A new group is buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm to boost the bee population in North Otago.
The 43 people who attended a meeting in Oamaru on Friday night want to get started on projects, including creating a "bee corridor" of flowering trees attractive to bees.
The meeting was organised by Annie Beattie and Marian Shore from Waitaki Community Gardens, following the sell-out first screening of the bee film Queen of the Sun in Oamaru. They wanted to gauge interest in encouraging bees in North Otago, including setting up hives at the community gardens.
The initial meeting covered topics associated with bees and that information is being collated for another meeting on June 21.
One idea which sparked a lot of interest was a bee corridor, already popular in the United Kingdom and United States. The idea is to plant a track of flowering trees, starting at the community gardens then tracking out so other communities could pick it up and take it further.
"There could be a corridor all around New Zealand," Ms Beattie said.
Plants would be brought and planted, hopefully from August, on both private and public land, to encourage bees to travel.
The second priority would be education, from schools out into the community, distributing bee mixes [food which bees like].
Another issue which needed to be discussed was a restriction on where bee hives could be kept - the Waitaki District Council does not allow them in town on residential land.
