Some native stingless bee tips
Here are some tips for those wishing to keep native stingless bees. Most of what follows is directly from an email sent to me by a proud new native bee owner, Lynda and I’m grateful for Lynda agreeing to publish this information.
What to wear when splitting the hive: Don’t wear dark colours as they tend to attract an agressive response from the bees when splitting.
Native stingless bees are NOT the commercial, introduced ones which do sting: Australia has over 1,500 species of native bees and only 10 species are stingless. These are the Sugarbag bees of the genera Trigona andAustroplebeia. All of the other species of native bees in Australia can sting. Commonly seen around here are Amegilla asparopoda (Teddy Bears) and Amegilla cingulata (Blue Banded), the later are ‘buzz pollinators’. They are not social and will sting.
Allergies to commercial bees don’t matter if the bees are native stingless bees: There is no record of allergic reactions from Trigona carbonaria and the reference to biting relates to attacks on the hive by predators -
How much honey? They produce a small quantity of honey around 500-1000 gms per year. In Sydney, being colder and at the southern end of the range, the output is lower and it is not advisable to take much of the honey because the bees need it for sustenance over winter. The honey is highly prized for its antibacterial properties and can wholesale around $100 a kg. The honey is called, ‘Sugarbag’, and was probably collected by aboriginal people around here. As to any honey ‘odour’ you would have to be a few centimetres away to smell it. The hive itself has a covering of a few centimeters so it is only when opened (not advisable to do often as it disturbs the bees) that you could get that close. The opening to native stingless hives is less than a centimetre in diameter. In September friends attended a hive-splitting at my place, and one person, Lynda, was standing less than 2 metres from where I and Peter Clarke were working on the hive, and Lynda reports that she couldn’t smell the honey even though the hive was open and full of honey – link to record of that occasion -
How big? Native bees have co-evolved with our native flora. The native bee is small enough to fit into the floral tube of our plants. But the commercial, European bee is known to drill a hole to get to the pollen and in so doing can destroy the ovule. The floristic diversity in the National Park has declined since the Botanic Gardens surveys were undertaken in the 1970s. I’m unaware of an explanation but increasing the number of native pollinators will hopefully be a positive step to ensuring longer term survival of native species and improving biodiversity values.
Councils, schools? Some Councils in Sydney have been encouraging residents to put Trigona carbonaria hives in their backyards as part of a program to improve local native biodiversity. The most notable is Kuring-gai Council. Here is a link to the program -
Schools are also getting into programs. This is a link to a newsletter from Kenthurst Primary where Adrian Lewis, who supplied Lynda with her bees, built a special ‘schoolhouse’ box:
There, the the hive was discovered in the boys toilet.
The Botanic Gardens has a Trigona carbonaria hive and it is a major interpreted feature in their Schools Education Program. This is a link to a short video on the hive and the importance of the bees to the pollination of native plants:
The commentator is Clarence Slockee from Gardening Australia. Clarence is the Aboriginal Liaison Officer at the Botanic Gardens and is well known around La Perouse. He has also featured in a video in the National Park, La Perouse.
The Wildthings Program at Kuring-gai is so successful it is being taken up by other councils and hopefully Randwick will also become part of it. Residents in Kuring-gai get their hives free and there is a waiting list. It is safer to house the hives on private properties and also contributes to raising awareness about the importance of native biodiversity Here is an article featuring the Mayor of Kuring-gai when she got her hive:
In Lynda’s case, her hive was a very generous Christmas present from her sons.
Lynda’s hive: Lynda’s hive has had a perspex viewing panel included so that when she takes off the surrounding cover and hive top the bees can be seen at work.
Lynda has passed on to me some advice from Clarence Slockee of the Botanic Gardens about bee stings;
“I too am allergic to bee stings (thankfully not in the extreme of anaphylactic shock) and am ever wary of the European… bees. In the two years that the native beehive has been used as an educational installation here at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney I have had near weekly contact with Trigona bees in pointing them out to students and visitors alike. In most instances it is near impossible to coax a bee onto your hand or body for closer inspection as Trigona does its utmost to avoid human contact, furthermore I have NEVER been bitten and although I am not entomologist, I would go so far as to say that it is a physical impossibility to be bitten by Trigona given their physiology. I can merely speak from our own experience here at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and the fact that a hive of over 10,000 Trigona stingless bees have been in residence literally within arms reach of thousands of visitors, both adults and children for over two years without incident.”
May the native stingless bees be with us: they love it here in Chippo where I call mine, my ‘Flowerwalkers’.
Michael
Regarding your comments that there is no known reaction to Trigona Carbonaria. I have kept honeybees for 30 years and have had thousands of stings with little reaction. I also have hives of the stingless bees which I have split etc. I am allergic to their bites (mandibles). Their small nips on the inside of my elbows have been red, painful and itchy for a week after the event. It has happened several times now but only when I have been breaking their nest open. I spoke to Dr. Tim Heard about it and he was not aware they could cause a reaction or words to that effect. When their small bites break the skin they must have some substance that enters the bite area.
Jim, I can get them all homes; if they’re in Sydney do you want to give them all to me? Michael
Barloch has ceased trading. I have some 60 Downpipe Lochs to be given away. Please contact me to discuss.