BROOD, POLLEN, WAX & HONEY

BROOD, POLLEN, WAX & HONEY

An intimate photographic look inside the sacred geometric structures of 4 Native Stingless Bee Hives. Within this tiny bee's hidden labyrinth are spiraling brood cells, uniquely strong wax scaffold, and the precious storage pots full of pollen & honey.

The last weekend of September we hosted our first internal 'Splitting Session'. This consisted of propagating 4 hives into 8, over 5 hours at 3 locations. It was an intensive, collaborative workshop to further educate ourselves, multiply colonies to help conserve Sydney's endemic social bee and celebrate the start of this season.

Photographs by Emily Fewster & Paul Ryan.

NATIVE STINGLESS BEE HIVES - FOR SALE

PNB again has native stingless bee hives available for sale, through the collaboration between 'Ngarruu' - Northern Beaches Native Bee Program and Wildthings.org.au

We have healthy Sydney Tetragonula Carbonaria colonies readily available, boxed into a splittable OATH (Original Australian Tetragonula Hive). Each hive comes with 1 year warranty and support, a queen, around 5000 bees and an outer insulation 'esky'.

For more native bee FAQ's -

  • wildthings.org.au/index.php/our-projects/trigona-carbonaria/trigona-carbonaria-faq

  • permaculturenorthernbeaches.org.au/native-bees/

  • aussiebee.com

If you are interested in purchasing a stingless bee hive, supporting an indigenous bee species and contributing to our unique biodiversity then please contact Dan on 0404604569 or email dlssld@hotmail.com

BEE - 3D animated short

BEE - 3D animated short

An exquisite,  short 3D animation of a bee approaching a flower. Simply stunning!

STUMPED SWARM

STUMPED SWARM

Ron and his backyard stump, had a 5 week old swarm neatly nestled in under a ceramic pot. We wanted to harness the new colony, and their uniquely chosen spot, by giving the brood more room to grow and produce copious amounts of honey. Apis mellifera are so intent on either swarming or producing honey, to sustain their large and busily obsessive population, that we decided to build a custom bee box to neatly pop on top of the stumped swam.

Without knowing how large the population or how deep the hollow, we crossed our fingers and focused on minimal disruption and impact to the bees, brood mass and queen. 

It was deep and the brood was established. Our mission went so smoothly and the colony was very calm, due to the established brood mass having attached itself to the stumps void securely.  Ron's backyard beekeeping has begun, and his relationship with the Balgowlah bees will continue.

HARNESSING HONEY BEE SWARMS

We recieved a call out from a PNB member to inspect a European honey bee (Apis mellifera) swarming out the front of a Balgowlah Dental Practice. The 4 week old swarm had attached itself to a mature wisteria vine that we could see ourselves relocating into a empty box hive.

This is our new wild honey bee colony that we have neatly set up to harvest unique northern beaches honey. 

The next day Jack and I ventured out again on another exciting honey bee swarm call out, thanks to PNB member Ron. His 4 week old swarm has set up inside an old blood wood stump, under a herb pot, which coincidentally left a slight and very bee inviting gap. 

Take a look inside before we pop a custom built, honey collecting box hive, on top of the brooding stump.... undisturbed.

Northern Beaches Bees is available for honey bee swarm service and information. Please contact Dan - 0404 604 569 - dlssld@hotmail.com & Jack - 0415 927 336 

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NATIVE HIVES FOR SALE

PNB now has native stingless bee hives available for sale, through the collaboration between 'Ngarruu' - Northern Beaches Native Bee Program and Wildthings.org.au

We have healthy Sydney Tetragonula Carbonaria colonies readily available, boxed into a splittable OATH (Original Australian Tetragonula Hive). Each hive comes with 1 year warranty and support, a queen, around 5000 bees and an outer insulation 'esky'.

For more native bee FAQ's -

  • wildthings.org.au/index.php/our-projects/trigona-carbonaria/trigona-carbonaria-faq
  • permaculturenorthernbeaches.org.au/native-bees/
  • aussiebee.com

If you are interested in purchasing a stingless bee hive, supporting an indigenous bee species and contributing to our unique biodiversity then please contact p.n.b@hotmail.com

BACKYARD BEE BATTLE

Recently we installed boxed hive of TC (Tetragonula Carbonaria) in Paul & Caro's backyard. Before opening their new colony, we noticed many stingless bees already happily pollinating throughout their garden, even at an early time in the morning and at a relatively cool temperature. This indicated to us a strong colony and mature nest was already established nearby. We considered setting up an empty bait box hive, laced with a small amount of resin, pollen and nest structure, to lure the mature colony to 'swarm split' if needed. In under two weeks we were too late.

The bee battle had begun. Two colonies decided to have it out over a death match for hive control.

"Neither the attacker nor defender survives in these one-on-one death battles, during which a carpet of dead and dying bees can be seen on the ground. It is a sheer numbers game as to who wins," Paul Cunningham, Queensland University of Technology.

Flick through Paul Ryan's battle shots...

2 bee tribes locked in mangled sacrificial mess until death.

Bee Warfare on ABC radio 'Bush Telegraph' segment with : Dr Paul Cunningham - Behavioural Ecologist & Dr Toby Smith - Ecologist Researcher   

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2014/10/bth_20141028_1145.mp3 

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bushtelegraph/bee-wars/5838830

NATIVE BEE RESCUE, HONEY HARVEST & SPLITTING SERVICE

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Northern Beaches Native Bee Group is ready to assist and educate in colony rescue, hive splitting or honey harvesting of our native stingless bee, Tetragonula Carbonaria.

RESCUE - If you find these bees in a tree that has fallen or is being cut down, we need to rescue them and are here on call to assist in conservation of this indigenous bee species.

HONEY & SPLITTING - Whether you are interested in a honey harvest or a colony split, our group can assist you in either. We also offer the production of native bee boxes and honey supers made to order.

Please contact us anytime for questions on 0404604569 - dlssld@hotmail.com 

NATIVE BEE WORKSHOP: BOOKED OUT Saturday, November 8, 2014

Our booked out Native Bee workshop and Hive Split was a great success thanks to all who made it happen. Allyson Apt was a wealth of knowledge and Pete, Ali and Kimbriki Ecohouse and Garden were the ultimate hosts.

The sale of 7 stingless 'Ngarruu' bee hives on the day is a reflection of the success and current interest and will directly contribute to our local biodiversity.

Thank you very much to the 35 attendees for showing such enthusiasm to our unique indigenous species of bees. For all those who missed out, you have been added to the waiting list for the next.