Greg loves his bees, and his logs…
…He might have a thing for Fairy Houses on his hives as well!
When I visited Greg’s Native Stingless Bees at Brighton just north of Brisbane he was eager to show me the interesting log hives he has scattered around the yard. The yard is a classic native bee keepers yard, all suitable positions are filled with logs and boxes and if you look over the fence you can see all neighbours yards are filling up with his hives too. (Photo: Greg just released a book about native stingless bees – more details further down the page)
A few of Greg’s favourite logs…
Greg knows a few tree clearers that save the native bee hive logs for him so he has a regular limited supply which he sells and will keep the occasional special one for his own collection.
Keep an eye on “Gregs Native Stingless Bee Facebook Page” to be notified of the latest hives available. He is also a firm believer in leaving the bees in logs and not transferring in to boxes unnecessarily.
Image shows large log hive with eyes, the bees enter and exit through the nose. (The logs shown here aren’t for sale)
Below: Large tree with a Tetragonula Carbonaria colony
Rescue Hives
Image above: Center of photo – The large bodied Queen inspecting the brood of the Tetragonula Hockingsi inside one of the rescued colonies being built up.
New empty boxes ready for the next rescue
Greg also sells standard bee box colonies and offers a splitting and rescue service. There could be a waiting list on these.
Below: Greg uses these oversized fitted lids on top of a standard box so he can quickly inspect the colonies health. When the box is ready to sell he’ll place a standard honey super box on top. The blue tape can be removed to allow the bees access to the honey super area.
Beneath this Fairy House lies a water meter pit box housing a bee colony
Up side down plant pot
Bees had made their home inside this large plant pot. The owner swapped it with Greg for a standard box. The fairy house was placed on top and now the bees enter and exit through the fairy house door.
Huge Solitary Bee Hotel
Large Solitary Bee Hotel constructed from drilled timbers, blocks of compacted sand and bamboo had lots of activity in it with Resin Bees and Masked Bees everywhere.
Keeping Australian Native Stingless Bees – by Greg Coonan
Greg has written a fantastic 63 page book about Native Stingless Bees which is recommended reading for those getting started in the hobby. This covers the basics of first getting in to bees, hive propagation methods through to his experiences with log hives and rescues. Greg is a great believer in leaving bee colonies in natural logs as the logs make excellent secure homes for the bees and look great in the garden and this is covered in the book. There’s quite a few photos in the book supplied by the excellent photographer Geoffrey Dutton.
Contact:
Located at Brighton Qld/Aus
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gregsnativebees
Book Link: https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/products/keeping-australian-stingless-bees-by-greg-coonan/
Watch a Youtube interview with Greg Coonan by Glen Rogerson
