Greg's Native Stingless Bees in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Gardener

Greg's Native Stingless Bees

Locality: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Phone: +61 474 299 821

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Home improvement
• Pet service
• Gardener

25.01.2022 A wonderful new fun hive This hive established itself in a very heavy cast iron mailbox stand. The mailbox with what appears to be Chinese figurines on it is empty. The hive entry is through a small gap where the stem or post meets the mailbox. The brood and probably most of the hive structure is located under the base plate which is set in thick concrete.... It was quite an effort moving the hive to our place as the base had another layer of reinforced concrete over it that had to be broken up. Thank you Jamie and Michelle for allowing us to rescue this hive fully intact and for giving us a hand to remove the mailbox. The photo shows the hive in our yard. See more

25.01.2022 A big thank you to the Redcliffe Garden Centre for allowing us to display one of our log hives. Any opportunity to show people how beautiful log hives can be is appreciated.

25.01.2022 A beautiful sunflower and one very lucky little bee Thanks for the photo Ray Stewart

24.01.2022 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

23.01.2022 My son in law found this hive at the base of Edith Falls in Nitmiluk National Park north of Katherine NT Because of the location I am assuming they belong to one of the Austroplebeia species

21.01.2022 I love it when my log hives find a good home But the face on this log hive put an even bigger smile on my face Thank you for your photo Emma Sorensen

21.01.2022 Two of my grandsons were eagle eyed and spotted these native bees on a beautiful water lily flower at Butterfly Falls north west of Katherine in the Northern Territory. Good spotting Joe and Mitch

21.01.2022 Some fantastic photos of native stingless bees taken by Daniel Ellis

20.01.2022 Hive in a pipe A few days ago I got a call about a native beehive in a PVC pipe in the ground. The 150mm pipe provided access to an underground valve for a large water main. The pipe is 600mm long and housed a very large hive that went from end to end. The plumbers needed to access the valve and to do this they had to pull the pipe out of the ground .... They managed this with very little disturbance of the hive plus they taped over the ends of the hive as soon as it came out. I was able to pick up the hive straight away and because the hive had now lost the insulation of earth around I wrapped a blanket around the pipe. But what to do next? How was I going to do to get them through winter? How could I provide a permanent home for them? The answer was simple. Dig 150mm x600mm hole in our front garden and place the entire package in the ground. This also provide another opportunity for a unique garden feature.

19.01.2022 Rescue hives in winter The cold of winter is a serious risk for newly rescued hives particularly for THs. If a hive requiring rescue can wait until spring it is best to leave it till then. Where there is no choice we adopt two additional measures to help get these rescues through winter. The first is to place the rescued hive in the warmest sunniest spot you can find. The second is to insulate the hive box with foam board.... The hood that sits over the perspex viewing panel is also foam board insulated. The photos hopefully illustrate what we are doing. The foam board which is available at Bunnings is easy to cut and does not bead. See more

19.01.2022 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 to...gether 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.

18.01.2022 Pillar Lid Hive Gary from Brighton who works at Energex recently rescued a hive residing in a Pillar Lid for an underground powerline. Without any prior experience Gary did the right things. When the lid was lifted off he immediately covered and taped the bottom of the lid. He then placed the lid on the ground very close to the original position which resulted in a large number of bees being able to re-enter the hive through their secure entry near the top of lid. He then pla...ced the pillar lid under a shady tree in his yard. When Gary asked me what to do next to give the hive the best possible chance of survival I recommended that he leave the hive in the pillar box. The hive now has a high level of activity and all signs are positive. Gary now has a unique and enjoyable garden feature which has brought life to his garden. See more

17.01.2022 The hive that greats visitors at our front steps has obviously found a good food source with the bees pouring out this morning

15.01.2022 Water Meter Hive Keeper Recently we were asked to rescue a hive from a water meter box that was about to be replaced by a plumber we know. Whilst we would usually transfer a hive like this into a hive box, as the meter box was to be discarded and as winter is a risky time of year to transfer hives into a new home we decided to take the meter box and hive home.... The meter box with its hive has been placed in the ground in our garden with some leftover timber placed on top to give it a natural look. The bees have settled in nicely giving us something different to show our visitors. The more we have grown to appreciate our wild log hives the more we appreciate other wild hives in the homes they have chosen

14.01.2022 Hi everyone an update on the hive in a pipe A few people have asked how the hive in a pipe has progressed since we placed it in our garden. The girls have gone really well, nicely settled in and going about their bee business in good numbers. But they gave us a bit of a scare, for four days after setting them up we had not seen a single bee. We were wondering what we might have done wrong and were about to go to plan B with a entirely wooden top to go over the hive replaci...ng the fairy house. Then just as we prepared to implement plan B to our relief the bees started coming and going and haven’t looked back since. They must have bunkered down for the first few days to repair the damage to the top of the hive getting their defences in place. Ready now for mum’s day grandchildren visits

14.01.2022 We have a number of Austroplebeia Australia (AA) log hives available in slim easy to transport logs. Examples of two are attached Please PM us if you would like further information

12.01.2022 Bee friendly pest spray https://m.facebook.com/1MillionWomen/videos/643354699466995/

12.01.2022 Keeping Australian Native Stingless Bees book available to people who purchase or have purchased hives from us for the recommended retail price of $25. Welcome to pickup to avoid $8.00 postage and to view our unusual and very special hives in our mini native bee hive theme park.

12.01.2022 Bee Security We have decided to boost security for hives at our place. Ned is on full time guard duty at the front gate. He hasn’t fired a shot yet so in his spare time he looks after our mail. Bruce the guard dog has taken up residence in our front garden. He hasn’t chased anyone yet but appears happy at his new home and ready for action.... We purchased both from BuggerMe Designs See more

11.01.2022 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.

11.01.2022 We have given our guard dog Bruce extra responsibilities to look after a rescue hive in a water meter box. We are confident Bruce is up for the challenge.

10.01.2022 A Syrphid Fly laying eggs near the entrance of an AA log hive. You can see why they are sometimes mistaken for a wasp hence the nicknames of ‘false wasp’ and ‘wasp mimic’. They are distinguishable from wasps by their single antenna which forks at the end, while wasps have 2 antennas.

10.01.2022 A TC queen and a TH queen both working with their respective nursery bees The markings on the abdomen of the TH queen (second photo) appear a bit brighter and more sharply defined then the TC queen

10.01.2022 Mesmerising Austroplebeia Australis (AAs) Bees At sunset every night of the year these incredible bees erect a curtain over their hive entrance to protect against pests and weather

10.01.2022 We've all seen native bees carrying pollen back to their hive, they also collect and carry resin in the same way. They use the resin to construct structures in the hive like honey pots. Check out their lovely orange resin boots! Thanks @Ray Stewart for the video

09.01.2022 Drones settling in for the night in an unusual place. They are waiting for a new queen to come out of a nearby hive to mate with just one of them. During the day they swarm around the hive and being from other hives in the area are not allowed to enter the hive needing a new queen. Any drones that are too eager and try to enter the hive are killed by guard bees, hence their will be some dead bees on the ground in front of the hive.

08.01.2022 A couple of months ago we swapped a boxed hive for a hive in an upside down garden pot to which we added a fairy house and decorated for the amusement of our grandchildren. The hive has now fully occupied the fairy house sealing the doorway and window with a mix of resin and Blu Tack. This came about in an unusual way. The pot hive had been located in our backyard close to large old hive used for eductions and weak hive revival. The old hive became the target of an invasion ...and as it was such a good hive we moved it away replacing it with a weak hive. The invaders made short work of the weak hive but instead of moving in as hoped they turned their invasion attention to the pot hive creating a major battle. As soon as we saw this we closed the door to the fairy house which the bees were using to access the pot and sealed the door with Blu Tack. The pot hive was then moved to our front yard to be let out the following day with the door opened without incident and without removing the Blu Tack from the door edges. To our surprise after a couple of days the bees had removed the Blu Tack to reuse it to cover the window and the doorway leaving a small entrance. The light blue of the Blu Tack is evident in the video. The invaders did switch their attention back to the weak hive establishing a strong colony. We assume the pot hive is using the fairy house as a food store.

08.01.2022 Beautiful gnarly log hive

08.01.2022 Buzz pollinators love Geisha Girls If I had to recommend one plant to attract buzz pollinators to your garden like Blue Banded Bees, Teddy Bear Bees and Great Carpenter Bees it would have to be a Geisha Girl. Plus many different types of butterflies love them as well.... But a really exceptional insect that has a tail like a lobster, flys like a hummingbird and has orange and black hoops like a bumblebee also likes this plant. The video shows this insect and believe it or not it’s a moth a Hawk Moth. Various types of Hawk Moths are found around the world. This one is called an Australian Bee Hawk Moth due to it’s resemblance to a bumblebee.

07.01.2022 A new log hive and the girls just found a large pollen source. Happy bees

06.01.2022 How did you get the bees into that log? I am often asked this question by people new to native stingless bees. I explain that in the bush native stingless bees naturally colonise termite hollows in trees and that if they can find suitable hollow trees in suburbia they will colonise there as well. But with suitable trees scarce in suburbia the bees improvise colonising all manner of man made spaces including water meters, upside down garden pots, cavities behind retaining wall...s, the list is almost endless. I then go on to explain that my log hives are wild hives rescued by tree loppers and firewood cutters from being chipped or burnt. Until now that has been the only explanation I have had to give. But in recent months I have experimented with placing rescued hives from water meters and the like into hollow logs instead of boxes. Unsurprisingly these hives have flourished with the bonus of them being in smaller verandah size logs. The first two photos are examples of TH hives rescued from water meters and placed in hollow logs. The third and fourth photos are of wild TC hives in logs rescued by tree loppers.

06.01.2022 Three new log hives that are small enough to be transported home in an SUV The first log contains AAs, the second THs and the third TCs making a great set Plus the fourth and fifth TC log hives are large and heavy needing a trailer or Ute to transport but make wonderful garden features The log hives are all pickup only from Brighton

05.01.2022 Cool AA entry tubes We thought the entry tube on one of our AA logs in the first photo was amazing and it is, but then Judy sent us the photo of her AA log hive in the second photo with an entry tube nearly 75mm long even more amazing. Not all AAs construct these tube entries but when they do it can happen in a few short weeks.

05.01.2022 On a recent camping trip to the Gregory River between Mt Isa and Burketown our daughter’s family received a visit from a friendly and very distinctive stingless native bee. It seems to be a close match with the Austroplebeia Australis AAs common to western Queensland identified in the link below. The orange abdomen and white markings on its shoulder (thorax) are eye catching.... https://www.researchgate.net//An-A-australis-worker-with-t

05.01.2022 Materials to build your own hive boxes. The Sandgate Timber Mill is a a great place to buy timber to build hive boxes. A family business that supplies both hoop pine and cypress pine. We use 25mm hoop pine and to build 10 OATH boxes we order 6 metres of 200mm x 25mm for the floor and roof, 20 metres of 100mm x 25mm for the main brood chamber walls and 10metres of 50mm x 25mm for the honey super walls.... We get our perspex viewing panels/separators from Laser Cut Designs at Deception Bay. The perspex sheets are cut precisely to the size you want at a fraction of the cost of buying a large sheet from a hardware store and cutting it yourself. If you want to insulate your hive box which we do for winter rescues we recommend kNUAF Insulation Multi-Use Foam Board. If you want to tape the joins of your hive boxes we recommend the use of cloth tape. If you want to stand your hive on a post, a mailbox stand is a good option but if you want to use a star picket we recommend you use a mounting bracket from your hardware store as shown in photo. A neat way to attach a step at your hive entrance is to screw the step on from the inside. blob:null/6961d70d-927f-476e-890b-cab9d11188fa

05.01.2022 Sunflower heaven Thanks for the video Bourke Pride

04.01.2022 The March edition of the Bee Culture Magazine in the USA included an article we submitted about keeping Australian native stingless bees. You can find it at page 87 of the link below https://www.beeculture.com//u/2021/03/March2021Digital.pdf

03.01.2022 A Fishy Hive Dave from Murrumba Downs recently chopped down a large tree that was too close to his pool. Afterwards and to his complete surprise he realised that a stingless bee hive had colonised a garden ornament that sat under the tree (ceramic fish) which was now in full sun on a stone bed. Thankfully Dave placed an old dog kennel over the hive to give some protection. This morning I brought the hive home and placed it in our front garden. In exchange David was happy to take an established hive in a box. Hopefully the hive can continue in its fishy home for many generations to come.

01.01.2022 Does this log hive remind you of the Walking Trees (Ents) from Lord of the Rings? The Redcliffe Garden Center has added this amazing face to our log hive on display at the Center