Checked that.. nope. It was a small swarm, no more then a 100 bees, if that. They were on the grass overnight. As the day warmed up they moved up into the tree. That was last year... I haven't seen any of the 'swarm' this year.
Great posts, I love the way they build their hives. I am in Wollongong (100km south of Sydney), coastal NSW, and after catching a swarm of honeybees in 2012, have taken a lot more notice of bees of all types lately. Reading about tragonula carbonaria I thought that they probably wouldn't quite survive down here, but I was stoked to see a lot of them lately on the basil and nasturtiums. I would love to know where the hive is to take a look at it. I'll try and get a few hollow logs into the garden on the off chance they may move in. Do they swarm like honeybees? We also have blue-banded and leafcutter bees here, as well as teddy bear bees. Its great to see the diversity of pollinators we have, and is a matter of supporting their populations. I leave some logs in the garden with holes drilled in them for the solitary bees as suggested on the sugarbag website. Are native bees affected by varroa mite if it gets here? Luke
I just found a log that has been chainsawed through a few days earlier (no it wasn't me!), and It has cut through the hive (or just narrowly missed it...not quite sure). Anyway, I've screwed some tin onto the bottom to try and seal it up. I can see there little entrance and they are still going in and out (although they don't seem overly active unless you're trying to screw a bit of tin onto the bottom of their hive...). Given that it is coming into winter, what else can I do to help them survive? I'm guessing that they don't have much more time to go and make more honey for the winter.
They should survive ok. They will still forage over winter. They will seal up any gaps between the tin and the tree.