Native Bee Hives

[stevo]

Doesn't she like them? Not afraid of getting stung? These are Native Stingless Bees. They don't sting, though when you do a split they can get annoyed and bite which is like a mozzie bite, and they get your hair, up your nose, in your eyes, but nothing to stress about really.

 

[Ash]

Haha. You'd have a hard time convincing my wife to believe that! But yeah, she doesn't like the idea of any stinging insect.

 

[Mark]

Nah... native bees are completely harmless Ash. Get some - your wife won't even notice them.

 

[Ash]

I'll have to look into it. Seems to be more a complex process than originally thought...
I will research the process and see what it takes to keep them going in the orchard.

 

[stevo]

I guess you just need to work out if the bees will have enough resources on your property as they only travel around 500 metres from the hive. Then work out a good position to locate the hive so they'll be happy.

If you can get those right then everything else is easy.

 

[Ash]

Thanks Steve. If I were to situate the hive centrally in the orchard they would only have to travel a maximum of 100m.
I think for my wife's sanity I would be locating it at a far corner of the orchard and perhaps make them travel 200m.

Some reading to do...
Where would I source out the stingless bees?

 

[stevo]

As far as I've seen Marks uncle, Kevin might be the cheapest at $350 (there probably is cheaper around somewhere). He has a Gumtree advert, Kevin Stiller at Brighton (North of Brisbane). I'll have some towards the end of the year, maybe early next year. Bob the Bee Man is at Samford, Tim Heard is at West End.

They all have different styles of hives.

Here's a list of people, it's a long page: https://aussiebee.com.au/buy-stingless-bees.html

Matthew is at Toowoomba https://beezotted.com.au/

 

[stevo]

I've been busy in the shed lately getting in to the woodwork, I've made a few raw timber hives, there's still a bit more work to do. I reckon they come up ok, but I'm not sure how long the Linseed Oil will last so they may get a coat of Furniture Oil at some point.

 

[Mark]

Lovely woodwork! A few different shapes hey... those arch tops must have been tricky?

 

[stevo]

cheers Mark I'm enjoying it at the moment. That's my Treasure Chest. 11.25 degree cuts to get the right curve. I don't think you could get an accurate cut to that amount but it all seemed to work out in the end

 

[Mark]

I like all the shapes actually and the little log cabin look (with the roof) is pretty trendy too! The treasure chest looks the hardest to do but what would I know... You wait till you see my chicken run build you're going to be horrified

 

[Daniel.Mav]

Great work stevo! I'd be happy to have one of your hives in my patch!

 

[stevo]

Here's a couple of recent ones I've made.

A Solitary Bee Hotel...

and a Red Mail Box for Stingless Bees. I'll try to get some bees in to this one at the end of this year.
Build page here: https://nativebeehives.com/red-mailbox-hive/

 

[Mark]

Hahaha... love the mailbox

I'll say it again, you could sell your creative woodwork and make some good bucks!

I have so many solitary bees around my garden I probably should make one of those.

Should they be positioned in a shady spot or in the sun?

 

[stevo]

Yeah I like the mailbox, it should look good in the garden and be a conversation piece. I have sold some boxes and also hotels, I wont be able to quit my day job anytime soon though.

Here's a couple more hotel ideas. Of course you don't need the frame, you can just drill holes in logs or blocks of wood, or use bamboo. I have a few drilled blocks of wood randomly positioned around the yard and they all have bees visiting them so I'm not sure if position matters. You may not get much action at the moment as i think they've all slowed down for the year but if you work towards making some and put them out, they can age a bit and may be more attractive to the bees when they're looking for a place.

This is a very basic one, something that the kids can get involved in, just gather a heap of bamboo and tie it up with wire and place it somewhere (maybe a bit better than this one )

on the extreme end of the scale you could make something like this (not mine), but there's been some recent suggestions that you shouldn't have so much in one spot as it increases the risk if something goes wrong like pests, temperature issues, accidents could destroy a lot in one go.

 

[Mark]

Some great ideas there. Yep I'm going to make several little "hotels" around the yard and see how they go.