I have been meaning to get out and visit Peter for like forever. As well as being one of our more seasoned bee keepers, Peter was responsible for helping discover and name one of our varieties of bees. The Tetragonula Davenporti. I wanted to catch up, hear the story about that and see what I…
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Redirecting stingless bee swarms can be a challenge. When you have 9+ hives in a group, a swarm can be quite large. Just like people crowded in a street, if a big fight broke out it would be chaos! Bees have a great visual sensor as one of their many sensors. Although scent is a…
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When Leonard Francis first rang me I was intrigued and excited. You see he explained that he had tried to get a hold of a stingless bee hive from Queensland but no one would sell him one because the bees would die in his climate. This is the story of keeping stingless bees in Canberra.…
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Wayne has been keeping stingless bees for over 60 years. While the world of stingless bee keepers has been growing he has always been out there doing his thing. Wayne Allen used to cut timber for a living and it was during this time that he realised that he could collect these little bees. A…
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For several years I have been watching the evolution of these tiny Bluetooth trackers. The idea of tracking a stolen bee hive has always sparked some joy in me. Stingless bee hives in Australia are expensive and each one is a labour of love for both the maker of the hive and the keeper who…
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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…
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Sometimes after a log transfer or a rescue you are left with a lot of pollen and honey in a mish mash. I thought about this problem for a long time and how I could possibly remove the bees without killing them. I asked myself the question “what things would make me leave my home…
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This has bee a long time dream of mine to use stingless bees for pollination, but when I first started asking people about this subject there was much talk of pesticides. With the previous world crisis with colony collapse with honey bees, I knew I had to go to an organic farm. I had to…
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Recently the local council called me and asked if anything could be done about some bees nesting in a wall. I went to investigate and found a nesting site home to many blue banded bees. I talked to some locals who told me the garden bed that the bees were nesting in would soon be…
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I have been meaning to get out and meet so many of our seasoned stingless bee keepers. One in particular is Doug Irvine. I remember when I first saw one of his hives at a wild life sanctuary and I was immediately taken with its appearance. Having worked with timber all my life I knew…
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