Marking stingless bees Advanced Marking stingless bees is a way that we can gather information for future stingless bee keepers. What we know today about how long a queen lives for in Australia is because of this method. Here is a video showing how I mark my bees. Why mark bees? Marking bees has…
Ventilation of Stingless Bee Hives Something that I have been excited about is the ventilation of stingless bee hives. I thought I would do a little video about the topic to explain a little better. Switch the “CC” button on base of video for subtitles. Tips and tricks for good ventilation Drill both…
Removing bees from a water meter Bee Basics Water meters, walls , pipes and even compost heaps are places native bees love to live. Re-homing them is quite simple if you know what you’re doing. If you have done it before and it has failed do not feel bad as there is a…
Powell Hive Box When I first started stingless bee keeping I wanted to stick to one box and or hive design that I liked. Over time I learned that lots of different designs had come about by people’s own preference to what they thought was important. The Powell hive has been born from what…
Interview with Bob the Bee man Bob the bee man or Robert Luttrel is one of Australia’s more involved stingless bee keepers. Bob is always looking for new ideas and innovations to help people have a good idea how things can be done. I decided to make the trip out to his house and talk…
How to tell if you have a Queen Bee Advanced One of the things that people often ask is “How do I tell if I have a queen in my hive?” Take a look at this brief video below before I go into more detail on how I check my hives. Clues on…
Reviving pest infested hive Having a native bee hive come under attack by pests can be a very disheartening thing. Prevention is better than a cure but sometimes things do not go to plan. The following video will explain what you can do to help your pest infested hive. How does this fix an infested…
Keeping Hives Close Together Intermediate Keeping hives close together is something most Native bee keepers will face once they get a few hives together. Small urban blocks don’t allow to much space for city bee keepers and this is a good way to accommodate housing more then 1 hive in a small place. Have…
Stingless Bee Intermediate Natural hive duplication 2 Hive duplication is something I have always been interested in. The ability to make a new hive from an existing one means you can use any hive box to start your new colony in. The support offered by the mother colony means your new hive will…
Stingless Bee Intermediate – Hive split Performing a hive split is not something that I do often. However, it is an important thing to know how to do successfully. An unsuccessful hive split with leave you with one of two things. A) A hive that appears to be working for the first 3-6 months and…