A New AA Log Hive On Display
The tree limb housing the Austroplebeia Australis hive is over 2 metres long and had to be suspended on our fence to give it a home.
The pipe in the limb is only about 5cm in diameter hence the bees needed such a long length to complete their hive.
The tree lopper who saved the hive initially cut as far away from the entry hole as possible while still being able to support the cut limb in his other arm. He thought this would be enough to save the whole hive only to realise that after cutting through the limb there was still more hive in the remaining limb including visible brood.
After cutting off more of the limb he did an impressive job of securing the cut sections of the limb to save the hive.
We welcome visitors to our yard to see our many unique display hives and to ask any questions.
Native Stingless Bees Harvesting Tree Resin
Native stingless bees harvest plant resins to help build the structures in their hive.
To observe bees harvesting resin first hand the tree in the attached video is easy to find.
The tree is located at Dowse Lagoon Sandgate. It is across the road from 25 Deagon Street Sandgate next to a shelter shed that adjoins a playground.
Our TC water bottle hive enjoying winter sunshine
Tetragonula Carbonaria Princess
Very lucky to finally get a good video of a TC princess wandering on the rising front with plenty of open egg sacs and newly capped egg sacs. Her abdomen is black which is very different to a queen which has a creamy abdomen with brown stripes.
Lavender Lights a favourite of native bees
(Fore give the background noise our street is busy)
Queen Laying Eggs
It you watch this Hockingsi queen carefully ,in amongst her frantic moves, you will see her laying several times.
A Very Special Hive
We have been very lucky to obtain several unique hives that we love showing people who visit us.
But our new hive takes the cake, it’s in an old termite mound that was dislodged from a tree pushed over for housing development. Thankfully the hive remained completely intact and was able to be transported to our place with little or no damage.
The hive entry is though a much larger hole probably created by nesting birds that would have also hollowed out the inside of the mound for a nest. The bees have reduced the size of the entry to a size they can manage with tree resin.
Resin Gathering
These native stingless bees are harvesting resin from a wound in a forest red gum on the edge of the main lagoon at Sandgate.
A great video by Ray Stewart
“AA Orange Bums”
These AAs have distinctive orange abdomens and are nicknamed Orange Bums, pardon the English
AAs have to be the cutest native stingless bees
A double AA log hive - Two hives and the bees in both instead of having standard black abdomens have reddish/brown abdomens. It is not for sale but if you would like to have a look at these more unusual bees you are welcome to visit.
Our mini native bee theme park has another unique addition.
One Tough Hive
The video shows a log hive that was cut into three pieces which has not only recovered but is thriving.
A few weeks ago a couple of young fellows were cutting up an old tree that had fallen over in their yard not realising the tree was home to a large native bee colony.
When they realised this they called me for help but we were away having a holiday so I could not go to see what I could do.
My advice to them was to try to put the logs housing the hive back together to give them a chance of survival during winter.
They did an amazing job of putting the logs back together in almost perfect matches securing them with large screws.
When we returned to Brisbane it was a simple job to bring the log home and to give it a hardwood floor and roof.
We love doing these types of rescues keeping them in the homes they have chosen and the resilience of the bees never ceases to amaze.
Beautiful gnarly log hive
Most native beehive owners have tried to take photos and videos of swarming bees but it is surprisingly difficult to get one that does justice to what you can see with the naked eye.
Adam from Deagon sent me this video which does a really good job of capturing a swarm from a small hive. The bees are not fighting so it’s not an invasion swarm and it’s not a drone swarm as there are no bees camped out at night.
It’s probably a defensive swarm with the hive receiving unwanted visitors or the early stages of a hive needing to requeen with the drones still to arrive.
