Native Bees & Splitting Native Bee Hives

Mark

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Its amazing magnification! And, to see what they look like close up like that is really cool.

Did you recognise the seeds or do you have a cadagi in your yard? Have you seen the bees gathering any other seeds?
 

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I don't actually know 100% that these bits of stuff are Cadagi seeds because I've never opened up a seed pod from the tree itself, but there's lots of info around about it, and it's the only thing that I know of that they do.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/03/03/2045526.htm

Quote from that page:
We stand back as Alan starts up the chainsaw and cuts the hives away from the main trunk. The entrance to each hive tells the men that two bee species are present. The first hive entrance is surrounded by the sticky red seeds of the Cadagi tree (Eucalyptus torelliana). These seeds usually litter the entrance of Trigona carbonaria hives, as the bees acquire the seeds while foraging for resin in the gumnuts.
The second hive entrance is much less obvious and consists of a long thin tube, which extends some distance outside the hollow log. This hive belongs to Austroplebeia australis, a smaller and less active bee than T. carbonaria.
 
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stevo

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I did a split a couple of weeks ago and grabbed a pic. The bees are sitting around on the brood cone, notice the white bee? (I better go research that)

244-1422056630-a7a771b6d547f6a8220c0e42f6ae2495.jpg
 

Mark

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Nice pic (as always).

I think the white bee is newly hatched out I recall my uncle saying something about bee colours on his visit last week (I think I have it on video).

Some of the hives at my place have started collecting cadagi seeds as well.
 

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I got a new Table Saw yesterday, I didn't have the correct timber for the stingless bee hives so I built a Solitary Bee House from some materials I already had. I love doing this stuff. When the "Review Section" gets up i'll have to do a review on some tools.

Solitary Bees are pretty awesome. There's a few species around that you may not know anything about, and I think that's pretty cool in itself how no one knows about them. I guess I could ramble on about it and create a wall of text but don't want to bore people.

So..... I built a Solitary Bee House. I routed out a few Pine blocks with different size bits, and made a frame/house from Merbau timber. I made it so the outside "frame house" and the pine layers are separate structures. The pine can be removed easily but fits snugly so is fairly secure.

nativebee_solitaryhive1.jpg

nativebee_solitarybee3.jpg
 

Mark

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Looks great Stevo. Do you have any specific species you're targeting and what will attract them to your structure?

When the "Review Section" gets up i'll have to do a review on some tools.
Awesome! I'll ask you for advice as to what tool items to include.
 

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I don't know much about Solitary Bees yet, but I think I'm aiming to attract Carpenter Bees, Green Carpenter Bee, Reed Bees, Resin Bees, Masked Bees.

I've seen Carpenter Bees in my yard but haven't noticed any others. Female Blue Banded Bees make shallow burrows in the dirt, I have one nesting under one of my garden edge sleepers, and the males roost on thin branches at night, so the Blue Banded Bee wont be interested in these Bee Houses.

I made this one yesterday. The whole space will be filled with bamboo. Different bees will prefer different sizes of the bamboo holes, so there's all sizes.


nativebee_solitarybeetinroof1.jpg
 
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Mark

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ay Mark, I see Kevin sells 3 types of native bees (Carbonaria, Australis, Hockinsi), do you have only one type on your property?
I think we have the Carbonaria and Australis Stevo but I'll have to ask him to know for certain.
 

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I was thinking about buying a hive from him, not definite, He's just a few Ks from my place, over the bridge. I was reading about the Australis one and thought it was interesting, but then I forgot about it.
 
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Mark

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Apparently we only have the Carbonaria at my place after all... I was sure he mentioned we had at least two different kinds of native bees but I must be going nutty.

I've asked my uncle to interact here but I think he has a phobia of forums :p
 

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I noticed this gap between the top sections on one of my full active hives and thought it was interesting. The top section is separating. There wouldn't normally be any gap, it would be a snug fit. It looks like the bees are lifting the top off the hive. It's not ideal as it makes the hive more vulnerable to attack, but i'm not really concerned about it, I might run some masking tape around it to keep any insects out. I'll leave it a while and when it gets warmer i'll split the top off, get some honey out and clean the surfaces up and replace. I reckon this one will be packed with resources (honey etc)

nativebeehive_gap2.jpg
 

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It's been fairly warm over the last week so I thought i'd take the top off the hive that posted about two posts up. I wanted to clean the joins up and put it back together so it fitted a bit nicer. While I was there I took some honey out, strained it and put it in to three little bottles. I gave one to the neighbour since they grow plants that my bees like, and i'll give the other two samples to family.

full
 

Mark

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That's a LOT of honey :shock: and worth a bit of money too just quietly...

What do you think of the taste is yours slightly different to others you have tried?
 

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They're only small bottles, I'm not sure how much in ml is there, and I'm not sure what the price is, I saw one fella selling 80ml for $10.

It's really sweet and rich, so a bit too rich to have a lot on toast, maybe a little bit with icecream etc. I made some packet muffins and added some but it's hard to detect, i'll have to add some more next time. It's fairly similar to what I'd tried before. I guess it depends on where the bees are getting their resources from.

Some might say it's too early in the year to be removing honey, but this hive is powering away and it's been pretty warm so I think they should be ok. I have some hives that are super busy and crazy, and one hive that is really quiet. I'll probably have to leave the quiet one alone for a while, but I'd be tempted to open it at some point to see what's going on inside, how much resources they've got etc.
 
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