Australian Stingless Bees

[Hamish]

Dont worry about the disease sweeping the us ,Have heard on the grapvine that when the sydney olympics where on and sydney could not handle the air traffic they diverted some to the airforce base and due to slack quarentine theres a disease radiating out from there wiping out the aussie bees

There is a suggestion that colony collapse disorder (CCD) virus sweeping the USA could have originated in Australia with bee exports in 2004.

http://qualitybeekeepingsupplies.com...d=15&Itemid=28

[Sunshine]

It is that time of year when the cadgi (cadaghi) trees are in bloom and my little bees have taken the bait.

The cadgi tree is a far north eucalypt, sold as fast growing gum, that has been planted all over SE Qld. It is addictive to the stingless bee and they return with waxey seeds from the trees stuck to their legs and pollen bags.

These seed block the entrance which makes the hive overheat from poor ventilation. The resin they bring back has a lower temperature and on a really hot day could colapse and drown the queen and others killing off the hive.

I looked around to see if any cadgi trees were in my area before I bought my bees. I saw one tree and it was around 300 mteres away so I thought I would be alright. Wrong, in fact there are numerous trees in many back yards in my area and the bees have found them all.

Hopefully my guys will survive OK.

[Sunshine]

I was going to split the hive into two hives this summer. But after getting the second box and being all ready to go I found that the weight of my hive was under three Kg.. In fact too light to split. The risk would have been too high so I'll wait till next opportunity.

[Jonty]

Sunshine,
I'd give the bees until next Spring before I would try a split to enable them to build up a decent reserve of pollen and honey. I obtained my original hive in a tree stump about three years ago. I built a box and connected the old hive to the new box with some piping which I covered in duck tape to exclude light.

They have now built in the box, so I am going to make another hive and repeat the process. They took about 12 months before they became interested in the new hive.

Mine are always bringing the Cadgi seeds in but I find that after the trees stop flowering that they remove the seeds from the hive. I haven't had any problems with hive collapse.

Have attached some photos.

[Sunshine]

Hi Jonty,

The little guys work hard to get the seeds out of the hive. For a few days they seemed overwhelmed but eventually got on top. They don't seem to bringing many seeds back at now so all looks good for next years split.

[Murray]

I took an ols super off my bee hive a couple of weeks ago and forgot to go out to get it and put it away.
In the meanwhile some mini bees have found it and are busy removing the wax and carting it off.

Can anyone identify the insects at work?

I am assuming they are some sort of native bee. I have not seen them before.
They look like a regular honey bee, but about one third the size and they do not appear to have a sting in their rear end.

[David McPherson]

http://www.aussiebee.com.au/index.html This site has a lot of info on native bees There probably is a hive in one of your trees as they only 500m max David

[Jonty]

Murray,

Definitely the fire tailed resin bee.

[Murray]

Thanks for that Jonty & David.
I reckon you are right. They work really hard at removing the wax from the old frames.
I must order some of the articles from that web site.
It would be good to encourage those small bees in my area.