How awesome would it be to have your own supply of native honey and know that you are helping to save the planet for future Brisbane Kids at the same time. You might be surprised to find it’s really easy to do with ready made native bee hives which are beginning to pop up in backyards all over Brisbane.
Why Bees Are Important
Apart from being a popular kids movie with great animation, a cute story line and lots of Jerry Seinfeld style humour for the adults, Barry B Benson the Bee delivered an extremely important message to the world in Bee Movie about the damage that can be caused if bees are no longer around to pollinate flowers and plants. The truth is one third of our food supply needs to be pollinated by insects and bees are responsible for the majority of it. Unfortunately the bee population has been declining for a number of years now due to a combination of chemicals, increase in temperature, lost foliage and the long distance transportation for pollination. While a lot of research suggests that we could in fact survive without bees, it’s really not a world anyone would want to live in. So by simply having a bee hive in your backyard, you are definitely doing your bit to save the planet.
Native Bees- The Perfect Pet
While bees won’t show you love in the same way a dog or cat would, they have the added bonus of being low maintenance, supplying you with honey, pollinating your flowers and vegie garden and helping to save the the planet. Native Bees are a small, black and stingless so great to have with children around, plus having no sting means Brisbane Kids can harvest the honey themselves without getting hurt. They produce around 1 litre of delicious honey a year that tastes a little more tangy than store brought honey with a hint of lemon or eucalyptus. Native honey is runny, so best kept in the fridge and rumour has it, it’s amazing poured over ice cream.
Who can have a native bee hive
Anyone can have a native bee hive. All you need, apart from the hive, is a nice place in full shade to place the hive with a flight path that is free from any obstacles including trees, branches and spider webs.
Types of Native Bee Hives
Native bee hives are very simple to install and maintain. There are two main types of hives:
- Splitable Hive : This hive is suitable for those who do not want to harvest honey and would like to increase their bee hives after 12 months to increase your bee family members.
- Honey Pot Hive : If honey is what you want from your bees then the Honey Pot hive is for you. The honey pot hive has a little collection unit which makes it easy to collect the honey in a way that is safer for the bees.
Where to buy your own Native Bee Hive in Brisbane
Native bee hives can be purchased for around $450-$500 from the following places:
- Bee Yourself, Brisbane , www.beeyourself.com.au
- My Garden City, Anstead, www.mygardencity.com.au
For more information on Native Bees and starting your own hive click here
Educate Brisbane Kids about bees
Bee Aware kids run fun, interactive and educational native bee workshops for kindergarten, primary and high school classes. Our workshops are age-appropriately tailored to the class, and are structured around the main aim of conveying an understanding of bee diversity, bee lifecycles, and the role of bees in pollination.
John Walker
I am interested in native bees and their honey to a lesser degree.
I live in a unit but it has a large yard and adjoins a well treed park.
How do I get started?
Ngaire Stirling
Hi John- we got started by joining the FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/453698528328127/ among others. We spent some time reading the different comments and we also purchased a few books on Australian beekeeping. When we were ready we posted in the group and asked for recommendations and then searched in the groups for those names to see how receptive they were. We looked for a 12 month guarantee as well. For us, a viewing window wasn’t important (we also have honey bees) but for my sister inlaw, she enjoys showing the kids the bees growing their hive so that may be worth looking for too 🙂 All the best. Keeping bees is very rewarding! Ngaire
Ellen Smith
A friend of mine bought bees and a box about 2 years ago.. That was good. He split the box after a peroid of time. The original box is doing well still, but the second box , only a few bees have remained. This morning he took the first layer of box off, there were ants everywhere !! The honey had all dried up. Can you help with this problem. Regards Ellen
Ngaire Stirling
I am not aa bee expert Ellen, but if you join this FB Group – it’s filled with knowledgeable aussie native bee keepers and have helped answer my questions more than once 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/groups/453698528328127/