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Duttons Native Bees

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Coffs Harbour, NSW
Duttons Native Bees

I want to share my interest and passion with my hobby of photography by capturing Australian Native

09/11/2023

Hi all.

Long time between posts but life gets in the way sometimes. I had a local friend reach out to me in north Brisbane last week. I transferred a very old TC colony about 2 years ago from a rotting wooden box which owner asked me to transfer into a new box. The owner had a box from the orginal hive supplier so we could transfer colony into. The colony was a TC - Tetragonula carbonaria. The box was narrower internally from the original box however.

Over the next 2 years the hive flourished until recently with bee numbers decreasing. The owner reached out to me and I went to have a look. (Please note I don't charge and I do this as a hobby. I have a full time job).

I was thinking, okay. Queen has died and failed to requeen, pest infestation, poising etc. No, it was none of those. The hive box had 3 compartments. 2 brood levels and a honey super. The first photo shows the 2nd brood level completely full with mostly pollen and some honey. The bottom level was the only compartment with brood. The honey super was half full.

So, the brood was being restricted to one level only which is far from ideal. I decided to cut the excess pollen and honey out of level 2 completely to give the brood room to fully utilise both levels. Ideally, if I had my time over again, I would not have transferred into this internally narrower box.

12/07/2023

Hello everyone.

It has been a long time since my last post due to home renovations (while my native beehives are being cared for offsite), work commitments and for the last 7 months looking after elderly family due to illness in between so pretty busy times.

Unfortunately, this is not a good news day either.

Words cannot explain this. A native beehive I donated to my daughter's school a few years ago was stolen and a security cage smashed to get into it. Pretty low-life act for the kid's sake all for a few dollars to sell or add to their collection. Luckily, the principal had split (propagated if you like) to produce another colony of bees that was currently offsite.

The two men of age (not young) were seen entering school with a battery-powered angle grinder and exiting with the hive. Police were informed. Please refer to the pictures below

A big should out to Alex & Sam from Spicers Native Bees for repairing the stand and adding some extra security measures. Unfortunately for these sticky bandits, St Ambrose has a great school community and always chips in to help. Look out for my next post on how the school has created a song with the help of Singer/Songwriter Josh Arnold.

25/06/2022

It has been a while since I posted last but work and now that home renovations are about to start lots of time and planning has been needed. So the process of moving all my native bee hives off site has started and I have been fascinated with this TH hive entrance. It is like a ventilation system leading back to the entrance I am assuming. I might leave this one until tonight to move as I will see if the bees will try and exit through these cavities since entrance is blocked now. Something a bit different!

09/03/2022

Up close and personal. Did you know you can look at the vein layout in bees wings for example which can help in identifying family, genus and sometimes species of our native bees plus looking at other characteristics of the bees?
Dr Tobias Smith presented and ran workshops late last year which Steve Flavel from Native Bee Hives documented his experience in the following link. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=4470641969715544&id=786044761508635

17/02/2022

I was lucky enough to make it to my parents home in Coffs Harbour NSW this week and celebrate my dads 87th birthday yesterday. Mum and dads native stingless beehive - Tetragonula carbonaria TC hive was ready to split or educt if we wished to.
(not necessary to do either). I had an empty bee box ready so decided to split. Waiting 2 and a bit years was worth the wait as every year this hive has had a fighting swarm attack it. No signs of this lately and I proceeded to split. 1 box was moved to another spot in the garden while the other box was left in same position.

I planted the two Crepe myrtles about 2 years ago for mum and dad and the native bees love them.

24/12/2021

After another trying year for many families around Australia & the world, I hope your fortunate enough to share Christmas with family & friends. I know my native stingless bees are loving these flowering gums Corymbia ficifolia over the festive season

18/12/2021

Megachile sp on the hunt for a home for their offspring! Even the hose link has been a repeated native bee home

26/11/2021

Bachousia citriodora - Lemon scented myrtle in full bloom late November Brisbane Qld Australia.

Family:Myrtaceae
Genus:Backhousia
Species: citriodora

Look at this amazing native small tree which is in full bloom outside my family home. The amount of insects plus native stingless bees - tetragonula sp. foraging from this small tree is phenomenal!

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Promoting Awareness of Australian Native (Social) Stingless Bee’s.

Welcome to my new page (Dutton's Native Bees) which is dedicated to Australian native stingless (social) bees. I currently have 3 types of native bees called Tetragonula carbonaria (TC), Tetragonula hockingsi (TH), & Austroplebeia australis (AA) or commonly known as (sugarbag bees or bush bees).

My new hobby is also photography (macro photography) and still very early days and lots to learn. I wish to share my photography and findings with the wider community to create awareness and interest with these little important pollinators. They are stingless and kid friendly. You can harvest honey or not from honey super. Keep them as a very low maintenance "pet" in your own backyard while doing your bit for the community & environment!!!!