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Lord Viykor
11th November 2011, 10:12 PM
At present I have two native bee hives on our suburban block they are of the Genus: Trigona and Austroplebeia the Binomial name is Trigona carbonaria. and Austroplebeia australis. I'm looking at adding a couple of Trigona hockingsi hives as well.

Today I picked up my first honey bee (Apis mellifera) nucleus and set up a new hive in the corner of the back yard. Local council by-laws allow us to have one hive, need to submit some paperwork to the DPI and get it registered.

I'm very excited to finally have a honey bee hive up and running, it's been a long time coming.
ellistattoo
17th November 2011, 01:51 PM
Congrats on your new hive, looks great! How many frames are in it? I plan on building a top bar hive in the near future. Look forward to hearing your progress!
GaryD
17th November 2011, 03:21 PM
Hi LV,

Won't the Italian honey bees drive off your native bees?

Gary
Lord Viykor
18th November 2011, 10:30 PM
Congrats on your new hive, looks great! How many frames are in it? I plan on building a top bar hive in the near future. Look forward to hearing your progress!

Hi,

It's a ten frame hive with a Langstroth brood box, thinking of going with the WSP (W.S. Pender) type of supers. A bit smaller so they should be easier to handle when full, the plan is to use two supers once the hive strengthens.



Hi LV,

Won't the Italian honey bees drive off your native bees?

Gary

Hi Gary,

They shouldn't bother the native ones too much, from what I've read it's the fact that the honey bee works in lower temperatures that can cause problems.

They tend to pick of the available nectar and pollen.

Also confirmed yesterday that I'll be getting two more native bee hives for Christmas.
Lord Viykor
23rd December 2011, 02:56 PM
Got my 2 Trigona hockingsi hives from my lovely wife for Christmas, so I now have 3 types of native bee and a honey bee hive. I may need to plant
some more native plants to make sure there is enough nectar and pollen for them all close by.

The link shows the types I now have - http://www.nativebees.com.au/StinglessBees.aspx
Lord Viykor
27th December 2011, 09:13 AM
Got around to taking some photos at last. I really need to plant some nectar bearing native plants now to help them along.
Pugo
27th December 2011, 01:58 PM
Your hive is look wonderful too! everything seem to be going great for you right now..
Shane
30th December 2011, 06:25 AM
Looking awesome:)
Did any of your neighbours raise an eyebrow or two when they first found out ?
Lord Viykor
30th December 2011, 08:37 PM
Looking awesome:)
Did any of your neighbours raise an eyebrow or two when they first found out ?

The native hives got a few comments, once they knew they were stingless bees they were really intrigued. The honey bee hive is up in one back corner of my block, the neighbours don't spend a lot of time in their yard in the area near my hive. They probably don't know I gone one.