Wayne has had stingless bees for over 60 years and is well known as the local native bee guy at Mt Perry Qld. Most of his colonies are Tetragonula carbonaria and Tetragonula hockingsi in 30 to 35mm pine boxes, also using styrofoam covers. Wayne gave us a tour of his fantastic property where he has a sectioned off area that contains a sea of white hive boxes. Wayne is a keen producer of stingless bee honey, though I’m not sure if he parts with any of it!

Tim Heard and I dropped in to grab some propolis samples for a research project being conducted by Trong Tran exploring the value of native bee propolis through chemical composition and bio-activity. The project is partly funded by The Australian Native Bee Association and Tim Heard of Sugarbag Bees is providing free services collecting samples for the project.