On Wednesday 23^rd June, our class visited Our Mate’s farm to see farm animals. We also wanted to learn about the importance of native bees on the farm and then learn what happens in the hives at The Honey Pot in Huonville. We each looked at a photo of our trip and wrote about it in order of events. – Mrs Morgan.

Ava – We got to grab an apple each grown on the farm to feed to the pigs or eat the apple. We gave the pigs the apple core because the pigs like them.

Eliza – We walked up the hill with Matt and the dogs. Their names are Duchess and Princess. They are both girls. We walked up the hill because we were going to see the piglets. It was so exciting.

William – We saw sheep. Matt had about 30 sheep and they lose their wool naturally.

Aiden – We looked at the pigs and we fed them apples.

Amelia – We fed the mum pig some pellets before we saw the piglets.

Spencer – We had to go in groups of four to see the piglets because the mum was so protective of them. We followed Matt (the farmer) to pat the piglets.

Hunter – We went to see the baby pigs and they were so cute.

Molly – We got to pat the piglets and they were so soft.

Maddi – We saw heaps of chickens at the chicken coop. We all ran and tried to pat them.

Susannah – We washed our hands because we had been patting the animals and before recess. The water was cold.

Amatta – Matt showed us a poster that showed three of the native bees that were on his farm.

Thor – We saw Matt’s bee gear and he told us what the smoke does and how to get the smoker working.

Miah – We saw a bee hat. It was white and black.

Flynn – Native bees make honeycomb on the bars (in a Kenyan Top Bar Hive).

Jaxson – We looked at the Top Bar hives. We looked inside them.

Noah – We saw some dead bees from a hive. These were poisoned by chemicals (that they had accidently picked up somewhere outside the farm and brought into the hive).

Bianca – Matt sadly showed us what happens when poison gets in and showed us the damaged honeycomb with the dead bees.

Jake – We went on the bus to The Honey Pot to look at more bees.

Spencer – We listened to Jacqui talk about native bees (in Tasmania).

Noah – We saw bees (through the glass) making honey in their hive.

Maddi – We got to taste honey at The Honey Pot. Some people liked it and some people didn’t.

Hunter – We saw some candles with the hexagon pattern on it. They are made out of bee’s wax.

A huge thank you to the Tack family at Our Mate’s Farm and Jacqui at The Honey Pot. It was a fun and very active and informative excursion.