Australian Native Bees | News & Info

Brood Temperature Monitoring

David at Northside Native Bees is a bit of a wiz with gadgets and has built his own monitoring system. The device measures outside temperature and also Brood temperature. The information is sent via wifi to his computer then updates

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Pollination Box – Getting Bees in!

I recently purchased a new Pollination Box sold by Sugarbag Bees because i was interested in the design of the box. This box is designed with the purpose for crop pollination on farms. It’s a PVC construction and has no honey super top

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Log Cabin – Hive Duplication

I decided to set up one of my Log Cabins for Budding (Hive Duplication). This process could be done with just about any kind of empty box. I thought it might be better to do it this way than to split

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Syrphid Fly – Wasp Mimic

Syrphid Fly – Wasp Mimic Hoverfly – Ceriana ornata. These look like wasps but you can see the forked antenna which tells them apart from Wasps. They hang around your native bee hive and can lay eggs in the gaps,

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Splits 08/10/2017

Above photo: Top half of the Red Mail Box hive, and bottom of the Treasure Chest hive. These have been in place since early 2017. I’ve now split them and added the matching halves of the boxes so now I

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Weak Hive – No Queen?

Photo: Weak hive that is recovering well with new brood Over the years we’ve seen people posting photos on Facebook of their failed hives wondering what they did wrong. A lot of the time it starts by having no Queen

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Austroplebeia Australis

This is one of Kevin Stiller’s Hives containing the Stingless Bee species Austroplebeia Australis. The box is designed to split vertically. There’s horizontal stainless steel wires that support the hive structure. The Brood structure of Australis is a cluster design which is different

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Creating a new hive

For Methods 1 to 4 you will need an existing hive colony – either already purchased or naturally occurring on your property. Buy a Native Bee Hive full with Bees – see a list of sellers here AussieBee.com.au/SellerList Methods of creating

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Summer Heat and Your Hive

Summer is here! Your Native Bee Hive may need some help during the hotter periods. Native Bees don’t cope very well when the temperatures get to 40 – 42°C and you could lose your hive from over heating. Things you

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Pests or not?

There’s a lot of different insects you’ll notice in your garden. Some don’t bother the bees at all and some can destroy your precious bee hive. Mostly the threat is from new larvae destroying the hive colony from the inside.

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Split a Native Bee Hive – Video

There’s a few articles and videos on the net that will help with your splitting. I think this one is nicely presented with clear instructions. **Posted with approval from Melissa at sydneystinglessbees Some of my tips:

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Isolating the Honey Super

Isolating the Honey Super When you first split a hive you may wish to isolate the Honey Super (top section) It reduces the volume of the hive so is less area for the bees to secure and maintain You can

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Plants for Bees

Start a Bee Garden!! … Start getting your bee garden prepared. Here’s a list of some favourite bee plants and flowers: Abelia, Butterfly Bush, Bottlebrush – Callistemon, Gum Blossom, Spider Flower, Lavender, Tea Tree, Honey Myrtle, Rosemary, Daisies, Grevilleas, Salvias,

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Hive Positions & Tips

Preparation Before getting a hive it can be a good idea to find a position in your yard for where you’re going to place it. Have a look around your yard at different times during the day. Find a position that

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Solitary Bees

There’s over 1600 species of native bees in Australia, with an estimated possible 2000 species!!! While this website is more aimed at the Social Stingless Bee species it’s still awesome to be able to attract Solitary Bees to your garden.

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