a native beehive that was stolen, and how devastated the kids were, they became the perfect candidates for a new hive of Tetragonula carbonaria.”

Melissa said keeping native bees offers a wonderful and fascinating world of discovery, and they were becoming a popular addition to kitchen gardens at schools and kindergartens.

To find out more about native stingless bees visit the Sydney Stingless Bees website.