CARBONARIA IN SUN AND SHADE When people buy bees from me they usually ask ‘What can hurt them? Should I be worried about flies or ants?’. My answer is always The Sun. The Sun is one of the biggest killers of native bees in the boxes we choose to house them in. The following article…
Marking bees for experiments Guest post by Dean Haley Marking bees for experiments Nick came up with an ingenious method for watching native bee behaviour. Non toxic pigments are put in a jar, which catches bees leaving a nest. The inspiration for this was the tales of Aboriginals coating bees in flour to track…
Fighting swarms Guest post written by- Dean Haley Fighting swarms occur with our Tetragonula hockingsi and Tetragonula carbonaria bees. These fighting swarms occur with another colony of the same species, or sometimes between different species (e.g. hockingsi attacking carbonaria or vice versa). Fighting swarm in flight Fighting Swarm on box Fighting swarm on box …
A while back I had the chance to rescue a hive of bees from a meter box. This particular bee was Tetragonula Hockingsi. One of the main ways that people differentiate between native bee species is their brood structure. I wanted to write about an interesting comparison I had between two Hockingsi bee hives. The…
One of the first things I wanted to learn was how to start a bee hive. What do bees like in a home? Where should a bees be placed? What’s too hot for bees. I hope to answer some of these questions for people by writing about my own experiences I researched a few designs…