We just split the first of our native bee hives. Late spring is the time, when they are warmed up and living their best life, and when there is still plenty of time for them to regroup before winter. There are over 1700 species of bees in Australia but only 11 of them build hives and only a few are stingless. We have two species, both stingless hive building, honey producing natives – Astropebia Australis and Tetragonula carbonaria.
Like most things permaculture, diversity is insurance. The TCs are better honey producers in good conditions, but the AAs are more robust in difficult conditions. We have a flow hive of European bees too, in a back corner with a shadecloth screen against the fence to force them to fly up, and not into a neighbour’s face. It yields kilos of honey a year but the flow hive is finnicky and we seem to be often fixing it. We’ve been diligent about inspecting it for varroa mite, and so far so good, but it’s good to have native bees in case.
The two native bee hives we ‘ve split so far were doing so well. Urban environments have a surprising wealth in flowering plants, and the huge variety means bees have a fairly constant food source. But, I take some credit for leaving plants to flower in the garden. This was my garden last spring when I was working ridiculous hours and my seed raising got way behind. One of the advantages of advanced seedlings is that if I get behind in seed raising, I can leave mature plants in the garden a little longer and reap a harvest in the form of happy bees and honey. They love tiny flower heads like lettuces, rocket, dill, broccoli but its a good argument against non-native decorative plants. Native bees drown in some introduced flowering trees like African tulips that are grown for their big, showy flowers.
Not that the native bees make much honey. A small jar or two a year, but it is glorious, champagne-y light, floral, almost effervescent. A real treat. Two of our hives are at schools and preschools and my partner does sessions on native bees for preschool and primary school aged kids. The bees provide a lovely context for lessons about ecology, bee behaviour, relating to other species, and also genetics and pollination. They’re a real hit with the kids – the kids at preschool love them so much, they voted not to pick the flowers in their garden so as to leave them for the bees.
I feel even better now about letting my Asian greens and radishes go to seed, knowing that the bees will enjoy their tiny flowers.
Oh my goodness! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. It made me so happy. I still haven’t taken the plunge and gotten myself organised enough to keep bees, however, I’d love to be a bee keeper. Those lucky pre-school and school children learning first hand how it’s done.
Hi Linda …. I’m delighted to read your posts again. Thankyou.
Very few bees in my garden this year despite lots of flowers and veggies going to seed. But lots of small grasshoppers eating vegetable leaves esp aubergine and beans. I have a few sacrificial plants they love like shiso and kale but am getting to the stage where I’m thinking of netting. And that of course keeps the bees and any other pollinators out. Your thoughts ?
I posted this some while ago, but I don’t think it’s the solution you’re looking for 🙂 https://witcheskitchen.com.au/the-grasshoppers-love-kale-but-thats-ok/. Grasshoppers this time of year are a menace, some years worth than others. I’m surprised they like aubergine and beans – they usually just go for leafy greens in my garden. The flea beetles are the aubergine menace, and and I gave aubergines a miss last year to break their breeding cycle, and so far this year I haven’t seen any, touch wood. Eggplant and beans though are both self pollinating, so they will probably so it all on their own. You can help them by shaking the flowers (or the whole plant) gently if you need to, but gentle breeze will probably be enough – the flowers have both male and female parts in them. Of course you don’t get any genetic diversity that way, and I wouldn’t save that seed for more than a generation or two. But you won’t get grasshoppers every year.
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