- Joined
- May 27, 2012
- Messages
- 5,192
- Location
- Bellmere, QLD
- Website
- www.selfsufficientme.com
- Climate
- Sub-Tropical
Last week my Uncle placed 4 of his native hives on our property and if they go well over the next few months he will probably add another 96!
Basically, my Uncle's native bee hive hobby business is expanding and he asked if he could use some of our land to grow them on. Naturally, I had to clear it through the misses but she had no problem and I figured any bee is a good bee for a gardener like me and I'm happy to have more
Also, for the time being I'm just too busy to run beehives but I have always wanted some (both regular honey and native) so I guess I'm getting a pretty good outcome by helping my Uncle out, getting bees in our garden, but not having to look after them - it's a win win
The reason he didn't place any more hives out then 4 was because he first has to test how they go in the new environment. We have a commercial strawberry farm virtually next door (across a council easement) about 100 metres away and we expect they spray their produce with all sorts of bad stuff so the worry is the native bees might get poisoned. However, I have lots of wild native bees already here so we're hoping the new arrivals will be ok too.
If these first 4 survive and more importantly thrive my Uncle will slowly expand the hives with a view to sell them in the future.
Basically, my Uncle's native bee hive hobby business is expanding and he asked if he could use some of our land to grow them on. Naturally, I had to clear it through the misses but she had no problem and I figured any bee is a good bee for a gardener like me and I'm happy to have more
Also, for the time being I'm just too busy to run beehives but I have always wanted some (both regular honey and native) so I guess I'm getting a pretty good outcome by helping my Uncle out, getting bees in our garden, but not having to look after them - it's a win win
The reason he didn't place any more hives out then 4 was because he first has to test how they go in the new environment. We have a commercial strawberry farm virtually next door (across a council easement) about 100 metres away and we expect they spray their produce with all sorts of bad stuff so the worry is the native bees might get poisoned. However, I have lots of wild native bees already here so we're hoping the new arrivals will be ok too.
If these first 4 survive and more importantly thrive my Uncle will slowly expand the hives with a view to sell them in the future.
Hives set up on wooden benches with a star picket frame - a very quick to build but stable structure.
The hives a situated in the shade among tall paperbark trees (my duck dam in the background)
Here's an example of two different sized native bee hives.
Close up shot of hive secured with galvanised banding and roof lid.
Here is the entry/exit point for the bees - see how some honey (pollen) accumulates around the hole... interesting!