Stingless Bees

Go to www.sugarbag.net and check out when the next event is.

There are a lot of people that sell, perhaps shop around for the best deal.

https://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ANBees/ - join this group. Someone may know the rules in Ipswich. Shouldn't be any rules, and if they are, I'd break them. The bees are basically invisible until they slow down near their hive.

 

Local Council By Laws would only apply to European Honey Bees as they sting and can cause problems in back yards. I know as I had six of them till I was told to please move them out. Native bees wouldn't cause any problems at all and more than likely there are hives in trees near by. They are very small and smaller than common flies. You only need about 150 x 150 x150 space for them.

Brian

 

Talking to my friend a Commercial Bee keeper on the weekend. He said another friend of his sells Native Bees. His name is Peter Davenport and lives in Elanora on the Gold Coast.

 

Any chance the natives would survive in Melbourne?

 

I'd doubt it. A quick google shows me you are out of luck.

 

Was building garden beds inside the dried out mushroom compost was a few native bees
Unfortunately I didn't see them until I picked it up and put it in the wheel barrow and then onto the bed,so I wrecked the beginnings of their hive.
No bees where harmed unfortunately none where relocated into my little hive either.
I fished them out of the mud and they flew away
They buzzed like bumble bees in my hand.

 

Wow that is fantastic. Thank you very much

 

The Dr at the Bee Course made a statement about the Macadamia industry and their use of Stingless Bee hives in their pollination. It's some sort of experiment (couldn't get the details but I'm going to email him directly about it) where they've placed hives into macadamia plantations. It was brought up because someone asked about food levels, the best places for them etc. and it was said that suburbia is a relative smorgasbord for bees as humans like flowering plants which mean the bees do have access to flowers of different types all year round.

Basically, he said that the bees placed into these plantations nearly starve to death over the 7 months of non-flowering. Something as hardy and resourceful as a bee, evolved over 100 million years, placed into a monoculture and nearly dies. It, to me, really shows how out of kilter, a non-ecosystem, that modern agricultural farming is. There appears to me to be little to no reason besides mechanical harvesting issues, to not have beneficial plants and legumes amongst these plantations, rather than punish colonies.

 

That is the problem with pollination, generally there is no nectar just pollen. Bees need both. With honey bees you need very strong hives going in and supplimentry feeding may be required if left there too long. Bees can starve to death in Spring. Funny as it seems but the population can get out of balance coming out of winter. Too many young brood to be fed and too many house bees and not enough field bees to support them. Not sure about native bees but honey bees get most of their nectar and pollen within 500 metres of the hive. They can travel up to 13 km but the energy expended wouldn't be replaced buy food coming in so they can starve. If in the middle of a plantaion and there is no nectar within 500 metres then yes they will consume more food than what can be collected

Eucalypts produce most of their nectar at around 1 am in the morning, hence why bats fly at night. This is why it is vital to not kill bats as they pollinate our native forests

Looking at the photos the brood sections are in the centre and the honey is on the outer edges. Brood is them term for bees still in the cells ie eggs and pupa.

 

When I had my bees in the back yard they produced so much honey. I did move them out to where Griffith University is now back when it was first being built and just next to Smith St alongside the old railway cutting. The bees just didn't do as well there as they did in the back yard

 

I apologise for the loaded questions. I'm not an impartial journalist, or even a nice person

 

I did not like the images that has been posted. It should not have been here. Yeah I know there are Stingless Bees that also exist. But still I will not agree to the point to keep bees at all. Well I would rather buy honey from outside instead of burdening your life with pollutants. What do you suggest me to do?

 

You have me totally confused with this post????

 

I've been watching lopezer closely because several of his/her posts are very short and meaningless. Ignore it - I haven't got enough evidence to classify them as a spammer but it's getting close....

 

I'm going with benefit of doubt.

Why keep bees? Stingless bees have had massive habitat destruction, supplying them with habitat is helping them along. They will never colonise a man-made box without help. Whether they will colonise natural logs left about, they would have to join the queue with all the other animals desperate for homes.

Stealing their honey, which also hurts quite a few bees, is the ethical decision to make. It's like animal husbandry, you supply them with flowers and a safe home, you exchange for some of their honey.

 

There is a place on the Warrego Highway, right next to the Freedom Service Station at Hatton Vale, that sells stingless bees and their honey. I will be dropping in and have a chat and maybe stingless beekeeping is something to look at as well... in the future. I have oodles of native flowering trees in my back yard and my place is always abuzz with the buzz of honey bees and the sounds of lorrikeets drinking the nectar... some days I can barely hear myself think... it's so nice.

We have a bee hive in one of our eucs. The bees look a bit like a European Honey bee, but are a wee bit smaller and are black and white, any idea what they are? From the photos on this thread I can say... they don't look like that.

 

Asian Honeybee?

Check out the galleries at www.aussiebee.com.au for pictures.

 

Thanks for the link . I just spent literally hours trying to find an image of the bees that I had seen 'overnighting' in the grass, and then flying up into the tree to a break in the bark. Asian honey bee... could be, but the bees I saw ... their abdomen was a lot darker, still stripes, but a lot darker with a big dark area at the 'tail' end. The stripes really looked more like black and white, or maybe it was yellow. I have seen bees around my back yard all black with 'whitish' stipes ... maybe that is the blue banded bee. Looks like I will be out 'bee hunting' with the camera .

 

Mason bee?