Summer Heat and Your Hive
Your hive may need help over Summer! Stingless bees will die at 40 to 42°C There are things you can do to help… [Read more…]
Photo of male roosting on a branch. You can see resin on their legs and the branch has also been coated in resin. Quote from The Australian Native Bee Book – page 28 “the males collected outside the nest may be smeared with resin. This may serve some function during courtship behaviour”.
Native Bee Identification, Ecology & Beekeeping with Tobias Smith
This was a one day workshop held at Qld Uni with a short presentation covering the basics then in to the lab for a three hour bee identification session using Toby’s very own book “The Australian bee genera – An annotated, user friendly key” [Read more…]
Solitary Bee Observation Blocks – now available
Box Temperature Comparison
Comparison between an empty box and a live colony. These two boxes are beside each other in full sun from 7am to 2pm. Boxes are 25mm thick Hoop Pine standard boxes with a wood roof painted white. The ambient sensor is in a patio area so didn’t get as cold as the empty box out in the yard.
Congregating and Swarming?
Many reports of stingless bees congregating overnight and swarming during the day at the moment.
This is completely normal. Francisco Garcia has done some research that you might find interesting. [Read more…]
Okinja Early Learning Centre & Alex Headland Community Garden
Okinja Early Learning Centre recently received funding for new additions to their outdoor area. There’s a new garden courtyard being set up with raised vegie garden beds and plans for citrus trees, and most importantly, a stingless bee hive! [Read more…]
Roof Testing
I’m having a look at a some roof designs and trying to gauge how effectively they reduce box heat in summer. You might think it’s obvious that a roof will help keep a hive box cool, but how effective is it? It could end up being more about the box that the roof? . [Read more…]
New to Native Bees?.. here’s some helpfull articles…
- www.nativebeehives.com/faqs/
- www.nativebeehives.com/so-you-want-to-buy-some-native-bees/
- www.nativebeehives.com/native-stingless-bees-tetragonula-carbonaria/
I have an empty box, where can I get bees from?
Native Stingless Bees will always come in a box or log of their own. You can’t make or buy an empty box and then buy bees by themselves later. Empty boxes sold by box makers are intended for people that already have boxes full of bees and want to multiply their colonies by splitting, budding or transferring colonies. Read more…
Stingless Bees – FAQs
We have 13 species of Stingless Bees in Australia. This article covers one of the most popular species that people will keep in their back yards – Tetragonula Carbonaria – common to Brisbane and Sydney. Read the article…