When I first saw Spicer Hollow Native Bee’s Instagram page, I immediately liked it. It was his effort in quickly understanding stingless bees and making unique hives to match their needs. I thought to myself, “This guy is quite inventive!”. Later, I saw the quality brackets that were ordained with beautiful welding. I know from welding myself that it is quite hard to get nice welds. I have kept in touch with Alex ever since and promised him one day I would come to film him and what he does. The video below will give everyone a little more insight into who Alex and his business, (Spicers Hollow Native Bees) are.
Spicers Hollow Native Bees Products
Spicer Hollow Native Bees: Hives made from hebel, timber and other materials.
Log hives and series supers in food safe plastics with stainless fixings
Hive mounting solutions all hand made by Spicer Hollow Native Bees.
I asked Alex from Spicers Hollow Native Bees some questions…
How did you become interested in Stingless bees?
It was at my mates house, he had a self watering pots and I would go over to visit him. I’d spend much time observing them and sometimes ignoring him.
Can you think of a memory or story that stands out with your bee keeping?
Doing my first eduction, Seeing the bees build from absolute scratch. Seeing how they make a nest from nothing.
What type of Stingless bee is your favourite and why?
Hockingsi for their productivity.
What things do you like about your box design and what inspirations did you have?
Inspiration wise, the first box I made was a vertical splitting hive, My mate removed the hive from the self watering pot. We saw that colony split into two boxes and I observed how the pests took over and decided a one piece hive was better.
Why do you believe bees are important?
Biodiversity, pollination and the mostly yet to be discovered benefits to humans. There is a lot more to come, it’s just going to take a long time to get there.
Have you learned something recently about bees that you would wish to share?
I learnt about a “never ending swarm” from Native Bee Nick at the stingless bee club.
Finally what is your one piece of life advice you would share with the world?
Keep it simple stupid. Just let the bees be bees.
You can check out more at Spicers Hollow Native Bee’s facebook page or their webpage
Spicers-Hollow-Native-Bees Facebook
ringtailcarpentry.com.au Website
You may be wondering if you do have an empty log how you get stingless bees to move into it. Here is a post I wrote a couple of years back – conservation-stingless-bees. It will show you how to prepare and seed a log hive. Do this in late spring for best results.
