Sugarbag honey

[the1after909]

These hives (pictured in the previous post) can be split into two when the brood is strong enough, which is what we did this morning. When we had the hive open, I tasted the honey and pollen; the honey was sweet with a slight lemon/acid taste and the pollen was deliciously tangy. He also gave me a bottled sample.

[the1after909]

Native stingless bees workshop
Brisbane Forest Park Information Centre. Located on Mt Nebo Road at The Gap, 12km from the city centre.
Sunday 5th November
9.30am to approx 4.00pm
Tim Heard from CSIRO will be the convenor.
Cost $26.40 per adult
Phone 1300 723 684 for bookings.

Apparantly these workshops are very popular. This one is almost half full and it hasn't even been advertised yet! Book in quick if you want to attend. I'll be there

[the1after909]

Day 2 at my bee hive

They are still taking out some waste and there are a lot of little pellets on the ground that they've dropped in about a metre square area in front of the hive. They appear to carry out the waste with their front legs as seen in the first picture. Many of them are bringing home what looks like a clear resin and others pollen attached to the rear legs. You can see one bringing home pollen in the second pic.

[the1after909]

I'm assuming this is one of the drone bees. It's about twice the size of the workers and it's the first and only one I've seen so far.

[Bluetongue]

Wow, that's so cool! Thanks for posting all those pics and details There's no way I can see myself getting to the workshop in November, but I sure want to hear all about it.

At the park the other day, I noticed that there were parts of an old beehive within a hollow of a pruned branch. And remembered that I'd seen bees going in and out of what I thought to be a large gall on the trunk. Euro bees, though.

[the1after909]

Someone who knows much more about these bees than I do is John Klumpp. He has told me that the pic above is definitely not a native bee drone. The drones are indistinguishable from the workers. He can't indenify my insect and suggests it could be a flying ant. Any idea anybody?

[eataust]

Sorry, I'm not good at insects, but any closeups of your native bees would be excellent!

Tell us more about your actual beehive ... this is v. cool information. Will native bees work as effective pollinators of exotics fruit trees? (I'm particularly thinking for my own upcoming orchards of stone fruits and apples). I'm not particularly interested in having my own apiary, but if I could introduce a native bee swarm or two for pollination purposes, and _maybe_ the very occasional robbing for honey (I don't like honey, although it's handy for cooking and guests, so something that produces minimal quantities is ideal), that would suit my little ecological heart down to the ground.

Should I go read the websites before asking all the questions about how hard native bees would be for novices, whether they need a lot of work, how much it cost, and all that?? :)

[the1after909]

I don't know a lot about these stingless bees yet but I'll attempt to answer your questions. I'll have more details after the workshop in November.

They will forage on anything that will supply them with pollen, nectar or resin so I assume they will pollinate most plants too, native and exotic. I do know that they pollinate macadamia much better than the european bee.

The bees pretty much just look after themselves as long as you position them out of extreme weather. Just like people, they like shade from the heat and some morning sunshine to get them out of bed. A hive can only be moved very short distances or very large distances (less than 1m or greater than 1km) or the bees get lost by returning to the old position.

There are several suppliers of hives in logs and boxes. They each charge around $200 for a box hive with a 12 month guarantee.

They are only 4mm long, so very hard to photograph with my old 2MP camera. It will be some time before I can get photos of inside my hive, they are still busy sealing it up after the split several days ago. If you want to see some great pics, including some of the brood inside and queens, take a look at the gallery here http://www.australiannativebees.com/

[Kristi]

How do these go competing with eurobees? I have them in plague proportions around my area...not only is it annoying to see feral bees competing with the native insects and animals for resources but they pack a nasty sting....

Ive had them nest in and around my house for the last couple of years...I'd like to keep native bees but I dont know how they would survive in this stinky city

[the1after909]

Hi Kristi,

Unfortunately our bees cannot compete well at all with European Bees. The introduced bees work longer days and more efficiently than our laid back Aussie bees. They are outsized and nowhere near as aggressive. However they do seem forage together well if there is plenty of pollen to go around.

I think there could be problems moving bees between the east coast and WA because of a disease or parasite risk, but I’m not sure about that. I also think that the native social bees in WA are a different species to ours. I’d be interested to hear what you find out about that.

I’m fairly new to the native bee scene so all I can do is put you in touch with some of the experts. Tim Heard is one of the leading researchers of Aussie bees. He pioneered the domestication of them. His website is still under construction so I will PM his email address to you. He is always happy to answer questions for those with a genuine interest in these critters.

I highly recommend joining the yahoo ANBee group for lots of friendly advice http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANBees/
They also have a great site here http://www.australiannativebees.com/
(I’m known as ‘The Molimo’ in those)

Another site with lots of great Aussie native bee information is http://www.zeta.org.au/~anbrc/

I hope this helps and please let me know what you discover

[Kristi]

Thanks so much..


feral toddler permitting... I will let you know what I find out

Kristi

[Bluetongue]

Hi,
I just saw a snippet on the Best of Landline (channel ABC) about native bees. Saw Tim Heard and a native bee hive and some nice looking runny honey.

They said that the hives only produce about a kilo of honey per year, as opposed to the 15 (?) kilos from a European bee hive. And that there's a lot of research being done into uses and marketing of the sugarbag honey, plus pollen, propolis etc.

Wish I'd seen the whole segment!

[eataust]

It might be reproduced on the ABC website and if not, they might be able to send you a copy ...

I saw my first native bee a couple of weeks ago, when buying plants from a local nursery. Have to say I was terribly excited :). The nursery guy said they get them a lot - there must be a hive nearby - but in the past ignorant pest people have killed the hive because it was a beehive ... and yes, apparently the ones in our area are stingless.

It was a very pretty blue colour. Would love to set up a hive but that's a project for later years ...

[Shalem]

That is, the honey of the native Australian stingless bee. Apart from Cherikoff, does anyone know of supplier/s, preferably in Queensland? I've got a friend who wants to try it, and I know there are restrictions on the movement of honey around Australia.

Failing that, does anyone know if I'll get into trouble for buying a bottle from The Essential Ingredient in Sydney and posting it north of the border?

Dilly Bag in Redcliffe Brisbane and sunshine Coast sell small bottles of sugarbag honey and also do a mail order or pickup from their house where they run their business. Email jo@thedillybag.com.au or Ph (07) 3880 1320. The contact on the bottles states: Tim Heard Ph 07 3844 4914 in Brisbane.

[aussiebeewebsite]

I thought members might like an update on where to buy Sugarbag honey, produced by the Australian native stingless bees, and the latest internet resources about this unique bushfood.

Dr Tim Heard in Brisbane has launched the Sugarbag Website, providing great information about Sugarbag honey - stingless bees, harvesting techniques, recipes etc. He also sells supplies of Sugarbag honey: http://www.sugarbag.net

A number of previous postings have also mentioned the stingless bee information provided by our Aussie Bee website. This website has now been moved from its old address at zeta.org.au/~anbrc to http://www.aussiebee.com.au

This change will allow us to expand our collection of photos and information on the native stingless bees and add videos and other resources.

The Aussie Bee website also gives a list of beekeepers who sell log nests and hives of native stingless bees. Please visit: http://www.aussiebee.com.au/buy-stingless-bees.html

Kind regards
Anne Dollin